Adam Freeland

Infobox musical artist
Name = Adam Freeland

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Img_capt = Adam Freeland performing in Istanbul, Turkey
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Background = non_vocal_instrumentalist
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Genre = Electronica
Occupation = Disc jockey, Record producer
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Associated_acts = Freeland
URL = http://freeland.fm/

Adam Freeland is a UK-based DJ and producer synonymous with breakbeat based electronic music. Like his record label, Marine Parade, he is a resident of Brighton. As a producer, he formed half of Tsunami One with Kevin Beber, and released a solo album as "Freeland"; as a DJ he operates solo under his own full name. In 1996, Adam Freeland's "Coastal Breaks" album heralded the beginning of something new - nu skool breaks. By 1997 Adam had earned the respect of fellow DJs Sasha, Carl Cox and the Chemical Brothers. Since then Adam has released the "Tectonics" and "On Tour" mix albums, as well as a FabricLive mix, and groundbreaking "Back To Mine". Freeland's debut artist album "Now and Them", released in 2003, relied on influences from punk, hip hop, electro, dub, reggae and rock. It featured the hit record 'We Want Your Soul', with his remix of Sarah Vaughan's 'Fever' nominated for a Grammy and his personally requested mix of The Doors 'Hello, I Love You' receiving critical acclaim. He has just completed the latest in the Global Underground Series, which sees his style broaden further to span Drone rock, minimal, Electro punk , but all with a break beat backbone. Freeland describes the album's sound as 'E-drone'. Freeland's track "Big Wednesday" was used in the sound track of The Animatrix.

In 2008 Freeland contributed the song "KIN" to the Survival International charity album, "Songs for Survival".

Born"Hertfordshire, 1973 - but age doesn't matter."

Family

"My family isn't really musical at all, but they are mad. Mum's a nurse, my old man plays golf. They had dodgy Nana Mouskouri records, so I think I was just rebelling against that."

Roots

"When I was a kid, I was a hi-fi geek. I was really into hi-fi and sound quality. From the age of 12 I had a paper round and worked for £7.50 a week so every 6 months I could go down Tottenham Court Road and buy a nice bit of separate hi-fi equipment. I played the guitar, like wanna-be-Hendrix-stylee Fender Strat, just in my bedroom. I didn't have lessons or play in a band. Music was always a passion for me, but I never considered it as a career path... When I went to college in London I became a mad clubber, really into my deep house. We used to go to Milk Bar on Mondays, then later on it was Velvet on Sundays, we'd go down the Gardening Club for this gay night when they played really good US house on Wednesday's, Megatripolis at Heaven on Thursday's. We would go clubbing every night, we went to Plastic People when it was on Oxford Street. I went to the early Universe and Tribal Gathering raves, listening to Sasha and Grooverider, who was then playing house music. We used to go and listen to Graeme Park a lot too and whenever Masters At Work or Francois K or Laurent Garnier were in town we'd be there religiously."

Projects

"I started getting really into the breaks stuff coming out of the West Coast of America; Hardkiss, Bassbin Twins, Uberzone and all that. At the same time, drum n bass was blowing up and people were really starting to push the production sounds with mad bass n stuff. I really liked those sounds but preferred the tempo of house music. I was playing drum n bass records on 33 and trying to find records that combined the drum n bass ideas with a more electro house tempo. I met Rennie (Pilgrem) and he'd just made that 'A Place Called Acid' tune and was feeling a similar kind of way. His 'Place Called Acid' was basically the first big British breaks tune. We did a night called Friction together with Tayo.... Around that time I made a tune with Simon from Bassment Jaxx and a friend Scott, which was a house track with a beatbox, breaky kinda vibe. The whole big beat thing was exploding at the same time, but I wasn't into it at all. I really wanted to make a compilation that set out the sound that I was trying to push. The media at the time was really going on about Skint, Wall Of Sound and stuff that wasn't really about what we were doing. I had this idea for 'Costal Breaks' and I took it round some labels who weren't really interested. Then I met Richard Ford from Avex/ Distinctive and he was up for putting it out basically. It got well received in the press and that was about the same time we started Friction in London."

Labels

"In '98 I moved to Brighton and started Marine Parade in my flat, there wasn't a master plan or anything, I was just putting out tunes... My DJing has always paid to put out music on the label; I've never been much good at balancing the books, I spend loads of money on artwork and give the artists very generous deals. So I've still not made any money from Marine Parade, but I've sunk lots into it. You have to do albums though, I wanted to develop artists and Ils had a really accomplished sound. There was a time when I thought about doing a Tsunami One album, but Kev (Beber) lived in Romford and he wouldn't move. We ended up stopping that...The band (Freeland) was something that I'd always wanted to do. I started making an artist album, and I didn't want it to be just a straight DJ artist album. I enjoy listening to albums as a piece of music, and aside from a couple because I've not ever heard a good one. I've done four DJ mix compilations so I've got the dancefloor thing out of my system. I wanted to make an album that was musical; I was working with different vocalists and musicians throughout and I realized that if I was going to be expected to represent that album as a DJ it was going to be a bit weird, because a lot of it wasn't designed for the dancefloor. I started putting the band together because all the different people I was working with were really cool people. So we just put a lot of time into rehearsing it. Now it?s evolved into something completely different for me, it's totally different to what I do as a DJ. Some people do find it hard to get their heads round it and they try to put you in pigeonholes. Some of the hardcore purists are probably a bit pissed off that it's not deep dark underground breaks, but no it's a band with songs, and vocals, and guitars' but so what! That doesn't mean that I then can't go and DJ deep dark tribal grooves down at fabric. I find it really refreshing to have a different creative outlet... maybe I should have called it something different."

