With his debut album Invasions, Xaetis doesn’t so much as make music, he crafts an experience. Each track tells a story, weaving together elements of tension, release, and transformation. It’s an album built on contrasts: destruction and rebirth, darkness and clarity, brutality and beauty.
Beyond the music itself, Invasions also marks an important milestone for Xaetis and his label Expedite. As he explained to us last year when he was previously featured on 1 More Thing, Bristol-based Xaetis is committed to pushing the boundaries of heavy, intricate drum and bass and his imprint serves as a platform for both his own creative vision and a growing roster of like-minded artists.
We caught up with Xaetis to discuss how Invasions came to life, the themes and circumstances that shaped it, and what’s next on his creative journey.
First off, congrats on Invasions! It’s been a year in the making, how does it feel to finally put it out into the world?
It’s crazy how much a year has taught me about life in general, the friendships and love in my life, the struggles of dealing with a fast non-diagnosed potentially ADHD brain and learning new coping mechanisms to regain stability and some sense of organisation in many aspects of my life. All these factors have developed and grown into beautiful things during the time span it’s taken me to write each track and It feels fantastic to finally be putting this out! I’m so glad I’m able to finally share my latest music and demonstrate my production again.
You’ve described this album as a real passion project that reflects your personal and artistic growth. What was the biggest challenge in bringing it to life?
I’d say the biggest challenge was definitely fine tuning how I approach mixing down my tracks. The past year I discovered some personally ground breaking techniques that have really helped me achieve that next level that I look for in mix clarity and balance that I struggled with in my prior albums and other releases. That and finally learning that producing in key is your friend haha!
Invasions plays with that controlled chaos, a theme that embodies Neurofunk. How do you find the balance between madness and precision in your production?
This is a great question actually, one that many of my close friends ask me in one way or another – something along the lines of ‘whats going on your head to make that?!’ and to be honest Im not quite sure, my joke reply is usually just that I have a fast brain. But in reality the only thing I can really say is that I have such a passion for so many types of music and find so much love and immersion in how some can transport you to a different place but others are more immediate and present but outrageously heavy. I listen to a lot of Metal/Post rock when I’m not listening to D&B and electronic music generally. But I listen to such a massive variety of D&B that these combinations of music styles inspire me to create the madness of sounds you typically hear in my music. If I were to talk in more technical terms of how I get such chaos and refine it into something that kind of makes sense. Id say that it was important to first learn all the rules. And then once id learned them it was important to break them and bend them regardless of what is ‘ok’, ‘correct’ or ‘standard practice’. The way I see it is there’s no right or wrong way to make music. You just have to stop caring how other people do it and find a way, no matter how you achieve it, to make a sound the way you want to make it. If distorting a clean piano key lead with beautiful reverb to the max with 4 different distortions and filtering just to see what happens works then do it. If it sounds good then go with it.
The album is super personal, touching on mental health and self-reflection. What can you tell us about that?
I went through some big changes last year in terms of understanding and accepting how my brain works and making peace with my limitations. I struggled a lot with depression due to financial reasons as I got messed around by the job I had previously and then the only other work I had was part time and wasn’t offering great stability overall so it’s just generally a demotivating state to be in in all aspects of life even with creativity. Which is partly why it took a year to complete this album in the first place.
I also mentioned in question one that I may have ADHD but it’s undiagnosed officially. But everyone I know closely either tell me that I have it or when I ask if they think I have it it’s a hard agree. Wether I did or not, by entertaining the idea that I may infact fit the criteria. It led me to research a lot about the condition and it’s helped me piece so many things about my past that didn’t make sense and how I always felt slightly different to the people I grew up around in one way or another. And also explains a lot of my shortfalls that come with it. But the best thing about this is now I have an explanation I’ve managed to find out where I need to help myself and the growth I’ve made since has been truly amazing.
