Not Your Average Station
In a world where electronic music is constantly evolving, few artists manage to bridge the gap between the past and the future quite like Aerbreak. Blending old-school rave influences with cutting-edge sound design, his music is a high-energy trip through time, space, and the underground. His latest album, Not Your Average Station, isn’t just a collection of tracks—it’s a fully immersive experience, fusing classic hardcore, jungle, and drum and bass with a sci-fi narrative that transports listeners to a dystopian future where rave culture fights to survive.
With a deep love for the foundational sounds of dance music and a meticulous approach to storytelling, Aerbreak has crafted an album that feels as much like a cinematic journey as it does a DJ set. From euphoric highs to dystopian depths, Not Your Average Station released on Militant Music pulses with the rebellious spirit of pirate radio, defying genre boundaries while paying homage to the pioneers of the past.
We dive into Aerbreak’s journey—from his early influences to the creative process behind the album—exploring the themes, sonic inspirations, and future transmissions from his world of underground sound.
Let’s start with your journey—what led you to this point? What experiences and influences shaped your sound and brought Not Your Average Station to life?
I come from a music loving family, and a vastly eclectic selection of music soundtracked my childhood. My parents had my siblings and I listening to all sorts. Every morning on the way to school, my Dad would appear with tapes and CDs, ranging from metal and jazz, through to hardcore and noughties drum and bass.
The electronic sounds resonated with me, and eventually led me to start my production journey. Had my first ever rave experience at 15, and walked into a smoky tent as the DJ opened a set with Konflict’s Messiah – it blew my mind and I haven’t looked back since. Over the last few years, I’ve become increasingly interested in the sounds and history of the Old Skool, and I’ve found it fascinating to delve into the foundational sounds that today’s dance music is built on. hardcore really stuck with me, and led to the creation of Aerbreak as my current project!
Now let’s get into the album! It’s 2125, rave music is outlawed, and we’re stuck listening to Yung Blud and Nickelback, how did we get here?
I’ve got Josiah from Militant Music to thank for getting to this point. We met as I was moving away from a previous alias, and ever since, he’s been amazing with helping me build Aerbreak into something we both love on Militant Music. An album seemed to make sense from a creative perspective – I’d always wanted to do one, and was finally feeling confident enough in my productions to give it a go, Josiah was willing to make it happen! We both love projects that are a little conceptual in nature, or that put emphasis on the listener’s experience, so we thought why not, let’s give it a go. Endless love to him and Militant.
Not Your Average Station is a bit of a love letter to my favourite rave sounds, from things I love to listen to at home, to stuff I adore hearing in the dance. We’ve mashed that together with a good bit of sci-fi world building and the classic themes of a pirate radio station, and I’m really happy with the result. It’s fun, and people seem to have really enjoyed listening so far, which I am eternally grateful for.
The artwork gives us a glimpse of your radio station, what’s the story behind its design? How does it reflect the sound and concept of the album?
We had a great time coming up with ideas for the cover. It came about a little later in the process, as the theme and the world of the project really started to solidify.We’d known we wanted something sci-fi in nature from the start, and the lovely hand-drawn style is a theme amongst many Militant releases, so it made sense to go in that direction! Our ideas were very much inspired by the sci-fi worlds of Judge Dredd & Cowboy Bebop, as well as films like Tron & Bladerunner. I was having a bit of a Cyberpunk moment at the time, so that’s worked its way in there too! It’s a colourful, varied and fun take on sci-fi, which is very much a reflection of what I was going for with the tracks on the album.
All of this was brought to life by Skronz (@skr0nz), who is unbelievably talented, and an absolute joy to work with – they absolutely smashed it! Go check out their art, you won’t be disappointed.
The album feels like a full-on cinematic journey. Did you have a storyline in mind while making it, or did it evolve into this final concept naturally?
Josiah and I had discussed the sort of concept we wanted to go for for a while before I started work on the project. I’d found some tapes from back when my Dad had a show on a local radio station in the 90s (which I actually sampled throughout the album), and that kicked off some major ideas, leading to us settling on a pirate radio theme. My music as Aerbreak has naturally found itself leaning towards a fun, futuristic, almost videogame-like vibe, and we knew we could combine the radio theme and this direction into something pretty unique.
