Photo Credit: Raf Thomas
Having first stepped behind the decks at just 11 years old, Toxinate has spent most of his life immersed in electronic music. Inspired by the wave of jump-up that emerged in the mid-2010s, he quickly found his feet in a genre that continues to shape his approach to production today. By 15, he was already playing international shows, juggling his GCSEs with a growing commitment to music, and building a name for himself within the scene.
Since then, Toxinate has continued to refine his sound, from his collaboration with Bou on ‘Bounce’ to dancefloor favourites like ‘Backhand’. But while his productions have always leaned towards high-energy jump-up, he’s keen to show a different side to the genre, putting technical production and detailed sound design at the forefront without losing the energy that makes it work on a dancefloor. With new music on the way and a more versatile sound taking shape ahead of 2027, we caught up with Toxinate to discuss his early influences, working with Bou, the Bassfest set that helped change the course of his career, and his plans for the future.
For anyone that hasn’t come across Toxinate yet, how would you describe your sound?
I think I’m quite versatile. A lot of the tracks that I’ve released in the past are all quite high energy jump up, but a lot of the stuff I’ve got coming up, especially 2027 is a lot more versatile. It’s still heavily focussed on the sound design and the technicality and a lot of the darker energetic sounds.
Sounds exciting. What drew you to jump up over the other D&B sub genres in the first place?
It was that era in like, 2016, 2017 when there was Mackie Gee and Majistrate. All of these guys where coming out with this crazy sound design and I was heavily into my dumpstep. I think sound design was a big thing for me back then. In that era, it was just crazy. It absolutely blew my mind. Ever since then I’ve just had a big thing for jump up.
You worked with Bou on ‘Bounce’. How did that collaboration come about?
To be honest, I’ve been sending him tunes for years and then just before Boomtown, he was just like, “just like send me a bunch of stems over so I can get something made for the Boomtown show.”
We made a couple, and ‘Bounce’ was the one that we put on the back burner, but then, everyone kind of started asking for it. So we were just like, okay, well, we have to do something with it now.
Talk me through the writing process of that track.
It was Bou that put a lot of it together. But pretty much all of the sound design is mine. There’s like, one little Bou stab in it. He just did it so quickly. He got the first idea down and put it all together within an hour. He was like, “there you go…”
It must be cool to work that closely with someone that you look up to like that.
Yeah, absolutely. It’s mad to see the way that he actually goes and starts making music and just watching his workflow. It’s kind of the same with anyone, really. Because, production is just so different for every single person that does it. Everyone does their own thing their own way. It was really interesting to see the process that he goes through.
You started DJing at a really young age, right?
Yeah, I was 11. I was kind of lucky enough to live very close to Glastonbury Festival. My parents used to take me every single year. I wasn’t really into music at all, but the one artist I actually had interest in was Skrillex. He did his mothership tour at Glastonbury, and it was insane.
For some reason I had it in my ‘kid’ head, That he was going to come on with his laptop and show us how he made his music or whatever. I was thinking, how is someone that makes dubstep going to do a set?
The curtains dropped and he was like stood in a spaceship and I remember turning around and literally not being able to see where the lasers ended. Then all of these crazy tunes came on with mad sounds that I’d never heard before. It just hooked me instantly and I remember the car ride home so vividly thinking… This is what I want to do.
That’s when I bought my first set of decks for 20 quid off Amazon.
Were you gigging and performing around that age?
No, I tried, but obviously no one wanted to hire an 11 year old into their venue or whatever. So the first time I did it, I think I was 14. Then the first time I started getting regular shows and I got my first international show, I was 15.
Wow, an international show at 15. What was that like?
That was… it was odd.
It was very, very sick. Eazy & Premium got me out there. I’ve looked up to those guys for ages before that, and they actually got me there. So it was very surreal being around 2 people that I kind of idolised from that young age. I bumped into Eazy at McDonald’s and I was just kind of like, “is this actually happening?” But, yeah, it was a crazy experience. It really was.
It was also funny because I could drink there because I was like pretty much of age. So that was very, very different.
How did that compare to DJing in the UK?
In the UK, whenever I wanted to do a show, it was extremely difficult. I remember one time I played the O2 Arena for Fatman D’s birthday bash and I had to arrive an hour and a half before the security got there so I wouldn’t get ID’d.
Pretty much all of these shows I had to turn up so, so early and just hang around with the promoter just so I wouldn’t get my ID checked and get kicked out. Crazy.
What was it like when you went back to school at 15, after playing in front of that massive crowd?
