Since the launch of ChinaShop, we’ve publicly worn a certain fascination with Lorin Ashton and the intense wall of bass he’s built brick-by-brick as Bassnectar. From our first encounter under the Austin sun during South By Southwest to our days spent in Detroit at the Detroit Electronic Music Festival and soaking up the Chicago sights with the California-based deejay at Lollapalooza, we’ve always sported our fan patch with pride. After catching up with Ashton’s manager and everything man, Elliott Dunwody (who informed us about the fantastic Playboy bunny brunch he enjoyed earlier than morning), we finally ran into the man himself. Within minutes, Ashton began dropping articulate bombs about his upcoming release, Cozza Frenzy, due in the first week of October on Amorphous Music.

“It’s very difficult to be a music producer worth any spit while on the road,” explains Ashton, as two Lolla-jumpers (read: two hippies sneaking into the festival) catapulted over the fence and were quickly nabbed by two moustache-sporting security guards. “Those old days of locking myself in the studio for three months … are gone.” Indeed, with festival appearances throughout the summer followed by an extensive fall and winter tour supporting his latest release, time is a tough currency to come by. “So, as a result of all that, I’ve got a project … that I’ve been working on for three years. Yes, every song needs to be polished — they are all what I use in my live sets — but they are big, raw, open sketches that I’ve been mashing with other things. It’s been really intense … every moment of the summer has been spent on the road DJing or at home speeding through this trying to wrap it up.”

Words by Ryan Patrick Hooper, photos by Dustin Downing