Hailing from the depths of Ringwood, New Jersey, Dave Nardolilli a.k.a. Dubloadz has quickly emerged from the shadows and proven himself to be one of bass music’s freshest and most unstoppable forces, as his savage wonk mentality, vast grab bag of influences and abandonment of subgenres has turned the dubstep world upside down in less than two years time. 2014 proved to be quite the successful first year for the budding producer, as his music was released on SMOG, Rottun and Never Say Die, and simultaneously became a globe trotting DJ. Since first grabbing the bass music world by the balls just a short while ago, the east coast native has provided the scene with stand-out, genre bending originals, along with remixes of some of dubstep’s biggest artists like 12th Planet, Datsik, and Dodge & Fuski and has garnered support from some of the genre’s heaviest hitters, like Getter, Protohype, 12th Planet, Datsik, Excision and Skrillex, just to name a few. Dubloadz now finds himself currently working with Disciple Records and is the newest family member of Illuminated Artists Management. Needless to say, Nardolilli has had a busy year, so we were lucky enough to catch up with him and get a peek into the story behind the artist whose accumulated so much musical success in such a short time.
Although he began dabbling with Reason at the age of 17 and became in tuned with and immersed in dubstep during college, Dubloadz didn’t start producing the music himself until more recently. He explained to us the progression of his bass music career:
“The first Dubstep tune I heard was Bar9 remix of ‘Go.’ I was a sophomore in college and my homie was obsessed with Deadmau5 and similar artists, so we were on internet radio trying to find new music and we found Dubstep. The first thing we heard was that Bar9 remix, then we heard ‘Retreat’ by Datsik, and then ‘In The Death Car’ by 16Bit and that was it, I was like ‘I need all this shit, right now.” But it wasn’t until like 4 years later that I started turning it into a career.”
He points out:
“All the Dubstep that got me into the genre was not the same kind of Dubstep that got me into producing, because it was a 4 year difference.” “It was all that wonky weird shit that took it to the next level. I remember the track that really made me want to make music was ‘Loaded’ by 50 Carrot, Coffi and K.E.V because it was the first track I heard where every break had a million gun clicks and all these fills and crazy shit and I was like ‘this is it,’ it just like fucked my brain up, you never knew what was coming next. So I wanted to incorporate all of that shit into my style but do it differently, then ‘Fight Music’ and ‘Hoodlum Havoc’ and all those tunes were made.”
It’s undeniable that upon its release, Dubloadz’s “Fight Music” quickly became an infectious staple in the bass music world. He admitted that this production was the track that single handedly started his swift upward momentum towards success:
“It was really quick how it started. I think I had like six songs before ‘Fight Music’ but the first one I ever put on Soundcloud was called ‘Bullets.’ Basically the story behind ‘Fight Music’ was that I had just finished what I thought was the final product, but really, I didn’t know how to mix down at all. I had monitors, and still use the same monitors to this day, and they sounded fine, but I never had a sub, so when you would listen on the monitors it sounded great. And then I went to Knoxville and listened to it on good headphones for the first time and there was no sub bass at all. I remember thinking to myself, ‘this is what people have been listening to?’ So I mixed it down again, and I added a bunch of sub bass to it and I was like ‘okay, NOW I get it.’ Kind of felt like an idiot after that. And this was all during the same time that I played my first real show with Getter down in Knoxville.”
He elaborated on the Knoxville show that started it all for him:
“I knew this dude Perry Davis (now his current manager) online; we used to chat about dubstep and shit like that and knew each other for years, and he booked shows in Knoxville. When I made ‘Fight Music’ he asked me if I wanted to come to Knoxville and play my first real show. He said he was bringing Getter out and wanted to have me on as support. Sure enough, me and my homie Christian ended up taking the 11 hour road trip to Knoxville.” “I played ‘Fight Music’ the first time at that show and Getter ran up and wheeled it. I was in shock. Soon after, he was posting my shit and playing my tracks, then he showed my shit to Protohype, Protohype showed my shit to 12th Planet and all of a sudden in the course of a month I was seeing videos of 12th Planet and all of them playing my tracks just like ‘How is this a real thing?’ I remember seeing 12th Planet in Baltimore like 4 or 5 years ago and being like ‘Holy shit, this dude is the best.’ Crazy to think he ended up being one of my best homies. SMOG ended up signing me, and everything stemmed from that. All of my idols started hearing my music through them. They did a lot for me as a label and I’m extremely grateful for that.”
