As a young sixteen-year-old leaving school in 1989, a young Liverpudlian named Brendan Collins, fell headfirst into the rave scene at the birth of hardcore and acid house. From that moment, Collins was unknowingly was set on a course that he could never have imagined would shape up to be a lifelong successful career. A decade and a half later, the artist now known as Futurebound founded Viper Records. Two decades later, Viper is a cornerstone drum and bass record label with worldwide recognition and Futurebound is one of the best-loved producers and DJs in the game, both solo and with his business and production partner, Matrix. With Matrix and Futurebound’s single ‘Control’ on Metro/Viper going gold and at least two new releases coming out before the end of the year, that young raver spirit is still there in Collins, with no sign of slowing down.
With this year being Viper’s 20th anniversary and on the week of their blowout takeover of XOYO and album drop of the 20 Years of Viper album this Friday, 6th December, now seems a good time to get the label head’s origin story, observations on the evolution of D&B and what’s in the future for Futurebound. A rare interview with the constantly busy Bren, as he’s known to his friends, turned into a right chinwag on all things Viper and beyond.
So, take the readers through this journey from the young Futurebound: starting out your own record label to who and where you are now
I just knew early on that this was the career that I wanted. I always wanted to make a career somehow in the game, but I had so many jobs going on at the time. I went to university and stuff like that as well, so just to get a backup if it didn’t go to plan. I wanted to be a DJ first and foremost like most people back then, but I started playing with production in kind of about 1993-1994, learning the basics, and then about 1995 made my first moves there. I made a pretty big track called ‘Sorrow’, and another one called ‘Liquid Groove’, and then was released on labels like Moving Shadow and Timeless. I went onto sign onto J. Majik’s Infrared label towards the end of the 90s. From there I decided I’m quitting any jobs I had and I’m going full head on producer.
I was doing lots of DJ nights in Liverpool back in the 90s. I lost a shitload of money in the process because no-one in Liverpool was into drum and bass really at that time. But I kept going and with my people and we got there in the end. The nights just really exploded towards the end of the 90s, when I made the decision to really go full steam ahead around 99-2000. That was the moment to make that change for me then: I was on all the labels and getting more DJ work and it was picking up a lot more off the back of those records.
Then around 2003, I made two tracks called ‘Black Cobra’s Storm’ and ‘Pied Piper’, and a lot of big labels at the time were trying to sign them so I decided that was the moment to start Viper, because it was something I’d always wanted to do. Obviously when people are chomping at the bit for tracks that you’ve made, that’s probably a good signal to launch it then.
And that’s how Viper began. How did Matrix come into the picture?
Well, I’d kind of known Jamie for a while anyway from when I was doing my early productions and he was doing his. Met him a few times at Music House and got on with him really well. Then we went to do a show in Belgium in 2003-2004 and got on like a house on fire. We said ‘let’s get in the studio’. We made a couple of tracks, then it became so natural, making music together, that before we knew it, we had an album of tracks. And that’s why we did our album Universal Truth. So things just kind of exploded quite quickly for us.
What impact did collabing with Matrix have on how Viper progressed as a label?
Obviously, that sound (we created on Universal Truth) was the sound I was trying to do with the label anyway, and so, here’s me who’s running Viper and I’m working with this other guy who was making a similar sound, so we’ve always joined our forces in some way. Jamie’s always into the same sound as me, and his label Metro was doing a similar sound as well and I thought it definitely helped, you know? It’s the sound that guides both labels and everything we do together.
What was the vision for Viper as you moved past only self-releasing?
I did have a plan with it at the start where, you know, I’ve kind of had experience of dealing with all the record labels in the 90s and 00s, and I didn’t like how they did business, to be honest. It was all a handshake, and I wanted to do things properly, you know? I wanted to contract records properly. I wanted to account properly. I just took all the experience I gained from the past and put it into this new project that I was doing. I also wanted to represent a kind of a more epic drum and bass sound within the scene.
Once things started, I did have a five year plan, because that’s usually how long things take to flourish, really. Obviously we had J. Majik and Wickaman early doors, and a few other people. Then we had Sigma came along, Shock One came along, and the label was really forming. The sound I’ve always really loved in drum and bass and jungle was that emotive; sort of powerful drop driven music. So Viper quickly got a name for itself within the scene (with that style) and that’s how we got to get it going.
When you first started Viper, did you imagine you’d be now celebrating your 20 year anniversary at a superclub in London?
I mean, did I think it was gonna go into 20 years? I never thought that far ahead. Definitely not. No. But, you know, in the five year plan, it was to kind of get me and other artists on board who were making the same sound as what I was wanting to bring to the label, and I did that.
