Five years ago, Excision couldn’t destroy the soundsystem in your buddy’s Buick if he tried. Five years ago, the monstrous yet catchy womp-womp of Excision’s dub-step DNA was nothing more than ambitious strands left fossilized, yet to be discovered. In fact, if it wasn’t for the sparse dub-step rumble of British duo Vex’d , Excision would be drooling over a desk, trapped in a cubicle, chasing a paycheck that would help pay for the cost of dry cleaning his business casual wardrobe. Vex’d would release Degenerate in 2005, an 18-track LP that many music critics and critical bloggers claim to be one of the first “official” dub-step albums to be released. British writer Mary Anne Hobbs went as far to call the album the “single most accomplished and important record in album form of the genre.” To Excision (born Jeff Abel), the transformative Degenerate was all that lofty praise and more — it would forever change his life that very same year.

“I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with my life,” explains Excision, only minutes after he turned the sea of patrons at his Red Bull Music Academy performance into an unruly, sweaty wave of urban animals. “I was just trying a way to find money … and my parents are both in business. I went for a semester, decided that I hated it. My parents wanted me to finish a full year before I moved onto something else. I didn’t have any real choices. It seemed like the best of all the shitty options that I could think of.” During the painful second semester, Excision stumbled upon drum and bass — a classic love story indeed. But this Canadian deejay’s tastes would quickly seek out something heavier, something harder, something with more of a bite … and Vex’d filled that void. Soon enough, Excision’s addiction to the sound couldn’t be fed anymore. “I searched for more, but there simply weren’t enough people making music like this,” continues Excision. “I decided that it was something I had to do. I had to become a producer. It had to become my life.”

With zero musical knowledge, Excision taught himself everything. “It was nearly impossible,” remembers Excision. “I didn’t know anyone. The people I did know didn’t know anything about producing. I spent months researching. It was ridiculous how long it took me to figure it all out.” With increasing pressure from his parents — “I was essentially dropping out of school to pursue music” — Excision told off his social life and began working 12 to 14 hours a day on his newly found craft. “It was death or dub-step,” he recalls. “I was either on the streets or I was going to be successful.”

Within a quick five years, Excision would open up and find a mentor in the form of Lorin Ashton of Bassnectar  (“He was like, ‘I don’t want even want to play after you! Where’d you get all of this shit?’”), tour with Dieselboy and quickly learn that wearing suit and tie for the rest of his life simply wasn’t in the dub-step deck of cards. “It was a dream the second I heard that Vex’d record,” says Excision. “I don’t care if I have to rent a shitty apartment for the rest of my life. As long as I can do this and live happy, that’s all I need.”

Words by Ryan Patrick Hooper, photos by Dustin Downing