Interview – Aquasky

Things have come full circle for the Aquasky lads who, in 2000, startled the breakbeat world with their groundbreaking track, 777. At the time, the Bournemouth trio were better known for their d’n’b outings, and Kieron admits that breaks fell somewhat into their laps by surprise. “It was funny cos we just wrote them tunes, 777 and Shure Shot….we had no clue about the breaks scene …we just wanted to do some stuff and made it up …that’s how the tunes came out …we didn’t listen to anything any one else was doing so it was kinda accidental really – but fun too…no rules! We just took all the production stuff we knew from making d’n’b and threw it in there …and [we] came up with a new sound, I think.”

Aquasky lay claim to a unique musical diversity, and as such, have had no problems in crossing through genres, as was also shown in their remarkable jazz/house/latin Tenth and Parker collaboration. Fans are assured that the once again simplified pseudonym is not just a return to the blazing beats of the d’n’b world, and that they will continue attacking whichever genre most takes their fancy.

With Kieron, Dave, and Brent now retiring the somewhat confusing Masterblaster alias (which was attached to the Aquasky pseudonym to denote their breakbeat releases), it is still full-genre-splicing-throttle for the boys. “At the moment we are spending all our time on breaks … we’re trying to finish our LP and want to concentrate fully on one project at a time but we will be doing some new d’n’b when this is done well we figure the time is good now for people to accept that producers can do other types of music!”

As long time producers, Aquasky have also found a balance between technology and the digital realm for their work and the trio have blended both audio, digital and production hardware into a seamless symbiosis, acknowledging the strength of both modern production techniques and the use of legacy instrumentation. “We still use a [mixing] desk and we still use the sampler for the bass,” Kieron remarks, “Although we do use a lot of audio now, we have found our own combination of both that works …we still love the sound of a desk …[it] cant be recreated.”

Juggling their many releases, and an astounding three records labels, (Passenger and 777 for breakbeats, and Black Noise for d’n’b outings), their lifestyles are tempered by their unique ten year partnership. “Being a three-some gives you a good solid base to throw ideas around cos always there’s gonna be different viewpoints …but I think all three of us have a similar out look on life so it tends to be pretty easy to figure out any problems, we never have proper big arguments or anything just little differences … we have a very strong belief in what we do.”

With their new album nearing completion, which contains collaborations with high profile artists such as Meat Katie, El Hornet (Pendulum) and Krafty Kutz, Aquasky have a feast of new material to unleash. “Theres definately some slamming tunez in the bag for this visit …dont worry about that …and Oz is gonna be the first place to hear a lot of them cos we been keeping them under our hats til now so it’s exclusive time .. so watch ya bassbins!!!”