MDC Interview#52 " Audiotist "

Audiotist

Audiotist is a Belgian Breakcore/Hardcore producer who can also be found abusing gameboys and other toys as deidream. After many years of creating tracks infused with Balkan music, Rave melodies, energetic breaks and skull-cracking Hardcore kicks, he has formed his own identifiable sound which delivers an assault on your eardrums you will thoroughly enjoy.

Working with Breakcore Gives Me Wood, Ragga Terror Front, Bankizz, Dance Corps, Jigsore Sound, .. and showcasing his music in countries such as France, Poland, Germany, England and many others, Audiotist’s tracks resonate throughout the continent of Europe and continue to lure Hardcore/Breakcore/whatever fans to the darkest of rooms for nights of music fuelled chaos 

Q. Please tell us about the environment in which you grew up. How did you become interested in music?

I live in Belgium, grew up in some boring farmer village in West Flanders. There wasn’t much to do apart from playing on the street and later on watching local bands and DJ’s in a youth house.

My dad had the biggest influence on my interest in music, he had loads of vinyls, tapes and CD’s. He would take me to big festivals and small gigs from a young age , blast music everywhere.

Later on, i had the luxury to grew up in a battle between skaters and gabbers. We were forced to choose sides, or you would get beat up. That kinda shows the environment I grew up in.

I became a punk loving , hiphop producing skaterboy, listening Thunderdome CD’s on my discman , and usin Kazaa and Limewire to download al sorts of electronic stuff.

Q. Please tell us about your Belgian musical and artistic influences.

I’ve always had a very wide range in my taste of music, a lot of flemish music influenced me starting writing lyrics in my dialect, and trying to make beats by sampling there old tracks I got to know through my dad. And I had the luck of living in an era where MTV still had music, without the reality shitseries. Belgium has always had some very decent local small and big festivals with a wide range of artists. I did as much of these as I could when growing up.

There were a lot of punk, metal, ska bands , and even more DNB and techno dj’s in my teen years. I quickly became a weekly visitor of random party’s , while telling my parents i stayed over to sleep somewhere. I have been influenced by so much different styles and artists. It’s just not right to note them down, as I would make an endless list.

Q. When did you first learn about Breakcore? What was your impression when you first heard about it? How did you get information about Breakcore back then?

Kazaa, soulseek, and Limewire did a lot for me. Also Torrents and forums !! Downloading music in the beginning of the internet was kinda safe.

The occasional Trojan Horse couldn’t stop my hunger for downloading music for free, that i’ve never heard of. Also , there wasn’t as much shit on it as there is now I believe. So that was way easier too choose.

After doing some typical Belgian kid labour at the local tomato farm, some dude working there introduced me with Hellfish and Deathchant records.

So i started downloading everything similar i could find, and ended up with a library of the weirdest electronic music. Got bored of DNB and (hard)techno instantly, and I only wanted hardcore,breakcore,terror at party’s.

We left every weekend to go search for decent party’s in Belgium. Hoping we get a flyer for the next party, as there wasn’t much to find online yet.

Alcahel party’s were the best of my life, those were the squat party’s of BGMW.

I think i entered one of these around my 16th. I’ve always considered that to be my first real breakcore party. So we would keep going and asking and searching for flyers to the next party.

Later, there was a great forum CELL , where you could find about everything about the electronic scenes and party’s.

Al these artists really inspired me because it felt like there were no boundaries , and they all had their own sound and style.

I loved hearing something totally different every hour. And not having to wait until 5am in the morning , for the last act to finally play some breaks, hardcore or terror.

Q. Belgium has a great Rave music/culture history. When did you first become interested in them?

Around the age of 14 I started going to party’s with a friend that played DNB weekly, like that i got to know a lot of other genres, and i just spiraled downwards from there.

From Hip hop and DNB, to yearly attending ‘I love techno’ , and doing loads of shit local party’s, were everybody would fight around 1 AM, because of drinks, boredom, and shit music.

Also because half of them weren’t there to enjoy any music. Me neither, we just didn’t have that many options, and to be fair, the music always sucked. Nobody needs to play ‘Cotton Eye Joe’ at 2 am , in front of a bunch of drunken

This got me searching even harder for a group with the same mindset, and love for music, quickly I ended up in Gent, doing squat party’s like the piramids, or just outside under a bridge.

