Artist Profile – Break The Code (UK)
Break The Code are an absolutely unique DNB/Punk crossover collective who played Glastonbury, Boomtown, Shindig, Shambala, Small World and Equinox last year after 5 years of hard graft on the live circuit. Fronted by self-titled ‘raptivist’ LouD SpekA, they released their second single ‘Freedom Forest’ at the end of November on their own ‘Break The Code’ imprint, and it looks like 2023 is going to be a year of growth for this band with one foot in the rave and one in the Global protest movement.
As soon as LouD SpekA made contact we knew immediately that a conversation was in order. We have an underlying punk ethic running through our core here at INSIDE DNB, and collectives in particular are something we love because we believe in the strength of community.
Today then , we very proudly bring to you, BREAK THE CODE!
LouD SpekA, welcome in!!!!!!!!
Hey!!! Excited to be here!!! Boom!!
Before we start then, introduce yourself to the world and tell us about yourself.
Yeah yeah, I’m LouDSpekA, more of an activist MC/poet. I run a motley crew of raptivists called Break the Code Collective. We grace various festival stages. I’ve been dabbling in music production on and off for a while (5 years) but over the last 2 years I decided to go all in on DNB production. So, I have been producing live sampling and DJing too in recent years!
So, what came into your life first, the protest movement or DNB?
It’s been like a DNB protest sandwich!! I was aware of DNB before I got into protests and campaigns, and after I had been in the protests for a few years and heard conscious MCs with a political edge, I decided I really wanted to get into that with DNB too. I always liked DNB when growing up and caught it on the radio, but it wasn’t until I experienced real, live London DNB club nights that I got really into the idea of doing it live. Seeing the energy of MCs and DJs live really inspired me!!
They are both a way of life though, right?
Yes, totally!!
You’re a raptivist. Define that for us, and what to means to you personally.
Yes, its combining MCing with politically conscious and spiritually uplifting content. It means I love to pack a political punch line in a peaceful warrior type way! I really aspire for it to mean drawing people into the vision/vibe of how things can be changed with the words! When I hear people like Kae Tempest perform I see how Kae does this! Whilst I’m in no way on that level….. moving people is my aspiration in the way that so many other gifted MCs have moved me! I still have a long way to go on the journey, but I’m really inspired by the people who have been part of our journey so far. I’m really grateful for the stages and event organisers who have encouraged the Break the Code Collective and the Break the Code Crew does feel like a real family of like-minded MCs.
Yes, we totally get that! You also state ‘craftivism’ as something you enjoy. What’s that then?
Yes, I love combining arts and crafts with activism, and you can see examples of that in the activist hub on our website (details below). It’s like a super cute but also serious way of doing things!! On our current Facebook page www.facebook.com/discreditcard, there is a creative petition, calling for a transformation to the money system based on debt. The concept is to create long reams of heart shaped bunting. Each bunting heart will have a message/poem written on it, by a member of the public, expressing a desire for a transformed banking sector.
More will come on our activist hub later!
This sort of crafty activism forms part of our inspiration and we have done other patchwork message campaigns too, which give serious messages but in a non-threatening crafty way!
We LOVE this concept. The power of words simply cannot be underestimated! We see that you’re a Chai tea lover. We’re huge Chai lovers too!
Yes !! Nothing like a good heart-warming chai tea! All for the new ‘Real it Tea’! Especially hot spicy chai when it’s all so COLD like right now!
I think we follow a similar ethic in that we believe that everybody is born with a will inside them to do good or to make change, but it’s not something that every individual has a chance to embrace. The punk in us said ‘fuck it, let’s start a website’ – I guess the punk in you said ‘fuck it, let’s start a collective’?
Yeah that’s exactly it!! Punk as Fluff, and we also really love supporting and gigging for my friends ‘Punk for The Homeless’. Doing the Punk for the Homeless live streams got me through the pandemic days when there were a reduced number of live gigs for 18 months! Love the punk rebel anarchic spirit! C’mon!
If we asked you to make a small list of the things that are beaming the brightest on your radar for Global change, what would it look like?
Yeah, here is a list of the people and fellow activist groups that all inspire me Boom ting:
The communing pods of Enough Scotland-, https://www.enough.scot/commoning-pods/
Crops Not Shops https://www.cropsnotshops.co.uk/our-mission/
May Project Gardens https://www.mayproject.org
Transition Towns https://transitionnetwork.org/about-the-movement/
I know he is a bit mainstream, but also when Russel Brand talks about anarcho-syndicalism it makes me really happy that a mainstream person is talking about it!!
Rob Greenfield is inspiring
Money Less Man
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Boyle_(Moneyless_Man)
Break the Codes Activist hub and discredit card take stanza on debt justice bunting campaign are also hoping to feature a bit more
https://breakthecode.co.uk/activist-hub/
Wow! That is a pretty impressive list! Be sure to check some of this out people!
