THEY ROCK HARD Renegade dance music pioneers the Freestylers have been at the forefront of musical creativity since the band’s conception in 1996. Beat freaks Aston Harvey and Matt Cantor began life putting out old skool breakbeat tracks on their own label before they achieved commercial success with their debut album ‘We Rock Hard,’ a hip hop inspired fusion of everything from breaks to electro beats that sold over 300,000 copies. The pair performed their hit single ‘B-Boy Stance’ on Top of the Pops with vocalist Tenor Fly and in 1998 won Muzik Magazine’s award for best band. Despite having a slight cold and sounding rather tired, Aston took a few moments out of his busy schedule to talk about life in the Freestylers. “I can’t stand dance acts that go on Top of the Pops and pretend to do a live show or pretend to use decks. What’s the point in it all?” says Aston. The Freestylers have never been a band that plays by the rules. “When we went on Top of the Pops we wanted it to be real. We wanted to do something that had never been done before. We did a full live set and had breakers and everything. We put on a proper show.” The Freestylers take a raw and rugged approach to their music. “Our sound is kind of an amalgamation of all sorts of music from the last thirty years. Not pop music as such, but there’s influences in there from hip hop, funk, death metal, all sorts. When I was growing up I was heavily into hip hop and electro. Stuff like Bambaataa. I listened to a lot of rock ‘n’ roll too. I was a closet Duran Duran fan! That sort of 80s sound was wicked in the day.” Hard work and a knack of being able to tap into musical avenues have led to the Freestylers’ success. After a lot of time in the studio and on the club circuit the Freestylers are back and about to drop their third album, ‘Raw as Fuck.’ “We’ve just started touring with the band and me and Matt have been out DJ’ing all over the place. The album should coming out around May time. It’s got more of a drum ‘n’ bass feel to it. The first album was mostly hip hop influenced and then the Pressure Point LP progressed those sounds. We wanted to come out with something that was a little harder than what we usually do. There’s even a full drum ‘n’ bass track on the album which we’re really proud of. I’ve always had at least some interest in drum ‘n’ bass. I thought the scene got a little bit boring recently but it’s starting to pick up again. I like listening to all the big names, Andy C, Fresh, J Majik, those sorts of people.” Music and club culture are two subjects very close to Aston’s heart. He grew up in an era when hip hop was in its prime and the real innovators of the scene were the DJs like Grandmaster Flash. “I remember getting my first pair of decks when I was sixteen and all I wanted to do was scratch. I didn’t really care about mixing at first and I just loved to scratch and took inspiration from people like Bambaataa and Flash. I was in my element.” Hip hop has always played a major part in Aston’s life, and he still enjoys the scene today despite a distinct change in the direction of the whole hip hop movement. “I still love the scene. It’s become a lot more poppy but when someone like 50 Cent or Eminem sells a million records it’s because they’re good. I love 50, Em, Ludacris, Neptunes, all that stuff. There’s a lot of good hip hop at the moment. The UK is a little behind, but there’s a lot of good stuff like Roots Manuva and Task Force. There was a time when UK rappers would put on American accents and that just didn’t work. UK hip hop had to forge its own identity. It’ll get there eventually. I mean, MC culture in the drum ‘n’ bass and garage scenes is huge and a very British thing, so it’s only gonna be natural for hip hop to follow suit.” Aston is realistic and well grounded in his approach to the music he makes. The buzz surrounding the Freestylers’ third album suggests that another crossover could be imminent. “We’re not looking for commercial success with the new stuff. We’ve been there and done that. If it comes along again then that’s cool, but we’re not gonna go out of our way to make our stuff crossover. If people like it then they like it. It was wicked that ‘We Rock Hard’ was so well received. We toured America in 1999 with people like Lenny Kravitz. That was nuts, but people loved our stuff over there ‘cos they could respect it. We went there and gave them a hell of a show. Nobody knew our stuff, but we put everything into making it all sound different and fresh. That was a great experience.” Along with the likes of Adam F, the Freestylers have recently been touring with ‘the Smirnoff Experience’ which has seen riotous performances in student unions across the country. “We’ve got a full six piece band,” says Matt. A Freestylers live show is clearly an experience in itself as the band try and steer away from a conventional dance music approach. “I’m not really into a lot of dance music at the moment. It’s a bit tame. The breakbeat scene is wicked ‘cos it just does what it does. I don’t know where the scene is going but it’s making good music and that’s all that matters. It’s got a good sense of melody that a lot of the techier stuff seems to miss out on.” The future looks bright for the Freestylers. The first single from the new album, ‘Get a Life,’ was released on March 1 and sees a return to form from the ever popular pillars of UK music. After previously working with the likes of hip hop giants the Soul Sonic Force (“That was mad!”) Aston still has a lot of people he’d like to collaborate with. “There’s loads of people we’d like to work with in the future. We’d like to work with someone like Missy Elliot. I love Ludacris, he’d be good to work with. Even Justin Timberlake would be really cool to work with. I’d really like to get in the studio with some rock artists. I really like Staind, and I think Aaron Lewis would be wicked to hook up with sometime.” If you can’t catch the Freestylers on tour any time soon then be sure to check out their latest material as it is the quintessential sound of everything that is good in UK dance music today. Home > Interviews > ^top