WORDS

Still riding the crest of one of the most accelerated rises dubstep has seen in recent years, 18-year-old Dion continues to go from strength to strength. He cracked open a seriously fizzy bottle of 2017 with a 55 date North American tour supporting Excision and the momentum hasn’t stopped increasing yet.

DJ-wise he’s spent the year touring both his own headline shows and playing alongside Excision, including directly after him at the legendary Lost Lands festival. But it’s as a producer he’s truly made his made mark. Firstly his string of major league collaborations has impressively spawned tag-team riots with Pegboard Nerds, Snails, Bro Safari, Adventure Club and, most recently, with the Rottun bossman once again on Hoods Up.

But it’s his ever-growing collection of solo bangers that have really revealed where Dion is heading in the future. Gradually beginning to reflect a much wider picture than just one genre, through tracks such as the emotional fusion of Alchemy and the vibrant house feels of Textacy (although it’s clear raw roughage is never far from his mind, as the fittingly-titled Berzerk proves)

2018 is shaping up to see even more releases from the Dutch bass insurgent…

“I’ve got loads and loads of material!” he exclaims. “From dubstep bangers to cheeky house tunes and collabs with producers like Modestep, Funtcase and LAXX. Me and Gentlemens Club are trying to whip something up as we speak! Besides from that I’m going to flip Dion Timmer into an experience instead of the ‘party DJ’ reputation I have now… Not a lot I’m going to say about that yet but stay tuned”

We’re tuned. In the meantime, here’s how 2017 went down from Dion’s unique perspective…

This year has been amazing. I’ve been doing a lot of touring while making loads of material at the same time. It’s stressful but oh so satisfying! I always get super-stoked when I get to play a song live that I’ve literally made the day before. And I’ve had lots of opportunities to do that! Lost Lands was definitely the highlight this year, in terms of shows. Playing mainstage to a full crowd right after Excision? Absolutely mindblowing! Besides that most of the smaller shows I’ve played by myself this year have been packed and crazy as well. On a personal music tip, I’ve definitely pushed myself to actually make what I enjoy making a lot more this year. The biggest problem for me was whenever I finished a tune I thought to myself: ‘This great but I don’t think anyone would really enjoy this as much as I do.’ This made me kind of unmotivated, but I was proven wrong after releasing my Textacy EP. My friends and fans have convinced me to put the ‘weird’ tunes out and people seem to be loving them!

On a much wider musical tip, I’m definitely hearing more and more EDM on the radio and it’s making me really happy. Even if it’s some cheesy ghostproduced future bass song, it’s still electronic music on the radio, which has to be good for the whole scene. It’s also great to see underground riddim dubstep making a comeback. That’s definitely exciting since the bigger dubstep producers are now giving it their own spin. I still got mad love for the old school riddim sound, I remember jamming to heavy-ass Sadhu (Kaiser) tunes and getting wobbly to some of my fellow yung slaya Haunta’s tunes. Dubstep in general has definitely been getting more and more recognition and climbing back up to where it used to be, especially when you have artists really pushing things innovatively. LAXX has been slaying it, for example. In fact right now we’re wrapping up a tune we did and it’s sounding absolutely next level. Trampa, too, has definitely proved himself as one of 2017’s heavy-hitter dons… As has his labelmate MUST DIE! Ray Volpe and Tisoki have both released some absolutely amazing EPs this year, Oddprophet has been putting out some serious madness with amazing sound design and yung don Mastadon. SVDDEN DEATH and Yakz are all killing the riddim game right now with their amazing choppy and grimy sounds! What would I like to see more of in 2018? More and more people appreciating the old school dubstep sound! Little tip for the newer fans exploring this sound: sort the UKF uploads on their channel to oldest first and don’t be ashamed to jam to some classics! What would I like to see less of in 2018? Closed-minded ‘experts’ who judge peoples’ music taste. Sad to see these ‘old heads’ flaming the newer fans for listening to this new brostep/riddim wave… Come on and get with the program! (Wob -PROGRAM- bwawawawawawa) Thanks for an amazing year!”

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Dion Timmer – Textacy is out now