:: BB INTERVIEWS ::

:: CEOS ::

Ceos - New York's Breakbeat Soldier by Doug Vaccaro Bangin' slab's of dirty funk and spreading the breakbeat gospel, Rob's been devoted to the broken sound ever since his ears were opened to it in 1995. He has the skill, experience and depth of records to leave your club shook to its foundation. Now representing the sound for Downbeat, Rob's sets take you anywhere from dancefloor bass driven funk to hard in your face breaks. He intends to devastate the scene with his selection of beats, which will no doubt push his crew forward and confirm their status as leaders of the broken sound in the northeast. Add to all this, Rob has earned the respect within the UK breaks fraternity for being a great DJ, a breakbeat soldier and a thoroughly nice guy. This means that ROb is always the first with the choice CD-Rs and white labels form breakbeats top names. Oi! How the hell are you doing on this gorgeous day in the NYC? I’m feeling fine! The sun’s all out and the nicer weather is rolling in finally, looking forward to it! Think we might just have to bang out a BBQ with some dead manimals later. Downbeat BBQ. I’ll bring the tofu. Tofu - NO! (laughing) We usually have BBQ’s up at Rankins place every summer bro, deff let you know when we do. We’ll bring out the decks and play beats all day while getting full and barfing in the woods, it’s great! Beers and burgers. You know I’m down! A little but of puke never hurt nobody. That’s when you know you’ve had enough, so you let it out to make room for some more. So you own and operate Downbeat Productions and are at your 7th release. How have things been going so far? Running anything has it’s ups & downs. For the most part, Downbeat has been on the up side of things and with a new release just out now in the shops, it only confirms our status as a solid ongoing label in the breaks scene! Downbeat will continue to push forward releasing solid music from the top producers out there, so more goods to follow DBP007 for sure! We’re also in the works on getting our MP3 shop up, that’ll feature the entire back catalogue with some exclusives as well! Fantastic. I expect nothing but greatness from all of you. So who exactly are the masterminds behind the label? Chuck Rankin and myself run the core of the label as far as releases go. Then we have lots of DJs pushing our sound globally to promote the tracks! All of our stateside artists are close friends so we all work well together, even the graffix for the label gets done by my boy Dino or myself. As you’ve seen, Arcee and myself are pushing the sound of the label together here in NYC, we do a lot of back to back sets at various events and weekly parties to get our sound out there. Your latest release DBP007 - D-Ranged "Ambitions of a Ghost" and IF:IM feat. Dean Forest "Clowns" has finally hit the shops. I wanna tip my hat to you guys on this release. They are absolute blinders! Tell us a little about the tracks. Thanks bro, glad ya feeling the vibes these two tunes bring forth. We love em!! This release is a bit different for DBP, but that’s the point of having a label. You gotta have different styles with each release while keeping to the formula of the label. When I heard these two tracks I was all about them and wanted em for DBP right away. We all felt the heavy vibes of the tunes since that what we love, but it was the emotion of the tunes that really wrapped it all together for us! Those vocals in the breakdown of "Clowns" just grabs ya mind and bends it before that bass starts to rise and then it’s all about movement. "Ambitions" is straight up main floor peek time business and completes the single nicely! Agreed. Really looking forward to more releases from those guys. So you ‘clowns’ live right in my neck of the world. What do you think about starting a breaks night up at O’ Brian’s or Hollywood? (hysterical laughing) I think I’d rather fuck a deaf mute in the ear while watching re-runs of the Golden Girls then walk into those shithole bars!! Downbeat BBQs. I’ll bring the deaf mutes. Don’t forget the midgets so we can put em into tires and roll em down a hill while we laugh at their expense! Moving right along... I recently caught a set from you guys at the Sullivan Room in Manhattan. Big big big riddims. What other clubs do you grace the decks at on a weekly,monthly and yearly basis? We are currently running the basement at Direct Drive on Saturday nights over at the Rothko in NYC which is good fun even if you haven’t stopped in yet. We do a lot of one offs at random clubs in the city, but it seems that the Sully Room is our spot for the weekly events. Wavewhore has done a good job keeping that one rolling. The clubs got a solid system to play on and it’s always a good time there! Lot’s more gigs are on the way, plus with the summer rolling in things go back into party mode for sure. Yes, I am a bad friend. One day I will surprise you at Rothko and you’ll be like WOAH. Also want to big up Wavewhore for holding down the Sullivan Room. One of the best spots in the city for sure. When will there be a big BijouBreaks event bro? With all the contacts you must have I bet it could be a massive party, but you best be booking us! I’ll show you mine if you show me yours. Loads of things in the works, I’ll say that much. Maybe next WMC... Nice! Sounds like you’ve got a plan brewing then, we’ll talk! I also just caught a mini set from you guys on The Audio Tactics Sessions on BreaksFM. I particularly enjoyed the commentary in between your horrible mixing. You know I will be in the house during the next session. You’re in for it now buddy! Yeah that was a funny night over at Eric’s place man, don’t make me upload those pictures of you to ya board. You should deffinately come over the next time we do a show though, it’s a good time! Yes I’ll be at the next show. No worries. Cool fool. So what does the future hold for you all? Any word on the next release yet? A world tour? Autograph signings? Right now we’re letting the current release get the playtime it deserves before putting another 12’’ out in the shops! We have a few tunes and a few ideas that we’re working on atm with some top producers, so deff expect some more quality cuts from us soon enough! Gonna see about getting over to the UK again this summer for a little tour and even over to Spain while I’m across the pond to play one of those massive raves they put together, they’re sick! A stateside tour would be great as well for the summer, it’s always fun playing other places in the world getting your sound into the ears of the people in the scene live 'n direct! At the autograph signings, maybe I should make a poster of myself doing the worm over a midget girls face while cooking a bunch of frog legs and in the background there could be llamas dancing. Would you hang that in ya wall? (laughing) Sounds like you have a lot planned. Hopefully it all pulls through for ya! Now let me clear that image of you and the worm out of my head... Give me a minute... Blah. Maybe that wasn’t the best idea for a poster. I could smoke some crack, dress up like a leprechaun & climb up into a tree while you take some pics for me to sign later! Sound good? It was great talking to you Rob. We don’t hang out nearly enough. I’ll be seeing you out and about I presume? Yeah bro, we’ll deff be chillin' more often!! Much respect for all the hard work you guys put into the BijouBreaks site and once again we’re pleased to be featured on here, keep it going, cause you’ve got a good thing here!! Thanks again for your time fella. Hula Hoops fo' life! My pleasure Bro, was a good laugh. See ya soon baboon!! :: May 2006 :: Ceos sends a shout out to BijouBreaks for this exclusive interview and profile, all at Downbeat, the NYC breaks crew, the Hula Hoop Inventor, his lovely girl Lisa and to everyone out there who has supported Downbeat from the beginning! More info can be found at www.DownbeatProductions.com www.myspace.com/downbeatproductions www.myspace.com/Ceos

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