The biggest change that really turned my life around was meeting my partner Nia. Through her I l have discovered what I believe to be the true meaning of love. Cliché as it sounds, it’s something I actively rejected was a thing in the past but it is undeniable to me now. She completely revitalised my motivation for life and my love for the music I make and taught me to learn self-confidence and affirmation in my abilities. She’s been a light brighter than anything I’ve ever seen and continues to bring so much joy and adventure to my life to this day.
I have to also give credit to the amazing close group of friends and family in my life that have all shown me so much support and love for my music and have expressed disbelief that I hadn’t released any of these tracks sooner ahah. You all know who you are, thank you for the nudge.
Was it tough channeling those emotions into music, or did it come naturally?
I wouldn’t say it’s tough as every time I make a track I start from scratch with a single idea and inspire myself from that idea. I go in with a blank slate but my decisions usually revolve around my mood or particular aesthetic I want to go for at that time in that session. Then for the concept album I picked 12 from a list of 30 tracks which had the aesthetics that told the story of this past year the best and polished them to a more finished state.
Let’s talk about Direction, which we’re premiering. This track represents change and taking control, what was going through your mind when you made it?
This one evolved a fair bit over time and was named Direction once I’d added that vocal sample that brought the switch together. This then works both individually to the track itself as well as the bigger picture of the album in the story that it goes through. It’s a full exploration of organised chaos. It’s probably one of the craziest tracks in the album in terms of all the different sounds and syncopations that happen. Nia loves it, she said the track is how her brain sounds!
There’s a cinematic, almost storytelling quality to Invasions. How did that come about? And do you think of your music visually when you’re producing?
There really is, that’s what I was aiming for, I’ve been really delving into using melodic content more purposefully and really wanted to work on my atmospheres that encircle the raw and filthy bass lines and hard pots and pans drum rhythms. And I absolutely think of my music visually. I see each element as a way to express a feeling or emotion. And the patterns and intensity of each of those create visual ‘3D’ structures in my mind and the evolution of them is what brings the movement and morphing of those structures. Each sound representing an individual moment in time. And the drums in Drum & Bass always give me a really familiar and comforting sense of time passing by in a time lapse of events happening all at once all over the world.
Bristol has a legendary bass music scene, how has the city influenced your sound and career?
Bristol has been a massive integral part to my growth and inspiration for D&B, it’s the place where I really understood it. I’d been to a few raves in Cornwall before and always had this urge to find it even before Bristol. But Bristol had the big raves at Motion and Lakota that I’d not seen before. It was my first big step into D&B. My sound is sourced from my former influences in multiple genres and was in development as I got to know the scene in Bristol. But my core sound came about more recently around 2021 when I went to my first Virus at Steel Yard event in London. That was mind blowing to me and it just made every other event seem underwhelming in comparison. That’s when my love for Neurofunk was born and that was the turning point that solidified what path I wanted to take with my music. I knew what I wanted to make and from then onwards I’ve pushed myself harder than I ever did before to refine and master the skills I needed to make this music I now love so much.
The album feels like a turning point for you, what’s next after Invasions?
Oh there’s a lot in the works, I’ve actually got two other releases coming out in April as well as Invasions as part of two separate VA’s which are going to further establish my benchmark for what I put out. On top of that I’ve got plenty of new and old projects I want to revisit and finish as some of my old ideas have so much potential and I now have the skills to bring those visions to life. I’ve never been more inspired to release music!
Finally, outside of music, what’s something unexpected about you? Any different hobbies or obsessions we wouldn’t guess?
I absolutely love cooking, perhaps not professionally as I do make a bit of a mess ahah but im definitely a flavour fanatic. Cooking is another artfrom I regard in a similar way to my approach to music. I always experiment and try new things and see each meal as balance of ingredients to make a cohesive plate of food. Just like each song, a balance of different sonic elements forming a balance of sounds that all work together to form one unified sound!
Also I love all things planes, trains and space… Especially Star Wars
