His name is synonymous with electronic music, and he's helped steer the breakbeat sound from the back rooms of clubs to the main stages of the world's biggest dance music festivals. So, where does producer/DJ Adam Freeland go from here: rock'n'roll, of course.
'My sound is always progressing and there's been a big influence from rock music recently,' he says. 'The whole breaks sounds has become very formulaic and harsh, and what I'm trying to do is use a lot of live drum breaks, rather than electronic kits, and live basslines and mashed-up guitar frequencies, which have a different kind of energy.'
The progression towards rock started when Freeland broke free of the limitations imposed on him as a DJ and formed his self-titled band, described in their press release as 'two nutty Chileans, a bald wizard drummer, a soul diva and a DJ'.
'Although my roots are on the dance floor, it's a relief to be able to express my influences beyond that,' he says. 'The idea of making 12 breakbeat tunes and calling it an album was about as appealing to me as a hard kick in the nads.'
Although the full band won't be accompanying Freeland at his Lunar New Year gig in Hong Kong next week with South American progressive house master Hernan Cattaneo, his DJ set should appeal to rockers as much as ravers, with tracks such as his cheeky bootleg remix of Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit and cuts lifted off the band's self-titled debut album, such as We Want Your Soul.
Since cementing his reputation in the late 1990s as the face of the style of breakbeat known as 'nu-skool' breaks - which fuse an eclectic range of influences including techno, hip-hop and drum'n'bass - Freeland has had an eventful few years, including a drama with distributors that temporarily shut down his Brighton-based record label, Marine Parade.
