Brainfreeze - ENTER THE DREAMTIME (Album) + 10 Questions
Brainfreeze opened a book at random and landed on a passage about Carl Jung and the hero’s journey. The concept stayed with him, eventually becoming the foundation for a record exploring change, adversity and self discovery. Having played in various bands before the pandemic, Brainfreeze began collaborating online during lockdown, building creative relationships with Lex Rush, Dale Novella and Time, who became friends as well as collaborators. Long time collaborator 28Breax also played an important role in the project, helping Brainfreeze co write several of the beats across the album.
Halfway through making the record, Brainfreeze experienced an unexpected bereavement, with the creative process helping him through the loss while those emotions naturally found their way into the music. The project also brought him together with collaborators including Cautious Kieran, Noah23 and Slumber Logic, while ENTER THE DREAMTIME features plenty of movie references throughout. Noah23, Legs Mc, Time, Lex Rush and Dale Novella all appear on tracks that explore that cinematic thread.
Drawing from Brainfreeze’s own spiritual outlook, ENTER THE DREAMTIME incorporates themes of Buddhism, shamanism and magic, reflecting experiences that have long been part of his life. Producing since around 2009, and more seriously since the pandemic, Brainfreeze brings those influences together on a debut centred on navigating uncertainty, finding meaning and continuing forward through whatever the journey brings.
Brainfreeze sat down with Wordplay Magazine to answer our infamous 10 Questions:
1. So tell me, how did it all begin? What sparked your love for music?
Honestly the first thing that sparked me off when I was a kid was the Blues Brothers movie and their records; the film is wild and the music is amazing. I also remember hearing 36 Chambers from Wu-Tang Clan in my mates bedroom as a teenager and discovering Korn and Deftones and deciding hip hop and nu metal was my vibe - but the Blues Brothers definitely got there first; Made in America is probably the first album I ever listened to. I love the way Dan Aykroyd introduces the band on Soul Finger, it's ridiculous.
2. Who are some artists that influence you and that you want to work with in the future?
Flying Lotus is a big influence and I always come back to Aphex Twin, I love the chaos and the messiness in their work. Simian Mobile Disco was an inspiration when I first started making electronic music in Dirty Chips around 2009 and CharlestheFirst was a strong influence sonically when I started making beats under my Brainfreeze alias; The Ascent is a beautiful record of his.
Over the last decade or so I've been really inspired by all the High Focus and Blah releases in the UK hip hop scene; I had Nocturnal Instinct from Four Owls and The Church Of by Cult of the Damned playing on repeat through the pandemic, I really dig CLBRKS and Verbz too.
If I could work with anyone in the future I think PENPALS would be a great collaboration - I think both those emcee's have really sharp lyrics and cool chemistry and their album Emerald City All-Stars In Space with EMERLD is a no skip album for me.
3. What projects do you have coming up and can you give us any info on them?
The next Brainfreeze project is going to be a double album and I'm doing it around the theme of creating an alter ego. I was a huge fan of Fight Club when that movie first came out and I am going to use that as a starting point for the record and see where it leads. Right now I'm making beats for Preacher Vs Choir, he's an emcee and a producer from California and he describes his music as subconscious hip hop, the project is already sounding tight. I'm also in the process of setting up my own record label, I really want to support other artists in the future and quit my day job, so I'm planting seeds for that now.
4. How would you describe your sound?
Musically I would say experimental hip hop, lyrically it's conscious hip hop. ENTER THE DREAMTIME is all about the hero's journey and the warrior mindset; I love a good concept album and I nerd out with mythology and Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell quite a bit; it was fun getting people to rap from that headspace. Time said I should call my genre Shrink Rap because I was in therapy while making it (plus all the Carl Jung references) . I thought that was a really funny way of summing it up.
5. What's your proudest moment to date so far as an artist?
ENTER THE DREAMTIME is the most happy I have been with a finished album so far plus it's my latest offering. I feel confident in what I'm doing now and the next challenge is to just make something better.
6. Do you have any advice for our readers who may be trying to play the mad game of music?
Absolutely; if you are new and still learning, the best thing for you to do is to start by emulating other people's songs because you can at least get the blueprint for what you are trying to do that way, then I would always recommend to just be absolutely fearless when improvising music or art. When I paint; I just throw colours at the canvas till I think it looks good, if it doesn't it just means it's not finished yet and I'll revisit. I'm the same with music, I might make forty or fifty beats to start a project off knowing that most of them won't get used; but the ones that never get used still contribute to the sound of the project so they are never a waste of energy. If you try to think like that then everything you are doing feels like stepping stones.
