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With His Wonderfully Wonky Wubs, Subtronics Has Become One of Bass Music’s Biggest Movers

By Brian Bonavoglia

As we still see bass music’s biggest names headlining top festivals and selling out major venues around the country, it’s apparent that this bone-rattling electronic genre has never been bigger. And Subtronics, whose forward-thinking, wonky wubs has made him a genre giant, is one of the few who has separated from the pack.

Jesse Kardon’s artist name comes from his love for sub woofers and electronics , which developed in high school after discovering dubstep and getting introduced to the genre’s legends – Skream, Caspa, and Rusko. Continuing down that rabbit hole, he opened his ears to the earth-shattering sounds of Excision, Skrillex, and 12th Planet and the inspiration grew.

Eventually, the Philadelphia native dove into music production and honed his craft with tutorial videos he found online. Kardon would later find himself in a community of tight-knit internet dubstep kids that would inspire and educate each other along the way.

Quickly becoming a wizard with Ableton Live and more, Kardon would develop his own signature sound, featuring relentless bass alongside mind-bending sound designs. In time, the genre followers on Soundcloud and the blogosphere got buzzing when he began to release music in 2013.

Keeping things consistent when it came to his releases and being a down-to-earth bedroom producer, Subtronics began to garner a loyal fanbase that would later be coined the “Cyclops Army.” Ultimately, he turned it into a powerhouse Facebook group. With 59,000 members, it’s one of the stronger online EDM communities.

With bass music thriving in North America, Subtronics would work his way up the ranks doing his fair share of touring in his early career. But it was his annual NOW THATS WHAT I CALL RIDDIM mixes, which began in 2017, that catapulted him into the spotlight when it came to the world of dubstep. Over time, his gutter style of sound engineering would continue to push the envelope in modern dubstep production, having tracks signed and released on some of the genre’s biggest labels, including Never Say Die, Ganja White Night’s SubCarbon, Zed Dead’s Deadbeats and Black Tiger Sex Machine’s Kannibalen Records.

In 2019, Subtronics became be one of the few dubstep producers to break through to a mainstream audience with “Griztronics,” his collab with GRiZ, which went viral on TikTok, in addition to dominating the festival circuit that summer. As his profile raised that year, Subtronics launched his own imprint, Cyclops Recordings, creating a new platform for the most imaginative bass music. Becoming one of America’s more in-demand electronic acts, Subtronics began to headline its biggest festivals – Electric Forest, Bass Canyon, Electric Zoo, Lost Lands, and Camp Bisco. He also sold out Denver’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre multiple times.

This past year, Subtronics released his debut album, FRACTALS, a superb 16-track effort that raised the stakes for the genre. Just before the year ended, he dropped ANTIFRACTALS, a collection of remixed tracks from the previous album. His supporting ANTIFRACTALS Tour, featuring immersive, state-of-the-art audio/visual experiences, will run through the end summer 2023. In between dates, we caught up with the 30-year-old talent to discuss the tour, his music, and his history.

DJ LIFE: Musically, what were your first influences?

Subtronics: When I was 5, my Dad asked me which instrument I wanted to play, and I chose drums. He showed me bands like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. From a young age, I had always been more focused on the instrumental side of songs because I wanted to play along with them. I grew up jamming with friends, signing up for jazz band, and had hoped to be a studio drummer one day. As time went on, my tastes shifted to alternative, and I eventually found my way into electronic music. I went from Hendrix to Radiohead to Ratatat to Daft Punk, and stumbled upon early U.K. dubstep names like Coki, Mala, Skream, Benga, Loefah, and Caspa.

DJ LIFE: How did you get into DJing and production?

Subtronics: I spent ages 6 through 17 playing drums, but began listening to electronic music that made me think, “How the hell do they make sounds like that?” Amon Tobin, Pendulum, and Infected Mushroom blew my mind. I landed an internship at a local recording studio and asked my boss how producers were creating electronic sounds. It was the first time I heard about MPCs and what a DAW was. I wanted to learn how to create these sounds myself, with the goal to make something no one had ever heard before. It then hit me that I could produce full-length songs with all the elements – not just be limited to drums. These two fascinations/realizations pulled me into attempting to produce early rudimental dubstep tracks. Before I knew it, a few years later, I was burning CDs and borrowing a friend’s old Pioneer CDJ-850s to try beatmatching. DJing definitely came way later for me.

