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Future Loop Foundation: Leaving England & Drum & Bass

Author: Benedetta Ferraro
Saturday, October 26, 2002
By exiling himself from both England and his erstwhile genre drum & bass Mark Future Loop Foundation Barratt, appears to have discovered a new way of life.

"How I live my life is, I suppose, very political because I believe in absolute freedom," her told Skrufff's Benedetta Ferraro recently.

"I believe that people should take absolute responsibility for their own actions. I believe that there should be self-government, no government. In that I'm making an anarchist statement, which is more out there than singing 'Bomb The Pentagon'."

While his words suggest a new extremism his music has taken a marked side step from the funky drum & bass he previously excelled at, becoming decidedly downtempo and chilled. Nowadays living and working out of an idyllic farmhouse in rural Italy, the Sheffield native has just released his fourth and best yet album called appropriately "This Is How I Feel" that reflects his new found tranquillity and purpose.

"My stress levels diminished tremendously as soon as I left England," says Mark.

"When you move country it's like being a professional assassin, you can change identity."


Skrufff: What made you move to Italy-

Mark Barrott (Future Loop Foundation): "The last time I spoke to you, two years ago, I had just met my girlfriend and we'd together decided to move, 'lock, stock and barrel' (totally) to Berlin. As a city, Berlin is great. It has a thriving night life, which isn't fuelled by drugs, in fact, culturally people go out all night over there anyway. We lived in a very central and trendy area, ten minutes into the old East Berlin, in a two floor newly renovated penthouse apartment, where I had built my studio.

My next door neighbour was Peaches, who's now a hot electroclash artist. Berlin was fantastic, I quite miss it, to be honest. But we visited Italy a few times, loved the place and by chance discovered an amazing property located in a country farm village between Turin and Milan, which is 700 square feet, built in the middle of a massive garden with 300 years old trees and great views of the Dolomites (mountains). There was all that for £420 a month; we couldn't walk away from it."

Skrufff: Aren't you a little young to settle down-

Future Loop Foundation: "A few friends of ours have said the same thing but we're just renting the house. Our contract is for two years so we'll enjoy it for as long as it lasts."

Skrufff: You don't seem put off by the stresses of moving house and even country…

Future Loop Foundation: "The actual physical move was pretty straight forward, as we didn't need to ship anything. Once you've done it once, you get used to it. Moving to Berlin was a bigger deal, I did it on British Airways and my cat Momo had to fly in the luggage compartment. After landing he was terribly distressed and nearly had a heart attack, but when we flew here to Italy, he had his own seat next to mine. He's very happy in Italy, he's outside all day. We're all benefiting from living here, after all, unless I'd pay a million pounds in England I'd never have a garden like the one I've now got."

Skrufff: Is Italy particularly inspiring to you, musically-

Future Loop Foundation: "Well, it's weird, because the radio stations here play commercial dance all day long, that euro pop sound, and there's very little alternative. There are a few nice labels around, but the Italian market is not like the French, however it's slowly catching up."

Skrufff: You have, however, entered the glitzy Milanese fashion circuit, recently showcasing your new album in a stunning hotel in Milan…

Future Loop Foundation: "But to be honest with you, these are the kind of things I want to do. In England if you play chill out music, which is what I want to play, where do you go- There are very few clubs where you can perform chill out, my agent is finding it very difficult to book me gigs in the UK."

Skrufff: Well, in London at least electro is taking over…

Future Loop
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