From raves in Columbia through to Dubplates and Dragons, meet Miami's artful dodger, the one, the only, Explorer...

Explorer is a DJ and music producer based in Miami Florida. He’s been making a bit of a name for himself Stateside with his generous spirit and wicked mixing skills. He’s in popular demand and recently rolled out at the Ultra Festival in Miami where he mesmerised audiences with his jungle infused set. He is a proper DNB gentlemen, so time to catch up with him while we still can…

How are you?

I’m good! Thanks for asking.

How did you first get involved in the music scene?

It was in 1998, and I was staying in Philly with my Dad. I was walking around the neighborhood checking the place out. A car full of ravers pulled up. All rainbow bracelets and huge pants. The ravers were looking for Club Space. I had no idea where it was. I was bored looking for something to do, they said it was the sickest party in town and I was welcome to join them. I got in without hesitation. It ended up being right around the corner just 5 blocks from where I was staying. I had the time of my life, it was like nothing I had ever experienced before. People spinning glow sticks, everybody was just so cool and easy to talk to and be friends with, and the music was great. I fit right in perfectly and immediately made it my home.

After the show was over I was still trying to party and hitched a ride to God’s Basement. The afters style show was hosted in the basement and classrooms of a church in the hood of West Philly. That’s where I first heard Drum & Bass. Was also my first Underground Event. Dim-lit, the only lights were coming from people’s cell phone antennas. And it continued until it was light outside. Before the morning I had decided that this was the group that I fit into and signed up for life. I ended up frequenting both of these places. I don’t think I could have had a better introduction or schooling. All these legends who came before me influenced me to be who I am today.

What attracted you to DJing and producing drum and bass specifically?

It’s the tempo/BPM, breakbeat, and elements, I really couldn’t identify with much of electronic music before I started raving, but I heard DNB once and just fell in love with it. At first, I was just a fan coming to listen but over the years I took to DJing and eventually producing it. When I felt I needed to take those steps up in the scene, naturally it was DNB that I was pushing. I never played a set of any other style of music. Before I was a DJ I would listen to all sorts of Jump Up mixes. Eventually, I just couldn’t take it anymore, I had to get fully into it and start mixing.

Can you share some highlights from your career as a DJ and music producer?

Well, I started DJing in 2003, That’s when I bought decks and started collecting records, and learning to mix. From 2003-2005 I was just a bedroom DJ. In 2006 I picked up some 1200s and the first version of Serato, that was the turning point for me. I now had access to any track I wanted. That’s when I started playing out and paying my dues in the scene. I was getting booked in Philly, NYC, and Baltimore by 2007. So some of those early shows were a catalyst, but I’ve been going hard and having highlight after highlight ever since. From the early days playing at God’s Basement to Konkrete Jungle days to playing at festivals and clubs all over the US to my time in Florida in Miami to playing down in South America, all the way up to playing Ultra. Producing with all kinds of people in all kinds of settings, to becoming a mastering engineer for many of the artists I looked up to coming up as a young raver. From the beginning, the whole thing has been a highlight to me. I never took a break.

How has the drum and bass scene in Miami evolved over the years?

I can only speak about my time here, I arrived in 2011, but I am trying to learn the history now that I’m permanently settled. Miami has always had a strong DNB scene since the beginning of DNB in the USA. Mainly because of the WMC/Miami Music Week. In that week we have more DNB than most of the US has all year. There is that element of it, but we also have a local scene year-round. The year-round DNB has evolved from medium-sized clubs with decent shows to mega club style in 2024. They have some of the top DNB artists in the world and are doing huge business. There is a vibrant cast of smaller events as well. So DNB has always been a thing here, it’s always been well received and had people coming out, but now it’s getting huge and we have all the OG junglists of this area to thank for it. They did a great job sowing the seeds, and now DNB is massive.

What’s the DNB scene like in the USA as a whole? Is dubstep still winning?