This collective is no stranger to the live circuit. You’ve been traveling around and playing gigs for the last five years. Tell us about a few of the highlights?
Yes, we really enjoyed our set at Shindig Festival this year and our set at Small World was vibes! I enjoyed hosting at Shangri-La Glastonbury on the truth stage when they needed a female compere for the women’s afternoon. That was a bit of a last minute thing as I was only there for a brief set between acts, but ended up staying compering the whole afternoon as the other compere hadn’t woken up in time, (or had something else going on).
Also we always absolutely love our set with Dreadlock Alien in Shamballa in Chai Wallahs and the Phantom Laundry tent. Boomtown was also amazing with the new villages set up. In 2022 we did a whole tour of the Boomtown villages and at Equinox Festival we woke the whole crowd up every morning from the Sound Scape stage.
This sounds so cool! Let us know if you’ll need a roadie this year! Introduce the other members of the collective then, and explain their respective roles within the outfit.
Yeah, all of the crew have their own mini profile on the collective part of The Break The Code site, but to introduce them personally, we have:
The epic full power M9 awakening husband and wife duo, 9omega and Moth3r! Moth3r often joins me on tracks, and she also hosts rehearsals for Break the Code at the M9 base in Brixton, as they have the best studio and practise room. They also have a place to do live streaming from and they have the most pro set up of the group. Moth3r is also the most technologically and practical focused ‘ON IT’ member of the group.
When I don’t have time to help the rest to the crew with technological challenges, she is right there for whole family in practical support. Thank goodness she is also there to help everyone pre festival too, getting organised enough to send their tracks to the DJ and support them through the challenging moments! She lives up to her stage name (hope she doesn’t mind me saying)!! She also comperes a lot of shows and hosts the cypher. Her stage craft and hosting skills to get everyone going are second to none. She rose to the challenge even when some festivals in 2022 gave us the first set in the morning (festival goers often find it hard to get up after a heavy night). Moth3r still got the crowd hyped before the rest of the festival had even woken up!! The Equinox stage manager Nik couldn’t believe it. He’d never seen such a lively set for the first act of the day!!
Zaflon is co-producing and giving production lessons to the crew and helping us all with mixing. He has been at music production a bit longer than the rest of us, but is eager to empower us and share the knowledge.
Miss Perspective is a young MC bringing the explosive vibes to every performance and her tracks get the most reloads /rewinds….. at each live show she brings it! Along with our youngest member Akasha! Big up the baby. his appearance at Boomtown will never be forgotten! Check out our insta reels if you want to know what this means-
Miss Mercal is both an MC with attitude and a singer and her style is where the anarchic beats meet Jazz swag… she’s a naughty but very forgivable member of the crew!
Kitty Got Claws is full power MC and moving emo vocalist, she gets us all on to the gen Z platforms like Discord.
DJ Mr South also mixes and scratches live while Zaflon also does live samples, so those two are our music department. Mr South often gets us to practise our set in his van at festivals
Ceejay aka Ciege Music. Ceejay is an amazing MC and singer who can hit the high notes and mesmerise the crowd. Ceejay MCs with rhythm and pulls the most amazing dance floor dance shapes mid set, leaving health and safety wondering what just occurred!!! He does both dance music MCing and acoustic singing/ MCing. He is also a radio DJ for the music misfits show on Jorvik (York) Radio.
Demitra can bring ‘in the moment’, interpretive dance moves to everyone else’s set whilst hype MCing the rest of the crew. She also brings some speed MCing to DNB and also some grime has popped up mid set. We like the DNB with genre blurring around the edges. When she is not on the stage she is also in the Chai tent or cooking up some food form her own.
Why choose now to start a label and release music? We noticed that the aim of the label is to specialise in giving exposure to conscious lyricists, musicians and producers alike. The world needs this right now, and DNB is a perfect platform for that, right?
Yes, we felt like we wanted to really release and produce tracks of lots of the songs we perform at festivals. I was supported by Arts Council England for 1 year on Developing Your Creative Practise (DYCP) and had support to learn music production, so with that I produced 3 tracks in music production mentoring sessions and felt excited about sharing them and releasing them properly!
We also felt we wanted to be taken more seriously as producing quality music in the DNB scene as well as doing live festival shows. Lots of us have been upping our game in music production. In the collective, Zaflon, Moth3r and Mr South produce music. Moth3r is currently on a community college degree course in music production and Zaflon is a professional music mentor and teacher too. Mr South been sound engineering since back in the early rave scene and dabbles in production.
So, do you have artists lined up and waiting in the wings?