DJ LIFE: Growing up in Philly, did you get involved in the club scene there? Were there any local musical influences?

Subtronics: Not really, and funny enough, I was sent to rehab for weed right out of high school. After that, though, when I was back in town for college, I quickly dove into the dance-music scene that had started to grow – Jersey club and trap were king. Diplo is a Temple University alum and, at the time, Mad Decent was huge. I remember Swizzymack, Victor Niglio, and G-Buck were massive influences to the entire city. Meanwhile, I was a nerdy local opener pushing underground dubstep songs I had made in a sea of trap arms. [laughs] Outside of trying to get local opening gigs, I was a bedroom producer that hated the sun, and rarely went out to socialize or party, so the majority of my friends and musical influences were found online via platforms like Soundcloud, Google Hang Out, and Facebook groups.

DJ LIFE: We saw a recent TV interview with you where you discussed working in retail stores when you were younger, while dreaming big musical dreams… Sounds like you were simmering with ideas.

Subtronics: Oh wow, so much, and it feels so recent. At the time, one of the established names who would hang out with us was this dude, Trollphace. He was tapped by Skrillex and picked up by OWLSA. I remember standing at the cash register at Target, just spending my entire shift daydreaming and imagining Skrillex and Trollphace pulling up in the parking lot in a tour bus, running in to tell me to quit my job, and to come with them on tour. The quite literal insane part about reminiscing about this daydream is that I recalling this while sitting on my own tour bus – absolutely mind-blowing. I legit don’t know how I got here [laughs].

DJ LIFE: Well, you made it…

Subtronics: I also remember washing dishes, listening to Ultra Music Festival sets on loop from 2012 and pushing carts for Acme Grocery Store in the snow, while blasting old Prime Audio releases, dreaming about the possibility that one day I could release my own songs on a label, and strangers might hear my songs, and thinking about how even just a tiny bit of recognition in the scene would be beyond my wildest streams.

DJ LIFE: So, you made music first before DJing, right? What was your evolution?

Subtronics: Definitely music. When I started, there weren’t many resources to learn online, and the ones who knew how to produce kept their secrets under lock, key, and sword. It was taken super-seriously how you had to discover your own secrets to music production, so for the first solid five years, my music was objectively terrible. Thankfully, I made a lot of friends online, spent years focusing on my weaknesses and found my own path and sound. Everyone is different, but it took me a good eight-ish years before I started to feel confident in my own artwork. Learning how to DJ came into the mix around the five-year mark. But by the time I had started getting booked to play my songs, I had already been DJing at home in my basement for three to four years.

DJ LIFE: How did you start gigging?

Subtronics: My first gig was when I was still living in Scranton, Pa., and in AA. I played a New Year’s Eve party for maybe 15 people off burnt CDs. I was taking Meek Mill requests all night, played one Flux Pavilion song, and someone said, “Hey, play less of that weird, techno stuff.” [laughs] Fast-forward three years and I was a local DJ in Philly with a few thousand followers on Soundcloud, and from there it was an inch-by-inch crawl.

DJ LIFE: When did the gigging blow up for you?

Subtronics: I noticed exponential growth after I got an opening slot at Camp Bisco, had a few more successful EP releases, and I was fortunate enough to land a support slot on a few different tours – the biggest one being Ganja White Night. From there, it was playing more festivals, more collabs with established artists, and it was truly mind-blowing how exponential everything was. Getting off the ground took 10 years, but I feel like the last three years is when everything really started to finally connect.

DJ LIFE: How would you say your sound has evolved?

