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Virtual Riot on Creativity, Sobriety & Teaching — A SlamCast Deep-Dive
Meet Virtual Riot: Composer, Sound-Designer, Audio Scientist
Why Minnesota? A Move Fueled by Recovery & Community
- Sobriety first: Virtual Riot relocated from Los Angeles to Minneapolis after completing treatment at The Retreat in Wayzata—trading Hollywood temptations for a supportive recovery scene.
- Logistical win: MSP’s Delta hub means direct flights to nearly every North-American tour stop—less travel stress, more creative energy.
- Built-in support: Friends, fellow artists, and Slam Academy’s inclusive culture made the transition seamless (yes, “SOBER-kota” is officially a hashtag now).
From Bedroom Uploads to Global Stages
- 2010–2014: Uploaded tracks to YouTube & SoundCloud “as soon as they were finished.”
- Label dominoes: Tiny German imprint Phantom Hertz ➜ U.S. boutique labels ➜ Disciple Recordings in LA.
- First big gig: A last-minute call to replace Dr P at Cologne’s Bootshaus—with nothing but a Windows laptop and raw adrenaline.
- Tour life today: Direct festival slots (Electric Forest, EDC) with a sober green-room rider: “No drugs / alcohol on stage.”
Teaching at Slam Academy: Giving Back (and Staying Balanced)
In his 12-week Sound-Design & Arrangement course, Virtual Riot:
- Breaks down oscillator theory, LFO curves, and envelope hacks.
- Guides students through Ableton Live, Serum, Massive, and TouchDesigner experiments.
- Reworks the curriculum each round to include the freshest plugins, trends, and community questions.
Creative Process Nuggets You Can Steal Today
| Challenge | Virtual Riot’s Fix |
| Loop Hell | Set a 10-min timer; every ding, extend the next 8 bars. |
| Perfection Paralysis | “Embarrassment is the cost of entry.” Upload, get feedback, iterate. |
| Sample Overload | Type a random word in your library’s search bar, scroll halfway down, use the first rim-shot you see—then make it work. |
| Visual Sync | Map kick, snare, and melody stems to motion graphics parameters for hyper-satisfying live visuals. |
Advice for New Producers (2025 Edition)
- Fall in love with the process, not the outcome.
- Audience last: Authenticity attracts superfans; trend-chasing doesn’t.
- Take criticism on the chin—then keep experimenting.
- Try alien genres: Blues riffs in Ableton? Yes. Techno rumbles at 3 a.m.? Also yes.
- Remember your mental health: Creativity thrives when you do.
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Abstrakt Sonance
(Tyler Myroon)
Bursting from the rugged wilds of Western Canada, Abstrakt Sonance fuses the primal pulse of nature with gritty urban basslines that are revolutionizing music. Operating from his secluded forest sanctuary, he's
With a performance resume spanning the iconic stages of Outlook, Shambhala, and Red Rocks, Abstrakt Sonance has painted his unique sonic signature across four continents, gathering a following that is as raw and compelling as his sounds.
Youngsta is one of the figureheads of dubstep; a long-running resident at scene-defining club night FWD>> and the DJ who first played some of the genre’s most-loved anthems,
he continues to be a hugely active figure in dubstep’s development. His weekly show on Rinse FM draws deep for new music, helping to expose and break talented new producers, and the founding ethics that defined dubstep in its early years still remain at the heart of his DJ set.
He’s also famed for his distinct aesthetic – selecting beats that are at once colossally
heavy and beautifully intricate, claustrophobic yet with a keen ear for space and silence. “The sound is just me,” he says, explaining that he’s hesitant to pigeonhole the music he plays.
Virtual Riot is one of the most sought-after producers worldwide and is considered one of the most popular representatives of the dubstep scene. He is known for his unique productions and intense, elaborately produced shows.
He is a global touring artist performing at the biggest festivals in the world such as EDC, Coachella, Tomorrowland, Lost Lands, Rampage, Bassrush, and many more. Virtual Riot is Beatport’s best-selling artist of all time in the genre of dubstep and has gained 400k+ followers on YouTube with more than 1 million streams of his music per day. In the DJ Mag Top 100 DJ’s, the biggest DJ poll in the world, Virtual Riot is ranked 78th and has worked with the likes of Skrillex, Getter, and Kill The Noise, along with remixes for Zedd, The Chainsmokers, Flux Pavilion, Excision, and Pegboard Nerds.
James was one of the first Ableton Certified Trainers in the world, helping pilot the trainer program in 2008, and has since been a leader among Ableton educators. His first 10 years of teaching sound design and audio production were at the Institute of Production and Recording in Minneapolis, before moving onto Dubspot in New York City. Since starting Slam Academy in 2012, he has taken on private clients from around the world that range from beginners to some of the most prolific musicians of our time.
Breeze has had some very high profile gigs as a DJ, including playing at the SXSW music festival, three times at the "Twin Cities Pride Festival," the "Tostitos Cantina Bowl" during the Super Bowl LII festivities, Twin Cities Dilla Days, the St. Paul Winter Carnival, the 50 Years of Ebony Fashion Fair and opening for the Afropunk band, "AstralBlak." He was also the former house DJ for the Minneapolis-based Music Television show "Candy Fresh." In 2019, he participated in the Deeper Learning Conference in San Diego, and was also a featured DJ at the "Last of the Record Buyers" tent for the SOUNDSET FESTIVAL, the Midwest's largest One-Day Outdoor music festival.