Whilst I set out with an overall vibe in mind, it wasn’t until I had a few ideas down that a world really started to take shape. There was no specific storyline set in stone, but as I flicked between projects over the course of a few months, the tracks naturally began to take on this very specific character and atmosphere – eventually leading to what we think is a really fun, engaging journey.
Certain tracks, like Chromium Dreams and Mindstate, feel like different chapters of the story. Is that an observation that resonates with you? And if this were an actual movie, what kind of scenes would these tracks soundtrack?
Each track is absolutely a chapter in a bigger journey throughout the album. I wanted to try exploring as many different musical avenues as I could within my current skill set, and chapters in a wider journey seemed to be the most natural way of doing that, as it meant I could go in all sorts of different directions without the changes in style being too jarring for the listener.
In terms of those tracks being in an actual movie, that would be absolutely unreal! I think both are quite futuristic in nature and would fit in grungy, sci-fi worlds, with Mindstate being dystopian, whilst Chromium Dreams carries a bit more of a utopian feel. Not necessarily a movie here, but I can absolutely imagine Chromium Dreams in a world akin to Glass from the game Mirror’s Edge, possibly soundtracking a cheeky chase scene the player has to escape from.
Listening to the final track, it feels like a tragic ending, the radio station is destroyed, debris floating in orbit. Is this really the end, or is there a secret pirate transmission still out there?
The final track was coincidentally the last of the tracks to be completed for the album. There’s a bit of a dual meaning to it, the main emotional depth came from the fact that I was gutted to be finishing the project! I’d been having so much fun with it, and the last tune is partly a personal reflection on that. That doubles with the intention for it to very much feel like the end of the journey, an introspective moment to maybe look out into the stars from orbit and wonder what comes next. Whether the station was destroyed or not is up to your own interpretation, but I will say that the final chord of the piece resolves on a bit more of a positive note – the transmission might not be gone just yet!
If the underground crews in 2125 could only save one piece of rave culture, one track, one record, one moment in time, what would you want them to preserve?
The underground scene is really quite special. There’s honestly so many incredible aspects that we could talk about, so many amazing moments, and even more amazing people. I derive so much inspiration and gain so much motivation from every event I go to, that we would be here all day if I could talk about it all!!
For me, that one thing to preserve would have to be the passion that goes into the underground. The time, energy and love that everyone brings into the scene is really quite unmatched, and I feel as if all the best bits stem from that passion. Whether they rave for the love of the music and the communities that surround it, as an act of protest and/or unity against something bigger, or simply as a release from their everyday lives, I’d love for all future crews to be able to look at what they do and know that they do it because that’s their passion, and that they love it. May that passion never die!
So many timeless motifs and references to old tracks echo through this project. Who were your biggest influences when crafting Not Your Average Station?
One of my favorite bits about older UK rave music, especially hardcore, are those motifs that run through a lot of tunes. For me as a listener, I’ve always found it fun to spot a sample or a reference you recognise, and there’s almost something comforting about that familiar palette of sounds. As an artist, going back to find where these samples come from has really expanded not only my knowledge, but my respect for those who came before – we stand on the shoulders of giants here.
It’s hard to pinpoint the exact influences as I pull inspiration from so many different sources! On a foundational level, I think you’ll be able to hear the essence of the old skool, with artists like The Prodigy, Altern 8 and maybe Sunscreem early on, through to some of the 94’ hardcore greats like Vibes & Wishdokta or DJ Seduction, and the sounds of LTJ Bukem, as well as Ed Rush & Optical later on. Be it acid house, breakbeat, hardcore or the darker side of drum and bass, there’s hours upon hours of old skool influence in there.
The inspirations don’t just stop at the old skool though, I draw so much from modern music too – much of the way I build chord progressions stems from my own personal faves, lots of metal, jazz and hip-hop there. Current electronic from all sorts of different scenes forms a huge part of my daily listening – my soundscapes often arise from trance and dub influences, love me some dubbed out chords and huge euphoric pads and saws.
I’ve also been particularly enamoured by the hypertrance wave that’s going on right now, and on the flipside, Deep Medi’s back catalogue. The j-Core scene in Japan has also really inspired me to push the boundaries in terms of mashing together all sorts of influences and genres, their scene has been a crazy melting pot of styles for a while now! Beneath all that you’ll probably hear a significant amount of videogame-esque influence, and I’ve got legendary games series like Wipeout, Need For Speed, Burnout and many more to thank for that edge. There’s so much more I’d love to mention, music is just awesome right now.
