The next era of American Drum and Bass is fast upon us! The times are changing, and our upcoming release, Ghost of You, is the inaugural D33PSTAT3 exploration into this badass movement. There mayyyyyyy be a free download link hidden somewhere in this post.
Ah shit, there it is. Enjoy!
~The Story Behind the Song~
If there's one artist we can credit for DnB'a resurgence in America over the past few years, it is certainly Reaper. His crunchy, aggressive sound first found the ears of Alex, myself, and our hyper-music-discovery-snob friends back in 2019. We played the Reaper remix of TNGHT's Higher Ground at our 3rd ever show (at a Rollerskating Rink, of all places) and people LOST THEIR MINDS at that drop.
That moment foreshadowed the inevitable: that the fertile minds of bassheads would soon be sewn with righteous oats.
Speaking of Reaper, it was his tour with Kumarion (The Uprising Tour) that essentially inspired the production of Ghost of You.
Long story short, we got booked as the opening act for the Seattle leg of the tour, which came through Trinity Nightclub. The promoter actually offered to book us as direct support for a dubstep show instead, but we turned it down. Even though direct support plays later in the night and is theoretically a more desirable timeslot for a DJ, we had a hunch that opening for the Uprising Tour was the right move.
After all, Kumarion was from Seattle and had a huge homegrown fanbase, plus badass Seattle producer Rebel Scum was booked as direct support. Drum and Bass nights of this caliber simply didn't come around town very often, and intuition told us that a simmering caldera of repressed DnB fandom was primed to erupt violently through the halls of Trinity Nightclub.
And oh boy, did it ever. But first we had to rise to the occasion.
All told, it took about 60 hours to build that 1-Hour opening set. We dove headfirst into the genre, acquiring hundreds of songs, obsessively organizing (and reorganizing) them into the ideal balanced opening act, meticulously cross-referencing our tracks all the latest Reaper, Kumarion, and Rebel Scum sets, and rehearsing the transitions dozens of times.
Along the way, Alex got inspired, fucked around, and laid down the shell for Ghost of You. It was the first D33PSTAT3 track that deviated from our typical midtempo genre and cinematic/ orchestral style. We sure as hell had never made anything close to a DnB track before. But the concept was there, and we worked hard to get it playable before the gig.
Flash forward to show night, and things could not have gone better. It was packed and the crowd was voracious for Drum. And. Motherfucking. Bass. Our preparation paid off in spades and we nailed the set. At the end, as a surprise to everyone in the crowd, Alex took the mic, climbed up the stairs that led out of the DJ booth, and sang live for the first time ever.
The reception was surreal. Our friends and local fans were blown away. Attendees who didn't know us repeatedly gave the "who are these guys?" response. And we knew, right then and there, how D33PSTAT3 was going to proceed.
Flash forward again, to early Summer 2022. Ghost of You was fully developed, but it just wasn't ... loud enough. We contracted 2 different professional engineers to master the project and we tried master it ourselves, but the song just didn't sound good live without jacking up the trim nob on the venue mixer.
Enter Blanke, one of our favorite artists and a core inspiration for D33PSTAT3's midtempo origins. We had been musical students of his over quarantine, having connected through his Patreon (which we HIGHLY recommend).
Knowing the potential that Ghost of You had, but at a loss for how to achieve that potential, we contacted Blanke for help. We hired him for an in depth mix and master, hoping that we could learn where in the mixing process we were going wrong. Yet again, the song stems traveled by email to a distant studio. The product that returned, however, showed us everything that our music could be.
The song SLAPPED. He did it. Blanke took our song and made the elements work, identifying the faults in our mixdown and clearly demonstrating how to improve our process. Ghost of You sounded awesome on a phone, in a car, on a PA system, and in headphones. The waveform was a fat, meaty sausage that laughed in the face of dynamic range and belligerently demanded to be mixed into a Muzz set. For the first time ever, Alex and I had a song that was commercially viable.
Since then, we've been different producers, and everything we've made and played live sense has been held to the same standard of viability that Ghost of You has. What's up loudness war, it's us, and we're here to abuse compressors until our CPU can't handle it no more. It's a new chapter in our musical story, and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
D33PSTAT3 is proud to present ... Ghost of You.
~In Conclusion~
Reaper, dear sir, we salute and thank you for your role in forging this splendid era nationwide, and for your influence on Alex and myself personally. Not only did you bless our USBs with a plethora of floor-fillers, but you also initiated a chain of events that led to our biggest career level-up to date. This one's for you dude.