Excision Article for INTUNE Magazine
Since the beginning of his days, Jeff has brought the visual experience of a show to an entirely
different level. His first tour in 2013 featuring the Executioner stage was the setting stones for
the impeccable stage designs he’s been behind for years to come. Always with the future in
mind, he was consistently striving to evolve his music along with the submersing environment of
it all at a live event. And he was always on top of the newest break throughs in the industry;
instituting resolume as a software in his studio right away. He also had to bring the loudest PK
speakers system. Who’s ready for that 100k watts of bass to hit?
“The Executioner was our first time- coded show using the D3 and Resolume. We used the D3
for its auto calibration features which became very valuable at Coachella in 2013. At Coachella
we had a 15 minute change over to focus, map and blend two Christie Hd35K projectors. Vello
Virkhaus was the house VJ and was very skeptical of Beama’s claims but later did a series of
speeches which praised our setup. To date the Paradox is our flagship tour and employs our
animators Ben Leonard and Noah Freeman full time for a year leading up to the tour. Along with
other tours such as Seven lions and Datsik.”
After releasing his first EP, X-RATED on Mau5trap Recordings and using this stage to swoop
the country in major cities including Los Angeles, New York, and Boston, he preceded to
develop the Paradox stage, working off of the methodology as before. His first stage was
defined as a “video-mapping masterwork that displays an impressive 420 square ft. of worldclass,
true-3D, video-mapped animations” and it also boasts the greatest projector available in
the world. Upon completing Codename-X (released on Rottun Recordings), which was his defining
break-through album in the scene where the ice just began to crack; Jeff truly defined his distinct
dubstep sound. Starring djs such as The Frim, his prodigy Dion Timmer, Space Laces attracted
a wide range of fan-focus. These collabs are now timeless classics in the scene and the anthems of
his and Downlink’s Robo-Kitty will never die.
From here, Jeff delved even further into manifesting his dream stage for visuals. He created one
of the largest stages to take over venues in America, filling some of the largest rooms with
lights, lasers, and his impeccable visuals created from a team of twenty different artists working
together for one project — The Paradox. For the stage to be compabitable with different size
venues, there are versions of the Paradox stage. These considerations and alterations create a
lot of work for a crew member team in a short amount of time alotted.
The Paradox is a modular set with 110 meters of 5 mm LED. Straight up, the first question that
jumps to our mind is how the crew manages so many back to back tours- From load in to out.
Turns out, there are 5-6 variations of the Paradox, with some basic equations. It has been
specifically engineered with a self-climbing truss system over motors, so that twice as many
fixtures & video panels can be crammed into a venue.
A crew member by the name of Brady says “The Paradox is an experience that has
overwhelming properties to our audience. It’s a very demanding tour with multiple 12 show runs.
On the 2017 tour, we loaded in and out 360 semi trucks of equipment over 10 weeks. Everyone
on this tour is multi-disciplined and wears several hats. You’re expected to be up, building truss,
hanging panels and wiring systems with all the other crew. I was actually the LED tech as well
as media server/digital systems tech. Personally, I spend a lot of time eating healthy and not
drinking. That being said several crew members have the most impressive liquor constitutions
I have ever seen.”So you better be ready for some heavy lifting if you’re on Jeff’s team! The
responsibility to deliver the seamless show is in high demand, but Excision’s team never fails to
bring the best of efforts to the table for his headbangers.
The next thing that struck us about this monster is the content. From robots shooting flames, to
rampaging dinosaurs, to angry gorillas- it is a mech geek’s wildest dreams come true. It’s oh so
cool.All of this has been developed by longtime Beama & Excision Animator Ben Leonard. Also,
the man behind the robotic T-rex & Robo Kitty fame.
“I’ve been working with Jeff for a long time now, and he pretty much trusts me to do whatever I
want when it comes to content. Most of the time when given a song to animate, I’ll just listen to it
several times on headphones with my eyes closed, and whatever pops into my head is what I’ll
run with. After a lifetime of saturating my brain with comics, anime, graffiti, video games and
cheesy horror movies, my mind can wander into some weird places. I love making robots, aliens
and heavy mecha inspired designs so a lot of that goes into the Paradox. Sometimes I will base
my animations around a specific movement, like the camera moving up and down. Then I will
build a scene around that movement, like an elevator dropping or a spaceship blasting off. But
really, when making the content, it comes down to the music and what jumps into my head while
I listen to it.”
The art and graphics seen on his tours are unlike any other djs’ in the game. Each is developed
to fit the track and simultaneously be triggered at live events, creating a “home” that the song
can exist in, both in our eyes, minds, and hearts. It truly leaves
an imprint.
Speaking of building homes, that’s exactly what Excision has done for his fan of headbangers
and bassheads alike. After touring the US twice with the Paradox stage and the relase of his 3rd
album, Virus, he announced the creation of a new kind of festival that EDM fans haven’t been
able to attend ever before— and he called Lost Lands. It all takes place in Legend Valley, Ohio
and attracts 30,000 people and has sold out the past three years.