The contrast between heavy-hitting energy and atmospheric, emotional moments is so strong on this album. How do you approach balancing that light and dark dynamic in your music?
That philosophy of balance between light and dark really stems from the spirit of hardcore. All of my favourite hardcore tunes live on the line between grungy darkness and euphoric joy, flitting between them unpredictably at a moments notice.
That contrast makes for such a fun experience, especially live, and can really encourage some lovely emotional engagement in sets. I really wanted to try and inject a bit of that into some of the pivotal moments in the album, both within each tune and between them.
I think the title track really encapsulates that, morphing from dark hoovers to euphoric pianos and stabs, before increasing the tension again as Interference Pattern starts to fade in. Getting the balance right can absolutely be a challenge though! Some tunes really fought me with where they wanted to go, and I had to step up my production game quite a bit to be able to properly capture those moments.
Tracks like Adrenaline High bring in elements of old-school hip-hop, while others lean deep into jungle and hardcore. How important is genre fusion to your sound?
Genre fusion is vital for me as an artist. I’m always on the lookout for sounds I’ve never heard before, as well as new takes on familiar themes. We’re really lucky to live in an age where we can access so much music from anyone, anywhere, at any point in time. I find it so fun to be able to draw from different sources, and I think that the incorporation of genre fusion into music can be a really powerful force to help drive creativity and advancements in one’s own productions. I’m by no means a pro at that yet though, and I’d love to try subverting genre expectations even more in future!
The promo blurb tells us this project took 10 months to create. What were some of the biggest challenges you faced along the way? Any tracks that went through a wild transformation?
This was my first experience working on a project of this size and magnitude, and to say I’ve learned a lot throughout the process would be an understatement!
Navigating the sheer scale of creative possibilities, twinned with my endless pursuit of perfectionism has been a huge challenge. I had to learn to compromise with myself and recognise when a tune was reaching a point where it was ‘finished’ – not everything can be perfect, and that’s okay! I’m still learning.
Another aspect I struggled with was self-motivation and discipline. I have ADHD, which is an absolute gift for me when it comes to creativity, but it can make self-motivation and discipline really quite difficult. I continuously fought with myself to get things done within the deadlines I’d set for myself, and have managed to pick up a lot of new strategies to help with that along the way.
In terms of drastic transformations, The Mayfly Protocol underwent a particularly massive transformation over the course of a couple of weeks. I’ve never worked quite so hard on getting a tune right! It ended up being the amalgamation of about 4 separate ideas mashed into one, and it wasn’t until I found the right drums that the whole thing really took off.
The album feels like it takes the listener on a journey, from chaotic raves to introspective moments. How do you capture that sense of movement and progression in your music production?
This project had me thinking a lot about what an album actually is, and I sort of came to the conclusion that for me, an album is a cohesive body of work that takes you on a journey, or tells a story. This created a bit of a conflict. I wanted to include as wide of a range of tunes as possible – from chaotic raves to introspection – and I had to figure out how that would work. My solution was carefully considering energy.
And thats what it’s all about – building up energy and keeping it high, building tension then releasing, or converting it into something unexpected. In essence, I treated each tune a little like I would in a DJ set, considering what vibe to put where to take people on as much of a journey as possible. That did wonders for me in terms of learning how to better capture the flow of energy in each tune and convert it into a cohesive experience that all flows together nicely. The result might not be perfect, but it definitely works, and will help give me a really interesting perspective when creating other projects in the future.
What’s next after this? More transmissions from the underground, or are you planning a new sonic adventure entirely?
I still feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s possible with music, I’ve got so much left to learn! There’s so many more stories I’d like to tell, and worlds I want to create for people to immerse themselves in. I’ve got a whole bunch of smaller projects on the way this year (a couple of EPs and singles) covering as many aspects of the rave spectrum as possible – all as underground as I can possibly make them! I’d love to work on more collaborations too, there’s just so many talented artists out there right now. You might even see another extended project from me by the end of the year as well, I’m not done with these bigger projects just yet!
The classic rave sounds are coming back with a vengeance, and the transmissions from the underground will never stop. Big up for the amazing questions, this has been an absolute treat!!
