Matt: Thanks for having us! Great opening question. Usually I’d probably go with "Clayman" by InFlames, which I always saw as a perfect album both from a technical and musical perspective (I could talk about Swedish metal innovation all day) but today I’ll champion "In Sorte Diaboli" by Dimmu Borgir. This perfect marriage of heavy and fantastical music, with this insanely high quality production, which for black metal and its gremlin children, is characteristically uncommon. You’ll probably see us refer back to the technical aspects of stuff pretty often; Keith and I are massive nerds when it comes to this stuff, and it’s part of the DNA of HB. All this said, the new Rezz album, "Spiral", absolutely slaps. 

Keith:  It’s really hard to pick three favorite albums! I’d say Hatebreed’s "Perseverance", because it was a very formative album for me and their style of empowering hardcore really made a huge difference in who I am as a person.  Imperative Reaction’s "Redemption", because even though I haven’t listened to it in a long time, it was the first industrial album I bought and a big part of what really got me deeper into electronic music.  Third choice… "A Healthy Distrust" by Sage Francis, because it totally changed how I felt about hip-hop and lead to me incorporating a lot of those influences into my own music.  Honorable mention for The Glitch Mob’s "Love Death Immortality".

Keith:  Matt and I have great love for the industrial / metal scenes and more modern electronic scenes, like the latest waves of dark EDM, midtempo, and DNB.  Our favorite music is at the intersection of those genres, but those scenes tend to remain totally separate from each other.  We’re bridging that gap, supporting a community of genre-bending artists along these lines, and we’re laser focused at building fan bases with roots in both the industrial and modern bass music crowds.

Matt: We envisioned HB as more of a collective than a label. We wanted to create a firm home in the UK for dark bass music, using our shared experience to try and bring incredible artists together and build something bigger than we are separately. This means trying to raise the bar as hard as we possibly can. 

Keith:  When looking into labels to work with to release my own music, including a Biomechanimal x Mechanical Vein collab that Matt and I were finishing, we realized that there weren’t really *any* labels that seemed like a very good fit.  My tunes are pretty equally aimed at the industrial, metal, and modern bass music and DNB scenes, and Matt is in a similar place with Bio.  An industrial-oriented label wouldn’t help us to make any inroads into those other crowds that we’re extremely invested in, and a more modern bass music label wouldn’t even have the industrial/metal scene on their radar at all.  Ultimately, we’d have to build our own network to bridge these gaps, and rather than just do it for ourselves, we wanted to help support like-minded artists and build a real community around this.  It’s been really validating to hear so much hype for what we’re doing, from producers & DJs & fans alike.  The HYBRID BLAK name is a clear extension of our pursuit of hybrid genre-bending dark bass music.

Matt: Short answer, yes. We’ve played with metal, industrial, midtempo, psytrance, dubstep, ambient, and, of course, drum & bass. London & the UK are a massive melting pot of styles, cultures & influences, so to be honest, I’m more interested in the texture of the music, and the philosophy of the artists we find. The industrial bass genre is still very much in its infancy, so at the moment it’s really whatever the artists want it to be. That said, I’d love to play more with the techno kids (although I think we’re not cool enough for them).

Keith:  The "BLAKTRACKS II" compilation and the rest of our recent output is a pretty good indication of our focus.  Genres like industrial bass and metal DNB, etc. are very much our core, but we do expect to branch out into some other genres.  I’d really like to release some hip-hop that has those dark hybrid-genre vibes that we love so much.

Keith:  A dark EDM / bass music artist that would resonate well with the industrial crowd, or an industrial artist that would go over well inversely, would be a great fit for HYBRID BLAK.  Bonus points for a collision of genres, cutting edge sounds, and dark vibes.  I personally tend to have a preference for vocal tracks with visceral themes and delivery that hits you in the core.  Instrumentals are totally fine as well though!  We also have a very high production standard, and expect a nice level of polish and finesse for anything we release, but we’re happy to help tracks hit that bar by doing in-house mixing and mastering.

Matt: Very glad to hear people liked the comp! Yes, we have a couple of things definitely locked in for early next year. 

