The Denver-raised bass producer Tyler Shiffer, better known as Phocust, recently released a multi-camera live set from San Diego, weaving together new originals, remixes, flips, and sounds that move between the deep, heavy, and funky corners of his catalog. But beneath the unreleased music and carefully built journey, the set captures something larger happening within Phocust’s artistry: a renewed connection to the culture that made him fall in love with dubstep in the first place.
There is something wonderfully familiar about the way so many of us first found bass music: through another person. Someone sends you a track, pulls up a YouTube video, or plays you something that sounds completely unlike anything you have heard before. Then comes the rabbit hole: new artists, new sounds, and eventually, if you are lucky, the first time you hear that music through a proper sound system surrounded by people who seem to understand exactly what you just discovered. For Tyler, that journey began in middle school with a friend who is still beside him today.
“I first heard Dubstep while watching a YouTube video with my friend Stetsen (currently he’s my photographer & tour manager) in middle school that featured Rusko’s remix of the song “Pro Nails”. Later in high school we started going to some of my first underground raves where we saw the true UK Dubstep artists like Coki, Gentlemen’s Club, Trolly Snatcha, Jakes, and others. This led me to completely fall in love with Dubstep music and the rave culture that was growing around that time (2012-2013).”
Lately, Phocust has been thinking about what happens when a genre rooted in an underground community grows into an increasingly visible industry. Bass music is getting bigger, and he welcomes that growth. At the same time, he has found himself questioning the pressure to chase trends, viral moments, and the expectations that can quietly turn creating music into creating content.
“One of the biggest shifts I’ve noticed lately is this push and pull between culture and industry. Bass music (dubstep specifically) has grown a ton recently… But with that type of growth comes more pressure from the industry-driven labels to chase trends and have their artists quickly adapt into whatever lane/fad is popular at the time. Which then slowly starts to kill the art itself and makes artists chase these unrealistic superstar expectations.”
As dubstep reaches bigger stages and broader audiences, Phocust has watched artists face increasing pressure to adapt to whatever sound, trend, or moment appears most marketable. In his eyes, that pursuit can eventually pull artists away from the very thing that made the music meaningful in the first place. And that push and pull does not stop at the artist. It changes where bass music fans gather, too. Phocust points to the growing concentration of attention and ticket dollars around massive headlining shows, while the smaller rooms, local venues, and $20 nights that have historically given underground music somewhere to breathe fight for the same audience.
Yet, alongside that growth, Phocust has noticed another current moving through bass music: a return to soundsystem culture. Pop-up events, no-phone shows, renewed interest in rave history, DJ technique, and community-centered gatherings have begun placing the focus back on the experience itself. Rather than treating dubstep’s roots as something to simply look back on, Phocust sees artists and fans actively bringing those values into the present.
And in a way, the scene’s return mirrors his own. For Phocust, reconnecting with those roots has meant something surprisingly simple: getting back into the crowd.
“To be honest, it’s made me stop chasing those backstage TikTok moments and go get in the crowd and dance with my homies. I’ve been going to a lot more shows now with a purpose just to hear new music and make new friends along the way. The pressure to “fit in” as an artist is always a struggle, but I feel like if you just be authentically yourself as a person your traits that portray a genuine artist will reveal themselves.”
He has started attending more shows with no greater objective than hearing unfamiliar music, meeting people, and experiencing the night as a fan again. After years of building a career that naturally brings an artist closer to backstage rooms, industry conversations, and the machinery surrounding music, Phocust is finding inspiration by moving in the opposite direction: back toward the dance floor.
That return to the dance floor is beginning to shape Phocust’s music, too. Lately, he has found himself gravitating back toward 140 BPM, the tempo deeply associated with dubstep’s early sound. He expresses that the pacing gives him more room to work within the music.
“Musically I have been going back to 140bpm a lot lately. This is where Dubstep started and it feels like there’s a resurgence going on lately within the genre to write in the OG tempo. I still have my 145-150bpm bangers too but it definitely does not feel the same when you can fill in the space at 140 just right.”
Maybe space is part of what Tyler has been searching for all along.
In an era that constantly asks artists to fill the silence, another clip, another post, another drop, another moment engineered to hold our attention, Phocust seems increasingly drawn toward the opposite instinct. At 140 BPM, there is room for a groove to breathe. In the studio, there is room to follow an idea without immediately wondering whether it is “viral.”
“I still have my 145-150bpm bangers too but it definitely does not feel the same when you can fill in the space at 140 just right. It’s so hard not to think in the TikTok/reel mentality too when writing songs these days but I feel my best ideas just come when I don’t try to overthink it and write the song for the purpose of a good song instead of its viralibility.”
That desire to leave room for the music to breathe extends beyond Phocust’s production. It has begun shaping the way he thinks about the entire live experience: how a set moves, what deserves our attention, and what happens when an artist trusts the vibe rather than going for what’s trendy. His newly released multi-camera set from San Diego feels like a natural reflection of that philosophy. His set moves through the different sides of Phocust: deep, heavy, funky, familiar, and still undiscovered. There is new original music alongside remixes and flips, but just as important to him are the moments connecting them. As he describes it, the best part is “the space in between to just vibe and let yourself experience the full journey of the set.”
Now, as Phocust continues to carve out his place in the bass music scene, his commitment to authenticity and the culture that first drew him to dubstep continues to fuel his artistic journey. Looking ahead, he has plenty of new music on the way, including an upcoming release on Disciple Records this December and more releases planned throughout 2027.
But above all, it’s that sense of discovery that remains at the center of what he hopes listeners resonate with the most. Beneath the heavier moments, the funky wubs, the 140 rhythms, and the deeper stretches of his sets is something much simpler: the excitement of finding a song you cannot wait to share with someone else.
“I just want everyone to feel that feeling when you get in the car with your friends and everyone can’t wait to show each other the new song they found that week… If those happen to be my songs that would be a really cool feeling too.”
It is fitting that Phocust describes music discovery this way. His own relationship with dubstep began beside a friend, watching a YouTube video in middle school before eventually finding his way into underground raves, soundsystem culture, and a community that would shape the artist he became. Years later, as bass music continues expanding far beyond those smaller rooms, he is less interested in resisting its growth than in making sure the feeling that started everything does not disappear along the way.
Phocust sees a future where both sides of bass music can continue to evolve: the underground finding new ways to experiment outside the expected mold, and the industry bringing the genre to increasingly larger audiences. He wants dubstep to grow. He just hopes there will always be room for the smaller shows, the strange records, the undiscovered artists, the friends exchanging songs, and the moments on the dance floor that never need to become anything more than what they are.
When the thing you love becomes bigger than you ever imagined, how do you make sure you don’t lose what made you love it when it was small?
Maybe that is the balance Phocust is searching for now: growth without forgetting, expansion without filling every available space.
Because before dubstep was an industry, a viral clip, a festival stage, or even a career for Phocust, it was simply a song one friend could not wait to show another. Maybe that is the most fitting way to leave this story, too: with us becoming the next friend in that chain, excited to pass the music along to you.