Exclusive EDM Sauce interview with Break Science:
EDM Sauce: What's it like touring with the Pretty Lights Live Band?
Break Science: It's a really great experience, it's a great crowd, the lights are in tune with everything. We are learning a lot. It's unique because there is already a really big built-in fan base but many of them don't know what to expect because it's their first time seeing the live band. We know that at every show there is an open minded audience ready to listen and dance, it's also very fresh, stuff they haven't heard before, stuff we haven't played for them before. It's very exciting.
EDM Sauce: Is it more or less flexible than playing a standard DJ set?
Break Science: There's definitely more flexibility because you have everything a DJ set has plus instruments and other people to interact with so definitely more flexibility.
EDM Sauce: The word is you guys are working on a (Pretty Lights) live band album. Can you give us any inside details?
Break Science: Yea, we can't talk too much about it but we're all writing and we're all co-collaborating and hopefully we'll be able to give you more information soon.
EDM Sauce: I understand that you guys came from a more hip hop influenced background, what inspired you to start producing EDM?
Break Science: Well it was electronic music in America, at least the stuff that I started liking. Pretty Lights music, Gramatik and even the earlier guys like DJ Shadow and RJD2, who are more sample based producers but yet that is American electronic music, so it just captured our imagination. (We thought) what can be done if we added some different styles together and try to make it happen. It's open game, the whole EDM thing is open game. A lot of producers from different eras of dubstep or drums n bass or hip hop producers are all kind of mixing up there thing and putting into this electronic dance music we have today.
EDM Sauce: You collaborated with a lot of artists on your most recent album, which artists were the most fun to work with?
Break Science: They're all artists we have great respect for. They're all close friends and people we have relationships with. That's really important when making music. Everybody brings something different to the table, it's like comparing apples to oranges. We had everything from reggae, to rapping to singing. It was a pleasure working with all the arists, I can't single out just one. They are all pretty well established artists who are used to big recording. They knew we were kind of an underground act but they knew the music was there. We were really blessed to have them on the record.
EDM Sauce: What is the meaning of your album title “Seven Bridges”?
Break Science: Seven Bridges represents a lot of different elements and styles of music that we're fusing together. It also represents the bridges we can see from my Brooklyn apartment. We tried to combine that with fusing some more live elements into the electronic scene.
EDM Sauce: How did you get involved with the Pretty Lights live band?
Break Science: I (Adam) was his drummer in 2010. I had told him (Derek) that I had to go back to my projects that i had been working on for years. I suggested that he just go solo for a while and that's pretty much what happened. He's been DJing without live instruments and the band since 2010. When “Color Map of the Sun” was being produced he wanted to work with me again and come up with some live samples to work with. From the “Color Map of the Sun” sessions he realized who the best musicians were(for his live band). We all put it together and got Borahm (Lee) and Eric Bloom from Lettuce, Scott (Flynn) and Brian Coogan. I guess it all started in 2010 and me being his drummer for his fall tour.
EDM Sauce: What went into the writing process for “Seven Bridges”? Was it difficult? About how long did it take?
Break Science: Well a lot of times, bigger bands end up spending two or three months in the studio making an album. Our schedule is so hectic, we play so much, we just have a lot of commitments musically that we don't have time to put away two months to just record an album. We have to do it in every little space, in every little hotel room, two of us backstage, anywhere we can find. It took many months but we're definitely happy with the fruits of our labor. It definitely didn't happen in one way or one place, we just had to be constantly working on it at all times in all ways and in all places. We (Adam Deitch and Borahm Lee) both produced the record. The drummer (Adam) is also a co-producer. (Some people think) I just played drums on the record which is not true. We both are producers and we both came together and fused our styles and that's Break Science.
