The Texan couple called Burufunk who are Curtis and Leaha Fallis have been making music for years. We caught up with them and asked them all about how they started music to how they met to what they see for the future. Read On for the Full Interview

For those who don't know, Burufunk are a Texas based couple who love to make music. Nick Warren put their Outsider track on Global Underground 024 and they have gone from there. So i:Vibes sat down with Curtis and Leaha Fallis aka Burufunk to find out how they got started, how they met, how they got noticed and other matters.

i:Vibes Were you exposed to music at any early age? How did you each get started with your love of music?

Leaha Music has definitely been a factor in my life since I can remember. I started piano lessons when I was 9, played French horn for 6years, and started singing seriously when I was 12. As a musician I started growing later in life, but as anyone I was into all kinds of music. Music was really the only thing that I was really good at. I started winning vocal competitions and soon realized I might have a future in music. Knowing that musical careers are usually unstable, I moved forward cautiously. It all works out in the end though and I made it to college on scholarship.

Curtis Back when I was real young, around 8 years old, I would make my own drum sets out of coffee cans and play along with Depeche Mode or New Order for hours. So I guess you could say I was exposed pretty early. My parents bought me a Casio Sk-1 and that’s where it all began. I started taking samples and creating what I thought be cool music. There has always been a pure curiosity to how people create and organize sounds. When I turned 16, I got my first computer and began basic midi sequencing. I also participated in the High School drum core and played stage band for several years. This is where I really learned to develop and master my drumming technique. It’s my obsession.

i:Vibes When did you realize, this is what I want to do?

Curtis When I was 16 I came to realize that I had enough talent and ambition to be in the music production field. I had no idea I’d end up in electronic dance music. Everything started to make sense when I discovered Cakewalk back in ‘96. Finally all of the ideas could be laid out in front of me and become music. After being in the party scene for so long I realized it was in my reach to achieve this skill.

Leaha Well, I joined Curtis only 2 years ago. I was a very different and separate musical individual. I had graduated from TWU with a BA in Music and was struggling with my career choices. After being in the party scene for 5 years, singing at parties and clubs, and being engaged with the music, I was accustomed to the lingo and the style in which Curtis was producing at the time. After only a couple of studio sessions, it wasn’t only love at first sight, but it was a career MUST for both of us. With two very broad differences musically there had to be a way to combine the vision we had for our future.

i:Vibes Curtis, you mentioned before that you got your start while you were
stationed at Fort Bragg. How did you learn? Did you teach yourself? Or did you learn from someone?

Curtis I taught myself everything. I bought my first hardware sequencer/sampler while in the military and began my first productions. At this point I had never seen anyone else write music using this type of equipment. I stayed up many late nights pushing buttons, tweaking knobs, and relying on my imagination to create some of my very first tracks. Our of this came “Freedom”.

i:Vibes So you released the single “Freedom”, what was the response to it?

Curtis This track was really geared towards the funky breaks sound and went over really well in Florida. Although I lived in Texas, I would receive great response via email from Dj’s and new found fans.

i:VibesYou also mention that you created the name Burufunk, Any meaning behind it?

CurtisWould you ever forget that name if you heard it once? I don’t think so. No special meaning. It just sounds cool

i:VibesSo Leaha, what were you doing before you met Curtis?

Leaha I was a single mom struggling to get finished with my college degree! Like I mentioned before, I was confused on what career path to take. Production was a dream job as it is with most musicians. I was planning my route back to college to get my certification to teach all-level music. I messed around with Frooty Loops on occasion and did vocal recordings with Texas based artists, Coy West of 626Soul, Milad Nazari with Mind Eye Productions, and Bobby Kurtz with Perfectflow Recrodings. I was well booked at Texas parties as a live vocalist over DJ sets. It was a good time and always pulled the crowds in.

i:Vibes How did you meet?

Leaha We actually met at an annual all day park party known as “Legacy Dayz”. I had my daughter with me and he basically decided I was the cutest one there and having a child was an added bonus! He heard from a friend that I was a singer and thought he could use me on one of his upcoming tracks. So, I gave him the number thinking he was just another typical producer wanting vocals. Seems he really did want the vocals and me.


i:Vibes When did you realize that this would become Burufunk?

Leaha Curtis produced the remix of “Shadow” by Infiniti while we were in the early stages of dating. I was so clueless to the pointing and clicking of production that I just merely watched and said nothing. After that I decided I had way to many ideas to sit back. “Outsider” was his next project started and I decided that I thought he should add some more natural and earth-like sounds. I then started playing the keys and things started to morph. We then realized not only had we just embarked on something musically, but we had just reinvented the Burufunk sound. Our worlds had collided and it was amazing.

i:Vibes When did you realize that this would become more than just a partnership?

Leaha There was love before there was music. Music was a natural thing for us to discuss and collaborate on. Working together to build our family of four was our first goal. I think when we got the phone call from Deepsky and BT letting us know we had just invented a new sound- I think we knew then that God had destined us to be partners in life and in music.

i:Vibes Define the Burufunk Sound? Or Can it be defined?

