Kunj: So Live For Live Music is here with Adam Deitch and Borahm Lee from Break Science. So the first one is for you Adam, how was your trip to Vail, Colorado?
Adam: It was great. We got into to Denver last night. Had a good time, got some sushi, woke up and rolled out here.
Kunj: We know you’re a busy man, I mean we’re from New York so we know you were at Brooklyn Bowl with The Royal Family, and you go back to play Bowlive with Lettuce in a couple days. So does like traveling back and forth take a toll on your body and and affect your drumming?
Adam: I mean it does a little bit but you know I discovered this technique with the neck pillows and it saved my life because I used to not be able to sleep on planes and now i’m just out. You know it’s definitely tough like being up in the air it dries you out, messes you up. It’s part of the life. I’m just thankful to be able to travel and play music.
Kunj: Well the two of you have like kind of different musical backgrounds but you guys seem to share like the same love for hip hop. How did you guys meet and start to collaborate and form Break Science?
Borahm: We met through working with several artists. We both had actually worked with Wyclef and Lauryn Hill, Fugees and I did the Reunion Tour and Adam was going to play drums, but then he had some work to do with Justin Timberlake instead so that’s why he couldn’t do it but, you know, we were working with a lot of the same people. And then me and Adam worked in many situations after meeting and then it just kind of finally evolved into this.
Chris: You’re both from New York, right? I’m from Queens originally, are you from Brooklyn originally?
Adam: I grew up outside the city in Nyack, New York.
Borahm: I’ve grew up in Flushing but I’ve spent a lot of time living in Long Island City for the past 10 years, but now I live in Brooklyn, Bed-Stuy.
Kunj: So, both of you contribute significantly to producing the music live, Borahm you do like the keys, the loops, the effects during the show, Adam here of the drums but when you guys are on a studio is it the same process or…
Borahm: No we do both …
Adam: I’ve been making beats a long time and like chopping samples and add baselines and you know I work on Pro Tools, he works on Ableton and what happens is he’ll have some amazing ideas on Ableton, I’ll make some shit on Pro Tools and we’ll just bounce all the waves together and see what happens and he also has a great ear for mixing and like effects and that stuff. So, it’s like he’ll take some of my tracks that are pretty cool, he’ll make it amazing and then with his stuff like maybe I’ll put some in some drums on it. So, we kind of just like constant collaboration.
Borahm: There’s no one formula. I mean Adam has made sounds and produced for a lot of people before outside of Break Science and as he continues to do that, but we just try to employ all of our strengths into the music and everything that we can contribute and using our strengths. So, if I can contribute something mix wise or in effects wise or keyboard or chords or whatever, and you know we have different ears for different things too which makes us collaborate so great.
Chris: With having so many other projects between the two of you I mean is it hard to get the time to come together and make music?
Adam: It was in the past years, but we’ve really focused on Break Science in the past like 2 or 3 years.
Borahm: We’ve made this the priority.
Adam: This is definitely the priority now and that requires for us to turn down a lot of stuff and you know that’s just part of when you focus on your music, when other people call you to play their music you have to say, “Thank you so much but i’m like focusing on this.” And you know so that’s kind of been our thing this year and it’s like saying, “Hey, okay, we’re just going to focus on this, we’re going to do this.” And like he was just with Kanye West and did like a giant US tour, it’s pretty insane and now we’re back focusing on Break Science so it just worked out.
Chris: That’s crazy. I mean you guys came out with I mean pretty much 2 albums the last like a year, almost less than a year, Further Than Our Eyes Can See and then with Monolith Code which is fantastic. We did an album review on it, I mean, we loved it. I mean, it’s great. We also wrote a review on the album release party, that was another great show.
Borahm: Yeah that was really fun show for us too.
Chris: So I mean I know I had asked you a question via Facebook you know if you guys have anything else coming up, you had said you’re always working on something new.
Borahm: We definitely have our sights set on an album, we hope before the year’s out, we’re really exploring and instead of being just EPs that kind of have certain vibes, we really want to explore different vibes in a whole album that’s more than an hour of music where we can explore different things, you know?
Adam: Especially with like dynamics instead of just like full out and a drop, there’s going to be a middle that could be builds that happen over a long period of time, so we’re getting into like some different conceptual stuff..
Chris: Yes, we can tell your sound has evolved quite a bit.
Borahm: Thank you.
Chris: I saw you guys a couple of years ago. I was at the Electric Forest set that you played and from then up until even the release party you guys have constantly evolved your music. I mean I love it, I love Break Science. You guys are some of my favorite acts in the genre. Hands down. Do you guys have a busy summer coming up?
