“I have no interest in EDM:” Bassnectar on what sets him apart

On Saturday, October 4, Bassnectar’s all-cylinders-firing ‘NVSB’ tour will stop in New York for one of his biggest shows to date. The headliner is rolling into Madison Square Garden with a battalion of custom sound and production for ‘Bass Center VIII,’ promising “the sickest show we have ever put together.”

Ahead of his NYC takeover, the bass ambassador otherwise known as Lorin Ashton spoke to Billboard to detail his grand plans, and how his vision stands apart from what “the mainstream douches up in fuckin’ Vegas” are about. As he tells the website, the Bassnectar philosophy is closer to that of a band than a DJ.

“I know I’m a DJ, and I love the nineties rave scene in the nineties, but I do identify more with bands than EDM,” he tells Billboard. ”I have no interest in EDM. Bands like Nine Inch Nails, Rage Against the Machine, Tool, Coldplay, they get to do what they want because their fans aren’t saying, ‘I’m a rock ‘n’ roll fan.’ No, they say, ‘I’m a Tool fan.’ It’s about the band, not an umbrella genre, and that’s the vibe I get from my fans.”

Ashton also has some advice for fans seeing his show for the first time on this tour: expect a journey. “I’m not just playing beats to make people dance,” he says. “It can’t all be peak. Sometimes, the best moments are when film scores from Inception or American Beauty play as softly as possible before unfolding into something unexpected. It’s not about, ‘where’s the drop, where’s the drop.’ It’s a musical experience.”

Read the full Bassnectar interview over at Billboard. There are still some tickets available for ‘Bass Center VIII’ at Madison Square Garden, so act quickly. From there, the “five week voyage into the unknown” continues with shows in San Francisco, Portland, Kansas City, Austin and many more stops in between. [Article photo by Rukes.]