Hi, who are you?
Billain / Adis Kutkut: Hi, I am Adis Kutkut, also known as Billain. I am a co-founder of CYBE Recordings, a multimedia label derived from the Cyberneuro underground movement. I have been involved in drum & bass, sound design, graphics, graffiti, sculpture, film, and sci-fi / horror writing for the past 27 years under the artist names Billain and Aethek. As a sound designer and cinematic composer, I have worked on multiple AAA games and films, and have made some of my own as well.
Indent / Jesse Campos: My name is Jesse Campos, better known as Indent, and I am one of the co-founders of CYBE. My role primarily focuses on logistics for the label and the back-end side of things. My background is mostly as a DJ. I got my real start in the online music scene through VRChat during the COVID lockdown, spending most of my time spinning tunes and helping with online events. That eventually translated into real-life events for online communities such as Shelter VR, Millennium Strike, and CYBERNEURO, where I met Billain.
Lokshot / Jude Hey! We are CYBE, consisting of Adis Kutkut, also known as Billain; Jesse, also known as Indent; and myself, Jude, also known as Lokshot. My role in the label is R&D, management, promotion, and A&R. I am a DJ and producer based between NYC and, more recently, Tokyo.
What is your ethos?
Billain Designed by humans: destroy gates, build bridges, bring power back to artists, and bring art ownership back to the people.
Indent: Helping insane artists do insane things. No limits, just pure expression and art. There are a lot of artists out there with insane talent and even more insane ideas when it comes to music, visuals, or physical work. When we say CYBE exists for a reason, that reason is to give these artists a platform where they feel at home and truly represented.
Lokshot: Fundamentally, the ethos from the beginning has been to change the mold of what people expect from a record label. CYBE functions less like a traditional label and more like an all-encompassing production, design, development, modeling, and sound-design collective. A big part of the idea is putting more power back into artists’ hands, especially in a scene that can sometimes feel overly driven by numbers, metrics, and algorithms. We are trying to hold onto a DIY spirit and a foundational rave ethos, the kind that shaped a lot of the early developments in the ’90s, where much of our influence comes from. We are not really defined by one genre. It is more of a shared sonic language, or a collective taste, that connects everything we do.
Tell us your origin story…
Billain: If it is about me, I have been an artist my entire life. I have seen war, streets of violence, poverty, despair, survival, and loss. But I have also seen hope, love, and passion in the darkest corners: in shelters, basements, and in the heart of the desolate. That kept my art going beyond the instructions, directions, and rules imposed by circles or businesses every now and then. Among many of our respected friends’ labels that advocated for more open sandboxes, a label of freedom was always deeply ingrained in many of us as a fundamental part of humanity unlocked. In my case, that meant making the most experimental, crazy, unhinged output possible: heavy cyberpunk rave mayhem disguised as drum & bass, neuro, halftime, ambient, hip-hop, and more. I met Jesse, Indent, in VRChat while exploring the peak of underground culture in Unity-built clubs, surrounded by digital brutalist concrete in 3D-modeled basements. We made a lot of friends there. I met Lokshot on Skype, which is not as impressive as VRChat, but this is where genuine friendships are born, and no one taught us this. We now run CBRPNK, Cyberneuro, and CYBE. Lots of C’s, because we use it as a measuring unit for how futuristic something is, hehehe. I think we clicked on the question: what if we make a label that releases visuals, audio, tools, and all of that coherently goes back underground? The rest is the making of perpetual history.
Indent: I come from a small town in South Texas called Del Rio. I love my hometown, but there was not any electronic music or underground scene at all when I was growing up. I got introduced to electronic music as a kid by randomly finding a USB on the floor full of music from Tiesto, deadmau5, and a mix from what I think was a Gatecrasher CD. It might have been a Scott Bond or Judge Jules mix. Thanks to that random USB, I fell in love with trance music. Not long after, thanks to the internet and specifically Newgrounds, I was introduced to drum & bass and jungle. That, coupled with my uncle being a wedding DJ, gave me some access to DJ gear. I became obsessed with DJing any chance I got, and with electronic music in general. Fast forward to the COVID lockdown: I started messing around in VRChat and discovered a whole club scene where DJs were spinning tunes live for everyone to enjoy. After spending time in that online community, I started DJing for VR clubs, and from there I met a lot of crazy talented people who became close friends. One of them was Billain. Not long after we became friends, I played for his Summons event in Sarajevo, then went on to help run and spin for other events Billain hosted in Sarajevo. Some time after that, Billain came to me with the whole idea behind CYBE, and I was instantly on board. Now, after years of hard work getting everything up and running, CYBE is two releases in with 42 crazy talented artists.
