HCBXCast 85 is a big one for me. I'm genuinely proud to have legendary UK producer and Outcast Clan label boss Total Output on the show, bringing us his set from last year’s Trash Massacre event. Total Output is a personal hardcore hero of mine and someone whose music has been a massive part of the sound I love, so having him on HCBXCast is a proper honour. He was also kind enough to agree to answer a few questions, so strap in for some hardcore history...
HCBX: Alright Sean, how the hell are you? Thanks very much for the set and for agreeing to answer some questions. I've been a massive fan of your music for years. How did you first get into Hardcore Techno? Did it evolve from an earlier electronic style?
Total Output: OK, a long time ago I went to all the big acid house parties in the late 80s, so we were hearing the music of that time very underground for a while, but big early raves and a lot of acid music — very new and very different. But the turning point for me was when someone showed me the track that literally launched my entire music career.
Acid Tracks by Phuture.
This track was stunning. The way the 303 drops in at the beginning was groundbreaking for me. After that, I wanted to make that music, so I did. This was the very beginning of everything for me.
HCBX: Who were your early influences?
Total Output: Ohh, this is a long time ago, but anything that was different and faster and the best production for that time. This was even before computers were a thing, so acid music really, and then early hard techno, usually made by Amiga or the other earliest computers.
The up-and-coming early artists in the UK. We also worked with a whole heap of other artists: Lenny Dee, Traffik, Sensory Violation Mike, Matt Green, MDMA, etc., etc.
HCBX: What are your memories of the early days? Do you have a party or rave that sticks in your mind that hooked you in?
Total Output: Free parties blew my mind. I went to Castlemorton, Dutch Tek twice, free party in Rotterdam port, various parties in Brixton, Praxis, Head Fuck, Planet FM. Turnmills, Eurobeat 2000, Institute of Goa. Limelight London, Lenny Dee night, GGM Newcastle, free rave Sussex Downs, North Stoke-on-Trent, Knowledge in Victoria, our parties in 1994, Start Bristol. But the big free parties in Europe were my true love. Teknival was so pure. That's very influential. I love music that never stops, hence my tracks being so long.
HCBX: Outcast Clan was massively influential. How did the whole thing actually come about? What were you doing before the label, and what made you think, "Let's start a label"?
Total Output: Ohh, probably my love of acid music, and I had a strange urge to make it. I purchased an S950 and a mixer for no apparent reason in Denmark Street, and a few years later a 303 for £60, and then all the rest of the stuff I still have now hiding away. But my 303 has a vast history that came to every PA I ever did, so I’m unsure why the label even started, as I’m also unsure why I even started buying equipment???
Destiny, who knows, but it all happened and clearly was meant to be.
HCBX: Total Output and the rest of the Outcast Clan artists had a really distinctive sound, but you weren't afraid to put out music that crossed over into acid, industrial, hardcore, gabber and some pretty experimental territory. What were you looking for when you were deciding what fitted the label?
Total Output: Ohh, this is hard. Anything that sounded hard, good tracks that were different from anything else that existed at that time, and we knew a lot of people who made the harder music and, of course, parties and meetings, music makers.
HCBX: I was introduced to the label through your Total Onslaught record. It blew my mind and was very different to the other hardcore out at the time. Was there a particular release that you were most proud of?
Total Output: Yes, I loved Fireproof EP. It sold the most.
And was an amazing release, and of course my Drop Bass Network release. That was a good one.
HCBX: You've used the photo for the flyer of your studio and mentioned you have newer equipment now. Talk me through the old studio setup compared to now. How different is your approach to making music compared with the way you worked back in the early days?
Total Output: My old equipment was a MIDI setup. Like I said, I still have all this stuff, but I needed to upgrade to my new setup, to my current setup, which gives me the production quality I always needed, and having access to the world of new plugins using Maschine, Maschine Jam, Mackie desk, 4 303s, original 303, TD-3, Mo TD-3 and another TD-3, Maschine Jam, drone boxes, filter boxes, RD-9 drum machine, Focusrite 4x4.
And all my old stuff. I love the endless possibilities of my new equipment. You can go much deeper than a MIDI setup.
And lots of stunning soft synths, along with about 300 plugins. More noise and much bigger sound.
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HCBX: A lot of your tracks are proper long jams. What's the thinking behind that? Do you deliberately start something and just let it develop, or is that simply how you've always made music?
Total Output: Always long tracks because I never want a track to end. My tracks are long because all music should be fully explored, and the effect on me at Teknival showed me that music should never end. But everything has an end, but maybe music doesn’t?
I always am amazed that I actually made any of my music. When I listen back to it, it always feels like someone else made it.
But it’s actually me, but I can’t ever recreate again. It’s always a one-off.
HCBX: You've also said you've got a habit of making multiple versions, mixes and variations of the same track. What is it about a track that makes you want to keep going back to it rather than just calling it finished?
Total Output: See the answer above. I never go back to tracks once they are done. That’s it. That’s why I do multiple mixes. Some of my tracks have 8 or 9 mixes and can take months to complete. There’s no need to end too soon. Finishing a track at that moment is a bit depressing because you never think that anything you make after that point can be better, but I realised over the years that everything you make, as time ticks on, gets better.
It took me many years to even learn 70% of my new equipment, but once you establish your workflow, it becomes easier and your creativity becomes bigger and more and more and more and more, and making music that you feel is a bit over the top, but that’s when it gets good.
HCBX: When you listen back to some of the Total Output stuff from the 90s now, what do you hear differently?