You know, we signed Shock One, as I say, we had one of Sigma’s first ever records, then Metrik came on board, Camo & Krooked came here first. It was just slowly forming and then we did our album, Acts of Madmen in 2009 which was basically a celebration of five years of Viper at the time. I worked really hard on that, and we pulled in a lot of key artists as well as brand new artists who were making that sound we wanted. The album became Album of the Week on Radio 1 with Zane Lowe and that was the moment I really thought to myself ‘this is starting to really move now, people are recognising this now, the flat’s in the ground for the sound.’ And that was the start then – people really just came to the label all the time, who would love that sound and wanted to release with us.
You’ve travelled the world DJing. What’s your favourite country you’ve visited and what’s your favourite venue you’ve played?
That’s a really hard question. I’ve been blessed to play incredible shows like, 50,000 people at EDC Las Vegas and 20,000 people at Rampage in Belgium. The feeling is just amazing when you’re doing a double drop and the crowd are just feeling what you’re doing and then the place just explodes like a football crowd.
Favourite places to go and stay and hang out, I would say, Japan. I’ve been there many, many times. The first time I went to Japan was the same year that I started Viper because the guys over there were just getting their night going at a club called Wu, which is legendary techno and and drum and bass club now. They became good friends, and I think I’ve been there, like, 14 times now to Tokyo, which they said is the most that any (D&B artist) has ever been over there, which I’m so grateful for. I’m actually gonna do a celebration of Japan D&B, which I’m working on for 2025, which is all about Japanese artists. So that’s something new that we’re working on. I’ve had so many epic nights over there, and the scene has been amazing over there. I’ve been to Australia and New Zealand many times as well, and they’re lovely. Obviously, Europe has been great as well, shows-wise.
Looking back at some of Viper’s highlights, what’s been the most memorable for you?
Definitely, I would say – without me sounding like I’m blowing my own trumpet – I would say definitely ‘VPR001’. not just because it was my track, but because the track’s got so much acclaim from DJs in the scene and it was a great launch for the of the label. It set the bar high from the start. Another highlight was five years later doing the Acts of Mad Men album; that was a pivotal moment in the in the label. I think it was where people started looking at us like ‘this is a professional label now’. I had employed someone to come on board to work on board with us and got a wider team that I was using for PR and stuff.
Other moments? god, there have been so many, man. Shock One’s album (Universus) in 2013 was a big moment. I would also say the moments I had with Matrix doing all the commercial sort of crossover things, which starts that was Metro/Viper. They were big moments. Obviously signing Koven, Prototypes, and the label’s just gone from strength to strength.
When an artist kind of comes to the end of their cycle by releasing their albums and then they’re passing the baton and we’re signing someone new who’s got the same sort of energy and the same sort of potential to go on to big things is an ongoing sort of favourite moment. I could sit here all day and tell you massive moments, but it’s just been so blessed the way that the way we’ve done things, man. And you know what? We’ve still got that energy within the label. We’re not stopping for 20 years in the game. I’ve thought to myself a few times, do I still really want this as bad as the kids who started this? And the answer’s always, yeah, I want this bad man, and there’s no plans to give this up any time soon.
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What does the future of Viper look like and do you have any upcoming releases or announcements?
So in 2020, I did a track called ‘Dangerous,’ which was a Futurebound solo track, and I did that in the lockdown. I released it during lockdown as well, and it got a lot of acclaim from DJs playing it in the scene and I really like the record myself still, so we just decided during 20 Years of Viper that it might be nice to do a remix competition with that label Radar, who were brilliant for setting up those sort of competitions and stuff. So, yeah, we did it with them in conjunction with them, and we had so many entries, people doing remixes of the track and it took me a fair bit of time actually to delve through and pick the best. The winner of the whole competition is actually gonna feature on the brand new 20 Years of Viper album, which drops on Friday, 6th December. He’s track 20. It’s by a guy called Doloren and he delivered a really authentic Viper epic drum and bass remix.
There were so many good remixes that came in so I thought, you know what? it’d be unfair to just leave these other ones. And I thought to finish the year, before Christmas, we are gonna do the Dangerous Remix EP. It’s gonna have Doloren’s remix plus three others ones: one from a guy in Manchester called Clarky, we’ve got a guy called 10XX who’s gonna be doing a lot more stuff on Viper in 2025, and another guy from Japan called Yellock. And so we’ve got, like, four really cool remixes there, and and we’re gonna give it away for free as a download. It will also be on all the streaming platforms, but we’ve decided it’d be a nice touch to end the year and give it people for free as a download.
With end of year sorted and much more to come, Futurebound, Matrix, Viper and friends invite London this Friday, 6th of December, to celebrate two decades of rich, emotive drum and bass with them at XOYO. Details and tickets here. Those not lucky enough to be in London can cop the 20 Years of Viper album on the same day. The album can be pre-ordered on Beatport here.
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