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Break Da House DJ Profile - D*Funk
DJ Name:
D*Funk
aka Doug Masters. (Best Breakthrough DJ nominee - International Break beat awards (Breakspoll) 2009)
Music style:
- Club – Techy, Intelligent & Dubwise Breaks & Electro, Tech & Jackin House.
- Backroom – Broken Beat, Old Skool Hip Hop, Funk, Dancehall, Disco & Latin beats.
Biog:
Doug Masters, aka D*Funk, got his first set of decks when he was 14 – way back in the mid-90s. After hours and hours of practice he played his first club gig, spinning jungle and techno before gravitating towards house after a night dancing to Tony De Vit.
At university he scored a residency at the Canal Club and Charlie Chester’s Mezzanine in Wolverhampton in the Midlands before heading to Ibiza to play the Mezzanine Bar and notorious clubs like El Divino & Es Paradis.
After moving to Bournemouth on the south coast of England in 2002 he started playing at various local house venues, but got a bit bored of straight 4/4beats and started getting into playing breakbeat, old skool hip-hop, funk, soul and disco. “I was playing at mainly house nights but I was playing a mix of house and breakbeat,” he recalls. “I was inspired by early Stanton Warriors stuff that fused breakbeat and house together. They seemed to be able to play breaks to a house crowd, so I thought I’d be able to as well.”
Punters loved it but venue owners weren’t so keen, so Doug started his own night in 2004 – Break Da House. It quickly established itself as one of the most essential nights out in the south, hosting top-notch acts like the Plump DJs, Stanton Warriors and Meat Katie. It was after striking up a friendship with one of the headline acts, the Dub Pistols Soundsystem, that Doug’s first release came about.
Barry Ashworth, notorious Dub Pistols hellraiser, hooked Doug up to release the ‘Electrotek EP’ on Westway – the label he runs with Carl Loben and Billy Borez of the Drum Monkeys. The lead cut was used on a TV ad in Portugal, hit No.2 on the Kiss FM Breakbeat Chart and sent Doug on his way as he’d now caught the production bug – big time.
Fast forward to 2009 and Doug has released tracks on Dusted Breaks, Nitrous, Dandy Kid and more on Westway, although he was proving himself to be so prolific that he had to start his own label too – Up:Start Music. The first release on Up:Start, the ‘Bust This EP’ featuring MC Manic, received highly favourable reviews and earned him plays on Annie Nightingale’s BBC Radio 1 show and Jay Cunning’s Kiss FM slot.
Another great achievement was being nominated for ‘Best Breakthrough DJ’ at the international Break beat awards (Breakspoll) in February 2009. Although he’s now been DJing for 15 years and didn’t win, it helped put him more on the map internationally and reflected the increased number of gigs outside of his south coast residency.
Picking up remix offers, spinning at festivals and holding down Break Da House will be preoccupying Doug over the summer of 2009 before he makes a big announcement at the end of the summer just before his autumn Australian tour.
He’s been at it a while, but there’s the sense that this talented DJ/producer has only just begun as he turns over a new chapter in his career. Watch this space...
Current top 5 (from past 6 months /// June 2009):
- 'Real Body Shocks' - Access Denied
- 'Serious Shit' - D*Funk (Hariku vs Dirty Inc Mix).
- 'Suck It Up' - D*Funk (Original & 4/4 Mixes)
- 'Mustang' - B-Phreak
- ‘Control' - Lee Coombs (Original Mix)
Discography:
- 'Party People' - D*Funk - Up:Start Music 003.
- 'Up In My Head' - D*Funk - Up:Start Music 003.
- 'Suck It Up EP' - D*Funk - Westway Records
- 'Drive Ya Speaker' - D*Funk - Up:Start Music 002.
- 'Serious Shit' - D*Funk - Up:Start Music 002.
- 'Breakthrough' - Paul Lyman (D*Funk Mix) - Dusted Breaks Recordings.
- 'Bust This Ep' - d*Funk feat MC Manic - Up:Start Music 001.
- 'Lucky Bitches' - Access Denied (D*Funk Mix) - Westway Records.
- 'Fracture' - d*Funk feat Mc Manic (Original Mix) - Nitrous Records 027.
- 'Fracture' - d*Funk feat Mc Manic (HiJack Mix) - Nitrous Records 028
- 'Finga Fudge' - d*Funk - Nitrous records.
 - 'Cab Ride In Chicago' - Modrocker (d*Funk Mix) - Nitrous Records
- ‘Boomtown’ – Morairty (D*Funk Breaks Mix) – Westway Records 011.
- ‘ElectroTek' - D*Funk (Original Mix) – Westway Records 009.
- 'Electrotek' - D*Funk (4x4 Mix) – Westway Records 009.
- 'Transition’ – D*Funk – Westway Records 009.
- 'Westway to the world' - Westway records the story so far mixed by Dogtown Clash vs The Drum Monkeys. Featuring D*Funk 'Electrotek' & 'Transition' along with a host of other Westway bangers.
*Rated mix complation of the month - DJ Mag Dec 2007.
** Rated mix complation of the month - DMC Dec 2007.
Plans for the next 12 months:
Keep working hard in the studio & making music. For me the future really is all about making as much music as I can. I’ve been producing stuff for about 5 years now so I’m just starting to find my own sound & know my way around my studio. I’m really enjoying making music right now, be it original material or remixes, re edits or bootlegs that I make to play in my DJ sets to make them stand apart from other DJ’s.
I've just launched my own label, Up:Start Music, set up to showcase a load of tracks that I have made & wanted to release on my own terms. I've also got some other great artists releasing original tracks & also remixing, as well as a hot versus EP that I've hooked up with a few musical friends. As the label is a digital label I can run it from where ever I may be & am keen to get as many international artists on board.
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