Justin Hawkes: “Drum & Bass is Certainly No Stranger to America”

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**Justin Hawkes dives into his love for drum and bass and its community, while also sharing his thoughts on the American side of the scene and his forthcoming album, Now Or Never.**

Although the roots of drum and bass are firmly planted in the UK, the genre has also found a home in other parts of the planet. The United States is one of the countries where the genre has been present since it expanded elsewhere, and homegrown artists like Justin Hawkes have helped carry the torch during its latest era.

Turn back the clock on Justin Hawkes’ career, and you’ll find him DJing and producing under the Flite alias. Releases on labels like Viper Recordings, UKF, Hospital Records, and Liquicity helped usher in the early years of his journey, and he’s grown even more since adopting the moniker he uses today. At his core is a deep passion for drum and bass, from the soundscapes to the community it’s fostered, and there’s an undeniable American touch that he brings to each track he produces.

For Justin Hawkes, it’s the magic within the tempo that makes drum and bass so creatively flexible, describing it as “anything you imagine” in terms of intensity, creativity, or experimentation. “The way it’s been creatively realized over the last 30 years changes dramatically every now and then as part of the scene, but the root of what makes this music so special to me is that it’s got zero limits on what it can sound like,” he shared. The community that fervently follows it adds even more magic to the mix.

The community has always been this group of society’s outliers, and I feel like this tempo and complexity attract pretty intense and/or passionate people… That’s how I would describe this community: it’s music- and passion-driven at its core; they have never been genre tourists who care about being “seen” at shows or following the hype. It’s always been about being free and self-expressive, which is probably what drew me in so much as a listener.

Justin Hawkes

That community isn’t just in the UK, Australia, or New Zealand, which have been strongholds of drum and bass for decades; it’s also flourishing in the United States. “I think the US at large is very supportive of niche genres, and there was always a strong underground appreciation of DNB,” he said. “Drum & Bass is certainly no stranger to America.” He pointed to DNB records circulating in record shops in the ’90s and ’00s, along with pioneering producers like Hive, Gridlok, and Dieselboy, as evidence of its depth.

As for the genre’s resurgence in popularity over the past half-decade, Justin Hawkes said it was largely due to its global commercial success. “Sub Focus, Dimension, 1991, and Culture Shock doing Worship really changed the way DnB was seen from outside the genre, and their music, alongside other huge artists like Chase & Status, invited a lot of new listeners in the states to experience DnB for the first time,” he said. This led promoters to take a chance on the genre again by booking more DnB acts for events.

It felt like the average person didn’t really get how to even dance to DnB until they finally gave it a real chance, and they upped their internal energy and tempo. Now, it feels like the music finally gets its space in this country again—I hear DnB in public all the time, in the gym, local events with new DJs… you name it! It’s like the tempo finally “clicked” with a lot of people once it was presented in a certain way, which has led many to seek more.

Justin Hawkes

Genres experience waves of popularity with time, and now that it’s had its moment of exposure in the US, Justin Hawkes believes that it needs to enter a new phase to develop and support its own organic identity. And he’s been at the forefront of this shift, becoming renowned for experimentation in the genre, adding touches of Americana and shaking up traditional norms along the way.

“The UK undeniably is the origin of Drum & Bass, but I see the world as full of really interesting flavors that shape its best music,” Justin Hawkes shared. “There are insane DNB artists from all over, Brazil, Japan, New Zealand, Czechia, Austria, Canada, the US, and so many other countries. It’s the artists’ backstories and cultural influences that make their music so interesting, and I find the more that someone is removed from “the scene”, the more interesting their DNB is to me.”

I think America has an insane amount of creativity to offer, deriving from our influences here. So that’s where I see DnB in America going; embracing the fact that we are out here in our own way, and that’s what makes our sound unique in the genre. Many people think America only brings “EDM” to the table, which is a completely shallow and ignorant view, in my opinion. We have so much creative depth we can draw from if people actually decide to value it!

Justin Hawkes

The next step Justin Hawkes has taken in his mission to highlight creativity in the scene is his new label, Drumcaste Collective. “America has a wealth of incredibly creative artists that maybe the scene overlooks because of our location, or discredits because we’re American,” he shared. “I want to see that perspective shift and help present some of our best work to the world. I hope others might do the same in their own way!”

This label marks a major step forward for Justin Hawkes, as his ever-evolving vision of the scene continues forward. Reflecting on his journey so far, he said his earliest days were “extremely special” because he was producing while fully removed from the industry’s commercialism. As it has bloomed into what it is today in the 2020s, he’s seen it as a new era of serious innovation.

Producers here don’t have to follow any trends, we don’t have to sound like anything in order to fit in, we just automatically don’t already—so we should embrace that and give it some power!

Justin Hawkes

“The best music comes from total and unequivocal authenticity and self-expression, and I am hoping that people recognize how much opportunity lies in that vein right now,” he said. “Drum and bass has a nasty habit of copycatting popular songs because it supposedly helps DJs gain traction… I’m looking forward to people deciding not to do that and really embracing their original ideas again, because that’s what makes this music so interesting, and what has kept it around for decades.”

The new label and an onslaught of festival and club appearances aren’t the only things that Justin Hawkes has been working on, either. He’s been crafting some fresh tunes in the studio for his upcoming sophomore album, Now or Never. To him, this upcoming release pairs properly with his debut, Existential, which marked the start of his new musical identity after transitioning away from Flite. He credits Luke Hood at UKF, who released the breakthrough album on Pilot Records, as a key figure who helped keep him moving forward.

“Now or Never asks a much deeper question…,” Justin Hawkes continued. “Why am I who I am, behind everything? What forces are at play that have given me these intense passions and curiosities? The 12 tracks on this album are designed very intentionally—they are vulnerable, they are connected, they are 100% my story.”

I want to ask those questions, and I want to learn from my past, both physically and spiritually. I think the world is so much more than we realize, as are humans—and that’s where this music comes from. I’ve learned so much while writing this album that it has completely changed my life doing so, and I hope that someone who listens to this album in its entirety can understand that and also wonder these same things about themselves. We are so much more than we commonly believe ourselves to be.

Justin Hawkes

Although he didn’t want to spoil it too much, he mentioned that the album feels like “deja vu, that unexplainable feeling that you’ve been here before.” This can be heard on the first few singles that have surfaced — “Tethys,” “Slipping” with Midnite Amity, “Space Elevator” with Shanic, and “Stomp,” which just landed today.

That wasn’t all that Justin Hawkes had for us, as he whipped up a mix for the Drum & Bass Devotions series. He mentioned that it features lots of new music from the album and creates a journey for listeners, stating, “I realized how much awesome subtlety is lost when I DJ like I’m trying to entertain rather than express, overcomplicating the path the energy takes.”

I think drum and bass is so beautiful because it can be the softest, most heartfelt music in the world if it wants to, all the way to the most devastating dark extremes on the other end. That’s what makes this music so incredible to me, and I wanted to give that kind of diverse, progressive experience to listeners in this mix.

Justin Hawkes

Check out the exclusive guest mix from Justin Hawkes on SoundCloud, stream his latest single “Stomp” on your preferred platform, and stay tuned for the release of Now or Never.