Darius Syrossian of Breakoutaudio

The BreakoutAudio label, based out of Leeds, is run by a small army of dedicated djs, producers and promoters who host parties all over the UK and abroad, while dropping both vinyl and digital singles on the regular. The label’s latest salvo, Rob Small’s “Eighth of the First” EP, is set for release on the heels of the WMC.

With the recent celebration of its two-year anniversary, the upcoming new release and a Miami WMC secret villa party on the near horizon, expect the label’s momentum to keep building.

Straight from their headquarters in the UK, the BreakoutAudio crew breaks it down.

Q: How would you characterize the BreakoutAudio ‘sound’ for someone who never has heard the label’s releases before?

Good house music! Simple as that, we don’t want to pigeon hole ourselves. A lot of labels that jump on the latest sound that’s fashionable always feel the full force of the backlash when that sound isn’t cool anymore. I’ve been involved in the scene for 15 years running a record shop and I’ve seen first hand people’s shopping habits.

What we want to do is just put out house music that will always be playable and useful to the DJ, because we are dong it for the love.  There is no certain style. In fact we have an upcoming release from Nathan Barato from Toronto and its amazing disco flavoured deep house, but then we have tracks from Denney from Leeds and they are techno. So anything that’s good really and it has to have a strong emphasis on the groove!

Q: The label has a pretty deep roster (it’s run by a team of 7!).  How does collective group-think play into the label’s promotion, release schedule and parties?

As the boss Darius Syrossian plans the schedule for releases, works with the distributors and the rest have their own roles, but ALL decisions are made as a team.  We have a regular meeting to go through tracks and discuss everything. It’s a great family vibe, and we all have a great laugh being involved.

Q:  Can you give a little background about each member? (Darius Syrossian, Donna Beatz, Rob Small, Scott Woolston, Jon Mc Manus, Rob Chadwick and Jonny Townsend – whew!) One sentence each – Hey, we live in an ADD society and you do have an impressive roster!

Darius Syrossian, was born in Iran and came to the UK in the late 80s, got into the music through early 90’s raves, and started working at Global Beat Records. It all progressed from there, starting up the label in 2007.

Jon McManus, an original member with Darius, a veteran in the music industry, was main promoter for Tribal Sessions Leeds, and also worked for Sankeys looking after all the big guests, helped get the label off the ground in the early days.

Jonny Townsend is one of the main guys and DJs at Urban Gorilla when it was at its peak in Sheffield, and met Darius whilst being a resident at a Leeds night called Surroundz in 2005.
Rob Small, one of the homegrown local Leeds lads, met Darius whilst Syrossian was working at Crash Records in Leeds in 2006.
Rob Chadwick, Mr. PR, has worked for many of the top Leeds events & hooked up with Darius in 2008 and came on board as the main PR for BreakoutAudio.
Donna Beatz, a full on Scot, who DJs up and down the UK quite a bit.  She met Darius whilst DJing in Leeds in 2006, and came on board the label a couple of years later and is a great addition to the crew.

Scott Woolston runs a successful motor export business and was the final addition joining in 2008.

Q: With such a roster, how do you choose who remixes who on each release?  How did Rob’s latest, the “Eighth of the First”, come together?

Well we haven’t mentioned Mundyke, who was the first person to release on the label. After giving Darius a promo back in 2007 at Crash Records, he then had a hand in the next two releases, including the massive “Caspian Man” track that Paul Woolford remixed.  Although he wasn’t a member he had a hand in the label getting off the ground.

The idea with the label was to always have an original, a remix by some local people who are talented and then a remix by an established international DJ/producer whose music we like and felt that would make a great package. The recent release was our own Rob Small track, a remix collaboration between Darius Syrossian and Mundyke (their first since the release of “Caspian Man”) and Ireland’s Jet Project completed the package with a remix. Jet Project are VIVa Music artists signed by Steve Lawler (as is Darius Syrossian).

Q: Where did the title, “Eighth of the First”, originate?

That’s Rob Small’s birth date, but some people think it has to do with ordering a certain herb which isn’t true but would probably make for a better story.

Q: With the influx of digital releases, some labels are often criticized for lack of quality control. What steps do you take to maintain quality while setting yourself apart from a packed field?

We have been going for two and a half years and have only released nine tracks so far.  It’s definitely about quality not quantity!  We don’t want to saturate ourselves, this is very important!