Borahm: Yeah. It’s getting filled in. We have great booking agent at Madison House, they’ve gotten us gigs with artists like Bassnectar and we’re really looking forward to the summer.
Chris: Any interesting collaborations that you are working on, I mean you did some awesome remixes, I mean you’ve done a lot with Chali2na and everything. You guys have anything else coming up?
Borahm: There’s definitely a bunch in the works but we don’t like to really say it until we know it’s coming out.
Chris: You don’t have to say it, yes is good enough [laughs].
Borahm: We’re compiling a lot for this full length so we’re getting together with a lot of the people we’ve worked with, and just recording and making beats and we’ll see at the end what goes to the top.
Adam: I’m hoping to get Pharoahe Monch on this new record, That’s one person I’m willing to say. We want him [rapping] over our stuff. I’m dropping that name [laughs].
Chris: So you love Simon Says, I’m guessing. I love that song.
Kunj: So, what are your guys influences?
Adam: Oh man just everything. I started off on some Funky Soul stuff growing up like Earth Wind and Fire, Tower of Power and like big funk bands and then I realize that certain parts of those records were where hip hop came from, and that got me into that, and I start sampling electronic music and he [Borahm] got me into lot of that, and [Boards of Canada] and like some other groups like that.
Chris: Oh yeah for sure.
Borahm: Aphex Twin and Squarepusher.
Kunj: Squarepusher is amazing.
Borahm: He’s coming out with a new record.
Adam: I mean, I would drum to Squarepusher for weeks. That’s what I was playing along to, to get drum stuff. He just got a new drummer now too, I heard it’s sick.
Chris: And he’s playing March 15th I think at Webster Hall, you guys going to be there or you have other obligations?
Borahm: If I’m home I’ll definitely want to go.
Kunj: So as you guys were saying before, Adam, you toured with Pretty Lights as a drummer, Borahm, you did some keys for Kanye, What’s the difference when you’re like playing a show of other people’s music as opposed to like your own.
Borahm: Big difference. I mean, you care. And of course you play with other artists you want it to be good.
Adam: When we play with Wyclef, I want to do the best possible show as the dude that he wants me to be. I want the crowd to see HIM. I want to play really well so he shines and it’s like it’s a different thing. You have that love for the artist you’re playing with and we want to help give it to the crowd. When it’s like our stuff you get that rush, it’s like “Wow”, which is amazing.
Borahm: It’s really a whole different level of meaning, you know what I mean? Especially the fact that we have supported lots of artists over the years. After you’ve finally worked with so many artists with many years and finally it’s like our time to do our thing with our band.
Kunj: So when you guys released Monolith Code, you gave away your music for free on your website. Is there like a reason why you guys do that as opposed to selling your music?
Borahm: I think it’s kind of become a new paradigm, a new standard, and you know I mean people are going to get it for free anyway if that so. We just want to get the word out there, you know what I mean?
Adam: And we’re a live band, when we play, we really alter the songs, we’re doing stuff to it live and we want people to come to the shows, we want them to know the records in order to appreciate how we’re flipping them live and be like “Oh they extended that part.” You know?
Borahm: We’re about to drop a live CD when we do this tour and we’re really actually happy about it. It’s a live session that we recorded in a studio in Brooklyn. It’s the stuff that we do only in a live show and you hear Adam’s playing on top of the songs that we wrote together so we’re excited to get that out.
Kunj: So like how much of your music do you have prepared before you go in to the show? Do you know your setlist for the show before hand?
Borahm: We change it for every show, tomorrow if you guys will be at the aftershow, it will be totally different from the show today.
Adam: You just got to feed into the crowd and kind of read them and see what they respond to.
Chris: How do you feel about the differences in the way the crowd in New York responds to your music as opposed to the crowd in Colorado.
Adam: I feel like Colorado is comfortable with this music that they actually do rage a little harder to it. You know like I love that aspect of it. New York, is like they’re still… But, they’re getting it, I went to a Big Gigantic show the other day, and the crowd was going off! I’m looking forward to like the new, New York. I love it. It’s great. I think they sold it out, I mean couple of years ago, it was small gigs.
Chris: So how is SnowBall and Bear Creek compare to like playing a small venue like Brooklyn Bowl.
Adam: Well it’s not that small, Brooklyn. I wouldn’t call it …I mean, first of all we love it. Sometimes it’s great to be like up on the crowd and they can like see your facial expressions like, you know it’s a different thing but live playing a festival you got to keep it so you got to keep the crowd up.
Borahm: There’s definitely something special about, you know different things that you can’t replace in each one.
Kunj: Well, thank you guys, we can’t wait to catch you at the next one!
Break Science Album Release Party @ The Brooklyn Bowl
Break Science Album Review from Their Album Monolith Code