In a land of bass, dinosaurs, exploding volcanoes, and the overall mist of energy deriving from
dubstep, one can’t help to be lost in their own journey of self-expression in a judgement free
zone filled with alike minds. Attendess are here for all of the same reasons. With this creation,
the dubstep scene has never seen more exposure in the industry. A lot of fests are dominated
by house, techno, or a mixture of genres. But here in these lands, bass is all one needs. There
is a selection of broader bass genres than just heavy dub. Names like Said the Sky, Nero,
Illenium, Jauz, OOKAY and many more have been featured on the lineup. Artists like Rusko
made a comeback here, as well as Space Laces making unheard of festival stage apperances.
The Producers Den is run by artists themselves teaching how to make bedroom beats become
the next top hit. Leading names in the industry such as Protohype, ILL Gates, Kompany, and
Squnto have reached our possible upcoming headliners one day. The postive impact of this
place is endless. Each year Excision also hosts a DJ contest to earn supporting spots on the
lineup, creating opportunities for so many talented people. This is a true community. Here “fans”
are just one tribe.
Each year since its birth, Lost Lands has upped its production and presence in the festival
community. Year one offered 150k watts of bass and now he has increased it to 250k! The
sound camps offered from year one to year three were incredibly improved; from the location
being right in the fest grounds, larger stages, better spacing and sound. The organization and
flow of the layout has metamorphized immensely as well. There’s so much more to look at than
just stages now— the Village Market place offers a dyanmic shopping area with everyone’s
favorite sutom artist merch, festival needs and much more. Vendors such as Third Eye Pine
Cones, Vibedration, Electric Family, IheartRaves and countless others every year retrun. The
Asteroid Bar offers some of the best alcholic and non-alcholic drinks as you sit in a dome
spitting out fire from the top. It’s quite the experience being underneath. For 2018 it has
expanded and includes a stage inside; making it a three-stage event. There’s also the “Visual
Dome” for an out of the world experience, engufling one in visuals from top tier VJ artists and
content creators. And naturally, with all these improvements made there were obviously 3x more
of those giant fucking dinosaurs. They even move and RAWR at you!
After the creation of Lost Lands and a five year contract signed at the Valley due to making an
incredible impression on the local community as well as the grounds owner himself, Jeff wasn’t
done expanding his horizons. He set his sights out to the west coast; The Gorge Ampitheater,
Washington. This was his next dubstep destination to paradise. Delievering the same amount of
heavy watts of bass, he made the Canyon rumble. Bass Canyon’s first debut year was 2018,
and has grown as its own home for west coast headbangers and die hard Excision fans— some
even reporting they traveled from Austrialia for this spectular event.
The Gorge is known as one of the most beautiful venues in the world, and by far in the U.S., not
falling short from Red Rocks’ incredible view. The stage sits down hill right infront of the water
steams below in the canyon’s depths. The curveture of the venue and the hill promotes
excellent viewing, a breeze, and tons of space. Box seats and VIP have theater like
perspectives of the show. The festival itself is smaller but feels more inclusive. With there only
being one main stage and one local DJ stage, everyone pretty much experiences the same sets
and there’s something special about that. Changes if there were to be a 2020 Bass Canyon
was to add an additional stage featuring more bass-house artists. Fans will have to patiently
wait to see the plans of 2021.
Once reaching these heights in his career, Jeff truly found his APEX; hence the last full album
released for the first time on his very own record label. Giving him the freedom to bring his work
wherever he wanted, he began collabs with Illenium, Wooli, and singer duo AKYLLA. Songs like
“Home” ft. Dion Timmer attacked the hearts at the seams, while tracks like 1 on 1 ft. Space
Laces gets one feeling invincible with it’s heavy drops. His collab with Illenium, Gold, captured
everyone’s love. This album introduced a new side of X; something fresh, and beautifully filthy.
Leaning more into these new melodic-bass mash ups with others, he has since released
Breaking Through ft Dion and his Evolution EP ft Wooli. Just dropping months apart yet neither
has lost the true triple X-Rated touch. Tracks keeping up with the new exploration into sound
include Time Stood Still, Bones, and his now all-time favorite hits with Trivecta and Seven Lions;
Oxygen and Another Me. Don’t worry though, Jeff didn’t leave out the neck-breakers either
Lockdown will have your head rattling for days.
For 2020, Excision went back to the drawing board to create the largest stage yet— filling the
largest venues in US including the Hampton Coliseum, Tacome Dome, NOS Event Center &
more! Unfortunately due to the level of production, lights and lasers, it requires spacious venue
despite having three variants; thus axing out smaller venues like the Boston House of Blues,
Palladiums, etc. But any travel is guaranteed worth it by attendees. Jeff has made a lasting
impression on the dubstep scene, like the fossils we find of dinosaurs; his tracks will live on and
his sound is here to stay.