15 questions with…
A titan of the bass scene, showered with acclaim by both his peers and an enraptured audience, Ray Volpe’s contemporary spin on dubstep is both earth-shakingly impactful and sonically multi-hued. We caught up with Volpe and discover how he assembles his brand of crowd-pleasing ultra-bangers fully in-the-box…
First rising to prominence with the extraordinary Laserbeam in 2022 (that year’s most played dubstep track according to the 1001 Trackless database), Ray Volpe has continued to launch increasingly seismic dubstep-flavoured cruise missiles, most notably the extraordinary SEE YOU DROP earlier this year. Riding high on scooping the Best New Artist at last year’s Electronic Dance Music Awards and the phenomenal success of his ‘Volpetron Ascends’ tour (which included 13 sold-out shows), we grab Ray to have a chinwag about his process, his journey, and where his music might ultimately take him next…
1 Firstly, let’s talk about SEE YOU DROP, it’s got such a characteristically fullon sound. How did the track first develop in your mind?
Ray Volpe: “I started writing the second drop first in London, late February 2023. It was my week off leading into Rampage festival in Belgium, where I knew I had to come out swinging with something special for that set. I made the second drop and opened with it, to an awesome response from the crowd which felt amazing to have that acceptance from them. I felt it was more of a second drop in terms of the flow so I immediately worked backwards, trying to figure out how to make something less in your face and more ‘me’, which is more catchy for a first drop. Originally, I had used vocals from Savage’s Swing on top of the first drop but I quickly realised so many of the newer EDM fans have no idea what that song is. That version was definitely meant to be played live but it sort of backfired as no-one would sing along to that one. Fast forward to maybe June, and I started sample searching and found the full sample from what you hear today. It’s a full phrase but I chopped it up to give it a little catchy melody that’d be easy to get stuck in your head after a bit. I think the extended fake out really made it catchier too – when you first hear it you don’t really expect it to go that long and the little chopped ‘drop drop drop’ melody just keeps going and going. It worked out really nicely in my opinion.”
2 How would you typically first approach writing new tracks? Do you start with beats or with melodic/ sonic elements?
“This process is always changing for me. Sometimes I start with a drop, sometimes I start with a vocal melody. It really depends on what I’m feeling that day inside of the DAW. I think having a structure is good at times to create things, but I also think having a more chaotic approach where nothing is planned can lead t
