INTERVIEW: Eptic’s Illustrious Career in Bass Music is just Getting Started

Being a mainstay in the bass music realm for over a decade now, Eptic clearly has some great stories to tell. However with that said, even amidst his decorated career of releasing classics and innovativing the dubstep scene, in some respects it feels like Belgium producer’s story is only just beginning. For example, 2022 has already proven to be a landmark year for Eptic full of accomplishments and new frontiers. Fresh off the release of his debut album The End of the World alongside recently completing his first-ever headlining bus tour, the 29-year-old artist is taking huge strides forward and we can’t wait to see where he takes decides to take things next. We had the pleasure of sitting down and chatting with the man himself at Chicago’s North Coast Music Festival to talk the craziness of touring, the dubstep scene, and other topics. Check out our exclusive RTT interview below and be sure to follow Eptic on socials and catch one his sets in a city near you.

Eptic

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Run the Trap: Now that your debut LP The End of The World has been out for a while now, how are you reflecting on that album release? What did creating and releasing this project teach you about yourself, both as a person and an artist?

Eptic: I learned I’m really bad with procrastination. I’d like to do something about that because things were so hectic making that album. Half the tracks were demos I already had for a year and the other half was stuff I started a few months before the release. Things kicked in three weeks before the album where I was like “oh fuck I gotta finish this.” I stayed up until six in the morning every day and then would wake up at nine. I did that for three weeks straight so I was properly losing my mind.

But it’s been like that for every single release, I get into this crazy state of not sleeping to actually be creative. I just bought a house and everything’s been chill but it’s a lot harder to write music now. For some reason every time I’m on a train or a plane I make great music. But when I’m at home and I’m comfortable it’s really difficult.

You also recently wrapped up your first headlining bus tour. What was that experience like?

At first it was mellow but then became a lot crazier. There was one clarifying experience where all this shit was going on and I was like “wow there’s nothing that can top this.” I had just made a tattoo appointment and woke up to one of the guys on the bus saying, a bit dramatically, “guys we have a situation there’s fucking ants everywhere!” I come out of my bunk and the walls are just covered in ants. In Belgium we have this expression: “a drop that overflows the bucket.” It’s basically means you can only take so much. I was at that point a week before, and now there were ants too… I just didn’t care anymore.. like of course there are fucking ants. You don’t even have to elaborate in the interview here, you can just write: ants. (laughs)

From someone who’s been a pioneer and mainstay in the bass scene for so long, how have you viewed the genre, as well as yourself, transform and evolve over the years?

It’s weird because I got into this when I was really young, I started playing shows when I was 16. It’s interesting though because I was never worried about what was happening in the scene or what anyone else was doing. I’ve always very much been doing my own thing. But it’s strange that it’s been so long, because at the same time it feels like its flown by.

Something I’ve noticed is when I was just starting out, back in Belgium and Europe I only played my own songs; I would say 90% of my sets were my own songs. Then I came to the states and that just didn’t work. People wanted to hear songs that they knew. So I had to play Flux Pavilion’s “I Can’t Stop” and Zomboy songs, music I thought was cool that I knew would go off, but of course wasn’t my own. But something I love is that DJs playing their own stuff has come back in the last two years, because of people like SVDDEN DEATH and Marauda. I feel like they were the main artists that brought that back and it’s something I love about dubstep right now. I remember when I went to shows when I was really young and I saw Funtcase play. I would go to his show to hear new things and that’s what’s coming back in dubstep and that’s really cool.

Yeah I don’t get why people would want to hear other artist’s music at sets.

I’m gonna elaborate though, one aspect I don’t like about the scene right now in America is that everything can be really capitalistic. For example, it’s gotten to the point where as an artist you have to have a big visual screen and spend 20k on production just to make people interested in a show, because you’re competing with guys like Excision that have a stupid amount of money. I mean that stuff is cool, but it’s not about the music. I feel like people really want to be entertained in all these extra way and that’s something I don’t like about the scene. So there, you got a little bit of positive and a little bit of negative there (laughs).

Your upcoming b2b with Space Laces at SVDDEN DEATH’s “Summoning of the Eclipse” festival looks crazy. What can fans expect from you two coming together for a set?

I haven’t talked to him yet, but I really want to sit down with Ian and make some music together. It would also be really cool if we both made edits of all of our songs and mixed them together really well. You know, if we really sat down and made this b2b into a whole experience. I’m 99% sure he’s going to be down for that, I just haven’t talked to him yet.

You recently shared that your flash drives completely erased before a set which is a DJ’s worst nightmare. What’s the opposite of that for a DJ, what’s a pleasantly surprising thing that has happened to you during a performance? 

Thankfully, I didn’t have a single problem on tour with my USBs. We had one show in Las Vegas where we couldn’t get the visuals screen to work. For my tour we had this whole time-coded intro, it was a big part of the tour and the visual screen just wasn’t working. So when I began my set I started playing the first song and was basically like “hey the visual screen doesn’t work, I just need you guys to deal with it.” But the funny thing is, that set ended up being one of the most fun sets on the tour because it was just about the music. So that was a malfunction that turned out really great. Danny (SVDDEN Death) also came and did a b2b, it was really cool.

From finishing your first headlining bus tour to dropping a full-length album, you’ve recently reached a bunch of career milestones. What’s the next goal for Eptic?

I worry about a lot of things. I’m always convinced my music is bad, I can be extremely negative. That said, I really look up to Space Laces, Marauda, and SVDDEN Death and when I talk to them they always say they really look up to me. It made me realize that I don’t have to worry about making an album or making an EP; I should just sit down and have fun making music and see whatever comes out of it. That’s always worked for me, I only started worrying about career stuff about a year ago and that’s when things started getting difficult. So I’m just gonna try to have fun with music and hope the rest follows.

INTERVIEW: Eptic’s Illustrious Career in Bass Music is just Getting Started