profiles & interviews

The Colorado music scene has never been defined by a single sound, a single musician, or single venue. The scene is sculpted by artists willing to take risks, evolve alongside their audience, and pour pieces of themselves into every release. For nearly a decade, Matthew Phillpot-Jones, better known as DMVU, has been one of those artists. His unmistakable blend of earth-shaking bass, cinematic textures, and deeply introspective songwriting has helped define Colorado's underground electronic scene while inspiring a generation of producers to push beyond genre boundaries and limitations. As DMVU steps back onto the stage with fresh music and a new perspective, we sat down to talk about creativity, Colorado, healing, and why this next chapter feels like the most authentic one yet.

The Rust has had the pleasure of reviewing and interviewing several acts on the Loci Records roster, but we’ve always had a particular soft spot for Lapa. His cumulative works sit right at the nexus of sound that we hold in such high regard, and Helix is no different. While so much of the electronic music in our wider orbit focuses on sheer kinetic and percussive weight, Ilya Goldberg and Cedar Miller have gladly made their bed alongside the gentler, melody-driven bent. To get better acquainted with the scope of Helix, The Rust took the opportunity to get Ilya on the record for a brief conversation covering this latest LP and his thoughts ahead of its full release:

Denver-based visual artist David Schunemann, known professionally as Actualize, has built a reputation for manually performing immersive visuals in real time using custom effects, projection mapping, and MIDI-controlled animation, bringing cinematic depth and intentional storytelling to the artists fortunate enough to work with him. Denver’s visual underground is in full spotlight tomorrow, on May 28, at Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom as Actualize and Glass Crane present their collaborative audiovisual project, Actual Crane, rooted in Denver’s thriving art-forward electronic scene. Ahead of this resounding evening, we had the chance to dive in with Schunemann about his recent experience at Red Rocks and what he’s got in store for this upcoming showcase.

Entangled Mind is guided by curiosity, collaboration, and a willingness to be free of boundaries. That openness is perhaps what makes their performances so compelling; no two moments are ever the same, and each set is shaped as much by the room as the people in it. Whether it’s carefully curated melodies layered over pulsing basslines, or organic jams reshaped into immersive electronic journeys, Entangled Mind reflects the conversation between instinct, influence, and presence. The Rust had an opportunity to speak with them ahead of their latest performance alongside the Supersillyus Life Band and friends at Brooklyn’s Fine and Raw Chocolate Factory. We sat down to talk about creative evolution, physics, the artistic struggle and how intuition plays a role in shaping a live set.

Appealing to an extremely broad range of fans and listeners, Ewing’s personal infusion of multi-instrumentalism stands in stark contrast to the ever-growing “in the box” production and recording phenomenon for music producers, and is the standout factor throughout all of his minted originals and collaborations. Next weekend, The Rust is hosting Ewing and a smattering of other potent acts for a Morning Coffee two-night escapade at The Chocolate Factory in Brooklyn, and we’d be remiss if we didn’t take the opportunity to get a few questions and answers on the record:

Outside of the Hacienda Audio studio, their master engineer Matt Davis recently unveiled his latest rig deployment for the home-grown Reference Sessions series in Denver, Colorado. Featuring an enormous and meticulously designed sound system, expansive LED walls, and precision front of house engineering, he and his cohorts are aiming to set a new bar standard for high fidelity concerts and events. For one of our most technically expansive interviews to date, we had the opportunity to sit down and reference the master himself after their recent Reference Sessions 002 deployment in Denver for an intimate conversation about the philosophy and engineering behind one of the latest developments in the live audio playing field.

Alec Seifart, the creative force behind Murkery, is poised to bless Denver audiences November 23rd at Meow Wolf’s Convergence Station alongside a cast of hand-picked characters. With years of production steeped in psychedelia and modern bass music fundamentals, he’s dialed in a sound, style, and presence that defines the Murkury brand with clear intention and direction. Speaking with Seifart, The Rust had the chance to dive a little deeper into the experience and the inspirations that drive his project and output, as well as attempts to address and assist community needs through his platform. 