Subtronics: My very first influences were UKF-inspired. I fell headfirst into the underground scene with names like D-jahsta, Coffi, Barron, 12 Gauge, all of Monsters, and all of Savage Society. My first legit EP releases were definitely more of that atonal quarter-note, swampy sound. I don’t want to call it “riddim” or “trench,” but it was certainly an interpretation of where that scene was at the time. As I met more artists, learned, and discovered new perspectives, scenes, and niches, I became inspired by experimental and occasionally more melodic-leaning sounds. I feel like I have carved out more of my own lane and found more of a sound that I can call my own, through blending all these interests as much as I can.

DJ LIFE: What was the change in your sound, then?

Subtronics: My sound diversified a lot, some songs were fully funky, others very emotionally charged, and some were super-heavy. I’ve tried to retain the same vibe of vibrant sound design with bouncy flow. The further I’ve gone, the more I have been able to cultivate a sound that sounds like me and not other people – and that is the goal for sure. I started out super-heavy and atonal, and now I am still super-heavy, sometimes more melodic, other times more experimental. Occasionally, my music is highenergy rage time, and other times it is to stand, think and feel. I feel far

Subtronics Anthems: The Top 3

“Griztronics” (Deadbeats, 2019): A viral TikTok tune that took the bassmusic world by storm, this wonky collaboration with GRiZ is a mind-melting bass behemoth that’s simply in a league of its own because “Ooh, this sh*t be hittin’ different.”

“Scream Saver” (Cyclops, 2020): This relentless barrage of womps and wobbles encompasses everything the Subtronics experience has to offer.

“Gassed Up” (Cyclops, 2022): A colossal collab between the genre’s elite talents, this collaboration with Zeds Dead (feat. Flowdan) is a bonerattling beast drenched with a lethal dose of U.K.-inspired grime.

B.B.

more artistically fulfilled creating a wide spectrum and range of emotions and feelings. It creates more of a universe to feel immersed in.

DJ LIFE: What was one piece of gear defined your sound early on?

Subtronics: Hmm, maybe a MacBook Pro? I barely use any outbound hardware. Honestly, probably [Native Instruments] Massive and later on [Xfer Records] Serum. I’ve always been a laptop plus headphones, or studio monitors kinda guy, nothing fancy. I’m a firm believer in using stock gear and creativity to find your own sound.

DJ LIFE: How has the bass-music scene, specifically, changed since you first emerged onto the scene? What’s better? What’s not as good?

Subtronics: Aside from the same Tweet that pops up every four months complaining about “how music used to be better…” [laughs], I think it is honestly quite similar. There are brief pockets of time where someone will drop something crazy innovative that shifts everyone’s perspective, but I think creativity-wise, it is about the same. The thing that’s different now is that it is way bigger and extremely saturated, which can go both ways.

DJ LIFE: How’s that?

Subtronics: Sure, there’s boatloads of boring, cookie-cutter music now, but there is also even more insanely innovative, crazy risk taking, cutting-edge stuff than ever. Underground scenes in 50 different niches at once are thriving and coming up with crazy new ideas all the time. I would say the platforms to learn how to produce are infinitely better, and the platforms to share your work are ten-thousand-fold-times larger and better. That being said, things are overly saturated and you have to spend a lot more time sifting through less creative stuff, and it’s harder to be discovered among the sea of other very talented creator. There has always been the good and the bad – some kids will always say the scene sucks now, and there will always be people breaking down walls and writing big-brain, cutting-edge stuff. That’s just music and it’s all different perspectives. In my case, 2010 to 2015 is extremely sentimental, and that is for sure the case for everyone to their respective eras. Fans who got into dance music in 2018 probably feel the same way about music that came out around that time as I do about 2010.

DJ LIFE: What advice do you have for young DJ/producers?

Subtronics: The main thing is to never give up. It took me a decade to get anyone’s attention, and it was a slow crawl. Make sure with absolute certainty you are making music you love, because you love the music and nothing else. Focus on your weaknesses and improving them. If you continue to improve the things you are bad at, it is inevitable that you will eventually be amazing at it. Patience is key. Be nice to everyone. Kill your ego. Remove your expectations. Never stop working as hard as you can, but make sure that you are having fun along the way. Do not make music you think other people will like, make the music you like and the music you want to hear. People care about authenticity and can spot art that’s made to be sold from a mile away. You have to be genuine and it’s gotta be a sound you are truly and wholeheartedly passionate about.

