Bassnectar

Lorin Gabriel Ashton (born February 16, 1978), known professionally as Bassnectar, is an American DJ and electronic music producer. Bassnectar became known for live shows that combined layered sound design with immersive visuals and attracted a large, dedicated fan base, and his work has been credited with helping to popularize bass-heavy electronic music in the United States. He appeared at major festivals such as Coachella, Bonnaroo, and Electric Daisy Carnival, and released charting albums including Noise vs. Beauty (2014) and Unlimited (2016). In July 2020, following numerous allegations of sexual misconduct, Ashton announced he would take an extended hiatus from music. A lawsuit alleging he engaged in sexual abuse and human trafficking was subsequently filed by two women in April 2021, resulting in an out of-court-settlement in February 2025. Ashton is a native of San Jose, California. When Ashton was 16 years old, he played in a death metal band named Pale Existence, which contributed to his heavy style of music. In 1995, he attended his first rave and was drawn to this new type of music, attending as many shows as possible, promoting shows, and eventually learning to DJ after studying electronic music production.[better source needed] He continued his studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, producing tracks using Opcode Systems Studio Vision Pro. Ashton began DJing parties in the Bay Area and drew fanfare at Burning Man by playing multiple sets a night. Around this time, several mixtapes were released under the moniker Lorin, including Gardens, Dreamtempo Mixtape, and Freakbeat for the Beatfreaks. Making an appearance at the 2002 Health and Harmony Festival in Santa Rosa, California, with a 16-track mixing board and alongside a Gamelan Orchestra, it is believed Ashton performed for the first time using a laptop and controller in lieu of standard DJing equipment. It was around this time that Ashton began formalizing his stage name, sometimes still booking under Lorin Bassnectar before dropping Lorin altogether. His second album Motions of Mutation from 2003 and its 2004 successor Diverse Systems of Throb both garnered support from the Bay Area electronic music community, and through frequent sightings at various parties and festivals, his notoriety continued to grow. Ashton played one such event, Shambhala music festival, in 2001–2002 before formally returning to the grounds as Bassnectar in 2003 and kicking off a string of annual performances at the festival that would continue for 11 years straight. In 2005, Bassnectar signed with Madison House, where booking agent Jake Schneider arranged performances on club, theatre, and national touring circuits.During this period, he released the albums Underground Communication, Cozza Frenzy, as well as the EP Timestretch, and performed at major music festivals across the United States.Under Madison House, he also headlined events including Electric Forest, Tomorrowland, and North Coast Music Festival, in addition to presenting curated events such as the 2019 Freakstyle run. He also organized his own Bass Center events, including a performance at Madison Square Garden as part of Bass Center VIII. In 2010, Bassnectar performed at Wakarusa, Camp Bisco, The All Good Music Festival, and Outside Lands. In 2011, Divergent Spectrum became the first album to chart on the Billboard Top Dance/Electronic Albums, spending 35 weeks on the chart and peaking at 2nd position, marking a turning point for the Bassnectar project from a commercial standpoint. Following the success of Divergent Spectrum, Ashton released his seventh studio album, Vava Voom, on April 10, 2012. The album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart and remained on the chart for 15 weeks. The success of Vava Voom was complemented by a sold-out North American tour. It was during this period that Bassnectar was at the height of his touring era, exceeding 200,000 ticket sales in both 2011 and 2012 and playing over 150 shows a year in venues across the United States. Through the end of 2013 and early 2014, touring dates tapered off to allow space to produce his eighth studio album. Ashton approached the effort by first composing each song's building blocks electronically, then deconstructing them into guitar, piano, and vocal arrangements that could then be sent to various producers and artists for workshopping. The feedback collected from these workshopping efforts informed the finalized version of each track. The resulting album, Noise vs. Beauty, was released June 24, 2014 and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart, remaining on the chart for 16 weeks. The album received generally favorable reviews, with Rolling Stone giving the album a 3/5 rating and noting the release was Ashton's "most mature". In 2015, Bassnectar stopped touring his own show and shifted focus towards playing the festival circuit almost exclusively, making multiple appearances at Bonnaroo, Camp Bisco, Electric Daisy Carnival, Electric Forest Festival, Lollapalooza, and Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival. However, before this time of exclusively playing festival shows, Bassnectar began orchestrating his own "curated" events. In 2010, the first of these events, named "BassCenter", was held at the 1stBank Center in Broomfield, Colorado. As popularity and demand grew, various curated events were added over time, including "Basslights" (a collaborative event between Bassnectar and Pretty Lights), Halloween and Day of the Dead themed events (sometimes referred to as "Freakstyle" or "Dark Parties"), New Year's Eve celebrations ("NYE360"), and others, such as "Freestyle Sessions" and "Spring Gathering". By 2016, Bassnectar's in-house productions like Bass Center at the 25,000 person capacity Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Denver were sold out and featured supporting acts including Wu Tang Clan, Flying Lotus, Lupe Fiasco, Flux Pavilion, and Porter Robinson. In 2019, the first international concert destination event "Deja Voom" was announced, to be he held at the Barceló Maya Resort in Riviera Maya, Mexico. On July 3, 2020, Ashton announced he was "stepping back" from music following multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, which he denied while acknowledging that "some of my past actions have caused pain." The announcement resulted in the cancellation of upcoming appearances, the suspension of his nonprofit Be Interactive, and the removal of several collaborative tracks from streaming platforms. After nearly three years of public absence, a new mix titled Music for Optimists was uploaded in January 2023 to the Bassnectar Mixcloud profile. Subscribers to his newsletter also received an invitation to a new website, "UnlocktheOtherSide.com," described as a community hub. Later that year, Ashton announced a "members-only" two-night concert at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas (October 6–7, 2023), which marked his first scheduled public performance since 2020. The show went ahead alongside the release of his twelfth studio album, The Golden Rule. However, a planned October 27–28 show at the Harrah's Cherokee Center in Asheville, North Carolina was cancelled the same day it was announced following public backlash over the abuse allegations. On December 30–31, Bassnectar returned to playing New Year's parties, as he had held since 2011 and continued to do through 2019, when he played a two-night show at the Palladium Times Square. The Palladium show was followed up by an announcement a few weeks later for a new curated event, titled "Boombox ATL", which was to be held April 26–27, 2024 at the Gateway Center Arena. Subject to similar public outcry as other recent show announcements, this show was subsequently cancelled. Following this cancellation, the team attempted to relocate the show to The Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas for the same dates, but on February 16, this show too was postponed, officially citing "health issues." In