The DNB scene in the USA is sick. Big parties in every major city. Major headliners drawing huge crowds. Underground crews throwing shows left and right. Dubstep will always be huge here, America grew up on hip hop so naturally that dubstep beat just rings with them. But I would say Dubstep has less of a lock on things. You’ll hear DNB in every major US city. They have all had DNB for 30 years, and they all had big parties back in the day and throughout the years, and all have OGs, producers, labels, and history. The USA has been out here, I think we’re overlooked a lot. It’s not a fringe thing, it’s a massive movement spanning decades.

Are there any memorable gigs or events that stand out to you from your time as a DJ?

My 3 favourite events of all time were when I played Jump Up Militia in Colombia (2015) My first event in Miami SOS (2011), and my most recent show Ultra Music Festival (2024). There is just nothing that compares to those 3 events. And also 3 events that gave me big inspiration to keep pushing forward, and reaffirmation of who I am as a person. I played dozens of events that were right around the same level, many equivalents in different ways but these were pivotal and stand out among the rest.

Colombia was a life experience like no other. I got to see a parallel dimension of DNB that many don’t even get to know about and traverse the dimly lit streets of Bogota. I got to see the inner workings of South American DNB and meet people I still talk to. It was a true adventure, with some of the best people. I did not know just how amazing it was gonna be. The Hotel was so luxurious, we had a kitchen and more bedrooms and bathrooms than we needed. It was very much like Philly, Miami, or NYC, grungy and artsy but 10,000ft above sea level in the Andes Mountains. I got to try all kinds of food, played at 2 events, attended a few more, and went to the biggest metal show ever, and it had DNB there too. And just really loved the weather, which was a constant 50 degrees in our summer. They have opposite seasons. A lot is happening in Bogota, Quito, Brazil, Buenos Aires, and more. South America is overlooked too, but there is an endless amount of DNB going on there that needs to be seen.

SOS was the first rave I attended in Miami and I wasn’t even booked. I was new in the area and nobody ever heard of me or saw me play. But brought all my stuff to the show just in case. I met up with and chilled with MC, Slurk and we were chatting. Turns out somebody canceled in a prime slot and by that time word had gotten around the show that I was there. The promoter Brian Perez walked up to me and asked if I would be able to fill in. I looked at Slurk and we nodded our heads in agreement and together we killed it, performed for the first time together, and also my first time touching CDJs. I had never seen that many people at an underground rave before, there must have been 2000 people at least. It was so amazing, The place was in a giant American Legion hall, with massive rooms, and I met half of Florida that night. And that was my entry to Florida DNB. Got booked at tons of shows after that. But it was a moment, a time of survival for me. I was couch surfing, I didn’t have a car or a job, and I was new in the area, I just packed up the decks and took off to Florida. And I went up in that show and lived through what I do. And I persevered and ended up surviving and living happily ever after and started a nice life down here.

Ultra was amazing because it was something so rare to happen, to go to a mainstream party like that and have so much DNB. The organization treated us like royalty, the food was amazing, the sound was amazing, had arrays for the monitors, and all flagship pioneer equipment. Really a shock being at a show with 180,000 people. I got to catch some of my favorite DJs sets, had the best filet mignon with chimichurri sauce, and got to meet all kinds of people, the production was the best, and the sound was the best. Playing for them was such a fun time. Wolfee, Luna Thunderstorm, and Empress Galaxy Sword were great. They danced in sync, sang, and rapped. I was vibing out the whole time. It was a nice crowd, and a very friendly group of people. Throughout the rest of the event, random people were coming up to me taking pictures saying they Loved our music. I’m not used to that kind of attention, but it was nice. I feel like if I was ever jaded about EDM doing DNB, that party cleansed me of it. It was DNB on a major scale, but it was real DNB, the people were into it just like any other DNB event.

How do you stay inspired and innovative in your music production and as a DJ?