Yes, we have a track ready to come out from M9 and Zaflon and more form myself, LouDSpekA. Mr South is also on it with some remixes. Miss Perspective and Kitty Got Claws also have their own tracks in the pipeline too! Busy!
You’re open to new artists with a similar vibe coming forward too though?
Definitely! After our gigs at festivals we often meet people with a similar vibe and the hip hop set we do at lots of festivals hosts a cypher in the last 10-15minutes for lots of new MCs to jump on the mic. This was epic at Boomtown Speakers Corner and Equinox festival this year!! The length of our cypher depends on the length or number of sets that the festival or event gives us. If we just get a short 1-hour slot we have to stay focused, but if we get to programme a stage for a whole evening or have a few slots we do incorporate cyphers.
We have a Facebook group for conscious poets to post their material in and get new support and make new connections. We are also looking at developing our Discord channel for new people to come through or people we meet at festivals too. We only have a certain number of slots in our established live act, and we always have more people wanting to join than we have space for. However, as time goes on and our capacity on the label increases, we definitely hope to do more to support new artists coming through!
And what about possible collabs? As well as other members of the collective coming forward to front other releases?
We did once talk to Saul Williams about contributing a verse to produce a track on our discredit card campaign. However, when we have the right track for him, we hope to finalise it. That is just an up in the air possibility, so we hope in the future we can confirm it and release something for real. This would be very exciting to collaborate with one of the founding fathers of conscious spoken word who inspired so many of us on our journeys!! Amazingness!
We’re guessing that the tracks you’re releasing and are planning to release are a staple part of your live set?
Yes, we hope so and new ones all the time too!
But there are non DNB styles in your live sets too? You mentioned a hip hop set?
We have a mainly DNB set but with some hip hop in it and a mainly Hip Hop set too. We do have both but most of the time when it comes to live gigs we are trying to focus on the DNB one but we do the hip hop one if the festival gives us more than one slot.
The DNB set is 1 hour
The hip hop set can be between 1 hour and 90 mins. So, it depends on what the festival/event asks us for.
In terms of production, who are the people behind the music? Is it a team effort or are there just one or two of you?
Music production in recent tracks were mainly myself and Zaflon in Reborn to rewild and Freedom Forest. But others in the crew have the capacity to produce too including Mot3r and Mr South, we do sometimes collaborate with others too like Nutty P.
And what would you say you’ve learned most about making impactful music to release to an audience, as opposed to making music to gig with?
It takes a while to finely tune a track, and mix it but also to balance all the elements. We are still trying to perfect the art of ‘hooks’ we notice that people sing those most when live, (it’s great to have people singing our hooks back to us). There is a new track called Worker Bees coming out March or April 2023which has more of a hook/catchy chorus. Yes, both live music and recorded music are exciting journeys! We have a lot to learn in both!
Let’s talk vocals then. We absolutely LOVE your punk delivery style. There’s a whole range emotions running through your lyrics when you’re spitting bars. It’s unique in DNB at the moment we think. We’re guessing this goes down excellently at the festivals?
Aww thanks so much! It means a lot to me to hear you say that! We’re glad people are getting the punk style and the political implications! We have had a good response at festivals with people getting into the chorus of the track ‘Freedom Forest’. It makes a difference to have a group of people all supporting each other in our performances and hype MCing each other. I really owe a lot to the love and support of Moth3r in M9 awakening to keep encouraging us all through the challenges. They’re really good at getting the practise sessions moving. But yes, we’re really seeing good responses at all the festival events.
And there’s an LP due to drop in 2023?
Hey there is lot of tracks we got grouped together on a project called Liquid Spectrum we hope to drop some time in 2023.
Away from then collective then, but sticking with DNB, what’s really making your ears stick up at the moment. What you listening to in your own free time?
Yeah I love DNB I love liquid, jump and also jungle…. But I tend like different forms of DNB when in different moods. Muffler, Hybrid Minds, Etherwood, Riya and A Little Sound are just a few of my favourites, but I also a bit of jump up! On a lyrical level I love SASASAS’s Harry Shotta and Yzer MC.
And then away from DNB, what other types of music do you like?
I love anything with conscious lyrics and vibes also love a bit of acoustic/folk music and lo-fi hip hop.
Finally, then, if you could some up the Break the Code mission statement in a couple of sentences, what would you most like to say to the world?
To unite conscious lyricists, to produce amazing music that move inspires and moves people. Break the code is an action catalyst ignites people to transition into more socially just and loving ways of being.
Thank you so much INISIDE DNB! Big Love!
FIND OUT MORE HERE:
https://breakthecode.co.uk/activist-hub/
https://www.instagram.com/breakthecodecollective/
https://listenagain.jorvikradio.com/misfitmusic search Ciege Music
LouD SpekA Developing Your-Creative-practice (DYCP) May-2021-May-2022-with Arts Council England (ACE)