Lokshot: Having discovered drum & bass and electronic music around 13 or 14 years old through AIM Radio, sometime in late 2005 or 2006, hearing Pendulum’s “Through the Loop” was what really led me down the rabbit hole of electronic music, and more specifically drum & bass. Discovering the Dogs on Acid forum definitely influenced and expanded my taste quite a bit too. From there, it moved into early Stella Sessions from Skream, and even listening to Dutch hardstyle until around 2010. By that time, the brostep era had really hit the U.S., and I was being exposed to some of my first parties in NYC around 2012. I started DJing shortly afterwards. I think the full musical obsession really started around that time, as the freedom of being an adult allowed for more partying and more exposure to different sounds. Around then I was super obsessed with harder neuro and tearout, and I met Billain on a Skype call with what I can possibly recall being a very young IMANU and Wingz. It feels like 100 lifetimes and stories from then until now.
Tell us about your local scene…
Billain: Bosnia had one of the first drum & bass scenes in the region. We started around 1998–99 with the Kontra DNB crew, bringing artists such as Kemal, Stakka & Skynet, Teebee, Rascal & Klone, Black Sun Empire, and others. The crew included MPJ Slo, DJ Aldin, and some really good designers at the time, like OpticInFunktion, who were doing flyers. I joined the crew around 2007–2008, and we had more gigs together after that. The Bosnian scene exploded in the ’90s after the end of the war and featured some of the region’s biggest electronic venues before Exit and all. I personally think we certainly inspired Exit as well. The dominant vibes here were always breakbeat, jungle, hip-hop, techno, drum & bass, trip-hop, and house.
Indent: In my town, there was not really a local scene until recently. Now we have a strong and growing one that I have been helping with for the past year and a half. It is mostly a house and techno scene, but we have been slowly introducing different genres such as hard trance, jungle, and hard groove. The venue where we host everything is called The Underground Del Rio. It is a two-car garage converted into a venue, so it is as underground as it gets. But do not let that deceive you: it is a proper venue with dope lighting, fog, and all the necessary DJ gear: four CDJ-3000s, a V10 mixer, four Technics 1200s for vinyl DJs, and an RMX-1000 FX unit to play around with. The owner and founder of The Underground Del Rio, Junior ’eM, is a house head with roots in the underground Chicago house scene. He wanted to establish a proper underground scene in his hometown, so he built The Underground Del Rio. At the beginning, maybe five or ten people would show up to an event. Now that word has gotten out, we are getting 35 people to max capacity per event, which is pretty good for how small our town is. So yeah, I am super thankful that we have a scene like this and that I can be a part of it.
Lokshot: I think when most people think of NYC, they usually associate it with techno and house first, since those are probably the most visible sounds here right now. But New York has a real history with drum & bass and jungle too. There is definitely lineage here. At the moment, though, I do think there is a lack of darker, harder, and more experimental drum & bass, both in NYC and in the U.S. more broadly. A lot of that comes down to the economics of throwing parties. Costs are high, so promoters and talent buyers often have to book what they know will make sense financially, which can make it harder for more niche or aggressive sounds to grow. In New York specifically, real estate and zoning are also huge factors. There just are not that many spaces where underground music can exist at a larger level. On top of that, visa costs for international artists are extremely high, so it mostly only makes sense when an artist is already part of a bigger tour. That said, there is still a lot of exciting music happening here. Between the obvious club-focused producers, hardcore, new-school jungle, leftfield, and experimental acts are having a real resurgence. There is also a wave of electro-house revival and more EDM+ producers doing interesting work. House and techno are obviously thriving too, with a lot of great artists and parties pushing things forward. Tokyo, on the other hand, feels like one of the most exciting scenes in the world right now. The amount of talent, DJs, and promoters there is genuinely incredible. In peak season, there might be five or six drum & bass parties in a week, with probably 10–15 different promoters active in Tokyo alone, let alone Osaka, Hokkaido, Okinawa, and more. There is an openness to new sounds there, and a level of obsession with the music, that I have not seen much in the West outside of maybe the UK or parts of Europe. Even outside drum & bass, Tokyo has amazing IDM, dubstep, juke, leftfield, and experimental producers and DJs. I think the strength of the party scene really helps people refine their sound. It may not be built around massive 2,000–5,000 capacity venues, but the smaller 100–500 capacity rooms are active, healthy, and genuinely supporting underground music.
Do you have a specific sound or vibe in mind?
Billain: I come from a background of realizing that many electronic genres we hold dear have little space left for the freedom, experimentation, and avant-garde signatures they once held against the mainstream. The edge was smoothed and polished to such a level of gloss that we cannot really call it the same thing, which is why so many people passionately argue about which times were better. As we go deeper and remove the shackles of mainstream requests and the hypnosis of people staring at stats and Excel sheets, you realize that you can do anything and everything in all the genres we listen to. So we did just that, all of us.