It was about 700 people. Which was pretty crazy for me at the time. I had actually been producing for a year or so, it was very surreal. It was weird juggling GCSE’s whilst I had becoming a DJ in sight, and in my grasp. It’s pretty much all I spent like time doing. Even in lessons and stuff, I’d just sit there and produce.
What’s been your favourite set that you’ve played so far?
Do you know what? That’s such a tough one, but I feel like I’ve had the same answer for about 4 years now. There was a set that me and Latte did at Bassfest in 2022. It was at one of the smaller stages on the last day of the festival. We were expecting everyone to just kind of turn up with hangovers. So we didn’t really expect much and it was probably one of the craziest shows we’ve ever done. Apparently some of the festival staff were worried about how full the stage was getting. Every single tune we played, the crowd were just going crazy. To this day, people still bring it up. We still get messages, and people come up to us and say “I was at that Bassfest for that set”.
That’s probably the set that helped us so much in our careers, both together and separately. I think that’s probably my favourite. I think it’ll probably will be my favourite for a long while.
Do you think that that was like a career defining moment?
Absolutely. I mean, even when we got off stage, we had a lot of the bigger artists and stuff coming up to us saying that they heard our set, and that everyone’s talking about it. It was just mental.
It was after that, all the booking started coming in loads for us. I think that might have even been the year we did our first tour together, in Australia and New Zealand. Everything just really kicked off after that one set, really.
Which one of your current tunes do you think best represents you as an artist now?
I did a track with Captain Bass called ‘Freefall’ that came out June 5 this year. It’s high energy with the chords and all the progression. I think that just suits what I want to do, what I want to make and the kind of vibe I want to get out there.
Who would be your dream artist to collaborate with?
I feel like Simula would be quite high up there. He gives me a lot of influence to this day. Especially a lot of his older jump up. I still always sneak in some old Simula into my set. He’s just completely redefined the sound of what jump up could be, and he’s shown that there is still so much of a sound that is still yet to be discovered. I have so much admiration for the fact that he basically made a new subgenre within the subgenre. I’d really love to experiment with him and see the way his brain works. I think we can make something quite cool.
It’s been 7 years since your first E.P. What do you think changed most about your sound in that time?
I think the production has improved quite a lot. I did actually go back and listen to it a lot of my older stuff recently. It’s very, very basic, but I feel like the thing I like is, you can still kind of hear that it’s me innit? With a lot of producers, if you go back to their older stuff, a lot of the time it sounds like a completely different artist. But a lot of the flows in my older tunes and a lot of the actual tune ideas and stuff you can hear that it’s still me. But just with upgraded sound design and production.
Is there a particular tune on your USB that always goes off?
I mean, there’s ‘Champions League VIP’ that I made a couple years back. It just kind of never stopped kind of going off. It’s one of those ones that I fade out and everyone’s just like singing along. Then there’s another one that I made, called ‘Nopehand’. The VIP of that. It’s kind of two in one, which was very fun to make because no one’s ever really done anything like that.
How did that feel to play ‘Nopehand’ for the first time? Were you nervous about the reaction of it?
Nah, I was more excited because it’s got all of the effects and a lot of the drum rolls from ‘Backhand’. It’s also got the vocals from ‘Nope’, then it immediately goes into the first hit from ‘Backhand’, then the melody from ‘Nope’ with the brakes over it. It kind of just sounds like it’s going to be just another VIP of ‘Nope’ then it goes into the ‘Backhand’ melody synth. I feel like they’re both quite career defining tunes for me and tunes that changed a lot for me.
What’s something you learn since getting more serious about music that you wish you’d known at the start?
Physically, not to let the party life consume you, because once I got of an age that I start getting booked a lot more, It was quite easy to get swept up in the drinking. It does take its toll. I started getting Appletizers on my rider and AMC once turned around to me, just went “well done, mate”
What do you want Toxinate to look like a year from now?
Well, to start with, many more releases under my belt. I want to show that jump up can be really cool without being over the top and it can also be really technical. Jump up can have really good production behind it. That’s one thing that I’m setting out to do.
Are there any up and coming DJs or musicians at all that you’d like to shine a light on that are coming through?
Skippy and E.S. Both of those guys from Bristol are making some crazy music.
They’re probably some of my favourite up and comers. The production, sound design and their tune ideas are all just already crazy. Very, very excited to see what those lads do over the next few years.
What’s next for you? Anything exciting planned?
Yes, I’ve got a 2 tracker coming out next month. That I think will reflect the kind of direction that I’m wanting to go in a little bit more. It’s got more interesting plucks, keeping in with underground grotty sound design.