Resurfacing for air two years after the release of his psychedelic α​ρ​ι​θ​μ​ό​ς τ​έ​σ​σ​ε​ρ​α LP, the Bristol-based producer John Hislop has come up for air with another minted project. Stretching back to his formative days with the Dubsaw and Inspected labels, Culprate has become a staple producer in the arc of bass music and contemporary audio production. his latest release through Inspected, Normal, puts pure force on display, harkening back to the energy in his formative years. In collaboration with The Rust, Hislop agreed to an insightful interview that has given us a proper lens into his thought process, approach, and interpretation of his own productions and some of the wider context to his career so far. 

At its core, Submersion Festival has no defined “home sound”; there’s no singular lane or style that fully engulfs the breadth of the festival’s musical vision. Both as a part of its appeal, and as a result of the palettes that craft each successive lineup, a diversity of sound and presentation is the fundamental characteristic that carries the event from year to year. High on our own list of desired acts, and standing atop a three-decade career, was Mark Farina, the prolific DJ & producer who’s remained an invaluable staple across the domestic and international touring circuits. A few days ahead of his appearance at Submersion, we had the opportunity to have a conversation covering a number of points that sat parallel to Mark Farina’s hour in the Saturday sun.

Individually, Ilya Goldberg and Random Rab have extraordinarily fruitful careers on their own merits, with the former both through his Lapa project and being Doug Appling’s right hand man in Emancipator, and the latter through a dedicated, double-decade approach to the Random Rab sound. It was only a matter of time before these not so disparate camps found themselves unified under the same banner, and this year saw the inception of their collaborative project, DOS. Consequently, and ahead of their appearance at Secret Dreams later this month, the Rust felt it necessary to have a quaint conversation with these artists on the nature of their collaborations, the inception of the project, and the lens through which they view their own musicality.

Making a fast-paced break into the spotlight of NYC’s sound system culture and musical underground, the texas-raised and New York-based DJ and show-host Edica+ has already made an ample name for herself. Stretching from Reggae and Cumbia to contemporary bass music and beyond, her effusive influences and pronounced mixing fundamentals have made her a potent force behind the decks, showcasing ecstatic and expansive DJing in pure form. Tomorrow evening, The Rust and our long-time co-conspirator Sermon are slated to host Commodo, Ellis Delta, EasyJack, and Edica+ at The Meadows in Brooklyn, and in anticipation of the rambunctious evening ahead, we felt it necessary to get ahold of Edica+ for a brief primer on her influences, background, her experiences as a show-host, and her time with Dub-Stuy records.

Across the pond, the pensive and surefooted Bulgarian creative Yavor Zografski has spent the last several years tightening the reigns around both his own musical project SMYAH, and the wider Sound in Picture label under his purview. Narratives covers a variety of styles and genres, with notable influences from IDM, jazz, downtempo, trip-hop, and ambient film audio. Founded in 2018, Sound in Picture features dozens of individual releases, all paired together with accompanying photographic art. Given the expansive scope of both Yavor’s personal musical output, and the approach to his particularly curated label, The Rust felt an immediate necessity to sit down with this affluent artist and discuss the genesis and direction of his dovetailing projects.

With nearly a decade of considerable effort under his belt, the multifaceted producer Ian Mckenna recently announced the retirement of his storied Craftal moniker. Much to the surprise of his longtime fans and collaborators, McKenna recently publicized the resounding decision to seek out new musical horizons. Consequently, The Rust felt it as necessary as it is enticing to sit down with Mckenna for an exclusive one-on-one discussion about the future of his music and what his Craftal project was really all about. 

Denver-based visual artist David Schunemann, or more familiarly known as Actualize Visuals has been diligently cultivating his most progressive body of work to date. Carefully collaborating and decorating stages across the country summer after summer, Actualize has become a household name amongst the wider fandom of digital visual artists and designers. Appropriately, The Rust took advantage of an opportunity to sit down and speak about the Actualize vision, perspective, and manifestations.

In the context of electronic music, crossing the sonic Rubicon to unite formerly disparate genres and styles has become a mark of high composition. Sitting squarely within that paradigm is Nikki Nair, an Atlanta-based multi-instrumentalist, producer, and audio engineer with a burgeoning appetite for weaving new threads between even the most incongruent of BPM’s. In an effort to concentrate his new personal discipline and exploration in production and composition, he’s launched n goes to infinity, a creative label with an expansive focus on music outside the comfortable lines of the traditional wheelhouse.

