You've caught Adam Freeland at a crossroads. After pioneering Britain's breakbeat scene and practically inventing nu-skool breaks with 1996's seminal Coastal Breaks, the man created his own band, Freeland, with whom he's just finished recording a new album. Along with a heaving 2009 touring schedule, the five-piece outfit have a live drummer and a synthesised-cum-organic sound that you're going to start to recognise as distinctly Freeland. 'I'm making the transition from DJ to artist,' he says. 'I've released plenty of tracks over the years, but I think this DJ-producer thing is on some level different to being an artist. Not in terms of creativity ... but it's not a DJ project, is my point.' Slated for release early next year, it will be the second album from the band, whose debut was the hugely successful Now and Them LP that spawned chart-topping lead single We Want Your Soul (2003), a manically catchy electro-breaks diatribe about consumer culture where synthesised vocals demand the core of your spiritual being that may or may not exist. Considering that Freeland's last album as a DJ, a compilation mix for the Global Underground series, spanned breaks, techno and electro-pop all overlaid with buzzy guitars and textured riffs, you might be forgiven for wondering whether this is just the first step to indie rock stardom, skinny jeans and artfully tousled locks. 'I'm not over dance music - I just like dance music with loads of guitar sounds,' he says. 'I'm a rocker trapped in a DJ's body. I have an eclectic taste in music and I try to get that into what I do as a DJ. I don't like putting everything into some niche genre; you have people who play the same sound all night long - that's what I'm over.' The album was three years in the making and had Freeland working with many of his heroes and veterans in rock, including punk band the Distillers' Brody Dalle, Devo's Gerry Casale and even Joey Santiago of the Pixies. Freeland hasn't quite flung off the shackles of his DJ body, however; mastering a live instrument still evades him. 'I play the bass and keyboard ... badly,' he says. 'I play a few basslines on my new album, but it's not my forte. I'm a master of computer programing music. That's what I've spent 10 years doing, so I guess the computer is my instrument.' As a remixer and producer, his tracks have gone into projects as diverse as video game The Sims 2: Nightlife and animated short film series The Animatrix, while We Want Your Soul was courted by US superstore chain Target for use in an ad campaign. Freeland turned that down - there's a certain irony of an anti-consumption song fronting advertising for America's fifth-largest retailer, particularly as Target requested rewritten lyrics. 'I'm no [campaigning musician], but if I'm going to write lyrics, I'm going to write something that's important to me,' he says. 'At the same time, I don't like to be preachy. Sometimes music is just about escapism.' We Want Your Soul isn't the only Freeland track with a message for the masses - Aer Obama is a cheeky bootleg he did for California's Coachella festival, cutting up Daft Punk's Aerodynamic with 'vocals' from a Speak n Spell computer saying 'Obama' and 'you are correct'. 'I'm fascinated by the way media in different countries spin the same story. If I see somewhere I have a voice, I'll use it ,' he says. 'You know where I think the cutting edge is? It's easy to be super-electronic and make everything with synths, and it's easy to be a traditional rock band with great guitars and drums - but the cutting edge is where the technological and organic meet. If you can distort a synth so it's got the attitude of a guitar, when it's got that real punk rock attitude but is super-electronic ... that is exciting to me. 'DJing is what I started out doing and is still my number one passion,' he says. 'But as I get more confident as a producer ... I'm getting good at getting the sound I want and I'm inspired in the studio at the moment. 'I was being a little facetious about the 'rocker in a DJ body' thing, but I am so excited about this band and our new album,' he says. 'Before, I was into beats; I didn't think in terms of melody and lyrics. Now I'm really into writing songs. This is a real album.' Adam Freeland, Wed, 11pm, Club PP, Unit 3-5, 2 Chinachem Golden Plaza, 77 Mody Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui East, HK$380 (advance, HMV), HK$480 (door). Inquiries: 98322 1219
