Lorin Gabriel Ashton, better known under his stage name Bassnectar (born February 16, 1978), is an American DJ and record producer.
Biography
Ashton grew up in the
San Francisco Bay Area and attended
Bellarmine College Preparatory
Bellarmine College Preparatory is an all-male, Jesuit, private secondary school located in San Jose, California. Founded in 1851, it is the oldest secondary school in California and the second-oldest west of the Mississippi River. In 2020, Niche ...
. He initially identified with visual arts rather than music, creating movies with his dad's camera at the age of ten.
When he was 16 years old, he played in a
death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep growling vocals; aggressive, powerful drumming, feat ...
band named Pale Existence, which contributed to his heavy style of music.
In the following years, he became increasingly more involved in the scene, promoting shows, distributing food and assistance to concertgoers, buying records and eventually learning to DJ after studying electronic music production. He began creating music in the 1990s, using
Opcode Systems Studio Vision Pro. In the mid-1990s, he briefly toured with
death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep growling vocals; aggressive, powerful drumming, feat ...
band
Exhumed as a bass player.
Bassnectar played house parties in the San Francisco Bay Area and began gaining momentum at
Burning Man
Burning Man is an event focused on community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance held annually in the western United States. The name of the event comes from its culminating ceremony: the symbolic burning of a large wooden effigy, referred ...
, often playing up to 7 sets a night.
He released his first album in 2001 and performed as Bassnectar for the first time in 2002. He was previously known as DJ Lorin.
On July 3, 2020, Bassnectar announced that he was "stepping back" from music, amid allegations of sexual misconduct that had been disseminated on social media. He denied the most recent allegations as being "untrue", albeit admitting that "some of my past actions have caused pain, and I am deeply sorry."
Tours and live performances
Bassnectar performed regularly at a variety of music festivals, including
Bonnaroo,
Camp Bisco
The Disco Biscuits are an American jam band from Philadelphia. The band consists of Allen Aucoin (drums), Marc "Brownie" Brownstein (bass guitar, vocals), Jon "The Barber" Gutwillig (guitar, vocals), and Aron Magner (keyboards, synths, voca ...
,
Coachella Coachella may refer to:
* Coachella, California
* Coachella Canal, in California
* Coachella (festival), an annual music and arts festival in California
* "Coachella – Woodstock in My Mind
"Coachella – Woodstock In My Mind" is a song by Ame ...
,
Electric Daisy Carnival
Electric Daisy Carnival, commonly known as EDC, is an electronic dance music festival organized by promoter and distributor Insomniac. The annual flagship event, EDC Las Vegas, is held in May at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and is currently t ...
,
Electric Forest Festival,
Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza (Lolla) is an annual American four-day music festival held in Grant Park in Chicago. It originally started as a touring event in 1991 but several years later made Chicago the permanent location for the annual music festival. Musi ...
,
Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival
The Okeechobee Music and Arts Festival (commonly referred to as Okeechobee) is an annual four-day music and arts festival. It is held at the 600-acre Sunshine Grove property in Okeechobee, Florida.
History
The first Okeechobee Music and Arts Fest ...
, Life is Beautiful Festival, Oregon Eclipse,
Wakarusa Wakarusa can refer to several things in the United States:
* Wakarusa, Indiana
* Wakarusa, Kansas
* The Wakarusa River, a tributary of the Kansas River
* The Wakarusa War, part of the Bleeding Kansas violence before the American Civil War
* Wakarus ...
. In 2012, Bassnectar sold over 250,000 tickets, not including festivals.
Bassnectar finished in fourth place in the 2013 America's Best DJ competition conducted by ''DJ Times'' magazine and ''
Pioneer DJ''.
In 2015, Bassnectar stopped touring and shifted focus playing the festival circuit, and curating his own events. One such event, named 'Deja Voom'.
took place from February 27 through March 2, 2019
at the Barcelo Maya Resort in
Riviera Maya, Mexico. Deja Voom hosted artists across five stages: Pool Party, Beach Stage, Deja Room, Voom Room, and The Oasis.
These spaces brought different sub genres of electronic
bass music to cater to a variety of music tastes.
Discography
Studio albums
* ''Motions of Mutation'' (2003)
* ''Diverse Systems of Throb'' (2004)
* ''Mesmerizing The Ultra'' (2005)
* ''Underground Communication'' (2007)
* ''
Cozza Frenzy
''Cozza Frenzy'' is the fifth full-length album by American electronic dance music artist Bassnectar, released on September 29, 2009 from Om Records
Om Records is an American record label, established in 1995, which releases electronic musi ...
'' (2009)
* ''
Divergent Spectrum
''Divergent Spectrum'' is the sixth studio album by American DJ, Bassnectar
Lorin Gabriel Ashton, better known under his stage name Bassnectar (born February 16, 1978), is an American DJ and record producer.
Biography
Ashton grew up in the Sa ...
'' (2011)
* ''
Vava Voom
''Vava Voom'' is the seventh studio album by Bassnectar released on April 10, 2012, through his label Amorphous Music. The album includes several collaborations with artists from other genres; most notably, Lupe Fiasco. The song "Pennywise ...
'' (2012)
* ''
Noise vs. Beauty
''Noise vs. Beauty'' is the eighth studio album by American DJ and record producer Bassnectar, released on June 24, 2014 by Amorphous Music. The album has been supported by multiple festivals he has played through 2014 and followed by the NVSB t ...
'' (2014)
* ''
Into the Sun'' (2015)
* ''
Unlimited'' (2016)
* ''All Colors'' (2020)
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bassnectar
1978 births
Living people
American DJs
American electronic musicians
Breakbeat musicians
Dubstep musicians
Remixers
Ableton Live users
Monstercat artists
Owsla artists
Electronic dance music DJs