DJ LIFE: What’s your approach to DJing? What’s in the booth for you?

Subtronics: So, I use four CDJs and generally double-drop most of my set. I get through about 80 to 90 songs per set, which can be broken down into routines. Most routines are chunks of two to four songs – I’ll use one of my own songs as an intro or one of my favorite classics, then it will drop into either one of my own songs doubled with another song, one of my own songs by itself, or a mash-up of a bunch of different songs. I do my best to make this all happen live, hence the needing four decks.

DJ LIFE: How much of your set is your material vs. that of other artists?

Subtronics: I estimate I play about 40 to 50 of my own songs in a set, but 70- to 80-percent of my set is double-drops. I try to squeeze in all my main songs that people come to hear me play, while also playing new music I’m excited about, while also dropping the top-level exciting stuff that I personally love. To get it all in, most of my set ends up being a mash-up of a ton of songs at once, which means I have to get technical and mix extremely fast. It’s incredibly rewarding getting a big crowd response after all the groundwork that goes into each moment. Stylistically, I like to have a lot of peaks and valleys to give the big moments extra impact. So, it almost feels like a moderate to medium speed, but in order to execute all the doubles and mash-ups and stuff, I actually do have to go extremely fast on my end.

DJ LIFE: What are three tracks, not yours, that are always in your “DJ box” and why?

Subtronics: Phiso’s “Jotaro,” Bommer x Crowell’s “Yasuo ,” and Subfiltronik’s “Passout.” These tracks just double with everything. You can pair it with any song and make that song better with it. I come from riddim – there will never not be at least one “DJ come with the tune!” in my set.

DJ LIFE: Do you prefer to spin at clubs or festivals?

Subtronics: I love small, dark, sweaty, basement shows and small intimate shows, in general. The energy is just so raw and you can communicate so effectively with the crowd. Festivals with great crowds are also peak existence. I love big productions with special effects like pyro, fireworks, etc., and giant audience roars. I like hitting both big and small shows on a regular basis, as they both come with their own pros and cons.

DJ LIFE: Which DJs do you admire?

Subtronics: When it comes to DJing, I would say Shiverz, Codd Dubz, and Skism are some of the best selectors and most technical DJs out there.

DJ LIFE: And music producers?

Subtronics: My all-time top three are Porter Robinson, Flume, and Skrillex… just the sheer amount of times they have reinvented their sound, while also completely flipping the entire scene on its head with new ideas and insane innovation. I look up to them so much. They have each created their own entire genre multiple times. Truly unreal. On the sound design and production side of things, artists like Noisia, Space Laces, Virtual Riot, and a literal mountain of up and comers such as BAW, Automhate, Leotrix, Cool Customer, and Imanu are all incredible.

DJ LIFE: What do you think of streaming in the post-lockdown world for DJ/producers?

Subtronics: I got into it during Covid, but didn’t really have time for it once touring picked back up. In order to really cultivate a fanbase, I feel like you need to be streaming constantly. I’m just simply not home enough to do it, let alone producing on stream feels like a lot of pressure, which isn’t the best environment to create in for me. It can absolutely be a great tool for up-and-comers though.

DJ LIFE: You’ve got some insane visuals for this ANTIFRACTALS Tour –where do they come from and did you have any input?

Subtronics: Thank you – they are definitely hugely important! The visual team is led by my guy Ray Elemento, who’s an absolute genius. He is an incredible artist himself and also has a team of highly skilled artists that work together to create the vast majority of our visuals. Most of the concepts come from 5 a.m. brainstorm sessions between me and Ray. He has an insane ability to take even the most vague, random, abstract idea of mine and bring it to life.

