SLAMBOREE is a new collective of musicians, circus performers, daredevils and entertainers. Bass-driven beats mix with live orchestra, guitars, percussion, loops, visuals, brass, accordion, pyrotechnics and circus. The genres bounce around breakbeat, dubstep, drum & bass, dub, techno and electro fused with Balkan, folk, and ‘gypsy’ flavours… all original and all live.

County Times music critic Jess Needham caught up with the brainchild of Slamboree, DJ/ Producer, Mr Mike Freear to talk about his set at last years Boomtown, and also what he's been up to since then....

So Mike, on a scale of 1 to 10 how excited are you to perform again at this years Boomtown?

12.6

Where are you in the world right now?

Bovec, Slovenia. Playing some DJ sets up a mountain at an event called Bovec Rocks and learning to snowboard, badly.

If you had three words to describe Slamboree and what they're about, what would they be?

Fire, Rave, Tricks.

How did your performance go last year and what was the crowd like?

The crowd were massively up for a party and Bassline Circus let us run wild! Projecting videos onto cubes above the crowd, using pyrotechnics, tightrope walking and going all out with our fire tricks. Kathika and I grew up on Prodigy live videos so when she told everyone to jump and 5 thousand heads bounced it was an epic moment for us!

What do you think of Boomtown in comparison to other festies?

Whole new league, the audience are as much a part of the party as any of the acts. Wherever you go you can chat to anyone and it feels like they’ve been your mate for ages. Also, they do NOT mess around when it comes to bass, we like this.

Do you have anything new on the horizon that your fans can expect from your performance for this year (without giving too much away!)

Expect a widescreen Technicolor version of Slamboree drenched in bass. If all goes to plan this will be a whole new level of madness.

So what have you been up to since Boomtown 2012?

Recording the album in Studio, DJing in SE Asia and learning some new music toys that should switch things up a notch live.

What are your musical influences?

I think the artists who’ve really helped shape the sound I wanted to create with Slamboree have been The Prodigy, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Tipper, Gogol Bordello & Chemical Brothers.

Where are you from?

I was born in Englewood, New Jersey - USA and raised in Morecambe & Lancaster - North UK

Are you a self taught DJ/producer?

I had music lessons as a kid and in my teens then studied music tech at college & uni. Since then I’ve learned new things mainly by jamming with people or trying to replicate music that I’m into.

How many people are in Slamboree all together?

42 and counting...

What tour dates coming up?

Feb 16th (DJ set) Funk From the Trunk - Motion Bristol,

Feb 23rd (DJ set) Level Up, Dundee, Scotland.

1st March (Full live show) Bare Safe, Exeter

9th March (DJ Set) La La & The Boo Ya single launch party Leeds

May 25th (Full live show) Knockengorroch World Celidh 2013, Scotland

May 31st (DJ set) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

Who are you most looking forward to seeing at Boomtown 2013?

They haven’t announced the line up yet but I’ll be looking forward to catching Beans On Toast wherever he is! My fave new folk singer and all round top bloke. We’ve just made a festival tune with him that we’ll be launching in time for the season too.

You can check out for info on Slamboree at www.slamboree.com or here is the link for Mike's Soundcloud http://soundcloud.com/freear