Mark Breeze chats to OneSeventy about hardcore, the future of Clubland Xtreme and his upcoming Sydne

In our run up to the forthcoming OneSeventy: Futureworld event, we had a little chat with our UK headliner, Mr Futureworld himself ‘Mark Breeze’. Mark will be performing in Sydney on Friday 7th July 2017 and in Brisbane on Saturday 8th July 2017 for his mini tour of Australia. Our excitement levels are sky high, so with no hesitation we introduce the hardcore legend himself…

OneSeventy: Hi Mark, thanks for taking the time to chat with us. It’s been just over a year since you were last in Australia, when you played with Darren Styles at Midnight Mafia 2016. How often do you get to come and perform over here?

Mark Breeze: Hi guys! Well, I’ve been lucky enough to come over and perform at least once a year since 2003, and it’s a highlight every year to be honest. The people are great, the lifestyle and the weather!

OneSeventy: You’ve been DJ’ing and producing hardcore for as long as we can remember. What got you started in the scene in the first place?

Mark Breeze: I blame Dougal for this. I was a raver and bedroom DJ when I first got into electronic music until around 1994. After that, I was a local DJ in the area of Northampton, and one night I noticed Dougal in the club that I was resident in, and we hung out a lot. After mentioning that I was already into rave music and producing, he suggested working with Micky Skeedale, and I went in and produced ‘Miles Ahead’ for Essential Platinum and it kind of took off from there!

OneSeventy: Since recording that first track 'Miles Ahead', you have amassed an incredible discography, with tracks from yourself alone alongside your vast collaboration history. Some of our favourites over the years have been ‘You’re My Angel’ (with Darren Styles), ‘Sometimes’ (with Unique), ‘Be Alone’, and your remix of Neo Cortex - ‘Elements’. What are some of your favourites?

Mark Breeze: I was trying to figure out how long a set would be needed for a set of mine, and mine and Darren’s catalogue, and we could quite easily do a 4-6 hour set, which seems pretty crazy. I think the most requested one I seem to play in Australia is Eclipse - ‘24/7’ remix myself and Darren did. Although you’re right in saying that ‘You’re My Angel’ is also one that is a massive favourite out there.

OneSeventy: With such timeless classics to your name, how important do you think it is to keep these classics up to date with new reworks?

Mark Breeze: This is a situation that was apparent at Midnight Mafia last year actually. As you can imagine, the crowd do want to hear our old classics, as well as our newer productions, so we brought our biggest ones up to date for that show, such as 'You’re Shining', 'Heartbeatz', 'You’re My Angel' and 'Slide Away', which we had remixed by Stonebank. We felt that needed to do that to keep the set as fresh and up to date production wise, on such an amazing sound system.

OneSeventy: That totally makes sense. Speaking of up to date productions, you recently have been releasing your music through the Together We Rise label, but will we be seeing any more releases from you on that outlet or will Futureworld be the home for all forthcoming Mark Breeze releases?

Mark Breeze: Yes indeed! , I still will release on Together We Rise, and some on Futureworld, but Futureworld has always been, as the name states, the new talent. I have one out as I write this actually on Futureworld, it’s a track I did with Unique called ‘Reach Out’ and its been remixed by Re-Force.

OneSeventy: You’ve been a huge part of the Clubland Extreme Hardcore album series since 2005, mixing a disc on every album in the series. The series used to release every year, but we haven’t seen a new upfront release in the series since 2013. Can we expect to see the tenth in series anytime soon?

Mark Breeze: ‘Clubland 100% Hardcore’ which was recently released is kind of what Xtreme 10 was to be, as in a best of the series. We have plans in place for a new upfront hardcore album, however the problem with a major label taking on a new album is the costing. From X-Treme 6-9 we saw a decline in sales and a rise in digital file sharing, which made it very hard for the majors to back us with the product. The latest one, ‘classics / best of’, will boost peoples interest and hopefully we can get the latest material out. The new album has been on and off for a while and has had an effect on holding back our label material, so where we would have put new tracks on the album, we didn’t release them, and now of course we are waiting for a go ahead, and releases have backed up. Always a pain and a problem from our end when fans want our music released.

OneSeventy: The UK hardcore sound has seen it’s changes in sound and style over the years, but right now there is a real euphoric, European hardstyle feel to a lot of the music. Personally, we absolutely love it. Do you think this is a natural progression for the genre and do you see this potentially helping it appealing to a broader audience?

Mark Breeze: I like it too! And with it mixed with the hardcore sound its pretty amazing at the moment. Its not a planned thing, but when I was doing the Breeze & Styles stuff with Darren, we both had a massive interest in Trance at that time and it rubbed off into our style of music production, and its no different today. The euphoric hardstyle you hear Code Black or Atmozfears play at festivals and with their releases, it has made the sound of UK Hardcore change for some producers.

OneSeventy: Any words for the OneSeventy ravers who will be coming to see you play at OneSeventy: Futureworld?

Mark Breeze: Yeah sure, firstly I cannot explain my excitement when it comes to playing a club event as well as big festivals. During a club vibe I hope to take you on a journey, in fact I recently asked if I could play 1.5 hours rather then 1 hour, which I believe you guys were happy to let me do. So I can play a wider selection of 170 music.

OneSeventy: 90 minutes of Mark Breeze was always going to be a yes from us! Thanks so much Mark, we can’t wait to see what you have in store for us. Have a safe flight!

Mark Breeze will be performing at OneSeventy: Futureworld on Friday 7th July 2017 at The Shift Club, Sydney. Mark will be supported by Technikore, JTS, Cotts, Ravine, Havoc, Summa Jae & DJ Harpoon. Tickets are available now at Ticketbooth.