DJ LIFE: Tell us about the sound system you used for the tour…

Subtronics: PK Sound! Ran by our dude Raurid, it absolutely slaps ungodly hard and is probably one the hardest-hitting, bassiest systems I’ve ever heard. I’m beyond honored to be playing on it every night. We’ve been knocking plaster off ceilings left and right.

DJ LIFE: There are many innovators in electronic music, but you’re in a league of your own when it comes to sound design. How do you achieve your sound?

Subtronics: Thank you! Means a lot. A huge amount of my sound comes from tonal delay automation, but frankly, it’s just hours and hours of automating dozens of parameters, dozens of post processing units, and dozens of layers of sounds… days and days of trial and error. It’s far less intentional as it sounds and far more just exploration until something cool happens. Lots of turning knobs endlessly until something peaks my interest, and then I just follow that thread. I trust my gut and excitement level, based off what I am hearing. I often say I have very little say in what I make – I just experiment and follow what sounds cool to me at the time.

DJ LIFE: What hardware and software do you use these days?

Subtronics: Ableton Live, Serum, Kilohearts, Kontakt, Omnisphere, Melda, FabFilter, Soundtoys, a whole bunch of random, small, boutique VSTs and stuff. I don’t really have any super-fancy hardware, just a Universal Audio Apollo soundcard and a pair of Barefoot 1 studio monitors.

DJ LIFE: You’ve always been open to collaboration with other artists. What’s the collab process like?

Subtronics: I always try to work with people who can bring something to the table that I cannot do myself, or isn’t my strength, and vice-versa. I like creating artwork collaboratively that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to do, but through teamwork, we can make something crazy and new. My process is the same as most others – we just pass stems back and forth.

DJ LIFE: You’ve made healthy diet and exercise habits a priority to close out

2022. Has it played a role in your creative process?

Subtronics: Mentally more than anything. The sheer amount of emotional stability is nuts. I haven’t really thought about how it’s helped me creatively, but I’m sure it is. There’s so much less stress floating around in my head, so I am able to focus on ideas better and get ideas out more effectively, all because my brain is a bit less fuzzy.

DJ LIFE: You’ve released plenty of tracks over the years, but FRACTALS was your debut album. What was the process like putting a 16-track album together?

Subtronics: It was the most effort I have ever put into one single release. I was trying as hard as possible to encompass my entire sound, the entire spectrum of artwork that I can make, and tell a story and to flesh out a vision as much as possible. It was extremely grueling, but incredibly rewarding. It took a solid two years, and in a way, is my entire effort of work from 2019 to 2021. I’d love to do it again, honestly.

DJ LIFE: Do you have a favorite track?

Subtronics: I cannot pick. “Spacetime” and “Into Pieces” stand out, at first thought. But honestly, they all do in their own way.

DJ LIFE: When it comes to label releases, what do you look for in a production for it to get a final Cyclops Recordings stamp of approval?

Subtronics: Something that sounds totally unique and different from the absolute waves of similar-sounding dubstep. Anyone that is putting true effort into innovating and making a new kind of sound. Clean mixdowns, also.

DJ LIFE: With 2022 now in the rearview mirror, what can fans expect from Subtronics in 2023?

Subtronics: Tons of new music, going to be exploring new ideas, while also revisiting old vibes. Big shows, more production and visuals, merch, but most importantly, once I am off tour, I am going to lock myself in my studio for a few months and knock out at least 40 to 50 unreleased tunes. I think I’m already up to 20 or 30 or so. A lot of really cool collab opportunities on the horizon. Very excited!

Miami, Fla. – Celebrating its 35th edition, the Groove Cruise Miami brought nearly 2,500 mad partiers aboard the Celebrity Summit ship this past Jan. 19-23 to experience more than 80 DJs spinning 96 hours on nine unique stages.

Presented by Whet Travel, the beat-filled, multi-themed party boat left the Port of Miami and traveled to the Haitian island of Labadee for beach parties and more. Headliners included Claptone, Jauz, Markus Schulz and Nora En Pure.

It all looked like this: (Images courtesy of The Groove Cruise):