What is the difference between Dubstep and Bass music?
Mostly just the age of the person using these terms, really. For a long time, people just called anything in the 140 BPM range dubstep to make things simple. That worked for a long time until riddim started, and then it seemed like everyone had to find a term that best represented them. People started identifying as 140, or leftfield, or melodic, and finally, out of desperation, people started using the term bass music to attempt to classify anything else that didn’t have a good box to fit in.
I feel like the term “bass music” has the same energy as when someone introduces you to their “partner” instead of their girlfriend. It’s the most generic way to describe something without giving any real information about it. It also has the same level of pretentiousness. “How dare you call me dubstep, you can’t possibly define my sound!”
People are way too caught up with finding new ways to divide ourselves instead of trying to bring ourselves together. Which is why I think Subtronics, Level Up, and Wooli said it best: “We are allllllll, dingus.”
I’m getting overwhelmed with technology taking over my life. Do you have any tips on how to find balance?
Even though I’m an electronic music producer, I live a fairly technologically primitive life. I feel like a hacker whenever I have to restart my WiFi router. But being a human right now is a crazy time to be alive, where we have the memories of how life was before tech dominated every aspect of our lives, but also we can see the Terminator-esque apocalypse looming in our future. And I have found a nice balance of when to reject tech and when to embrace it:
Smoke cigarettes: Now I’m not saying you should smoke cigarettes, but if you are already addicted to nicotine, just smoke cigarettes. You have to smoke them outdoors, which makes it a whole ritual, and you will probably smoke less than if you were vaping. And yeah, they are bad for you, but go clean the inside of your Nissan Altima windows and tell me that vape gunk is better.
Go for night walks: Go walk around your neighborhood at night. It feels great, it’s good for your mental health, and it’s good exercise. There is no better feeling than leaving your phone at your apartment, disconnecting, and going for a nice long walk dressed in black to cut down some Flock cameras.
Buy an old car: Not like crazy old, but late 90s/early 2000s Japanese imports were the peak of engineering. You can maintain an old Toyota or Honda forever and save yourself thousands. Since this time, car manufacturers haven’t really added any new amazing features that warrant the price tag or the stress of when they break or go wrong. Pretty much after heated seats were invented, it’s been all downhill. There is no better daily driving experience than a 20-year-old manual import, and there is an absolute bliss about having a cheap car that doesn’t stress you out all the time if someone dings the door in the dispensary parking lot. Get yourself a 5-speed, 2-door, with automatic seatbelts and pop-up headlights, and you will never be happier.
Listen to music: And I don’t mean stream some random stuff on Spotify. You can get super cheap, old iPods and fill them up with enough good music to get you through an activity. I know this sounds weird coming from an artist who is currently streaming his music on Spotify, but I only make about one Qdoba burrito’s worth of money a month from streaming, so I don’t really care. You are just going to listen to the same 12 Mac Miller songs anyway, so just download the high-quality WAV files, and you can listen to them for years for free. Or better yet, go actually listen to music live on a giant sound system and feel it.