I just love doing it first and foremost, Love messing with the knobs and tweaking sounds, most of my inspiration comes from the playing out experience, as a DJ I read the crowd, and then translate that into my production. Things that happen at events or in life doing music also trigger inspiration. Sometimes it gets lonely though, and inspiration runs thin. I’ll ride my bike to the beach or the drum circle and try to capture the energy and bring it back with me. But I also have a full studio, I always have something to play with. There is always something here to inspire me, and when I get bored I just switch to something else. If I have a very bad writer’s block and can’t come up with anything, I’ll start writing in another genre and 90 percent of the time translate it back into the DNB format. It’s a nice thing to try if you ever run out of ideas. It’s how I wrote “Everything Gone Wrong.” I created the whole track on an acoustic guitar when I was drawing a blank trying to write DNB.

What’s been your favourite collaboration so far?

My favourite collaboration so far is Dub Spy off our first album. I had come up with the music and Wolfee (Wolfenstein) just started singing it and the lyrics just hit home. The tune was about a soundbwoy who was spying on the dubplates, and we killed him with the fire, and his lyrics just hit so hard with the Jamaican patois and it just became a really fun tune to sing along with and a staple of our performance.

You’ve worked with a few other artists around the world (like Hertenfels from Austria), is this a different process when you can’t meet in the studio? How do you overcome the time differences?

It’s the same, even if I’m sitting next to somebody they have to email me stems and elements, so the workflow is the same, but sometimes I feel closer depending on who I’m working with. I felt closer working with
Hertenfels than somebody right down the street. Time differences are kind of irrelevant because people respond when they can even if they are in the same time zone. The world is a small place, distance doesn’t matter. Especially if you’re having fun with your friends.

I see Ultra Music Festival had some heavy hitters on the bill this year (David Guetta, Calvin Harris, Armin van Buuren, etc), how do the DNB guys compete with this lot?

Ultra tries to account for this in their curation and puts the DNB artists on at different times. For example when I was playing and when the other DNB played there was no other major stuff that would compete going on at the same time. It does happen at times, but the real story is that a lot of the non-DNB DJs dropped DNB in their sets that night. It was crazy to experience. It’s not a competition. It’s us doing our thing and the greats giving a musical shoutout to our sound. It all just gives DNB more steam.

What role do you think Miami plays in shaping electronic music culture?

Miami’s role has been to be a hub for national/international tours, to keep doing the massive yearly events, and to keep the local and club events strong. Keep cultivating the Local Producers and Labels and take care of them. That encourages more people to get involved, to start DJing and producing, and then those people shape the future sounds. But in a broad view, a lot of what happens at Ultra shapes the tone of EDM throughout the USA. Whatever trends they push usually translate to everybody else following along. And Ultra was all about DNB this year. Almost every artist dropped it at least once, and the greatest DNB acts in the world all played. You should see some major shifts shortly, and it has almost everything to do with what went down in Bayfront Park. The crowd was raging just as hard as they do overseas, Miami is the real thing.

What advice would you give to aspiring DJs and producers in the drum and bass scene?

My advice is to always stay true to you. Always make or mix the sounds that make you happy over what you think will be popular. You don’t need to sound like what’s popular to be popular. Fans appreciate genuine music. If younger DJs and producers keep doing that they will succeed. The more you connect with your music the more your fans will connect with you.

How do you see the future of drum and bass music evolving?

I see it just breaking down into more diverse sounds. I see a lot of influence coming from the outside. Even major DNB producers will tell you they get a lot of their sounds and inspiration from other genres. This is my trance kick, or here goes some rock guitars, or the 80s drums, but it all just sounds like DNB. And for the new generation of ravers, everything is retro, they wish they could live a day in the 80s, 90s or 2000s, so there will be a huge resurgence of older DNB sounds and styles of yesterday, the DNB retro wave has been going off for a while now, and I think you will see a lot more of it.

How do you approach DJ sets versus producing music in the studio?

When I produce I am very meticulous, especially when I’m mastering for clients. My vibe is one way. Everything is precise and delicate. I’m very careful and gentle. And super attentive and it’s because it’s not in real time, and I can go back and fix things. When I DJ, I turn into a different person. I’m a party rocker, I’m trying to entertain a crowd, and I’m more into them. I don’t care about it as much, I just keep slamming down the tunes. A part of me wants people to know that a real human being is mixing and it’s not just a computer.