Loads of tekno, and acid that i didn’t love at the time, but here and there some nice gabber,rave,jungle, breakcore dj’s where i would beg for tracklists ! Again we were very lucky to have a lot of options throughout Belgium. You could almost attend any party in a range of max. 2hour driving or train. 

Q. When did you start making your own music? Also When did you start DJ or Live?

I started around 18 with some friends making a Hiphop album in our own dialect. Audiotist probably started a bit later 2008ish. My first gig was just a friends party. He needed somebody to open before Igneon system, Sickest Squad, TIeum, etc… So i just took my laptop with my bad tracks and had just about enough to play 60 minutes of my own tracks.

The famous photographer Wim van wambeke from Belgium was there, and invited me to play some of his ‘Bunny to the core’ party’s in Steegske in Gent, and thats were everything got blurry , and i started playing weekly for the next few years. Lots of great forgotten memories !

Q. You are a member of Breakcore Gives Me Wood(BGMW), when did you first go to BGMW? How did you become a member of BGMW?

Alcahel squat party, like I said above, it was the first ever decent breakcore party for me.

I would love to remind everybody i’m nearly not as breakcore as anyone from the BGMW crew, for me the originals are king.

Loads of respect for Droon, Sickboy, The Giggling Dilda’s , Rik Mayhem, Tim Terror !!

And i can only thank them for letting me be part of something i’ve always attended as a youngster, and still do.

So some years ago Charlotte , Rik and Tim asked me to become part of the crew, for me it was a dream coming true, after being groupie since the first time.

But still, i want to remind everybody i’m heavily influenced by all the real breakcore people from that crew, so it still feels very weird too me , I can say i’m part of it.

Q. What do you think are the most important labels/artists in the Belgian Breakcore scene besides BGMW?

For me it has always been Breakcore Gives Me Wood, and later also Ragga Terror Front, as we’re a bunch of rave loving friends, playing everything anytime anywhere. Including some of my influences Mr Bad Monkey and Wan Bushi. Bankizz deserves a mentioning for sure, and i’m pretty sure i’m forgetting a lot. But There used to be much more venues, orgs, random party’s… so i got to see a lot of good breakcore in the french part of Belgium, like Ozwald , R-MIT , Simonkorfunkle , …

Also Rave Alert from X&trick brought some of the legends over, and ‘LAW’ (Losers always win),RE:FEST, Hardcore Manifest, …

They did some great efforts bringing ppl like Shitmat, Floorclearer, Doormouse , Society Suckers, Ladyscraper, …

Q. How long have you been involved with Ragga Terror Front?

2010 maybe? I remember playing for them a first time in a squat party at an American militairy base, with the original crew Bashir, Skepsis, Wan Bushi, Mr Bad Monkey.

I always went to see Monkey and Bushi, and did some gigs myself, always meeting Bashir playing the greatest sets. And suddenly he asked me to be part of the crew , so i didn’t hesitate. As i was always a bit of a loner on acid or hardcore line ups. Apart from them there was Khaoz Engine and Mr Orange not being afraid to play some decent breaks in a party filled with acidheads.

Q. You released "Going Sane In A Crazy World" on Dance Corps in 2010. Is this your first Audiotist release?

Annoying ringtone and Goreshit visited Belgium for a few gigs in 2012. We had some great talks and nights out, when Tom friendly forced me to finish some tracks and release them for Dance Corps.

When he invited me for my first gig abroad in Aberdeen and Edinburgh, i caved in and made some stuff i haven’t heard since i released it.

So yeah it’s my first release, and i can’t thank Tom enough for being such a good sport, because i would have never released 1 second of my music if it wasn’t for him.

Q. Audiotist's music has a strong mash-up element, how do you select samples? What is your music production process and what equipment do you use?

As i used to download everything i could find , I also saved my pc and hard drives, so i have a huge amount of sample packs and Old music.

I use a lot of samples from vinyl records , youtube , tv, etc…

My production process is kinda all over the place, it al depends on how I feel. And any time I try to force me creativity, I’m just stuck for a longer time. So sometimes I don’t get in the studio for months, and then other days, I wish I didn’t have a job or a phone, so I could release all my ideas.

