There’s a certain feeling you get when a groove really locks in. It’s not just something you hear. It’s something you feel in your chest, in your shoulders, in the way your body moves without thinking. For Vincent Antone, that feeling has always been the foundation.

Long before he was building bass-heavy productions and touring across the country, Vincent was immersed in music as a multi-instrumentalist. Guitar, drums, piano, bass. Each one shaping a deeper understanding of rhythm, structure, and movement. That background still lives at the core of everything he creates today. His sound sits at the intersection of funk, hip hop, soul, and electronic music, but it never feels forced or overly calculated. It feels lived in and it feels instinctual.

That instinct has carried him into a new chapter. One that’s less about fitting into a lane and more about expanding beyond it. On May 9, Vincent Antone steps into Mission Ballroom for a co-headline show with Manic Focus. For many artists, a room like Mission represents scale. For Vincent, it represents something more personal. It’s a milestone in a city that has grown with him, challenged him, and embraced his sound from the early days.

Denver has become one of the most important hubs in the country for the fusion of funk, jam, and bass music. It’s a scene built on feel as much as it is on sound. A place where musicianship still matters and where crowds are willing to follow artists as they experiment, evolve, and take risks. That environment has played a major role in shaping Vincent’s trajectory, and in return, he has become part of the fabric that keeps pushing it forward.

What sets him apart isn’t just the groove, but how he approaches it. In a space that often leans on predictable structures, Vincent is actively looking for ways to break them. His tracks might follow familiar frameworks on the surface, but they are constantly shifting underneath. Unexpected turns, genre pivots, and moments that feel less like drops and more like conversations between sounds. It’s a reflection of his mindset in the studio, where chasing a feeling matters more than chasing a format.

As Vincent Antone continues to evolve, one thing remains constant. The groove always comes first. Not the trend, not the expectation, not the formula. Just the feeling. And in a city like Denver, where audiences can tell the difference, that kind of authenticity carries weight. When he steps onto the Mission Ballroom stage, it won’t just be another show. It’ll be the next chapter in a story built on instinct, intention, and the kind of connection you cannot fake.

Below, Vincent Antone talks with Rooster about flow state, breaking the mold, the evolution of his sound, and what Denver can expect when he steps onto one of the city’s biggest stages yet. Check out our conversation!

[Rooster]: Your music has always been rooted in groove, but over time it feels like that groove has become more intentional and refined. When you’re building a track now, what does “locking in” actually mean to you?

[Vincent Antone]: It almost feels abstract at times. Anyone who’s ever hit the “flow state” knows what it feels like. Everything else kind of melts away and you are just so excited to expand the idea in front of you. And I find it important to not try and dwell on what that idea means for the project – i.e. “oh this idea fits my lane (or doesn’t)” or “ooo how am I gonna release this? Part of an EP or album? A single?” It’s best to not worry about such things when creating and just let the creative process be its own thing, otherwise you rob yourself of your potential to go to new places.

You spent years playing multiple instruments before stepping into production. How does that background still shape the way you structure songs, especially in a genre that can often be very loop-driven?

I find it to be a blessing for the most part because I understand song structure and arrangement very well and I find those aspects to be a fading thing in the scene at times.

Intro, build, drop, breakdown, build, drop, outro – It can be an old played out formula the scene leans on a bit too much sometimes and it gets predictable. It works so I get it, and I definitely do it myself at times, but even within that i’ve been having fun taking hard left turns lately – say at a drop or something, where it will follow the same general structure we’ve become accustomed to but maybe the drop itself takes a crazy unexpected turn musically, or genre switches unexpectedly. But yes I certainly enjoy trying to break the mold a bit with arrangements and keeping things fresh.

Listeners simultaneously want a certain level of familiarity while also pushing things forward, so it can be an interesting balance to walk. But certainly a fun challenge! 

There’s a sense of timelessness in your sound. It pulls from funk, soul, and hip hop traditions without feeling nostalgic for the sake of it. How do you approach honoring those influences while still pushing things forward?

