It’s amazing how in certain cities around the country there’s a diversity of talent and scenes. For example, in my hometown of Adelaide, we have one of the best drum and bass scenes in the country, if not the world. Yet breaks, while being absolutely huge in Sydney and Melbourne, is very small here. Some people say it’s because Adelaide doesn’t have the population to support more than a couple scenes, but then when we look at Perth there’s a huge breaks scene with events attracting up to 3,000 people. In an effort to understand this a little more, we talked to two of the country’s top breaks DJs, John Doe from Adelaide and Gully from Perth, who are about to embark on a national tour in support of the “Breaks on N-Gage” tour.

“I think a lot of it is because the big parties here (in Adelaide) push drum and bass & house in the main rooms, so breaks doesn’t get the exposure it gets like it would at events like Field Day or other Fuzzy events”, says John Doe of Adelaide’s break scene. “Slowly this has been changing with artists like BLIM, Hyper and Adam Freeland playing at the Stardust Festivals. We usually have them on a mixed stage, not a dedicated breaks room, exposing more punters to the music, which long term can only be a good thing!”

“As far as Perth is concerned I think a lot of it has to do with the lack of confidence shown by the owners and operators of venues”, says Gully, “which has left the music to be showcased generally in situations below standards acceptable to your average punter. We have been playing breaks in Perth since 1996, and many visiting DJs believe that our punters and our scene is one of the most discerning and upfront in the country”.

Both Gully and John Doe run their own shows and clubnights, with Gully being responsible for “BackBeat”, Perth’s first dedicated breaks and beats night. This was the catalyst for the emergence of the Ambar Nightclub and Breakfest, an annual, three thousand strong outdoor breaks festival. “The confidence created by BackBeat, good quality acts and the hard work of many people got the show up and running”, he says of the success. “It should be noted that the first year ran at a loss but the quality of event was the backbone of the success of last year.” John Doe runs the highly successful traffic nightclub and stardust festivals. “It takes a lot more time and organization running a club compared to events and holiday options are pretty limited at the moment”, he laments. “It does give me the opportunity to take acts on a more regular basis than before but I always find it hard to make a business decision between booking acts I’d like to see & ones that are good for the club.”

Both strongly support the local scene, booking DJs and acts from their respective cities. “There is plenty of talent out here!” Gully says of Perth, “and I am sure you will be hearing from them in the very near future. Up until now we have not had the infrastructure that the east has as far as labels and recording facilities go but the advent of the home recording studio is changing all this. I am currently working on projects with Echoic and we will be releasing in the very near future, and others fine acts include Downsyde, Ku-ling Bros, Soundlab, Smoulder and numerous others.” John doe adds: “Hooligan Soul have made a few nice breaks tunes and mate of mine iCon makes some really nice stuff, which I’ll be taking on tour.”

“The upcoming tour is a fantastic opportunity for us, as until recently it was not really viable financially for promoters to get anyone from this side of the country unless they had a name that was recognised,” says Gully of the N-Gage Breaks tour. “It’s very hard to get that recognition unless you’re releasing tunes or are playing on the east coast. Now that air travel is a lot cheaper and there is more people producing, I think you will be hearing a lot more from this side of the country as there are some world-class talent here!” John doe agrees, and is looking forward to “having a good time and playing some fat ass breaks!”