In my opinion the ultimate thing to aim for once you are confident at playing and experimenting is making people really feel something or learn something through your music, there's been loads of times I've put Jeff Buckley on to lift my mood or to soothe me when I'm down. Also Gift of Gab from Blackalicious and Maxi Jazz from Faithless have both managed to rap words that were exactly what I needed at the time I heard them, then years later I revisit the same songs and I understand more of what they are saying because they both helped me level up. I'm not saying all artists have to do this, but if you are capable of lifting someone's mood or raising someone's vibration through your music, that's a type of magic. The two songs that guided me in the direction of Buddhism and helped me understand what I'm supposed to be doing as an artist were Reverence by Faithless, and Automatique from Blackalicious, there are tons of downloads for whoever wants to sit with those lyrics and unpack them. First Born from Eyedea and Abilities is another record that teaches me things every time I sit with it.
Collaboration is an art in itself too; Dirty Chips with Lex Rush and Dale Novella was one of my favourite projects to work on. I was really impressed listening to Dale's vocals for the song Make It alongside Lex's already finished parts in the Ableton project for the first time; that song just clicked together perfectly and just needed to be mixed and mastered; I had a real sense of that song being bigger than the sum of its parts and that the right kind of collaboration is where you all bring the best out of each other.
7. Are there any artists on your radar right now that we should check out?
cropscropscrops is someone I really enjoy he has a very cool sounding voice and the beats are crazy, I really like Leave A Mark by Intuition and Equalibrium, that was my album of the year in 2025, the emcee is really slick and the production is awesome. Another interesting guy is Tenzoe, his album Eremition is really deep and has some amazing concepts on it.
Time did a hundred track mixtape over Alchemist beats which is epic, and his group Calm have put out some really cool albums over the last few years; Paulo's Path, Beyond The Willow Tree is my favourite, it follows on from the mixtape and I think if you are new to Time and Calm they are both great places to start in my opinion.
Slumber Logic is a really interesting emcee and producer from Canada, Detachment Homie and Only Detachment has one of the best opening songs on an album I've ever heard, it was so good that when I first listened to the album it took me ages to finish the thing because I kept playing that opening track over and over.
Also Lex has a series of singles with Becky Krill out at the minute that have been really fun to listen to and her last album with Mindframe MVE is another no skip album for me, really tight production and sick flows and some dope features too.
8. What albums are on heavy rotation on your Spotify playlist currently?
Tuff Racket from Noah23 and Fresh Kills is my most played album at the minute, Noah is an absolute beast of an emcee; really creative beats from Fresh Kills and razor sharp flows and it's got some really cool samples throughout. I love Elevation from Fliptrix and Forest DLG too, everything about it, the feel of the beats and the wisdom in the lyrics and the black and gold artwork, that's exactly the kind of hip hop I want to listen to these days. Gate Clicks Shut by Lee Scott came up in my suggestions today, that was another record I had on repeat through the pandemic, it's my favourite of his solo records, his style is crazy.
Saviours of the Universe (The Dopermen) by Dopermen is a really fun album, the flows are brilliant and the skits are really funny; Cautious Kieran who half of the duo played a huge part in bringing ENTER THE DREAMTIME to life from day one, his solo stuff is awesome too. Bulletproof Carties from Wuzee and Bronze Nazareth is awesome and really soulful, I can listen to that over and over. Grown Up from Legs MC is class, the track he did with Frukwan from Gravediggaz in particular is sick. Trey Dog Whistle has a very unique sound; everything I've heard from him is bonkers but I also listen to a lot of Primus and Mr Bungle so I have a lot of time for people who make bonkers sounding music to be fair. Also Cambatta is on my playlist a lot, his album LSD: Lunar Solar Duality is a masterpiece.
Finally; I've still got a lot of love for Deftones; I think they have consistently developed their sound on every album, Private Music has some gorgeous songs on and the atmosphere of Deftones now is unreal, I think anyone who is unfamiliar with metal and wants to hear a band that are heavy but also dreamy and experimental should check them out. If I could have any singer ever on a track it would be Chino Moreno, I'm gonna put him next to the guys from PENPALS as the answer to that other question.
9. What do you like to do when you're not making music?
I train in Jiu Jitsu a couple of times a week, I have ADHD and I really need discipline to balance me out, otherwise I'd just be in artist mode 24/7 and I would burn out.
10. Name Three things you can't live without when in the studio?
Since the pandemic my studio is really just me at home, I'm going to say my laptop, my MPK mini MK3 and a hot chocolate are the 3 things I need to get started and usually I know I'm making something good if I forget there's a hot chocolate there haha.