It is no small feat standing apart musically in a city like Denver, where there is a seemingly endless influx of prodigious talent and gumption. Consequently, the growing success of Thought Process is in large part due to the careful lines he straddles; the distance between conventional Hip-hop and broken-beat electronic music has always been relatively short, and yet he finds ingenious and pragmatic ways to explore and exploit newfound commonalities and compositions.

Amongst the incoming generation of artists having finally found their bite, not yes exemplifies the modern paradigm of electronic production; there are no hard boundaries, no clearly defined destinations, and unbridled compositional freedom. There’s a refreshing whim to their choice of direction, and the result is a fast-growing, dynamic catalog that takes us through virtually every space in low-end territory.

Across the span of the last three decades, Trip-Hop has gone from being the niche, extant musical trials of underground and bedroom producers to dominating a demonstrable slice of the global listening bandwidth. Blockhead is, by most measures, one of the most accessed, successful, and consistent names in the genre, placing him squarely in the center of Trip-hop's past, present, and future.

Amongst the growing list of boundary-breaking and charismatic producers, Sandy Finlayson’s Seppa project has remained a tenured and potent force at the very helm of the international bass music movement. Returning to the active listening rotation amidst an explosive revival of live music across much of the world, The Rust is proud to host the premiere of “Boosted”, the first single of the upcoming dual release package Boosted/Forked. As a companion piece to the “Boosted” premiere, we felt compelled to have a succinct dialogue with Seppa about his experience across the pandemic, his developments as an artist and a label head, and his own self perception in the face of his hard-earned success.

Duffrey has become an unassailable pole-bearer for North America’s grassroots electronic music movement. At home, it feels like he’s in every state, every weekend, and for those of us fortunate enough to live in and around Denver, he always seems to be right around the corner. In celebration of our unveiling of his Return to Source EP, The Rust was given the opportunity to poke around his skull and clear the some of the fog around his passions, his creative process, the background history of the Duffrey project, and some of the lore to the infamous UltaSloth producer trio.

The eclectic producer and multi-instrumentalist Iszlai has been carving out a space for himself amongst the nebulous field of sample-collage music. In tandem with today’s re-screening of Iszlai’s Featherbed Sessions performance for the Rusted Rhythms A/V series, we took the time to peel back some of the opaque layers to his profile, and got into some of the details surrounding his craftsmanship.

In order to get better acquainted with one of our favorite aural braniacs, the Rust took advantage of an opportunity to talk candidly and at length about some of Craftal's artistic influences, production choices, and his potential relation to a certain 20th century psychonaut.

Deriving his name from the rare Ovoideocystidiata mushroom, Adam Ovoid has captivated the underground bass music scene with his unapologetically squishy and surreal sound design. To get better acquainted with a long-time favorite of the Rust Team and the wider community, Adam graciously made himself available for a long-form interview, diving into the lifelong pursuit of his craft and his affiliate passions.

The debut Wadsworth Music release, Adirondacks, is a guitar-driven record written by a compositionally-driven guitarist, showcasing a stunning array of musical hues and instrumental finesse. We had the opportunity to have a succinct chat with the brains behind the music, and get a better understanding of the Wadsworth vision.

Coming in hot this evening is the second 90-minute installation of Zonra's A/V series After the smashing debut stream in October, he's graciously agreed to entertain a series of interview questions on his latest performance developments, his musical upbringing, and the novelty of sound. 

Beneath the blurry public image of the elusive electronic producer Mickman is a deeply intelligent, fiercely independent and fiendishly energetic man - Cameron McMahon Ingraham. We sat down with Cam before one of his biggest gigs to date at the PlayStation Theater in New York City in October to peel back the layers on his career and craft.

2019 has been the biggest year yet for Detox Unit, and he’s now set to smash New York City with Jade Cicada at the Playstation Theater. Ahead of this performance, we caught up with Detox aka Joe Roberts to sift through his thoughts and musings about breaks, production, life on the road, and breakfast necessities. 

COPYCATT has been influencing broken-beat electronic music for years with his cutting-edge sound design. He goes on the record with The Rust about production, visa troubles, and his attitude towards his art.