Beber & Tamra- The First Couple of Breakbeat

Mege talented breaks duo Kevin Beber and Tamra first met when Tamra chatted him up at London's raucous 33 Club only to be snubbed because he was too drunk to care. When the Irish singer next met him at the End, several months later, a musical marriage promptly ensued, spawning a creative spark that's seen them tipped in the likes of the Face and Jockey slut as serious potential crossover stars of 2002.

Beber's best known for his releases on Adam Freeland's Marine Parade those he's also remixed New Order and BT in the past and over a ten year career launched in hardcore has established himself as one of the UK's best breakbeat producers. Friendly, affable and humble with a capital "H", he's also , however, surprisingly bashful about his relationship with Tamra:

"We're making musical sex, let's put it that way," he told Skrufff's Jonty Adderley.


Skrufff: Your new single You Wonder is being labelled as a "proper" song, how much was it the intention to record a radio friendly track-

Kevin Beber: "Not at all, we never start out with the intention of making a 3 minute radio song for Pete Tong or whoever, we just do it. We've got other tracks that are a lot less commercial though the label are obviously going to release what they consider to be the best single. We definitely don't formulate tracks."

Skrufff: How do you the two of collaborate specifically-

Kevin Beber: "We're a team, Tamra sometimes comes to me with a song she's written in her head and sings me the lyrics and the melody and I'll put the beats around it. Other times I'll write some music first and she'll sing over it. It's a complete collaboration apart from the singing- I won't venture into the singing arena."

Skrufff: Do you see yourselves as a band-

Kevin Beber: "Definitely. What I wanted to stress from the start is that it's not me working as a producer with Tamra as a guest vocalist, I see it as a long-term project and I think Tamra's the same. She doesn't want to be a session slut. We're serious about it and we're looking for longevity."

Skrufff: I understand you and Tamra first met at London's 333 club, did she really just approach you as a total stranger-

Kevin Beber: "Yeah, it was quite strange. I don't usually DJ as a rule and that night was the first time I'd ever played in public so I was quite nervous. I'd come off the decks after my set, started drinking and got quite drunk, then she approached me and I couldn't even hear what she was saying, so just said 'Thanks', blah, blah, blah' and sent her away. She then cornered me at The End some months later, stood me up against the wall and said, 'Look, I've got a brilliant voice, let's collaborate.' I remember thinking 'She's gorgeous but her voice is going to be crap because she's so cocksure (confident).' Anyway, she was saying I love your music, so I said send me a demo and I was blown away by it. I thought her voice was incredible. So, I sent her some tracks, she came in the studio and she blew me away again."

Skrufff: Are you two a couple-

Kevin Beber: "Ermm, we don't like talking about it, .. but, it puts pressure on things. We're making musical sex, let's put it that way. Some people might think I'm working with her for romantic reasons but that's not the case at all- it's because she's got a fantastic voice. Let's leave it at that."

Skrufff: What was your route into breaks music-

Kevin Beber: "My first release was in 1990 at the good point of rave, at the beginning of it, before the hardcore stuff came along. I'm a drummer and was originally planning to be a session drummer, so trained professionally for six years. My roots are in drums and also hip hop so the early rave stuff was brilliant because it was basically all breaks. So as soon as I started I was working with breaks then rave turned into hardcore and I lost interest in that. Since then I made trance and techno up until the mid 90s. I did tunes with Mark Williams (acid tekno producer)."

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