Bassrush

The hometown hero known as JayKode continues to crush as he unloads the next release in the Bassrush Records saga, “Break It Down.” Best known for his ever-evolving #ClassicalBass sound that fuses bass music with classical musical elements, JayKode levels up on this release and taps the heavy metal shredder Sullivan King for a rough and rugged take on the dancefloor. From the lurching intro to the wall-rattling bassline and mid-range hook designed to hammer the dancefloor into submission, it isn’t until Sullivan King opens up on the electric guitar that the full power of this beast is revealed.

As always, Bassrush Records is offering up this killer cut as a free download so snag your own copy below followed by an exclusive chat with JayKode himself on the influences behind his #ClassicalBass sound and why that hybrid sound is the future.

For those who don’t know, who is JayKode and where you coming from?
I’m Joey, aka JayKode. Born and raised in Los Angeles, I’ve been making music since I was seven and producing electronic music for the last eight years.

Influences ranging from trap, hip-hop, classical music, future bass, and “twerk” surface in your music. How do you describe your sound and what makes it unique? Break down this idea of #ClassicalBass in particular for us.
#ClassicalBass is a genre I’ve been pushing through my music for the past few years. It’s a blend that includes heavy elements from classical music, such as strings, brass and piano, mixed with elements from bass music, including 808s and heavy snares. I was classically trained as pianist when I was seven years old and it has always been my favorite instrument so I wanted to incorporate my love for the keys with my love for electronic music. I always make sure my tracks have as much musicality as possible yet still hit super hard when you play them out live. I’m hoping to inspire other producers to start incorporating a lot more piano and strings in their music as well!

How much of that is related to being from Los Angeles? Is there an L.A.-based movement the world should be looking out for?
I feel like wherever I may have lived, my parents were pretty set on putting me through piano lessons so I was hopefully always going to play the piano, but being in L.A. surrounded by fellow producers is super inspiring. The cool thing about living here is that the network and community out here is so strong. You can go out at any given day of the week and see at least 4-5 other producers and friends that are in scene. You get to draw a lot of inspiration from others around you, and it also makes it easier to collaborate and feed off each other’s energy. I think this hybrid trap sound that’s a blend of dubstep synths mixed with more trap percussions is really big right now. I’d say look out for dudes like Blvk Sheep and Tascione this year. They’re absolutely going to kill it.

Last but not least, tell us about linking up with Bassrush Records and this release.
I’m extremely excited about this release! I’ve been wanting to do a track with Sullivan King for a long time and I knew this was the perfect track for it. I grew up listening to metal and I was thinking to myself, Why not create a whole bridge dedicated to our roots in metal? I knew he was the dude for it. I’d been chatting with Bassrush about doing a release with them a couple months before, and I sent this over to them and they loved it and here we are now. “Break It Down” is out now so look out world!