Tomorrow the CDR team heads down to Brainchild 2019, an amazing weekend of music, art, theatre and education, after a joyous introduction last year, to the community inherent festival. Ahead of a day of creative expression at the Cinetarium and Lemon Lounge, including hands-on sessions, Open CDR and an artist talk sandwiched in between; we caught up with South London producer Ben Hauke who will be sitting down with us for a chin-wag about his own creative process with promise of a special live demonstration also!

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How has your music production process evolved over time? Were you a musician or producer first?

I started playing drums at 12 . my dad also had some Alessis drum machines, tascam recorder and some keyboards and I remember making a track on that called ben funk fusion in 2005 when i was 14. I played around on FL studio and Reason for a year or two, however got an MPC500 in 2008 and have been making music on that the same way ever since...

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What key changes have you seen in the music industry/bidness during your time making records? Is independent the way to go?

there is less of a strong dance music / genre driven scene in london than there was when I first started - uk funky , dubstep ect.... which is a shame. obviously everyones a jazz fan now and also DJs who just DJ seem to be more fashionable . But these things always swing around in popularity and is just how it is.. Im never sure what music Im going to hear when I go to a club, which isnt a good thing in my opinion. I feel dance music is a bit insecure right now in london. There is a lot of throw back stuff getting played and not much contemporary.

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Tell us a little about the last track you were working on?

A track called underunder that my mate Wilf Petherbridge (DAMSLO) laid some trumpet on, also a load of edits / loops im playing at brainchild on my live set

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"Keep it simple, focus on how the music moves people , drop your ego , watch theirs."

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What piece of studio equipment would you NOT part with – Ever!!

MPC500

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‍Heavy Rotation

‍Could you name two or three things that have been on heavy rotation on your audio player of late?

Patrice Scott - Moments and Concepts

Dave ft JHus - Disaster

...and loads of my own shit that Im finishing‍

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‍‍What can the CDR audiences expect from your time with us?

A breakdown of how I make my music on an MPC500, and how I also play live on it. demonstrate how limitations to workflow can help in decisiveness when creating, and that its imprtant to master an instrument rather than having loads of things (plugins vsts) you can really understand

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Have you any advice for budding producers and music makers developing musical works in progress to play at CDR?

Keep it simple, focus on how the music moves people , drop your ego , watch theirs.