Deep Cuts: limitbreak!
An enchanter, limitbreak! operates in the shadows. Shrouded in cacophony, they command the rooms they play with a sound that is both overpowering, and playful. Their approach to music is earnest and intentional, but, operates within the irony of the early internet that first nurtured their taste, making for a unique sensation of mischief underpinning their sets.
limitbreak!’s sound is everything all at once. Elements of drum & bass, breaks, and hardcore coarse beneath pop melodies and alt icons. Finding music on Tumblr, SoundCloud, and the off-hand Reddit thread, their taste is built from the internet, but the IRL experience of their work has always comes before internet clout. Now, they move out of the blue-lit shadows to share the influences and experiences which built their unique sound.
Check out their exclusive mix and conversation in the interview below.
So…there’s a part of the mix that had Yung Lean, and Frank Ocean, and a Baile Funk track playing all at once. Let’s start there.
Yeah, that’s actually just one track. I don’t know the person who made the Ginseng Strip sample off the top of my head. But I listened to a lot of Yung Lean in high school so I found that track with the sample in the background. But originally, I wasn’t going to use that. I was going to use something else, but I was thinking for a magazine mix, I wanted to make something that was easy listening, like not too much energy to listen to it. So the tracks I chose– some of them are serious, some are more so stuff you can play at a party if you want people to dance. But it just progressively got more intense. Like with that weird-ass vocal in the background I wanted to build a progression and have that story carry through.
How would you describe the story of this mix?
It initially began as something planned but once I started recording I got high and improvised a lot of it. It starts out as something fun and then the second half gets really serious and hypnotizing. I like it.
How do you want your crowds to feel?
Honestly, I want to feel like you're being transported into something that’s just chaos and…light? Like you’re listening to it and you have to remind yourself that it’s music and not just energy from the outside. I try to do stuff where the sounds aren’t something you can conveniently characterize or recognize. Where it's harder to come to the conclusion. I don’t want it to be easily digestible. I don’t want it to be easy.
Do you prefer deep cuts to fan favorites?
It depends, different artists offer different highlights in their catalogues. When I was younger I used to be into that kind of pretentious method of classifying my interests, but now I just like what I like.
How do you want your crowd to feel?
Definitely like, “What is going on?” I like to have moments where nothing is going on. Where everything pauses for a second and people don’t know what to do. Some people start clapping. But I also love intensity. I love people mosh pitting. I know I’m doing a good job when I just see bodies dancing. I don’t see people standing around trying to dance. But I really try not to look up when I’m playing because it gives me anxiety honestly. I don’t want to make eye contact with anyone.
It seems like you put your music and the experience before yourself–like you stay pretty anonymous. Does that feel true to you?
I like don’t post pictures of myself. Maybe one. If I do it’s on my story and will self-destruct. I try to stay anonymous. I used to listen to a lot of SOPHIE growing up. For a long time we didn’t know what SOPHIE looked like. I really liked that. No one knows me. No one knows who you are, but you have this whole following and you could drop something tomorrow and everyone’s gonna like it. So I’m kind of going for that. But I know my image matters. I just want the focus to be on my music. Especially early on when I was still figuring that out. I wanted my music to speak for itself to be enough for people to get a picture of who I am.
Yeah, like I did not know who to expect coming on this call. When I hit you up I didn’t even know your name.
Yeah most people who know me know my Instagram name. My real name is Meridien. But I like to keep a low profile. I’m a Capricorn. I’m a triple Cap so I tend to keep to myself. Not to sound like a dickhead but I do feel like my presence is a privilege. If you know me beyond my art, beyond my work. I kind of am presenting different energy from when I’m performing. Not everyone needs to see that at a party. So that’s why I’m not always posting pictures or really posting anything.
But the name– I played a lot of Final Fantasy growing up and limit break was like one of their moves. So when I started doing this, I came up with that name.
What else influenced you growing up? What were you listening to?
My mom was a big r&b fan, so she would play that and like Neosoul. And I had an older brother who would play people like Gorillaz, Linkin Park, Black Moth Super Rainbow. Then in like middle school at my cousin’s we would watch a lot of anime and stuff. I joined band in sixth grade, and my band teacher was a really big influence for me. I played violin. I also played trumpet and piano from third grade. But my band teacher didn’t always play classical music. We did a lot of modern music like Adele but it’s not really hard to make the transition to classical music. Once I got on SoundCloud I got into a lot of my own music like Death Grips, and some Deftones. Then, when I was in college my ear got a lot softer. I was in California so I was just having like a sunny breezy moment. Fleetwood Mac, Supertramp. Like I can do hardcore techno and just like hardcore noise but that actually hurts my ears. By myself, I just want to listen to something soft.
What was an early record that meant a lot to you?
There’s this one song by this person Rapala 700. It had glass breaking on the track. I was like, I want my music to sound like this. It was the first time I had ever heard something that chaotic. It was like a whole bunch of lo-fi scary-ass kids. It didn’t follow the trajectory that songs I had heard up to that point follow. It was just straight chaos and I was like I wanted to make sure that my stuff sounded like that.
Do you feel like your music is more separate from you? What’s the overlap?
I feel like the music I make is kind of scary and intense. It can be scary and weird, but in reality, I’m goofy as hell. I like to play around a lot, but I like that juxtaposition where on one end the art is very serious and can be frightening and captivating. But as for myself, I’m just goofy. I take my work seriously but I also try to keep my ego at bay. I just want to do my best.
It feels like this interview is kind of like showing your face for the first time. How does that feel?
It’s not really a departure for people who know me and have known my work for a minute. But I know that to get booked more often, your identity is really part of that. The ability to see your face. You need to be marketable and show that you’re profitable. But I try to keep it true to my work and who I am. I think it's a good time for me to start stepping into the light in this way because I’m planning a lot of big things with my music. Seeing my face isn’t that big of a deal.
This piece is the last in a three-part series profiling NYC DJs.
