Finishing off our November interviews quite late we have rising hard house star Hi Freak1c. With tracks on Toolbox, Staar, Raw Power, Kinetic Digital, Breed and of course The Beat Ranch Digital. Hi Freak1c is making quite the name for himself, not only as a producer, but a steller DJ as well. His own label Outbreak Digital which he runs with Dave Leigh, is the only hard dance label that donates all its profit to charity, somethign that is unheard of in times like these.

Now with out any further ado.. Hi Freak1c

Thanks for takin the time out to do this interview with us.

No problem mate thanks for showing interest in me.

Where abouts are you from for those who do not know

I'm from a small town just outside Bristol called Thornbury haha, I just say Bristol as everyone know's where Bristol is.

What got you into the hard house scene, was it an event or track, or an evolution in music tastes?

Growing up in the 80's I found music in the late 80's around 88 to 89 listening to 808 State and mixes from Danny Rampling and other people like that. So when I was in secondary school everyone was listening to drum and bass and hardcore and I was listening to classic house and Trance and used to get ribbed for it. It wasn't till I was about 17 haha no 18  when I went clubbing for the first time. And it sweeped me off my feet hearing new music played out that i've never heard before I was going to night like Godskitchen and Gatecrasher and seeing legends play. But Hard house hit me in the face when seeing and hearing Jon The Dentist - Imagination, my god I had to find out what this was. Bristol at the time was outstanding with amazing nights going on attracting huge name DJ's and this is when I feel in love with hard house listening to The Disco Brother and Jon The Dentist and other legend back then.

How is the scene out there now?

In Bristol shocking really bad loads of clubs have closed down now which is a massive shame, so means I have to travel all the time now to see DJ/Producers perform now which is a massive upset. Up north and London seem to be wicked great nights still going on and still has great support which is great to see and missing out Midland and Wales hahaha seems everywhere is doing well just not Bristol

What came first for your, DJing or Producing?

DJing way before production which is I very gutted about been DJing now since 2000 and only been producing for 2 years. I wish I started back when I started DJing hahaha. It's mad when I was starting out DJing I was becoming friends with all these new producers who now hahaha are massive producers who we all know and love so on that side it's a shame, but I've picked up the production really fast and doing music production has really helped me push my music onto the next level.

Can you give us a run-down of your studio, whats your favorite bit to work with?

Yeah sure I run on a Mac which is the best little gadget in the world it's called a Mac Mini for people who don't know what that is it's about the same side as a box of chocolates haha it's small but very very powerful. On it I run Logic Pro with Recycle. I also run some VST's to which but really happy with but mostly just stick to the Logic ones such as the ES2 for leads etc etc and ES1, which is amazing for bassline, thats the thing I love about Logic their VST and plugin for Logic are outstanding and well worth every penny. I also run an Edirol FA-66 Soundcard with a pair of Mackies HR624's and some KRK Rokit 6. I hardly use the rokits much they are just to test how the mix sounds on different speakers.

How did the nameHi Freak1c come about?

ha yeah this is a mad one really. I at work trying to think of a better DJ name for myself as I used to be called ENJ so I wanted a better name so I was thinking and one evening I put on a film called Frequency. Then I saw the light so called myself High Frequency. After seeing my name on the flyer I thought it looked to big so got back to the drawing board to keep the name but see what I could come up with so playing around with letters and numbers I came up with Hi Freak1c. It's still funny to this day as a good mate of mine who I've known for years only worked out what my name meant middle of this year hahaha.

Your awsome remix of 11-11 is doing quite well, can you give our readers an insight on how you went about making the remix, what where some of your insprations behind it?

Yeah sure, 11 - 11 original had a Trance element to it so I wanted to go ahead and give it more of a dirty fell to it and harden it up. I'm really into the defective audio sound right now with chunky percussion and funky bassline kinda sound to it really into the chunky sound so wanted to take it down that route. I felt with what I was doing the I needed to change the riff a little to fit in with my track so I changed it slightly but keeping the same feel and move to the original. I well happy with the out come to the remix and is the lastest thing I've finished.

What other tracks are in the pipeline for you?

I still got a few tunes waiting to come out which im excited about so keep an eye out for them. I'm always working on stuff, there is a couple of colbs me and a couple of people are working on. One of them being me and Gary B a guy from around these parts he is a top lad really nice, his ideas are awesome and I'm over the moon that he wants to work with me we work well and he is not afraid of trying new things. Me and partner in crime Darrell White are working on a couple of things one I can't really said but you will find out in the next year what that is and the other is another colb tune called Jetstream we are about 80% done just tarting it up right now so look out for that. Also me and Mike Franklin aka Amp Attack are hooking up for a new colb too. Seems like 08 has been nuts.....On the collab side of things, I've said that in 2009 I'm going to be putting some time a side to do some original stuff. But I love working with people on tunes so will keep that going too

You digital label Outbreak Digital is the only label that we know of that donates all its profits to charity. With the scene as small as it is and labels going bust, what made you decide to do donate all the profits, besides being a very nice guy ahaha

aww thankyou (Gone Red). If you ever meet me my passion for music is crazy i live and breath music, one of my good mate feel ill with cancer about just over a year ago and he was well into his music DJing, but this hit him bad and he fought a good fight and came out on the other side, this hit me and I wanted to do something my nan also passes away with Parkinson so I started talking to Dave Leigh aka Aftershok (Hard Trance Producer) and we both said we wanted to do something for charity so we came up with this idea of a label donating money to great charities. you can find out more about us on www.myspace.com/outbreakdigital it's been doing amazing and have great support from amazing people and DJ and producers. We just want to put outstanding music out and more important help great causes.

When you are not DJing or producing what do you do on your spare time?

Spare Time??? What's that hahaha I like to spend my time with the gorgeous girlfriend she is amazing really supportive and helps me loads means a lot. Just like chilling out really watching Doovde's and getting some food you know how it is. Still love having a good old bum wobble and hands in the air moment out clubbing like.

Playing out, what has been your favorite moment or event?

I love playing out every time I play out, my fav moment has to be playing for a night in Leeds for a night called Crescendo which is part of KillerTrax Collective the room vibe was amazing and everyone going for it was a wicked night, really looking forward playing for them again as hard house goes off up north. I also recently played for Implosion in Bournemouth and the crowd there was going nuts for the filth haha was loving it had people coming up saying how cool it was to hear some hard house being played which is cool. Really enjoy DJing and I like to show it when DJing I'm not all for standing there with a long face I have be jumping up and down like I was in the crowd.

What about your worst experince while playin out

I'm lucky i haven't had a worst moment as of such. I was DJing and I was getting into the set a bit to much made the record skip so much the needle fell off the record. I've been lucky I think (Touches wood)

Any last words?

Just want to tell everyone to keep up the good work everyone is doing amazing and releasing some amazing tracks right now, let's keep this scene a live and hope everyone cares on making great music and look out for releases and thanks for the support means a lot, cheers Beat Ranch your a legend for taking your time out to talk to me.

HiFreak1c.com

Hi Freak1c's MySpace Page

Outbreak Digital MySpace Page.

Buy Hi Freak1c's tracks here on TrackItDown.net

Click here for Hi Freak1c's Eexclusive Beat Ranch Mix
Click here for tracklisting.

Past Interviews