Leaha In my opinion, this is an easy question. Curtis was making top notch music long before I met him. His sound was very forward and straight up electronic. I think when I came into the mix I brought my classical style with me and this caused the sound to morph into something way more progressive. So combining Curtis’ more modern electronic based mentality with my very theoretical based ideas gave us a whirlwind of fresh air in the studio. Suddenly boundaries were broken and a new sound was being produced. I would also like to add that we don’t listen to a whole lot of music from many artists and I think this preserves our sound somewhat and keeps it fresh and different.

i:Vibes So does one of you take care of certain areas of production or do you both share responsibilities? Who does what?

Burufunk We definitely share a lot of the responsibilities in the writing process. To be completely honest it is a pretty even 50/50 effort. Curtis does do all the programming, edits, drums, levels, mastering, sequencing, etc. Leaha does a lot of the synths, vocals, keyboarding, basslines, orchestral arranging, and song layout. We both hear very differently and to have two different minds helps a lot. Most of the time we do individual work time on the song kind of like tag-teaming. This keeps the frustration levels down and creativity flowing much like give and take.

i:Vibes Do you think that the partnership has worked better since you are married to each other and know the ins and outs of each other?

Burufunk It really doesn’t have anything to do with marriage. From what we’ve experienced it is a passion for the music and having that commonality and living together just happens to work out for us. When we hit the studio it is business and we use our time wisely because marriage and family does play a huge role in our lives and that is a big part of our partnership too.

i:Vibes Some people label you guys are just “Breakbeat Artists”, is that a fair
label, why or why not? And if not, what do you think the public should consider you as?

Burufunk We think it’s fair to label us as “Breakbeat Artists” considering that is all anyone has ever heard from us so far. Being independent artists allows us to be very flexible in writing, but at the same time there is that given pressure from the industry to keep up the progressive breaks genre that we have highly contributed to. The public should consider us as simply ARTISTS. We do what we do to the best of our ability and can only hope that someone out there is hearing what we feel.

i:Vibes I hear that Nick Warren and Hybrid are big fans of your music, are you
left surprised? And have they given you any advice?

Burufunk Well, we were surprised a couple years ago to hear that Hybrid was jamming our music out and then to get a call from them was unexplainable. To be pushed by one of the leading artists, in our opinion, gave us the extra push to keep making time for this music. Nick Warren picked us up on Global Underground and took that chance with “Outsider” which pushed us into the global community. The most advice and help we have ever gotten has to be credited to BT, Icey, and Deepsky. All three of these gentleman have went out of their way to give us insider view on the industry, music, and sometimes just life. Probably the best advice ever given to Burufunk was from Jasp182 saying, “Make your records impossible not to play”. We think that says it all.

i:Vibes How did you feel when Nick Warren decided to put your song on his GU024 Compilation? Do you think you have gained anything by getting on a Big Compilation Series such as Global Underground?

Burufunk Of course we feel we’ve gained something. We are now exposed to thousands of more listeners. It was a big break for us at that particular time and we are real proud of that release. It was an honor.

i:VibesSo what about this album that we keep hearing it in the works? Will it
ever come out? What can we expect it to sound like?

Burufunk We think you can expect to hear an album coming out, but not anytime soon. It is in the works as of now and we are collecting songs along the way. It will sound versatile and contain many styles featuring some of our closest and most prized tracks.

i:Vibes How do you find time to do all this? I hear you also have a child to take
care of, is this true? Is this your only job or do you have another one and this one?

Burufunk We have two children, Madison and Curt, both 6 years old. There is a reason that there isn’t more Burufunk material floating around and albums flying off the shelves. Having full time jobs and raising a family doesn’t leave us a lot of down time for production. We think this is to our benefit in some instances. Instead of over saturating the fans with material we like to think that we give them just enough to keep them coming back.

i:Vibes 3-5 yrs down the road, where do you want to be (goal wise)?

Burufunk Realistically, we’d like to have our album released and be signed with a big label that would honor our music and allow us to dedicate more time to our profession as artists.

i:Vibes Do you see yourself becoming another Hybrid or Way Out West style group?

Burufunk NO! While we completely respect and love these artists, we really lead different lifestyles. Musically, we have many commonalities with these artists and to even be compared to them is an honor. We strive for the quality and assurance that they carry in their music. That being that every time you hear a song by one of these artists you are guaranteed that it will be top notch and be a leader in its genre.

i:Vibes In 2004, what can we expect from Burufunk? What are you aiming for music wise? More productions, more remixes? The album? More Touring?

Burufunk Definitely more production and remixes. Quite possibly we might even throw the public a curve ball and release some of our hidden treasures that are not break beats. We mostly take things as they come and do what we can in our situation, but you can count on good tunes over the next year. We are only as big as we make ourselves, so you will definitely be hearing a lot from us in 2004.

Here are the 5 remixes that they claim got them known

REMIXES:
BT- Somnambulist (Burufunk remix) Nettwerk
Deepsky- Talk Like a Stranger (Burufunk remix) unreleased
Goldenscan- Of Our Times (Burufunk remix) Lost Language
Ashland- Clear (Burufunk Remix) Audio Therapy
Burufunk- Midnight Run Low Phat

i:Vibes We thank Burufunk for their time for this Interview and wish them the best in the future.

Below are some pictures of Burufunk Live!