Los Angeles-based B.R.E.E.D Kicks Off India Tour

B.R.E.E.D | Photo Credit: Tara Humphreis

In 2010, Ritesh D’souza was touring the United States as Bollywood dance alter-ego DJ Nasha, when he stepped into a club and heard dubstep and bass heavy beats for the first time. A commercial Bollywood DJ since the mid-nineties, D’souza was now eager to experiment with new sounds and began to explore the heavier, dirtier elements of electronica, “unlike anything he’d ever heard before.” The DJ began to shift his focus to a new project, under the moniker B.R.E.E.D. later that year.

D’souza is considered one of the early pioneers of drumstep, a sub-genre of drum ”˜n bass that emphasizes bass rhythms. He built on this sound with a series of singles such as “Sound Killer”, followed by his debut four-track EP Incu-bass (2011), which was a complicated mix of heavy synth lines, percussive bass, and dub elements; marking a clear departure from commercial house. The combination achieved notable success with the album being listed on several music charts. As dubstep began gaining popularity worldwide and in India, D’souza grew tired of the homogenous sound being promoted by an increasing number of producers who had taken to the sub-genre.

When he moved to Los Angeles last year, D’souza began work on a second EP as a follow-up to Incu-bass. This evolved into his first full-length album Binate, which released on San Francisco label Muti Music this January. Says the DJ, “I was keen on creating my own sound. I wanted to create something that could be identified as B.R.E.E.D because of its aural textures and specific sound design.” The new nine-track album was a fresh mix of slow motion funk, synth, and glitch hop, and saw the artist experiment with different aspects and tempos of bass music, creating fragile structures and organic melodies. The album made it to Number 1 on online music store Additech and Number 3 on Beatport’s Glitch Hop chart. Says D’souza, “It (Binate) didn’t follow any genre, it didn’t follow anything. I was doing a lot of heavy stuff, but this album is completely different from anything I’ve ever done.” Though B.R.E.E.D’s musical evolution has often been equated with genre-hopping, the producer’s sound has always incorporated elements of bass and glitch. The artist pins this misconception on the lack of genre-awareness in the country.

D’souza works extensively with his wife, Tara Mae, who contributes piano work to several tracks. Says the producer, “Sometimes we’ll start out with a small little scratch and then build it, or sometimes I already have a bunch of beats ready and we mess around with the keyboard and see what works best.” The artist is most often inspired while travelling, while he’s on an aircraft or a bus. He then hits the studio to translate those ideas into songs and samples. He makes a special mention of his track “Stay” which he wrote after argument with Mae. Says D’souza, “The song flowed and in two hours, half the structure was ready.”

As a part of a worldwide tour to promote Binate, B.R.E.E.D has just finished the first set of gigs which covered six cities on the west coast of the United States. The hectic tour schedule isn’t slowing the artist down though – D’souza is already back in the studio to work on an EP slated to release in this summer, which he says will be more diverse and experimental, with extensive use of new sounds and surprise collaborations. Says D’souza, “It took me a long time to find my sound. Finally I’ve found it and I’m going in that direction.”

B.R.E.E.D Tour Dates:

May 10^th ”“ Blue Frog, Mumbai
May 17th – The Humming Tree, Bengaluru
May 23rd – The High Spirits, Pune
May 24th – Bonobo, Mumbai