Djing

I got into DJing when I moved to London at 18. I went to study design there and my flatmate had decks, which was in '92, and we'd play jungle - it was slower then though. I started collecting records around the same time. I was always mixing electro and hip house into my sets, and then I started getting into Bassbin Twins and Uberzone stuff that had started coming over from America... The first two times I toured America I did it for free, just because I wanted to get over there, and then I just started going back n back n back. I've toured America 45 times now, so I've fucking worked it. I really like traveling, and back then breaks was happening in the South of England but it wasn't really happening up North... Now it's totally different, there's breaks DJs, producers and clubs. Within the scene itself there's different types, including the whole nu skool thing that I don't really feel a part of anymore. At Friction it was a reaction to the whole Big Beat thing everything seemed to be old skool this and old skool that. We thought, no, fuck old skool, we want to do something fresh and new. This isn't old skool it's 'nu skool breakbeat and future electro...' which is what we put on the flyer. And at the time we were fusing crazy drum n bass sounds with electro beats, but that was '96. It kept evolving from there. A lot of what now is called nu-skool breaks hasn't really moved on that far from '96, it's really dark noisy bass kinda stuff, which is not really where my heads at anymore... During the whole Tsunami One thing I was so obsessed with crazy technological sounds and 'Hip Hop Phenomenon' was the first breaks tune to have those crazy edits and stuff, outside the Warp electronic thing. At that time we were just really just into pushing the crazy fucking sonic frequencies, where as, I kind of got over the whole synthetic side and went a bit the other way. Now I'm into more organic live drum breaks, and live bass guitars. It was very scientific back then, I think we got carried away and lost the funk. Now it's more about groove based funk shit. Our music is all developing in different directions, it's less synthetic sounding but still with a focus on super-fat production, we're just not as technically obsessed... You have to keep it fresh all the time, there's no point in sitting on a sound and saying that's my sound and I'm going to stick with it. Some people might be able to do that but I personally can't and need to keep things moving."

Discography

Albums

* "1996 Coastal Breaks - Vol 1"
* "1998 Coastal Breaks - Vol 2"
* "2000 Tectonics"
* "2001 On Tour"
* "2003 Now and Them" (as "Freeland")
* "2004 Fabric Live 16"
* "2005 Back to Mine"
* "2007 "

ingles

* Tsunami One - Number 43 With Steamed Rice Please
* Tsunami One & BT - Hip Hop Phenomenon
* Freeland & Beber street technique - Down
* Freeland - We Want Your Soul (2003)
* Freeland - Supernatural Thing
* Freeland, Wink & Middleton – Rise Above
* Freeland – Heel n Toe
* Freeland – Mind Killer
* Adam Freeland – Silverlake Pills
* Adam Freeland-Hate-E.P

Remixes

* The Orb - Little Fluffy Clouds
* Aquasky - Bodyshock
* Tales From The Hardside - Chemical Breakdown
* Orbital - Nothing Left
* Planet Funk - Chase The Sun
* Infusion - Better World
* Ils - Cherish
* Kayode Olajide - Olufela
* Kelis – Trick Me
* Killa Kela - Secrets
* Kim - Wet N Wild
* K-Swing + Beber - This Is The Sound
* Nirvana – Smells Like Freeland
* The White Stripes - Seven Nation Freeland
* Pressure Drop - Warrior Sound
* Pressure Drop - Your Mine
* Pink - Trouble
* Protocol – She Waits For Me
* Sarah Vaughn – Fever
* B-Movie - Nowhere Girl
* Telemen - In All Nothing
* The Doors – Hello I Love You
* Shiny Toy Guns - You are the one
* Fujiya & Miyagi - Ankle Injuries
* Fluke - Absurd
* The Prodigy - Mindfields (Adam Freelands Circle - Mix)
* Marlena Shaw - California Soul (as "FEAR" or "AREA 05", on the soundtrack to the videogame REZ)
* Marilyn Manson - You And Me And The Devil Makes 3 (Adam Freeland Remix)
* Silversun Pickups- Lazy Eye

Popular culture

One of Adam's singles, "Mind Killer", is featured in the 2002/2008 Dreamcast, PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 title, Rez (Known on the Xbox 360 as Rez HD) under the song title of "Fear". The song is featured during the fifth and final stage of the game, known as "Area 05". Often regarded as being the level that makes Rez the cult-classic that it is. The game's remixed version of "Mind Killer" is also featured on the soundtrack released called "Rez Gamer's Guide To...", also under the title of "Fear".

Freeland has also created many custom tracks exclusively for the video game .The Jagz Kooner remix of "Mind Killer" appeared on the soundtrack for

External links

* [http://freeland.fm/ Adam Freeland's Website]
*Discogs |artist=Adam+Freeland
* [http://www.myspace.com/adamfreelandmusic Myspace page]
* [http://www.rcrdlbl.com/2008/06/06/exclusive_download_adam_freeland_vs_amnesty_international/ SEEN: Download Adam Freeland]