Q: Beyond the label’s core roster you’ve also worked with the likes of Paul Woolford, Pier Bucci, Audiojack, Emerson Todd, Julien Chaptal & Deepchild.  Is there any contribution you are particularly proud of?
The Paul Woolford remix was brilliant, and not a track that was made to fit with what was deemed ‘cool’ at the time.  It has its own sound and is a nine minute Detroit-style house track with a full on three minute piano solo – NOT the kind of track a lot of labels would dare release. But after hanging out with Paul on the Crash Records counter, drinking tea and chatting about music, we asked Paul if he would like to do a remix.  Paul listened to tracks on the BreakoutAudio MySpace and chose Darius and Mundyke’s “Caspian Man” track saying it had great retro sounding elements and he would love to work with it as there was a lot of interesting parts. So we didn’t ask Paul to remix a specific track, he chose the track he wanted to make, and it turned out to be a timeless classic, with the most amazing feedback from the press and top DJs across the board, so that one is extra special!  Also the Julien Chaptal remix is great.  He is a good friend and a very nice guy. Even though he was flat out with requests he made time to do the remix for us, so that was great.

Q: How aggressive is your release schedule?  There seems to be a new release every other month.  What do you have coming down the pipeline?

It’s not really. We have only released nine tracks in just over two years, but we have started picking it up due to the brilliant tracks we are getting sent. But it’s a full time job, and as the label boss, Darius also has the productions of his own for VIVa Music and his engineering duties, so there is never any free time but when everyone chips in we manage to get it all done!  We have tracks forthcoming from Kris Wadworth from Detroit, Strict Border from Toronto, Natahn Barato from Canada, Mistress de Funk from Sankeys, Denney from Future, and loads of other remixers. A lot in the pipeline!  The next release from Donna Beatz is very special…

Q: Now let’s talk a little about your upcoming showcase party at the WMC in Miami.  Is this your first appearance in North America? How did all of the players and labels get involved?  What is this ’secret villa’ venue like?

As the label boss I’m always trying to get the rest of the BreakoutAudio crew involved in label parties away from our home turf, and since I was already booked to play with Nyra for the massive VIVa Music party at Space, I thought it would be a great opportunity to throw our own label party.  Rob Chadwick did the planning and got us the Electric Pickle venue, but then after a few meetings we decided we wanted something different.  I wanted us to stand out, so decided to hire a villa and invite my friends Nathan Barato and Lauhaus & Kabale, who are starting a new label together, to do a joint label showcase and make it an exclusive invite only event! It’s been a massive success, almost too massive as we are inundated with emails about the party!  Even our special guest has rung me saying everyone is asking him if it’s true that he’s going to be playing the party!

It’s going to be a great little shindig, we have Coyu, Lauhaus & Kabale guesting, obviously myself & Nyra, and loads of other DJs from Maher Daniel, Natahn Barato, Monaque to our own BreakoutAudio DJs. Word has spread and even Sebo K, Matt Tolfrey, Gorge and some others have said they would like to come along and hang out and maybe spin some records!  It’s been a great little promo for us!

Q: Any hints on who the ‘ABSOLUTLEY MASSIVE VERY SECIAL GUEST’ is?

[Laughs] OK, it’s STEVE LAWLER. God help us, he e-mailed yesterday and asked about getting a bus hired because he’s coming with 40 friends or so, Tiefschwarz and loads of others!  It’s going to be mayhem!  As long as we don’t get deported before the weekend because I have 2 gigs up in Canada before I fly back to the UK and would like to not miss them. [Laughs]

Pack your sunscreen and have a great time down in Miami!

The BreakoutAudio/ Wedig.Music / Roots Label Showcase at this year’s WMC in Miami is a free party at a secret villa location featuring Lauhaus, Coyu, Kabale und Liebe, Darius Syrossian & Nyra, Maher Daniel, Monaque, Jonny Townsend, Donna Beatz, Alicia Hush and a special guest. It takes place Wednesday, March 24^th.  For more info contact info [ at ] breakoutaudiouk [ dot com ].

BREAKOUTAUDIO music is available on 12 inch vinyl & digital download via beatport, dj download, Juno.co.uk, Junodownload.com and all good digital download sites.

Related links :
Label: BreakoutAudio [breakoutaudio.com]