While I was in Lebanon, I answered a few questions for Alec at Kaotic System (one of the main breakcore promoters in beirut)

1. Hello Thom, tell us something about yourself for a start; where are you from?

I am 28 years old and live in Manchester, UK but I am from a very rural part of the english countryside called the Forest of Dean. My mother still has our house in the country with a few fields and some sheep – (we are a planning a small private festival there in the summer!) I am allergic to milk & cheese and I hate the smell of coffee. I like motorbikes, mangoes and my girlfriend.



2. Why did you name yourself as “Hoonboy” and what is the meaning of your moniker?

Hoonboy was a name given to me by friends at school, i think because it sounded funny when they shouted ‘Hooooooonbooooooy!!!!’ . I don’t think they understood the meaning which I have since discovered. ‘Hoon’ is an Australian term which means reckless and irresponsible. A Hoonboy therefore is someone reckless and irresponsible who refuses to grow up. Although i put a lot of time and thought into this project, this word ‘Hoonboy’ perfectly describes my music and my attitude to my live shows.



3. Where and when was your first DJ appearance?

My first live appearance as Hoonboy was May 2007 in Bristol, UK with the crew from Death$ucker Records, at their famous night called ‘Goatlab’.
My first appearance with turntables was sometime around 2000, I was quite good and popular locally but very soon got bored of playing other peoples music in such a 2 dimensional fashion.



4. Which are your biggest musical influences in genres and artists, and what musical background do you have?

Even as a small child i loved music and I learnt to play the piano at 7 years old. I bought a set of turntables about 10 years ago and a synthesizer even before that. I used to Dj house & trance back in 1999 before the sound of drum n bass caught my attention. My biggest crowd as a DJ back then was about 1000 people which is easy to do with commercial dance music.

5. How do you describe your music to people?

Oh what a question! A big smiley happy rave finds love with the nastiest disturbed grindcore you could imagine. they have kids and the kids are hoonboys. all of them. and hoongirls. and there’s lots – a hoon army

no, seriously? i describe it as electronic music composed live. i describe it as a dj set with an extra twist. i describe it as pure energy compressed into cables and fired through speakers at the crowd. In england i would call it dubgrimejunglestepcore, and then people would laugh at me.

I have had a few haterz sending me messages complaining that what i do is totally random and not at all musical – they seem to think i have no idea what is on each key! I try to describe the technique and explain how everything is laid across the keyboards by grouping sounds into zones e.g. big kicks, snare fills, reaktor amens, effects, scratches and so on… Although I have a set of core samples that i use for the drums & fills, i like to change things regularly to keep things interesting for both me and the crowd – so even though i may not know exactly what is on each of the 75 keys, i do know what type of sound it will be and the intricacy and speed at which i switch between these samples allows the performance to work both rhythmically and musically whilst being almost totally improvised.

6. Which DJs/performer would you book to play in Beirut if you were the organizer for a day?

Miike Teknoist, Henry Shitmat, Aaron ‘Snares, Krumble, Jahba, Wanbushi (whom i heard for the first time in Lebabon), and Kelpe with maybe a hoonboy oldskool jungle dj set thrown in if there’s time .


7. What does “Breakcore” mean to you? Do you think this music is for aggressive people with aggressive manners?

Breakcore doesn’t mean anything to me. It’s a word that can be used to either entice or scare people. My mother uses the word breakcore more than I do! 10 years ago it represented a particular ofshoot of jungle, characterised by very distorted breaks, dancehall lyrics and a generally lo-fi sound, but now i feel it represents an attitude, a feeling – just like punk did in the late ’70s. I realised recently that in the 21st century there are no genres, only styles. My ‘breakcore’ show fuses dubstep, hiphop, ragga jungle, and idm – i generally don’t play breakcore tunes because my live technique involves the ‘on-the-fly’ remix. I can’t do a lot to a breakcore tune on stage, but I can make mc hammer sound like breakcore, i can turn dubstep into breakstep and i can make old skool jungle tunes sound much more up to date.

You may be right that the agressive music draws an agressive crowd (or maybe it just inspires well mannered people to let something go for a while) but my experiences on the live circuit over the last few years have been that the more aggressive and heavy the music, the more polite, well mannered and open-minded the artist. perfect examples of this are drumcorps and miike teknoist. i would like to consider myself the same but as i have still to prove myself as a producer i will leave it to some journalist somewhere to make the assertion

8. What was your first reaction when you were approached by Acousmatik System to play in Beirut?

OK, to be totally truthful? At first I thought it was a joke. I quite often receive enquiries that do not end with a show date being confirmed, but after I did some research of my own, and spoke at length with Hadi firstly and then Murph I became very excited. Despite being unknown in Europe, Kaotic & Acousmatik Systems are very professional and as I do not know of many people in this music scene who have been able to play shows in the middle east, I felt honoured to be invited by them.

9. Tell us about your experiences in Lebanon. Anything specific you liked, any surprises or weird things encountered?

I was surprised by the coloured chickens and even more surprised to see children kicking them in the streets. I loved the food, the weather, and the people. I didn’t like the airport especially when i had to go get my bag the next day, but then I don’t like any airports very much wherever they are. I didn’t have one bad experience that would make me not want to come back.

10. Any message to the young Lebanese “Breakcore” scene?

This musical, political and cultural scene is all about the internet, free software and the sharing of information.
Make use of all of your resources, 
take inspiration from the things around you and the things you grew up with, 
don’t try to copy someone else overseas, 
develop a style that you and your friends can relate to,
work together and don’t give up!