Indent
It might seem like we do, but we do not like to restrict ourselves to one sound or vibe. If we are showing something we like and it is crazy different from our other releases, we might honestly be even more inclined to make it part of CYBE. Lol.
Lokshot: I think we have a very distinct sound and vibe, but from a listener perspective that will be a long and unfolding process. We have a strong but diverse collective interest between ourselves, which feels very distinctive from one person to another. At the same time, we are constantly learning from each other and listening to things one of us might not have heard before. When we share music, it will often instantly click. I think all of us have strong similarities between the media of the past that inspires us.
Do you have a regular artist roster? Who can we see releasing with you?
Billain: In just two releases, we have already signed around 42 artists. It shows how thirsty people were for genuine, unobstructed music craft. I think music is more important, and the fact that we have new artists releasing on the same compilation as veterans tells people a story about what we care about: there is no cult of personality, only music.
Indent: We already have 42 artists: some established and well known, others having their first release on a label with us. With that said, we just go based on the music. Nothing more, nothing less.
Lokshot: I would say we do not necessarily have a dedicated artist roster per se, but you will see our regular camp release more on the label. We have signed a large number of different artists already, ranging from established names to people having their first proper label release with us. For us, it really just comes down to the music and whether it feels aligned with the wider CYBE world.
Tell us about your A&R process…
Billain: We do everything according to feeling. As for technicalities: that is a secret 😉
Indent: If we fuck with it, we will release it.
Lokshot: I think Billain has taught me a lot when it comes to A&R and helping producers realize their potential without compromising artistic integrity. Generally, when listening to demos and working with artists, our focus has become much more about helping artists achieve the full sonic realization of their project instead of worrying about how something is mixed or mastered. We leave full stylistic choice up to the artist instead of molding it to a proverbial label sound or mix aesthetic. The last thing we worry about is how something is “mixable” or built for a club setting. That leaves a lot more freedom when it comes to production and sound. It makes you think of a much bigger picture, abandon expectations, and leave presumptions at the door. That mindset keeps our openness in genres and feeling much broader. Ultimately, we want that to reflect on the listener experiencing something new and unpredictable every time they hit play.
What makes you different from other labels?
Billain: We are not on Spotify or similar platforms that exploit artists; we care about them. Artists need more respect for their craft, not coverage. We do not release artists who produce with Suno or other music AI tools. We have an abundance of people who love their craft and need us more than ever, so Suno will get you banned from our communities. We have trademarked our new inventions: Relics, a physical release format. We have released a documentary about it, and we release a lot of lore that involves many creatives. Our community is measured in the thousands across groups and Discord communities without a paywall, so people actually get to influence the label, inspire it, and contribute.
Indent: We do not release anything on platforms that take advantage of artists. We also keep visual artists and illustrators in mind just as much as we do music producers. Through our new physical platform called Relics, they can tie their work to something new, tangible, and handmade with love for the art and whatever is envisioned for their release.
Lokshot: From my experience having helmed another label in the past, what really propels CYBE is keeping things vastly physical and heavily community-based. I do not think many others are going to be prototyping one-off sculptures that may or may not sell. We do it because we have to do it. That is part of our artistic process. I also think that, from a traditional bass music standpoint, our sound is much vaster and less objectively focused on the traditional dancefloor, and more focused on the dancefloor we want to create.
What does it take to run a bass music label in 2026?
Billain: It is simpler in some parts and harder in others. It is simpler in how digitized it is, because we can select reaches, personalize the process, work with respectful distributions and platforms, and run at our own pace. Magazines are in a tough spot, as they have very little freedom to write about their journeys of discovery and more, while also surviving in harsh conditions where management sends thousands of pieces of gentrified art. I hope we all understand each other’s struggles by now. Freedom comes first, and then it is instantly easier.
Indent: A willingness to learn, and an understanding that the hard times are only part of the path that leads to the good times.
Lokshot: I think it really comes down to loving music and art, as rudimentary as that sounds. Listening to as much music as possible outside of the genres you release gives you a better perspective on the playing field of sound. Referencing as far outside of the scene as possible is incredibly important if you do not want to end up only being influenced by what is already happening around you. The goal for any label should be bringing as many new and interesting sounds and visions into the scene as possible.
What have you got coming up that we should look out for?
Billain: Multiple releases, as we have removed the brakes since we have so much to share with the world. More Relics, more surprises. The start is always rough, with lots of walls and gatekeepers, but we did bring some sledgehammers with us.
Indent: We have so much to share in the coming months: new Relics, new music from new and returning artists. Just keep a lookout.
Lokshot: Next up we have an album release from CÅARL, which I think is a very refreshing take on a hyper-contemporary re-envisioning of late-2000s industrial / darkstep drum & bass and so much more. You will want to keep an eye out for him. We also have a slew of upcoming releases with Finland-based Kontrakt, U.S.-based Gloomstone, and Tokyo duo DUST this summer.