Keith:  There are a number of singles, EPs, and albums planned for release next year, and we can’t currently talk about any of them that haven’t been announced already.  But I’ll be releasing a Mechanical Vein full album, and Saltee has been planning a full album for next year as well.  We’ll also be dropping the "BLAKTRACKS III" compilation, which we’re super excited for after seeing how much people liked "BLAKTRACKS II"!  The rest of the planned releases are under wraps for now, but expect to see some fresh drops very soon.

Matt: In less than two years, the label hit one-million streams across all artists. While streams aren’t the entire story, this is still a huge milestone and it’s something we’re very proud of. We utilize a lot of cross artist promotion, work closely with Spotify playlisters, DJ’s, streamers, and promotors to help get the word out. Having strong visual identities for our cover design, and a fair amount of video content also helps this propagate. We also try to keep up with tech and social trends (although the thought of running a TikTok fills me with dread. If anyone reading fancies running our TikTok, please get in touch!).

Keith:  Matt pretty much nailed it.  The growth we’ve seen in our first two years of existence has been really exciting!  I can’t wait to see how things evolve even further once live events become more viable again.  When the pandemic hit, we were just about to start running events, and I can’t wait to return to that plan and build-up this hybrid dark bass community in real life.

Matt: We’d actual priced up a vinyl drop before Adell bought out every vinyl press in the country for the next two years. But yeah, with Biomechanimal, we work a lot with local artists when we create our shirts, and we are making moves with a HB line too. Circling back to the ‘collective’ thing, we wanted HYBRID BLAK to be about more than music, and that includes streetwear too. I’ve got some ideas sketched up about how we can achieve more than just another black t-shirt (and my partner is a fashion designer, which helps! Go check out her brand, Banrion). I’d love to do some 3D printed collectibles at some point too. 

Keith:  Physical music releases will surely happen at some point, and other types of merch like shirts and such are a very high priority for us right now.  It’s very important that any clothing we offer is of high quality in every sense… design, material, etc.  So because we have high standards and a very small team, it’s taking some time to actually release, but we’ll make it worth the wait!

Matt: Bio had an insane year in 2021. Two festivals in Finland and the UK, shows with Grendel and Alien Vampires, and two pretty chonky singles (let alone the Zardonic remix). It’s going to be hard to top that, but we certainly intend to. I’m currently working on an EP which is sounding very, very heavy. Hardcore, orchestral, black metal, bass music… We’re going to really lean into our drummer and guitarist for this one too. Definitely a big step forward for us. In terms of shows, I’d love to take Bio to Germany, but everything depends on the state of the world. We have a short tour in the UK next year but we’ll keep our mouths closed on that for now. We’re also working on a HYBRID BLAK club night. This was always a goal for me, and an important step in our plan!

Keith:  I’ll be releasing the first Mechanical Vein full LP in the first half of next year, and I’m excited to drop the next evolution of my metal, DNB, industrial bass, and dark EDM vibe.  I’m also currently working on a couple remixes and collaborations that will likely drop early in the year.  I’ve been chomping at the bit to get back to playing live as well, having not risked doing any shows since the pandemic started.  It’s been sad that I’ve had to turn down some great gig offers recently, but I fully intend on making up for it next year!  Also, I’m an American living in London and haven’t been able to go back to the US in a long time, but I’m pretty sure I’ll have an extended visit back to the US next year, and hope to play a fair number of shows and/or DJ appearances while I’m there.  In the meantime, I’m also looking at ramping up more live-streaming on Twitch and planning to do that more frequently.

Keith:  Big thanks to Brutal Resonance for taking the time to discuss the label and our mission, and we appreciate your support of the scene overall!  Also, any artists interested in working with us, or DJs / press that want to be on our ‘inner circle’ list for advance downloads and such, can email contact.hybridblak -at- gmail.com.

Matt: Thanks for having us, and supporting both Biomechanimal & HYBRID BLAK, along with our artists. To your readers, appreciate the hard work these guys at Brutal Resonance put in! Always consider supporting directly if you can, and if you want to see our bands around your way, get us in touch; you’d be amazed at the lengths we’ll go to make things happen. Look after each other!