From the shadows of Newcastle’s club circuit to the shelves of Hooversound’s vinyl catalogue, Nectax has steadily carved out a distinct lane in the UK’s bass music underground.
Whether shelling clubs with dubwise jungle pressure, sculpting cybernetic breakbeats, or collaborating with close friends through STEREO 45, Ollie’s approach is rooted in history, community, and a genuine love for the craft.
Fresh off a guest mix for Adrenaline and a standout new EP, Raytracer, we caught up with Nectax to talk foundations, friendship, and the funny ways tunes get named — plus a few hints at what’s to come from his forthcoming debut album.
Hey Ollie, how are you today?
Good thanks man, but pretty damn tired! Just got back from going to Waking Life festival in Portugal, that 38 degrees weather catching up to me haha.
Let’s start at the roots: the Nectax sound has evolved from UK jump-up into heavyweight jungle and breaks; can you walk us through that journey? What sparked the shift?
Taking it way back then! I got into production around the same time I got into Drum & Bass (2014); I was completely taken in by the energy, emotion & production quality of the music being put out then. The big labels were thriving, and the underground was bubbling. There were a couple of local club nights in Newcastle pushing that style, and SoundCloud was popping with a load of new, fresh producers, each with their own sound; I could get my head around it, I could contribute to it. I’ve always made a range of styles (liquid being another mainstay of the early years), but there was something special and tangible about that era of SoundCloud, mainly driven by the more upfront clubby styles of drum & bass, and dubstep. It was active; you could get your music heard. It was sick. I loved the community element of it.
I’ve always been fascinated by the foundations/history of the music, and of course, the humble breakbeat, even in my earliest tracks, you’ll find a Think break layer here, and an Amen fill there. I remember listening to Lemon D – I Can’t Stop on YouTube in sixth form, and being as in awe of it then as I still am now.
I wouldn’t say there was ever a massive shift in my music taste, more so just the extent to how much I aligned, or felt drawn to engage with the respective modern scenes. The contemporary jungle scene does a fantastic job of capturing that same music-focused, community-driven ethos that it did back in the day, and I love it!
Zooming out a bit… how would you say the broader bass music landscape has evolved since you first got involved? Were there any changes that surprised or excited you?
This is an interesting question. For me personally, what’s excited me the most has been the cross-pollination with non-bass music scenes in the past 3-4 years (post-COVID, perhaps?). It’s like the wider global underground electronic music scene has become less cliquey, and increasingly open to more varied lineups, especially on festivals, take Dekmantel & Draaimolen for example. It’s an inspiring step in what I believe to be the right direction, educating and exposing more people to more music & sub-cultures than they would have ever set out to discover, perhaps previously.
You were recently featured in the adidas x NTS collab, which shone a light on regional UK scenes, including Newcastle. What makes that scene so special to you? And is there anything you’d like to see evolve?
It was really encouraging to see Newcastle featured in there. The city has faced (and still faces) many social and economic setbacks, which other regions of the UK have already recovered from. That being said, that humility & history have shaped the local music scene into something wholesome & super friendly; also, just the small/moderate size of the city creates this high concentration of good culture, across many different avenues, not just music.
What I’d like to see more of is promoters, labels, and artists making the effort to connect with Newcastle (and the North East UK) more. Everyone would be better off for it!
You’re also part of STEREO 45. How did the night and label come about? What role do they play in your creative process or your connection to the community?
Stereo 45 is in essence just myself and two of my best mates (Sketchy Rida & DJ Swarm) collectively having fun & putting our heads together musically, trying our best to actively put that energy into doing positive stuff together, with those around us, rather than complaining or just talking about stuff hypothetically.
We will have been officially running for 4 years as of the end of 2025, but we started meeting up and making plans back in 2019/2020 before the pandemic scuppered all our club inquiry planning, haha.
The label came as a natural extension of the Newcastle club nights, and now that we all live in different cities, it allows us to remotely still keep Stereo 45 alive and well, most notably with our expansion into the vinyl realm, selling out all our first run of the Portal Tech EP last year! We’re almost finished with our next vinyl project, which will be dropping around Q4 this year. The first track in my mix is actually forthcoming on that release…
Your latest EP just dropped on Hooversound. How did that link up with Sherelle and Naina first happen?
I’ve bumped into Sherelle at many a club night & festival over the years – she’s a bit of a legend & always has time for people and chatting.
I had a jungle remix out about 5 years ago (Tweakz – Fatal Attraction Remix), which Sherelle played loads and featured on her radio shows. I’ve kept her and Naina posted with tunes regularly ever since.
My girlfriend Sophie (melba) and I had a nice catch-up with Sherelle at Dekmantel in 2022, and Sherelle was asking if Sophie was producing tracks at the time. Fast-forward a few years, and mine and Sophie’s debut release together is on my Hooversound EP, so that’s a nice moment!
Let’s talk about Raytracer. What was the vision behind it? Is there a theme, vibe, or idea that runs through the tracks?
A lot of my tracks are just random experimentations or ideas that have come about inspired by something as simple as a novel word, or a glance at something some would consider mundane or uninteresting enough to base a track off of.
I’d came across ‘Raytracing’ as a technique used in modern video games to give ultra-realistic lighting effects, and although that word doesn’t bear any literal connections to my track Raytracer, I thought the alchemy of the different styles and genres in the track neatly captured the sort of emotion I felt when playing/watching video games like Half Life 2 or Mirrors Edge which are beautiful & dystopian in their own right.
Sherelle and Naina are pushing the scene forward in big ways. Who else is inspiring you right now, either musically or outside of music?
There are many to mention, but the first that comes to mind is latesleeper, specifically her collaborative project PEROXIIDE. It’s original, it’s swagging, it’s very well produced, and it’s pretty much all footwork/jungle music like you’ve never heard it before.
About your Adrenaline guest mix. Is there a track in there that stands out to you personally? Something with a story behind it, or a moment that hit differently?
A few songs into the mix is a new track of mine called J2000, and basically it’s a sort of cyber-jukey club track, with a funny backstory (which I pretty much always have a soft spot for).
I was playing for License To Jungle in Leeds last year, and whenever I go to Leeds, I usually catch up for some food/pints with my friend Funktional & his crew there. This time we went to a nice pub where they lived, and we ended up finding some Top Trumps cards to play. Long story short, it was a vintage Beamish style cars Top Trumps set, which is an 1800s themed museum/day center in Durham, which is near Newcastle. The best card in the pack was this car called J2007 & had a 100/100 Top Trump score, and a (relative to the other cards) blinding top speed of 60mph. So anytime anyone had that card, the game was pretty much over.
I like naming my tunes after little funny moments like that to big up the homies, and eternalise some comedical little references which probably don’t mean anything on the surface but have a fun bit of lore to them.
What’s next for you? Any upcoming projects, collaborations, or sonic directions you’re especially excited about?
The main big fixture is the album. I think it’s the most well-rounded body of work I’ve produced to date, with nods to many of the styles I’ve loved & made over the past ten or so years! I’ll talk about it more over the coming months, but for now I’ll mention that it’s coming out on digital & vinyl at the end of summer, on a great label I’ve worked with previously & I’m very excited about it & looking forward to sharing it 🙂
TRACKLIST
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Sun People – Given
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Nectax – Alyx
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Nectax – J2000
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latesleeper – WANNA
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Phillip D Kick – In Formation
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Hooverian Blur – Slower Violence
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Thugwidow – Human Contact
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Peverelist – XIV
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Hertis – Tannoy Dub
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Sun People – State of Flux
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Mark Pritchard – Duppies
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Listen to the previous episode by Vorso here.
