Frantic are going to rock one of London’s best clubs on Bank Holiday Sunday 4th May – Heaven really will be a place on earth during Hard House Heaven!

One of the most exciting sets of the night will be the return of Greg Brookman, with his new ignite set. He’s been taking a bit of a breather from hard dance recently, but his A.L.I.V.E. PAs were the talk of the town for a long time before that. We caught up with Greg for a quick chat about where he’s been, what his plans are and – most importantly – what out of this world outfit he’s planning to wear for Hard House Heaven!

So, let’s start at the beginning. How did you get into dance music? And how did you go from garage to hard trance?! It’s not exactly the normal path!

I started making music when I was a kid and I’ve liked some form or other of dance music for as long as I can remember. When I was about 13 the Prodigy’s “Experience” came out which I thought it was amazing. I grew up in the Electronica era. I loved (and still do) bands like Underworld, Leftfield, The Chemical Brothers, Massive Attack and Kraftwerk. In the late 90s I got into making garage. I used to enjoy making the tunes but going to the events was a different matter. Basically they were full of pricks so I stopped it all together. I much preferred going to trance clubs and from there I got into making trance and then hard dance.

Your set at Hard House Heaven is billed as “Greg Brookman – The Return”. Where have you been & why have you been away so long? (we missed you, you know!)

I just needed a break! I’d been at it solid for years, always in the studio during the week and then DJing and playing live at the weekends. It was starting to feel like a chore more than a love and I wasn’t really feeling that creative. I’m happy I took the time off though because now I’ve got the passion back for it in a big way and I’m full of new ideas again. Recently I’ve been preparing my new Ignite show which I’m really looking forward to performing.

Ahh yes, your new set is Greg Brookman presents Ignite – what’s that all about then?

With Ignite I want to do something that’s a bit different. It’s kind of a hybrid between DJing and live. I’ll be performing it all from a laptop running a programme called Ableton. Instead of mixing one tune into the next I’ll be taking parts of tunes and mixing them together to make a new tune! Imagine taking the drums and bassline of a hard dance tune and then laying the vocal and riff from a house tune over the top of that and then progressing that into the breakdown of a trance tune and then off again with something else! It might sound like a bit of a patch work but it comes out sounding fat with bags of energy! It means that I can include parts of tunes from all sorts of genres while still keeping it firmly hard dance! Everything is key-grouped and stored in Ableton as either 8, 16 or 32 bar loops. Unlike the A.L.I.V.E PAs I was performing there is no structure to Ignite. I can play whatever I think is going to work best on the dance floor just as I would in a normal DJ set but it also keeps the fun and interactive element that the A.L.I.V.E PAs had. I’ve had a lot of fun putting it together and I think the hard dance crowd are going to really like it.

The theme of the event is Space Age. Will you be donning a costume?

I’m sure I’ll dig out a Jedi cloak and Lightsabre!

And were you ever a sci-fi geek? Any nasty Star Trek addictions we should be aware of?

No!

We believe you. What’s been your best gig in your career? And where would you most like to play – maybe on the moon to continue the space age theme?

It’s hard to put it down to one gig because there have been so many great ones. The A.L.I.V.E shows that really stand out for me are Frantic’s 10th Birthday @ Koko B2B with Nu Energy Collective, Tidy 10, Heat Evolution @ Koko and Supernova @ Brixton Academy. I’d love to play at Dance Valley, at a Full Moon Party or in Australia or New Zealand.

Which dj(s) would you most like to go b2b with and why?

James Zabiela so I can see how he does all those fantastic tricks!

A lot of people name Panzan as one of their favourite tunes, and even though I’m not really a trance fan I have to say it is pretty good. How long did it take you to make, which is your favourite mix and did you think it would be so popular?

We wrote Panzan about 5 years ago now. It was the second single that Tim Coe and I produced together. I seem to remember it took ages to write because the computer we made it on was so tosh! It’s still one of my favourite productions even now, not that it’s that well made but just because it has a lot of uplifting energy.

When you produce a tune it’s hard to say if it’s going to be a success or not but after we’d played Panzan out a couple of times we knew we were on to a winner! MDA & Spherical have recently done a pretty mint remix of it. They’ve jazzed it up with some epic stabs and even a bit of rock guitar! It’s out now on Impact Digital.

How much time do you spend every week producing and DJing? What do you get up to in your spare time?

I used to spend about 50 hours a week in the studio either producing and engineering tunes or working towards the A.L.I.V.E shows. I’ve cut it right back now though and taken a full time job doing something that isn’t music related. It’s given me a much healthier balance. In my spare time I just like to relax!

How important is it to you to be different from other DJs, especially with your A.L.I.V.E. PA’s, and how do you stay one step ahead of the competition?

Doing things that are a bit unique is what keeps me ticking when it comes to performing. I love thinking of new ideas and then putting them into context. I was determined to make the A.L.I.V.E shows live and not mimed. When we first started performing it no one in hard dance was using a guitarist, a singer, a turntablist and creating the shows in Ableton the way I did. Most of the time the show was received really well and we got a lot of support. I’m hoping Ignite will get the same reception.

Your trademark ginger locks have been looking slightly blonde recently, aren’t you worried people won’t recognise you?

Haha, nope!

On your Myspace profile (not that I’ve been stalking you…) you sound like quite a homely person – what are you going to cook us when we come round for dinner?

Probably a fish dish. I love sea food. Maybe a fish curry!

Yummy! next for you over the coming months?

Ignite! I’m just going to keep working on making it as fresh and exciting as possible and hopefully start pulling in the gigs. I’ve also been working on some new hard dance singles which I’ll be releasing in the coming months.

If you could be any Star Wars character, who would you be and why? (I can imagine you with a Princess Leah hairdo…)

But can you imagine me in that bikini she wore in Return of the Jedi!? I’d probably be Han Solo ‘cause he gets to knob Princess Leah!

And your thought for the day?

You’ll have to come to Hard House Heaven to find that out!

Greg’s set at Hard House Heaven on Bank Holiday Sunday 4th May at Heaven is not to be missed. You may even get to see him dressed as Princess Leah, who knows!
Make sure you get your outfit sorted, we want to see as many aliens, Star Trek & Stargate characters and Jabba The Huts as can possibly be crammed into Heaven! RSVP to this event.