They say that when you truly love someone or something, you should let it go and if it was meant to be, it will come back to you. But if it's going so well, why give it up at all? That's how we feel after looking at Colombo's illustrious career. He's been writing award winning and chart topping music for over 15 years and his inspiration has no end in sight. The Spanish Breakbeat king who considers himself more of a producer than a DJ has seen fads in the Dance scene come and go. But when the dust settles, Colombo is always present, either in the studio or on stage following his heart. And he still has the same drive as a newcomer to the game: "If you don’t have goals you don’t have purpose. I still have a lot of things to achieve in this industry. In fact I have more things to achieve than things already accomplished, so the story continues."
Colombo, real name Alejandro Rojo, was born and grew up in Malaga (southern Spain) with a working class family. He describes his childhood as a "pretty happy one" instilled with "strong positive values." His father was musically talented as well, producing his own music and playing flamenco guitar and piano. During the 80s and 90s, Dance music was also on the rise in Spain as a whole, which is when Colombo believes was the best era for the genre "because the music itself was very creative and innovative." The 90s saw more of a rise with breaks but it wasn't until he played Playstation Music that he tried his hand at production for the first time. He eventually upgraded his set up and relied on himself to learn the ropes. Equipped with his own creativity and a grasp of music theory, Colombo explored the vast expanse of Dance music production through an autodidactic manner.
Whereas most DJs quickly jump into production after building their DJing chops or vice versa, Colombo took his sweet time--about 10 years--before professionally DJing. He's likely to put down "Producer" or "Artist" as his occupation over "DJ" if you asked. He fell so deeply in love with creating music that everything else outside of it was of little concern to him during his free time. Meanwhile, every time he showed a new track to his friends they always suggested that he take music production more seriously. Colombo was understandably self conscious about his work early on but now his friends remind him of their encouraging words early on since he's become a successful artist, to say the least.
There's no questioning that Breakbeat may not be for everyone. But entertain the idea that there's a little something for everyone in Colombo's discography. His expansive collection of work has the common thread of fast paced, highly syncopated drums but that's where it ends. The sounds he uses as instruments run the gamut from Middle Eastern instruments to Dubstep effects to all kinds of altered human voices. He hasn't stayed relevant all of these years and won awards like Breakspoll 2012 Best Producer and Beatport Music Awards 2012 Best Track ("Everybody") by pumping out music using the same formula. With the right crowd and a playlist of strictly Colombo's music, prepare for a long party that may carry over into the next day.
It's rare these days for a DJ to play more than one song by the same artist but that couldn't be further from the case of Colombo's sets. Since he has put out so much unique music, he has the liberty to only play his songs during the set. And it's a liberty he takes full advantage of:
"As I mentioned before I feel very proud of producing and DJing my own music. I believe this should be the standard for all music DJs/producers (i.e.: to perform with their own music only). I don’t really see [it as] normal that a DJ play a track from another producer, then raise their hands as if all the merit was his, when he is actually only pressing a play button and beat matching two tracks (in the best of the cases)."
As a respected figure in the Breakbeat scene, we also asked Colombo on his thoughts on the current state of the genre. On the surface it may sound superficial but we understand his point of making music enjoyable for the fans and not technically complex for other DJs' sakes:
"Breaks is not what it was. It has become extremely dirty, complicated, and human-less and in many cases lost its essence. I think music is a vehicle to make you feel things inside, and clearly the best thing to feel is happiness, harmony and love."
We share the same sentiment that at the end of the day, a song that connects to your soul will be much more memorable than figuring out the various layers and rhythm of a club banger.
Last Call
1. What is your favorite movie of all time?I have a lot. My favorite genre is Sci-Fi. That’s for sure.
2. As a young DJ, who was the one DJ you looked up to?The Crystal Method, Prodigy...
3. What is your current set up at home?Computer, synths, and software--the usual stuff.
4. What's your favorite record of all time?I have no favorite as such. I love The Crystal Method, but if I have to choose a track it could be BT – "Hip Hop Phenomenon."
Keep up with Colombo on his Youtube and Facebook.
Bryan Hahn thinks that the fact Colombo plays only his music during live sets is impressive, in itself. He's on Twitter: @notupstate.
Preview the entire album at SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/ibreaks/sets/colombo-abandoned-factory-ii