I try not to think about it too consciously. Most of the best stuff happens that way. I’m not sitting there thinking, oh I need to include this or that to honor this or that sound or era, it’s more just doing what feels right to you in that moment, and if you’re staying true to how you feel at a given time, your influences will show in that moment. I’m constantly growing and evolving as a person, so naturally the art will reflect that as life experience seeps into creation. I can’t tell you how many times I’ll discover a sound coming from some artist or corner of culture and run to my computer to try and expand on the feeling it gave me. That’s inspiration in a nutshell I reckon!

Compared to a few years ago, where do you feel like you’ve grown the most as a producer? Is it technical, creative, or more about perspective?

Probably more on the technical side as well as perspective. I’ve always been able to tap into the creative. The technical has always been more of a struggle for me, because we’re not just artists writing songs, we also tend to have to be the mix engineer, mastering engineer, etc. But I’m always feeling like I’m leveling up on the technical because I focus on it a lot.

And certainly on the perspective side as well, I simultaneously feel like an old head that is falling out of touch, and yet at the same time increasingly more and more open to new ideas and sounds haha. It’s an interesting place to be. I think retaining that openness to new ideas and feelings is important not just in music but in life. It kind of goes back to that last question – keeping that sense of wonder about art and life is crucial. We are born with a breadth of human emotion but there’s only so many, so it’s only natural we will find new and interesting ways to find our way back to those familiar feelings. 

You’re co-headlining Mission Ballroom in Denver with Manic Focus, which feels like a really natural pairing stylistically. What excites you about that show, and what does stepping into a room like Mission represent for you right now?

It’s certainly quite the milestone for me. I started climbing that ladder of Denver venues pretty early on in my career (which looking back is crazy cause it was only a handful of years ago). But that’s what I appreciate about Denver, it almost doesn’t matter how “big” or “small” of an artist you are on the grand scale because if they vibe with what you’re doing they will support it. I know much bigger artists doing smaller rooms and theaters there because you have to prove that market, so it’s cool to be headlining that spot at the level I’m at. It says something I think. And what it says is: forget hype, this is really what’s going down.

It’s a city that’s always rocked with me and I’m eternally grateful to them. And of course, I’m stoked to be doing it with my brother Manic Focus, been a fan of his since like 2012, and now he’s a dear friend! I’ve never worked so hard on a show, it’s going to be very special and I think people are gonna dig what we do in there. We’re going to blow the roof off that joint!

Denver has become a major hub for this intersection of funk, jam, and bass music. How has your relationship with that scene evolved as your career has grown?

They’ve grown with me in a lot of ways! One informs the other and it’s not mutually exclusive. I pick up a lot of inspiration from them and hopefully flip it and send it right back to them and then hopefully we end up in a new place! Quite the fun little cycle over the years haha.

It’s a forward thinking place with forward thinking people and so it’s only natural that the art and culture reflect that, and so it’s always feeling fresh and exciting. 

As you look ahead to the rest of 2026, what feels most exciting creatively? Are you focused on refining your sound, or are you feeling pulled toward something new?

Always refining the sound in a technical sense! But creatively I’ve been branching out a little bit here & there and it feels good. I’ve been leaning into the more thuggin side of my sound lately which has been fun. Just trying to stay true to how I’m feeling in this moment. It all ebbs, flows, and evolves naturally. The worst thing I can do for myself is sit there and go “oh man I need to write *this kind of tune* right now” Which I’ve attempted plenty, it doesn’t work that way.

I think my fans understand me and trust where I’m coming from. Some love when I do the funk thing, others love when I do the bass thing, some people’s favorite tune is a deep cut house song I wrote, for others is simply a minute long interlude on an album where I literally speak to the audience about what’s going on in my head. It can be anything, everything, nothing, or simply just a brief moment. It’s all mixed and mashed together a million different ways stylistically anyways, I don’t know what to categorize what I’m working on half the time as it is haha. I’ve quit trying to please everyone all the time. It’s an impossible task, but I think those who have rocked with me for a while know that whatever I’m doing is authentically me and coming from a real place, which tends to resonate above all else. And at the end of the day, that’s all that matters to me 🙂

Cheers!