Reid Speed: “Drum & Bass is a Way of Life for Me, as for Many of Us”

Reid Speed shares insight on her roots in drum and bass, her thoughts on the current scene, and more to kick off the Drum & Bass Devotions mix series.

The legacy of drum and bass runs deep in the electronic music scene. Turn back the clock to the early ’90s, and you’ll find the style emerging from the UK’s Jungle scene, primed to spread like wildfire. This era saw a number of artists like Andy C, London Elektricity, Goldie, Ed Rush & Optical, DJ Hype, DJ Zinc, Friction, and more championing the genre. But the sound of drum and bass carried across the pond, where artists like Reid Speed got their first taste of the genre that would quickly win them over.

Reid Speed got her start in the scene as a teenager in the mid-’90s, when drum and bass were in their formative years and still called Jungle by many. The now acclaimed DJ/producer and co-founder of Play Me Records came of age alongside its growth, and the timing couldn’t have been more perfect for her to develop a deep-rooted passion for the genre. That passion was accelerated when she scored a job at Breakbeat Science, the first record store devoted to drum and bass in the US.

“Record stores were the town squares of our early scene and, literally, a lifeline to all who lived outside major cities; customers used to call on the phone where I’d play them the new releases to order,” Reid Speed reminisced. “Every Tuesday, when the new releases were in, all the DJs would congregate to fight over the few copies of the most anticipated tunes and whatever promos we could get our hands on.”

The community born out of Breakbeat Science expanded beyond its walls, with lifelong friendships and connections forged from afternoons spent digging through the latest releases, which inevitably turned into nights spent at a rave or club. “Nights led to chance encounters that brought us together, and because we all felt so precious about this thing we were trying to grow and nurture, we found unity in trying to preserve and propagate it,” Reid Speed shared.

Drum and bass experienced plenty of those peaks and lulls that Reid Speed mentioned over the past three decades. While some artists have continued championing the style during this time, others have looked to different genres to carve out their space in the scene. Yet the current era seems livelier than ever, with more artists at the forefront of the genre and attendees craving its sounds.

Reid Speed doesn’t consider this a coincidence. She cites a few factors that have contributed to the genre’s resurgence, the first of which is centered on the state of the world and how the genre resonates with listeners. “‘Speeding up of society’ was always necessary for drum and bass to finally resonate with a wider audience,” she said.

According to Reid Speed, the second factor in its growth in North America was “the heavy bass explosion that began in 2010.” This led to a cycle through different subgenres that included bass house, trap, twerk, glitch hop, midtempo, riddim, and more. But more importantly, it also led to bass artists hosting sold-out shows at major venues “in ways never dreamed possible as a pure function of the underground.”

The latter of those two factors isn’t much of a surprise for those who have dug a bit deeper into artists in the bass realm. Reid Speed shared that many of those artists have always been fans, if not producers, of the genre. “As their stars have risen, they have brought more attention to the genre by adding it to their own sets or having tour support from D&B artists,” Reid Speed said. “This leads to greater festival support of the genre, which continually introduces it to huge audiences instantly.” She also showed some love to Pasquale Rotella, who has consistently professed his love for drum and bass, for always holding a spot for its artists at Insomniac’s festivals.

As for the future, Reid Speed has an optimistic vision that the community will achieve even more greatness and something viable for megastars and mid-level artists alike to be able to live off of. “That’s always been my dream for the community, true wider support of the music, the artists, the history, the originators,” she shared. “I’d also love to see a resurgence of DJ culture and the underground continue to flourish, especially now that modern jungle and D&B are mainstays of intersectional rave culture. This is our home.”

That doesn’t mean it should be confined to a box, though, as Reid Speed also thinks that more pop and hip-hop producers will be tapping those in the drum and bass scene for more releases soon enough. She exclaimed, “The “future music” of the ’90s is now the present!”

Reid Speed also shared a list of drum and bass artists she’s been tuned into lately. This includes standouts like Bladerunner, Serum, Calyx, Sam Binga, Monty, Alix Perez, Unglued, Dunk, DLR, Nick the Lot, Bou, T>I, along with ascending stars such as Des McMahon, Dr. Apollo, Enta, Bennie, LMNOP, Skellytn, Siren, and CLB. Additionally, Reid Speed has highly rated labels such as Critical, 1985 Music, Sofa Sound, Souped Up, Hospital, Born on Road, Jungle Cakes, Vision, Grid, and, of course, her very own Play Me.

With all that in mind, we are beyond proud to host Reid Speed as the first artist in our newly launched mix series, Drum & Bass Devotions. She dropped off an hour-long mix filled to the brim with tunes from many of the aforementioned artists, along with selections from Hugh Hardie, Justin Hawkes, Chase & Status, Phace, and more. Give it a spin and follow her on social media for more to come.

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