He added:
“Perry’s the best manager I could ask for. It wasn’t until like 6 months later that he became my manager and he was perfect for the job. It’s weird how things turn out. One minute we were meeting for the first time in Knoxville and the next he was my manager and we started touring the world together.”
Dubloadz has come a long way since the release of ‘Fight Music,’ as he’s released a wide variety of electronic tunes spanning and bending beyond a multitude of genres since then. In terms of where he is in his artistic development now, Nardolilli explained:
“I think I already have my sound developed, I feel like people know when it’s a Dubloadz track. I want to be able to make everything and people to still know it’s me. That would really be the main goal. The shit I’ve been making recently is all over the place. I have a couple tracks I’ve been working on that I hope people will be like ‘You made this?’ I have 5 new dubstep tunes I’m really excited about that are a bit different from the usual. I also have a few new house tunes and trap/hybrid tunes. The elements that I want to combine now are very different than what I was doing last year. I’ve been writing a lot more melodies and there’s no denying that writing melodies is a lot of fucking fun, especially when you’re just used to writing beats with a bunch of weird wonks over them. So I’ve been trying to musically develop myself more while keeping my sound. I think that I’m doing a pretty good job so far and I’m proud of the music I’m making now, but I still know I can do better. I want the trap dudes to play my trap music, I want the dubstep dudes to play my dubstep, I want the house dudes to play my house and I want them to all be like ‘Holy shit this is fucking amazing.’”
He rightfully admitted:
“I really just want to be able to make everything, to be honest with you. I want to be at the point where I can sit down at my computer without planning on writing anything specific and just let the ideas flow, but at the same time, I also want to be able to be like ‘I need to write a dubstep tune today’ and be able to write a dubstep tune, or ‘I need to make a house tune’ and make a great house tune. I’m still struggling a bit with figuring everything out, and at the same time, everyone in the music world is dealing with the fact that almost everything has been done at this point. It’s getting harder and harder to be innovative in the scene, so you have to be cutting edge with everything you do. You gotta have the whole fucking package, it’s not easy.”
Despite successfully diving head first into electronic music production, Nardolilli has a history with other mediums of electronic art, as he comes from a collegiate background in illustration, which he’s incorporated into his music career. From his logo, his ghost, merchandise, and all his social media banners and profile pictures; that’s all him. In terms of other art projects of this caliber, he revealed:
“I actually get asked quite a bit. I don’t have the time to promise to do it. I used to do graphic design freelance to make money before I started doing this and I still do it sometimes, but it has to be really specifically serious. I just designed a can for a brewery, like a beer can, it’s actually a brewery from New York called Rushing Duck. My best friend is the head brewer there, so that’s how I got hooked up with that. The concept was really cool and it was an idea that I knew I could execute well. I finished it up a week ago and it’s set to release in September. It’s going to be awesome to see my art on a beer can and hopefully I’ll be working with them more in the future.”
(Album artwork designed by Dubloadz for his Titan EP)
Before wrapping up our chat, Dubloadz gave a shout-out to his biggest fans; his parents. He touched on the fact that his happiness and success within a medium that he loves has brought the three of them closer than ever:
“For them to see me happy and touring the world and doing this is awesome. Me and my dad are closer than ever now, not that we ever weren’t, but it’s cool to feel like I can talk to him like I’m proud to be his son. He’s very successful and has built a life for himself and his family that is everything he could’ve wanted. He always drives me to the airport and he’ll talk about his business, and I’ll talk about my travels. It’s cool to feel like I’m following in the footsteps of his success. I want to look back on my life when I’m his age and be able to say I did everything I wanted to do.”
He continued:
“Both my parents are very in tune with everything I’m doing and always follow all my progress. My mom knows all of my songs. Every time I post a new song, she knows about it. She knows what’s going on with all the labels I work with, she knows what’s going on with all the musicians I work with; they’re both just so happy for me, sincerely happy for me, and it means a lot to have parents that care about me like that. My parents are very special to me and they’ve dealt with a lot of bullshit before I got my life together. They never lost faith in me even when I was a complete mess. I couldn’t ask for more support from them.”
From “Fight Music” to limitlessly fighting the boundaries of genres, Dubloadz has only picked up the momentum from here, and his thirst for bass music success has never been more apparent, nor tangible. As one of electronic music’s newest and brightest rising stars, Nardolilli plans to use his passion, unshakable energy, and boundless musical perspective to cultivate a sound and career that he loves and is loved for. And this is all just the beginning …
