Skool Of Thought has played a fundamental role within the world of ‘nu skool’ breaks since its birth in the late nineties. From DJ to producer to promoter to record label manager, Skool Of Thought is a true pioneer and ambassador of beats, breaks and bass.
As the driving force behind the award winning Against The Grain & SuperCharged record labels, he has helped steer the successful careers of his artists including Freestylers, Krafty Kuts, Deekline & Wizard, Ed Solo, and Splitloop. As an artist, he is the guy responsible for the enormous Groove Armada ‘Superstylin’ breaks remix, the ‘Heavyweight Breaks’ mix series of albums, anthemic singles such as ‘Love Your Life’ and ‘When I Was A Yout’ and his acclaimed ‘Random Acts Of Kindness’ LP. With Krafty Kuts, Skool Of Thought is resident DJ and joint founder of SuperCharged, the now legendary breaks night in the UK, which has also played a central role with shaping and developing the breakbeat scene. The press have been quick to snap him up with a front page feature on Australia’s 3D World magazine and features in just about every dance music publication.
Today, he is based in Australia and once again forging new ground and pushing new sounds with the launch of his label ‘Cool & Deadly’ with fellow DJ Tayo. This new venture is for those DJs (and enthusiasts) who have an appreciation for bass music in all its forms. The aim of the label is to explore all the music that falls into the space between breaks, dubstep, dub, garage and beyond.
Reflecting on the beginnings of his career, Skool of Thought says “10 years ago I found myself mesmerized with Cold Cut’s ‘Journeys By DJs’ mix CD and after meeting like-minded beat freak Krafty Kuts we set up our record label and club night. Krafty Kuts become the face of our organisation and whilst I have played all over the world I have not always had the time to fully dedicate myself to my first love, DJing. Now, with my move down under and feeling inspired with new genres of dubstep, baltimore breaks and beyond I am armed and ready to destroy many more dance floors!”
Let’s flick back through the misty turntables of time to around 9 years ago, whilst flicking through some dusty vinyl in a Brighton record store, Skool Of Thought had a chance meeting with a certain DJ known as Krafty Kuts. After establishing a mutual respect for breaks the pair decided to get their heads together and start a club night to showcase new music and new talent. SuperCharged was born with the dynamic duo as resident DJs and the who’s who of the emerging breaks scene as guests, the night would later be recognised as a fundamental part of helping form the scene we now know as “breaks”. SuperCharged continues to run week in week out and was recently voted in at number 21 in the top 50 club nights in the world. “If dance music is in decline then the 400 strong clubbers who turn up to SuperCharged every Wednesday missed an important meeting” added Source Magazine.
From this success Skool Of Thought and Krafty Kuts launched two record labels “Against The Grain” & “SuperCharged”, two labels to cope with the volume of booty shaking music the pair had install! With Skool Of Thought as label manager they released a string of club smashers and a succession of number 1 hits in DJ magazine’s beats & breaks chart, they won best new label at the 2003 Breakspoll Awards and later went on to sign the Freestylers. The labels went in to overdrive with the Freestylers’ “Push Up’ single hitting top 10 in the 5 countries, most notably in Australia where the song hit number 2 in the pop charts making it the biggest selling breaks tune ever with over 100,000 copies sold worldwide!
So when Skool Of Thought was not busy running club nights and record labels he was making the transition from DJ to producer with huge tracks such as “Sound Check” and “Feel The Music” and mixing the monumental “Heavyweight Breaks” albums, all of which hit number 1 in DJ magazine’s beats & breaks chart and clocked up some serious sales. Fast forward to 2008 with the release of Skool Of Thought and studio partner Ed Solo’s debut artist album ‘Random Acts Of Kindness’ on Against The Grain. The album takes a more musical and organic approach to breaks and injects some soul back into the scene with its heavy dub reggae influences. “I’ve really enjoyed helping pioneer the bassline breaks sound but feel the need to explore more musical influences whilst retaining a dance floor sensibility” explained Skool Of Thought.
The latest offering from Skool of Thought comes in the way of the punching breakbeat / dubstep digi-single “Heart of The Hood / Budgie Smuggla!”
(ATG033) “Pleasure Machine” fuses robotic vocals with a stomping back track, incorporating some great builds and drops the track shows how well Ireland’s biggest dance-music export construct seamless dancefloor classics. Meanwhile “Party People is straight up feel good bounce music. The vocal compliments the beats and takes the listener into the realms of b-boy heaven, while maintaining a strong dance sensibility.
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