Q. What is the most enjoyable moment in music production?

Finishing a track ? i dont know, never really did that, too much of a self critic, just having fun and feeling anything good or bad when hearing afterwards when playing live. A

nd of course those die hard fans, they are why I keep doing this. If nobody would move during my sets, I wouldnt be playing.

Kinda hard when you don’t like making music for a crowd, but purely as a therapeutic way sometimes. But it does the trick, and I try to take ppl o a trip when playing. Thats most enjoyable!

Q. Do you have any connection with the Free Party scene in Belgium? Is the Belgian Breakcore scene still connected to the Free Party scene?

Vague memories because…free party’s , steegske/rector/structure beton/rockerill/Piramids/…I could name so many places and orgs i’ve been. I used to have a better connection, but I had my share. I really enjoyed free paty’s when they just popped up the day before, have random people play whatever they want. Later they became a bit more organized with more acid and tekno line ups. That was not what I was looking for at the time, but I have huge respect for the people doing al the effort and who are still going strong. As for a connection with the breakcore scene? Not really in my opinion, apart from BGMW in Alcahel building.

Q. How did Circus Brekovic get started? What was the concept or theme behind the EP from Erisian?

We were partying drunk at Steegske in Gent. I think we both played a set, and talked about how it would be funny to do some balkan remixes and start a new project.

We thought about a name and told eacht other : “if we remember it tomorrow , we make a album and do some gigs.” So we remembered , and we did, very few, but we had fun making/playing them for sure.

Q. You also create Gypsycore as Circus Brekovic and Audiotist. When do you think Gypsycore was at its most exciting? What is the current situation?

I really dont know as I am not up to date anymore . All i know is Ed Cox and E-Coli are destroying stages with their stuff.

And as myself I will always have the urge to sample some balkan gypsy stuff into my tracks.

I’ve heard some good remixes over the years, but I’m really not informed about the history, present, or future of it.

Q. What was the most memorable BGMW party you attended?

All of them were i got the privilige to play, but the best one, was years before i even thought about making ‘breakcore’ , alcahel squat in Ghent, all these acts were the first time I ever seen them , great music, blew my brains out!

Q. How did you come to start the "Deidream" name? What equipment do you use?

I was making many slower IDM crappy stuff that didnt really fit the audiotist sets. Some stuff happening made me make way too much of this, so i just made it a new project.

When playing as Deidream I either play idm break whatever sets , or I play full live sets with only my gameboy with LSDJ , pocket operators , korg volca key, mini kaos pads, etc…

Q. You have released EPs/albums on labels such as Dance Corps, Superbad MIDI Breaks, Bankizz Records, Suck Puck Recordz, and Jigsore Record. What titles are particularly dear to your heart?

Couldnt tell, i never sent one of these to a label, i always got asked to make something and did with pleasure, but hate half of them by now, the tracks i keep playing are purely for some ppl that for some reason love hearing them.

I’m most proud of the vinyl release ‘Melos Ovilus’ with my good friend Wan Bushi. Because it is on RTF ,

and it has Friday Fever on it. That is a track very close to my heart.

I’ve never not played it , and said I wanted it on vinyl when i finished it. I think it took 9 years until it got pressed on vinyl.

Q. How did you sustain your own musical activities during the pandemic? And what is the current situation?

Pandemic was shit , started when coming home from BF weekender, big contrast, back to work full time , no inspiration, no time , no party’s.

I didn’t have the luxury to work at home, or work less, but I had to work more. And I noticed not hearing live music at party’s, ddnt give my loads of inspiration.

I became a father last year and i’m loving it ,and at the same time I got a great release offer. Although i hate all the ‘GREAT NEWS COMING’ posts, thats how it is.

But I grew up in a time you just had to wait for a release. No teasers, no selfies, no shitspamposting. Just a whole new album on the most unexpected times, keeping fans happy and surprised.

So I’ll do that, try to finish this release , and post it someday. That will be a huge achievement because I never seem to fully finish anything, or even like it.

But bookings are back on, I have loads of Deidream stuff made on GB, and I’m still living in a world were everything I hear is a potential crap sample for a banger, or a banging sample for a crap track.

Q. What is your schedule for the future?

Stay sane in a crazy world i guess, keep my son and girlfriend happy and alive, work full time, and keep my fans and myself waiting for new stuff.

COMING OUT SOON!! LIKE MY PAGE !! GREAT NEWS FOR 2035 !!