Swipezster talks to Dj Pete from Hardcore Lives

Swipester . So who is HCL?

DJ Pete . Hardcore Lives is a community dedicated to promoting modern Breakbeat Hardcore that I started back in 2006. It has grown since then adding its own Netradio Station and one of the scenes biggest record labels dedicated to the Hardcore Breaks/Nu-Rave scene with its own online shop.

Swipester . Can you tell us how the Hardcore Lives brand came about, whos idea it was and what got it all started?

DJ Pete . Back in 2006 there were many divisions and disagreements in the scene and several people broke away and formed what become nu-rave.com, the original Hardcore Lives site was set up as somewhere to represent the rest of the scene and help promote the artists work that was excluded from the other site. Several projects came out to help promote the artists and labels such as a fanzine and various flyers.

Swipester . How hard was it to start your own label, get it promoted and how did you get the producers involved?

DJ Pete . I was approached by Richie K, who had already been involved in several quality labels previously, in mid 2007 - he suggested it would be a great idea for us to work together on a new label under the Hardcore Lives branding. We both had excellent relationships with lots of the scenes best artists and we quickly put together a draft for a quality 4 track EP. Starting the label was a lot of hard work, and still is ! - but we love doing it, and we strive to put together better and better releases just as the artists strive to make better and better tunes. Promotion is a very difficult thing on a small scene and its very difficult to expand out of that arena, however being patient and keep trying is the only way to move forward with this, progress has been slow but we have had several tunes played on Radio 1 and Kiss FM, and have recently expanded to putting compilations of HCL tunes on bigger shops like Trackitdown etc. and are very pleased with how its going so far.

Swipester . In your opinion, whats your favourite release on HCL to date, and why?

DJ Pete . My Favourite release is our next (unfortunately delayed) CD - Hardcore Energy 8. Can't wait to get it out there !

Swipester . HCL has a number of great producers involved from the scene, but if you could pick any big name producer to sign a track to the next album, who would it be and why?

DJ Pete . That would definately be Austin/Phuture Assasin. I love all his tunes both old and new. My all time favourite tune from the scene is Can You Feel It.

Swipester . There’s been many a discussion in many a boozer that the HCB sound is maybe too “perfect” in terms of structure and cleanliness of each tune. Much opinion is that the grimy lo-fi sound that authenticates a tune to sound ‘oldskool’ is missing. Fair assessment?

DJ Pete . Its great having tunes sounding like they were made in someones bedroom in 92 and we have some great ones on our label and we love them. But just like the original Old Skool scene was created from many influences and sounds that were around at the time we have another 20 years of dance music influencing todays artists. Also our scene needs to compete with the high quality production standards, on the DnB and Breaks scenes for example, if its going to be taken seriously by a bigger audience. The first thing i look for in a tune when considering signing it is whether it has good energy, this for me is the no 1 criteria for our label. Basically our scene, for me, isn't about recreating 1988-93, its not possible to do that, but take its experimental attitude to music, its energy, and of course serious breakbeats into the 21st century.

Swipester . Without sounding derogatory to the producers out there (who do a fantastic job), do you think it’s too easy to build an HCB tune with the amount of oldskool samples flying around on the net and nearly every oldskool enthusiast owning a copy of the latest Fruity Loops?

DJ Pete . Its very easy to create a tune, but its far from easy to create a quality tune. Especially one that doesn't sound like something that has already been done to death with common samples.

Swipester . Describe Dubstep in 3 honest words without swearing.

DJ Pete . Occasionally its ok

Swipester . Without naming & shaming, what is the worst tune you’ve ever heard remixed into an HCB track (sure you get plenty of demos!)?

DJ Pete . I honestly can say i've never been sent anything that stands out as that bad. Many things that weren't good enough, but nothing embarassing.

Swipester . Juggling Hardcore Lives & family life. On a scale of 1-10, how difficult is this?

DJ Pete . Hardcore Lives takes a lot of my time, but as i love doing it its not a burden and my wife is very supportive of what i am doing. so 4/10.

Swipester . Play any instruments like our man DJ Nee? Can you read music?

DJ Pete . Yes i play Guitar and piano a bit and I can read music to a basic standard.

Swipester . Could you give a short, funny, story of your favourite experience from your raving days?

DJ Pete . Most of them are a bit hazy LOL. I remember one time I was on mushrooms and thought my friends were all gorillas lol

Swipester . Biggest superstar you’ve met. When, why & where?

DJ Pete . DJ Nee - enough said

Swipester . Is it difficult to get the HCB sound out (and possibly converting) to the younger generation with what feels like a hundred more genres added since our day?

DJ Pete . Yes its very difficult but young people are getting into the sound and also representing the sound. e.g. DJ Kutski from Radio 1.

We have a couple of young, very talented artists coming up on our next CD release. RyKennon who is just 18 years old and the lovely and very talented Candy Cutz who has been DJing HCB/Nu-Rave for some time now at events and has her first tune out on the CD. I am positive if we are patient and hang in there more and more people are going to discover and feel whats happening on our scene.

Swipester . So what’s coming up for Hardcore Lives and the scene in general and where can people find HCL?

DJ Pete . Theres lots of great things coming up, our triple CD release Hardcore Energy 8 of course, we have already started work on 9 - We have some quality digital EPs, both free and paid for, lined up as usual. We are going to be trying to get our music out to the bigger stores and played on radio as much as possible as well.

On the wider scene, the likes of Hardcore Projektz are back and lining up new vinyl releases. The awesome Simon Harris is back with a quality vinyl on Paranoid and of course the man like Vinyl Junkie working tirelessly to promote the sound in many way. Also the return of Interface to making tunes is big for me as i've always been a big fan. He has a quality tune on our next release as well.

You can find out more about Hardcore Lives from www.hardcorelives.co.uk or visit our store @ www.hclrecords.co.uk - where you will find lots of free tunes from our label as well as our complete catalogue to purchase in various formats