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Lorin Gabriel Ashton (born February 16, 1978), known professionally as Bassnectar, is an United States disc jockey and record producer.
Bassnectar became known for live shows that combined layered sound design with immersive visuals and attracted a large, dedicated fan base, and his work has been credited with helping to popularize bass-heavy electronic music in the United States. He appeared at major festivals such as Coachella, Bonnaroo, and Electric Daisy Carnival, and released charting albums including Noise vs. Beauty (2014) and Unlimited (2016).
In July 2020, Ashton announced he was stepping back from music following multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, which were widely reported in U.S. media. In 2021, he was named in a class-action lawsuit alleging sexual abuse and human trafficking, which he has denied. The allegations led to the suspension of his performances, the shuttering of his nonprofit Be Interactive, and a prolonged hiatus from public activity.
He continued his studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, producing tracks using Opcode Systems Studio Vision Pro.
Ashton began DJing parties in the Bay Area and drew fanfare at Burning Man by playing multiple sets a night. Around this time, several were released under the moniker Lorin, including Gardens, Dreamtempo Mixtape, and Freakbeat for the Beatfreaks.
Making an appearance at the 2002 Health and Harmony Festival in Santa Rosa, California, with a 16-track mixing board and alongside a Gamelan, it is believed Ashton performed for the first time using a laptop and controller in lieu of standard DJing equipment. It was around this time that Ashton began formalizing his stage name, sometimes still booking under Lorin Bassnectar before dropping Lorin altogether. His second album Motions of Mutation from 2003 and its 2004 successor Diverse Systems of Throb both garnered support from the Bay Area electronic music community, and through frequent sightings at various parties and festivals, his notoriety continued to grow. Ashton played one such event, Shambhala music festival, in 2001–2002 before formally returning to the grounds as Bassnectar in 2003 and kicking off a string of annual performances at the festival that would continue for 11 years straight.
In 2005, Ashton signed with Madison House, a booking agency predominantly known at the time for its work with Jam band. This move helped to elevate Bassnectar's stature at a key time as audiences became more receptive towards electronic music. Continued releases in the following years (albums Mesmerizing the Ultra, Underground Communication, Cozza Frenzy, along with the EP Timestretch) added to Bassnectar's popularity and influence in the growing electronic scene in the United States.
In 2010, Bassnectar performed at Wakarusa, Camp Bisco, The All Good Music Festival, and Outside Lands.
Following the success of Divergent Spectrum, Ashton released his seventh studio album, Vava Voom, on April 10, 2012. The album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart and remained on the chart for 15 weeks. The success of Vava Voom was complemented by a sold-out North American tour. It was during this period that Bassnectar was at the height of his touring era, exceeding 200,000 ticket sales in both 2011 and 2012 and playing over 150 shows a year in venues across the United States.
Through the end of 2013 and early 2014, touring dates tapered off to allow space to produce his eighth studio album. Ashton approached the effort by first composing each song's building blocks electronically, then deconstructing them into guitar, piano, and vocal arrangements that could then be sent to various producers and artists for workshopping. The feedback collected from these workshopping efforts informed the finalized version of each track. The resulting album, Noise vs. Beauty, was released June 24, 2014 and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart, remaining on the chart for 16 weeks. The album received generally favorable reviews, with Rolling Stone giving the album a 3/5 rating and noting the release was Ashton's "most mature".
In 2010, the first of these events, named "BassCenter", was held at the 1stBank Center in Broomfield, Colorado. As popularity and demand grew, various curated events were added over time, including "Basslights" (a collaborative event between Bassnectar and Pretty Lights), Halloween and Day of the Dead themed events (sometimes referred to as "Freakstyle" or "Dark Parties"), New Year's Eve celebrations ("NYE360"), and others, such as "Freestyle Sessions" and "Spring Gathering".
By 2016, Bassnectar's in-house productions like Bass Center at the 25,000 person capacity Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Denver were sold out and featured popular supporting acts including Wu-Tang Clan, Flying Lotus, Lupe Fiasco, Flux Pavilion, and Porter Robinson.
In 2019, the first international concert destination event "Deja Voom" was announced, to be he held at the Barceló Maya Resort in Riviera Maya.
After nearly three years of public absence, a new mix titled Music for Optimists was uploaded in January 2023 to the Bassnectar Mixcloud profile. Subscribers to his newsletter also received an invitation to a new website, "UnlocktheOtherSide.com," described as a community hub.
Later that year, Ashton announced a "members-only" two-night concert at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas (October 6–7, 2023), which marked his first scheduled public performance since 2020. The show went ahead alongside the release of his twelfth studio album, The Golden Rule. However, a planned October 27–28 show at the Harrah's Cherokee Center in Asheville, North Carolina was cancelled the same day it was announced following public backlash over the abuse allegations.
