YUJA

Who are you?

I’m Yuja, and I am a tearout dubstep producer from Los Angeles, CA

 What made you decide to produce the heaviest music possible?

I think it all started with Slipknot. I still think to this day Iowa might be one of the heaviest and most wicked albums of the time for me. But I also grew up loving bands like Emmure, the acacia strain, structures, suicide silence, just super heavy mosh pit stuff. I also used to play drums in a few bands back in the day and always preferred just the heaviest shit I could find, so tearout really I think is just the closest thing to the embodiment of that type of hardcore music in the electronic music scene. Idk if my stuff or anything I mentioned is the “heaviest possible”, but it’s certainly up there. I just also know some people also have slightly different definitions of heavy. 

Was there a specific artist or track that changed everything for you?

It’s impossible to pin down just one. I think in my formative years, as I mentioned, the early Slipknot albums were likely the most influential. 

As far as tearout goes though, I think the one that really flipped me was “RIP – Marauda” That track is absolutely fucking ridiculous. Honorable mentions to the entire God LP by Code Pandorum, and Piano Tune – Bar9

What has been your biggest challenge as an artist?

Navigating the ever changing scene and landscape of the industry. Especially involving such a niche subgenre with a still growing culture and audience. I really think it’s strange because it’s both more difficult and simultaneously easier to get your stuff out there than ever before. And the ways in which we as artists can connect with our audience and share our work is also evolving very quickly. It is definitely somewhat hard to keep up with sometimes.

What are your favorite synths and plugins?

Serum 2 is just too good. I love vital, I love phaseplant, I FM synths, but they can’t beat Serum 2.

As far as favorite plugins I gotta say Disperser, almost any convolution reverb, and destroy fx buffer override. 

Also glitch2 (RIP Kieran Foster)

What’s the craziest crowd reaction you’ve experienced?

Only have a handful of shows under my belt at the time of writing this, but at my debut B2B in LA with MAZI we went on right before Usaybflow and our friends in the front got the whole row to pick up and slam the rails to the beat of one of my IDs. Surprisingly had pretty spot on timing too. Still have the video where you can hear the clacking of the rail pounding against the floor.

What’s your biggest creative block, and how do you overcome it?

I don’t think of them as blocks as much as I think sometimes you need to just push through the bad ideas, and if I’m really feeling stuck then learning and replicating some new tech from somewhere like patreon tutorials can really help me get something fresh started.

Also just not listening to or thinking about any dubstep or dubstep related things for at last a few days. Sometimes even a week. That can be a good hard reset.

If you could B2B with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be?

Aleister Crowley

Favorite video game?

Phantasy Star Online

Dream festival?

Summoning.

Or ideally some sort of next gen festival that hasn’t even been created yet. 

Where can fans support you besides streaming?

Follow my socials. If you make music and you enjoy mine, I make sample packs. I also will be posting on pl8list soon for DJs. You can also request me to play in your town to you local promoters, put my name in the suggestion box for festival lineups if you see them, and just tell your friends about all your favorite artists.