Total Output: I listen to the production quality. I like them, and they now have more significance in 2026. I appreciate my earlier work now more than ever, but it’s all my history and I respect it, and I can hear the progression over the last 40 years, which I enjoy. It really comes down to affordability and technology at the end of the day.
HCBX: You were doing some pretty brutal and experimental hardcore at a time when most people were still trying to work out where the boundaries of the music actually were. Did you ever consciously think about pushing things further, or were you simply making the music that sounded right to you?
Total Output: All my music sounds right at the time. It just flows from somewhere. I’m not sure where? But destroying a mix, taking it to the limit, is now possible. I have mixes that scare me. All music should be scary. All music should have power, and the power should be pushed and pushed. A good DJ can do that on a dance floor. It’s magical.
A lot of music conforms to other styles, and this satisfies the market that is heading for, but I believe that my music is hard techno, but I never wanted to make music that fits in a hole along with a pile of other stuff.
All music that goes on dancefloors is fickle, but why not take a risk and make something a bit different? Some of the greatest tracks in history, in all musical styles, it’s because someone’s actually taken the risk to make it. If nobody takes a risk, then no music would ever exist. That’s new.
HCBX: You've talked about wanting to play out live more. Was there an event you played that really sticks in your mind? And any interesting stories from playing out?
Total Output: Playing on a Monday morning at Dutch Tek was a dream, on a 60k rig after 5 days of endless music. It’s huge wind turbines going over your head, and at North in Stoke-on-Trent when I kicked my computer into the crowd at the end of the PA.
Playing on the beach in the south of France — that was amazing.
I've played over 150 PAs, all of them mad. And playing in a pub in Newcastle where they nearly got chucked out because 2 girls were doing favour for pills in the toilets. Playing in Milwaukee for Drop Bass in 1994 and our John Peel set on the radio. This is just the tip of the iceberg. I’ve played out so many times in so many places, it’s hard to remember them all.
HCBX: What's your best moment in music?
Total Output: Ohh, it’s a hard one. They are always during a live set. These moments are rare but possible, but North Dakota was very special. Massive club, lots of people, good crowd as well.
You crave that moment of perfection during a PA when everything just seems to fall into place. It’s not a very long moment, maybe only 10 or 15 seconds, but at that point you realise why you love to play out live.
So I had many best moments in music, but pure perfection comes rarely, but you certainly know when that moment comes.
HCBX: You've got new Total Output material appearing on Bandcamp now. Talk me through what you're doing with the new music. Is this a continuation of what you were doing in the 90s, or does it feel like you're approaching Total Output as a completely different project now?
Total Output: It’s all a different thing now. My new music is a current time, a specific time in now history.
Music is the time in history, all that the party is, the places and the people. I’m happy finally, after all these years, with the production quality of my music. This is down to my new equipment.
I’m in a way continuing my musical journey way back from 91, 92 and enjoying the rather confusing creative process to making music. I’m high functioning autistic. This has enabled me over the years to create the music that I do, but Total Output is important and I will continue making tracks the way that I do because I love them. I can’t make music any other way. I can’t make any other music either, because all my music that I make with the dancefloor in mind, and this happens after you’ve played out many times and you realise, many PAs, how to drive a dancefloor crazy.
Total Output on Bandcamp: Total Output
HCBX: Is there any old Total Output material that you've got sitting around that you'd still like to revisit or properly finish? Or do you prefer leaving it where it belongs and concentrating on what's happening now?
Total Output: All old stuff is old stuff. That’s it. Only new tracks I’ll release. All the old stuff on Bandcamp now — it’s about time. And concentrate on new music because of my ability to make music that’s much bigger.
I need to concentrate on what’s happening now, but for the moment I need to get all this music out there that is sitting on my hard drive. I was leaving it there for nobody to hear is a crime against music.
HCBX: The set you've given me for this HCBXCast was recorded at last year's Trash Massacre. What was going through your head when you put that set together, and how does playing Total Output live now compare with what you were doing with the project back in the 90s?
Total Output: More power, more sound, more control, more of everything.
I love playing out. Before Holland, I hadn’t played out for a very long time, so it was a very, very long day, but very rewarding. Once the PA has got going and you get the mix right according to the sound system in the room, and everything falls into place, and I have the controllability that I used to have, but a lot more sound and power to play with.
My old MIDI setup sounded good, but not as good as it sounds now with the new equipment. It’s all about piling up the kick drums and balancing it all within a headroom that has no space. That’s why hard techno is hard to make, especially the noisy stuff — lack of headroom.
HCBX: Finally, anything else you want to get off your chest?
Total Output: Yes. Music is endless and it’s a very personal thing, but it’s all about dancefloor power and going into a place in music that is exclusively reserved for pure hard techno.
It’s not for the faint-hearted. It’s for the true believers. No dancefloor can keep up with the power of a hard techno dancefloor.
People say they don’t like hard techno, but that’s their problem.
I’ve stood on dance floors over the years which blow my mind, and it’s always the same: pure power.
Never underestimate the power of a fully running hard techno club with a really good DJ or a really good live set. There’s nothing like it, and it’s up to you whether you would like to experience it or not, but it’s an experience that everybody should try once.
It’s like Marmite: you either love it or hate it, but when you love it, you love it with all your heart.
Massive thanks to Total Output for the set and for answering my questions. You can check out his set on HCBXCast 85 from Friday 28th August 2026 at 7pm UK Time. Link here: HCBXCast Vol 85 - Total Output
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