Ashton attempted further returns in late 2023 and 2024, including New Year's Eve shows at Palladium Times Square and the announcement of a curated event called "Boombox ATL," but several of these events were cancelled or postponed amid renewed criticism and what was officially cited as "health issues".
In August 2024, a three-day event was announced in Miami, Florida for December 29–31, coinciding with the release of his thirteenth album, No Colors. In early 2025, a livestream event and fourteenth album titled Relive Forever were announced with release expected in May 2025.
In July 2016, Hattler filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Ashton and Bassnectar’s management. Following the dispute, Hattler’s visuals were no longer used after 2016; the lawsuit was later settled out of court and dismissed in June 2017.
Following the announcement, several collaborators and peers in the electronic music community voiced criticism. Vocalist Mimi Page, who appeared on tracks such as "Butterfly" and "Breathless," publicly voiced her dismay, and producer ill.Gates later stated he felt "used" and "betrayed." In response, Ashton removed most of their collaborative releases from streaming services. Other artists such as PEEKABOO and Apashe donated proceeds from past collaborations to support victims of sexual abuse.
In April 2021, two women, Rachel Ramsbottom and Alexis Bowling, filed a lawsuit against Ashton and associated entities in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, alleging sexual abuse and human trafficking. The complaint was amended a month later to include Jenna Houston and an unnamed plaintiff ("Jane Doe #1"), although Doe later withdrew from the case. In November 2024, Judge Aleta Trauger denied a motion for summary judgment filed by Ashton’s defense, allowing the case to proceed. On February 18, 2025, the lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice after the parties reached an out-of-court settlement.
One key ingredient in making these performances so captivating was Ashton's adoption of "controllerism", an alternative approach to live mixing compared to more traditional setups that used CDJs. Originally making use of a pair of M-Audio Trigger Finger MIDI controller, these connected to two laptops that each ran Ableton Live's Session View, which enabled the selection and cueing of tracks to be mixed together. Both instances of Ableton Live, which were synchronized as a safeguard against technical issues and to allow flexibility in the live performance, utilized custom "performance templates" designed by ill.Gates to more easily interact with the software and manipulate tracks in a creative way. After the original Trigger Finger was discontinued, Ashton commissioned 60 Works, a Minneapolis based boutique MIDI controller company, to create a new controller customized for his approach to live shows.
In addition to the innovative mixing approach, another key element of Bassnectar's live show experience was an ever-increasing emphasis on high quality sound, making use of various sound systems over the years, including Anya, d&b audiotechnik, L-Acoustics, Meyer Sound Laboratories, and PK Audio. Even as early as 2012, relatively early in the tour's infancy, several hundred-thousand watts of loudspeakers were regularly at the disposal of Ashton's audio engineering team. Over time, this number grew even larger, with hundreds of speakers regularly being deployed for curated events. The reaction wasn't always positive, however, as demonstrated in 2016 when Bassnectar drew complaints from neighbors while performing at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado. While the city confirmed the show was within the permitted loudness levels, one nearby resident remarked during a city council meeting, "I thought it was an earthquake. I looked and realized it was bass." By 2012, the production crew had grown to dozens of people manning arrays of computers to orchestrate each performance. As part of the "Immersive Music Tour" in the fall of 2013, the "Ultimate Nerd Server" (U.N.S.), a custom Ableton plug-in designed by namethemachine for the production, made its debut. This plug-in allowed Ashton and his production team to more easily cue and manipulate video clips as audio tracks were being played, keeping the two elements highly synchronized in both tempo and feel, as any audio-effect manipulation while performing would affect the video as well. Complimenting these video backdrops were expansive lighting and laser arrays, sometimes eclipsing over 100 individual elements. While audio and video clips were kept in-sync via the U.N.S, lighting was approached more improvisationally, with lighting designers making choices on the fly to accompany the music.
The Bassnectar organization is also recognized for its activist and philanthropic efforts, bringing awareness to political, social and environmental issues and directly supporting organizations such as Conscious Alliance, HeadCount, Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, To Write Love on Her Arms, and BetterHelp. Other programs, such as "Dollar Per Bass Head", which collected $1 for every ticket sold, donated funds to charitable causes voted on by the community.
In 2016, Ashton was diagnosed with skin cancer under his left eye, for which he underwent surgery to remove. The operation was successful.
Ashton endorsed Bernie Sanders in his candidacy for the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Ashton has been vocally anti-Trump, offering to play a free show following the former President's impeachment in 2019. The show did not materialize.
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