Interview: Futurebound from Viper Recordings

Interview: Futurebound from Viper Recordings

14 August, 2008 | 2.20AM

• Written by: Caleb Rakes
• Filed under: Music News: futurebound, matrix, viper recordings

Brendan Collins, aka Futurebound, has been pushing drum & bass from Viper’s headquarters in Liverpool now for over five years.

Together with production partner Matrix, the pair produced a blistering album entitled ‘Universal Truth’ in 2007 which brought their sound into the mainstream.

Their unique production style of melodic vocal, cinematic sounding beats were picked up by everyone from the likes of Zane Lowe through to Justin Timberlake, for whom they eventually produced a remix for the track, ‘LoveStoned’.

It seems like an ongoing trend for drum & bass producers to be constantly involved with touring, producing, a&ring, running a label, and of course leading an active social life.

For Brendan it seems no different. Viper Recordings has grown to be a massively respected label with releases from Brookes Brothers, Shock One, J Majik and Wickaman.

Beatportal managed to catch up with Brendan and got the low-down on Viper Recordings.

Viper Recordings, from its initial conception until the present, has been based in Liverpool. How do you think this has influenced the style of music you produce and release on the label?

Yeah, I reckon it has made an influence on my music.

Liverpool is and always has been a house-dominated city, and that’s definitely where my dance music roots are originally from.

I’m definitely inspired by the more epic, cinematic sound and I’d say that’s played a big part in the vibe of Viper.

I won’t lie, it’s hard at times. Purely because I’m literally the only d&b producer here who’s actually releasing records, which is crazy for a city the size of Liverpool.

You know, I see a lot of the guys in London all five minutes from each other, and that really helps when you need a bit of inspiration and a change of scenery from your own studio.

But I’ve been producing records for a good while now, and I’ve always preferred to go for quality rather than quantity.

I’d rather let a track ferment into something good, although sometimes a sketch can come together really quickly.

The amount of tunes I make that never make the final cut is a joke, really.

Do you think that you’ll ever be tempted to move down to London?

Well, I did think about it five years ago, but now the world’s a smaller place because of the internet. But never say “never”.

The previous release ‘Womb’, seemed to be a homage to the infamous Japanese venue. What was the thought behind this?

Myself & Jamie (Matrix) were on tour in Japan and on the day we were playing at Womb in Tokyo we wanted to start with something new from us in the set.

So basically on the bullet train from Osaka we got stuck into it, and by the time we arrived in Tokyo the backbone of the track was done.

It’s great how you can get good results from being under pressure. Luckily for us the tune went off on the night and so the session file name stuck on the track.

The ‘Universal Truth’ album came out to mass publicity last year, and received a great deal of radio play. Did you expect this level of attention?

Not initially I didn’t, but once we’d finished the bulk of the tracks on the album I realised that if ‘American Beauty’ had received all the airplay it did (and that track was in the same theme as the tracks on the album) then I knew a good few of the others had potential to cross over, too.

It’s great that people like Annie Mac & Zane Lowe who are big personalities down at Radio 1 are getting behind d&b. It’s so important for the health of the scene that people outside the genre are being introduced to it. And If it’s my tracks that can help bring new heads into d&b then brilliant.

You recently collaborated with Brookes Brothers on ‘Dawn Treader’. They definitely seem to be in demand at the moment, and producing real high quality drum & bass. How did this collaboration come about?

Dan & Phil (Brookes Brothers) are really cool guys and I really get along with them.

We’d been saying for a while about getting in on a track and when we finally did, we came up with ‘‘Dawn Treader’ which is a perfect example of both our styles.

Brookes Brothers subscribe to the same theory as Matrix & myself in that it’s all good making the dancefloor shake, but not to forget the melodies.

We’re gonna be linking again this month to produce the follow up, which will come out on Viper sometime this year as a side to my new single.

And what else is in store next for Futurebound?

Were do I start…there’s so much happening right into ‘09. First up were just about to release the massive new DC Breaks single ‘Romper & Mankind’ which is exclusive to Beatport and new signing to the camp, Metrik is dropping his first single with us on our new sister label Viper V.I.P which will be the third release on the label.

Then Agent Alvin’s 12” ‘Wicked Man & Don’t Look Back” as well as Metrik’s 12” ‘Technicolour’ & ‘Zero Gravity’ drop in September.

Moving into October see’s the release of Mine & Matrix’s new (as yet untitled) E.P which will feature new tracks such as ‘Shangai Surprise’ and ‘Reflection’ from ourselves as well as some very special remixes of ‘Skyscraper’ and ‘Coast to Coast’.

And swiftly following the EP will be my new single, as well as touring all over the place. So yeah, it’s all go, really.

And finally what’s your reaction to the growth within the digital market, and how has it affected the way in which Viper operates?

Yeah it’s definitely a great thing, as vinyl sales have taken a big knock in recent times, it was important that another format filled the gap.

As a label owner and as an artist myself I’ve been there when you could make a nice living from vinyl sales alone, but them days are gone.

But at least the d&b scene still has enough of its main figures playing vinyl and when the next gen of wannabe DJs see us at work using vinyl as well as CDs then it helps keep the format alive, which in turn helps balance out the income for the artists and the label.

Thanks, Brendan.

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