MM Exclusive: Skepsis

Scott Jenkins aka “It’s the DJ Skepsis” is in the process of earning legendary status. Cutting his teeth on the belligerence of the late 2010s UK bass scene, he has impressively adapted to the steadier, less ephemeral industry of drum and bass in recent years. With releases ranging from screwface jump-up to anthemic dancefloor, he reflects on a stellar year as we talk genre labels, industry complications, and US crowds adapting to drum and bass. 

So, you’ve embarked on this tenth anniversary tour. How’s it been reflecting on ten years in the game?

It’s kind of mad because, I feel like in the music world, ten years is a really long time. It’s a brutal industry at times because it’s so volatile. So, I guess I feel grateful to still be here. My sound has changed a lot. It started out as one thing and then morphed into something else but, in a way, the journey makes sense as one. It’s all under the umbrella of really loud, aggressive dance music that people just love the energy of. I’ve been lucky enough to live out a lot of my dreams in the last 10 years, so it’s been pretty wild. 

Most of your releases this year have been drum and bass, apart from ‘Friendly Pressure (I Wanna Be With You) [2017 Skepsis Edit]’. Which threw it back to your bassline days – what made you want to do that now?

The label asked me if I wanted to do a bassline version of the original. I’d seen a lot of people feeling nostalgic for that time. So, I went into my old files with all the sounds I used to use and threw that together. I tried to keep it authentic – as if you’d got in a time machine to eight or nine years ago. Yeah, that was quite fun to do. I think a lot of people moved on from the bass stuff, but there’s still nostalgia for it online at the same time.

Do you still make the bassline stuff often?

I haven’t really made it for a while. At some point I might try and explore it again. To be honest with a lot of the early stuff, I listen to it now and it doesn’t sound very good. ‘Goes Like’ did a lot of damage and it was the first track that put me on the map, but I think it sounds terrible now, compared to more modern music. It’s mad how much things can change in a few years. I know you should never read YouTube comments, but I remember someone once said: “this sounds like Game Boy music.” I thought about it and realised it’s true. I don’t personally like the song, but I do like how people react to it. I still play it. I’ve been playing it on tour because I’ve been doing two-hour sets; double the length of what I usually do. I’ve been paying homage to where I came from whilst striking a balance with what I want to do now. I try to cover a bit of everything.

What do you think the most important aspect of playing live is? 

I think it’s just being prepared. As well as having a lot of tracks out, it’s always nice to play unreleased tracks because they build hype, especially if people upload videos to TikTok. Even if the show isn’t great or there’s not as many people there as you’d like, which is more frequent these days because the nightlife industry is struggling, you have to give your all because people feed off your energy. I played a show earlier this year and there was about fifteen people there, but I tried to just focus on them having a good time. Afterwards I spoke to them and was like: “sorry about this, thank you for coming”. That’s one of the biggest things that motivates me – the memories you can give people. It might feel like another night for me, but for someone else it might be the best night of their life. 

The first leg of the tenth anniversary tour was in North America: how do US and UK crowds differ? 

With drum and bass, it’s interesting because, in America, it’s still kind of a new concept. They have EDM, but drum and bass has only become popular recently, so it’s a completely different ball game. Before the COVID lockdown, I went out there a few times doing more of the bassline stuff. They have a similar sound to that over there, so they’re used to it. But because drum and bass is fast, and not your typical dance music beat, it takes a while for people to work out how to move to it. But the tour was good – I met some amazing people. Being so far from home and people saying they drove hours to see me was mind-blowing. I have a couple more shows in the UK and then finish in Australia and New Zealand at the end of the year, which is always good because it’s summer now over there, and I’ll do anything to get out of the UK in winter. 

I realised fairly recently how big the bassline or bass house stuff is in America. To me, that’s a very UK sound – why do you think it’s so popular?

The American bass stuff sounds different but is the same concept, so when we first went out there, we were bridging the UK and US sounds. I was touring with American artists who were making similar things to the UK in an American style, but they were playing a lot of UK songs in their sets, so it was an easy transition. Drum and bass, because 90% of it comes from the UK, is harder to play. I know certain styles connect more in America; the dancefloor style connects better than jump-up. But there’s definitely potential for growth over there. Even now, a lot of big names in drum and bass are doing unprecedented things in America. 

Who were the artists who made you want to produce bassline?

I started around 2015 but it was really interesting at the time, because bassline, in its traditional form, the ‘up-north’ sound of old-school ‘warpers’, had died out – not in a disrespectful way, just people weren’t making it anymore. Its prime was around 2007 – 2011. Then a new sound came through but was slower, more like bass house – bassline-y sounds, but on a house beat.

The people who were pioneering that were My Nu Leng, TQD (Royal-T, Flava D, DJ Q), Deadbeat, and Notion was doing some sick stuff even in the early days. It was kind of a combination between bassline, house, grime, and garage. It was just fresh. My Nu Leng were a really big influence in the early days, who were quite dark and techno-leaning. Before that I was making grime and rap beats, which was just what was around me at the time, being from South London. 

So, we could call it bassline, but it commonly gets referred to as UK bass and there is a lot of variation within that term. How would you define UK bass?

It’s an umbrella term. I used to hate calling it bassline because it seemed to pigeonhole it and I wanted to respect the original bassline sound. But there’s been so many years of people calling it that, so I’ve just given up. If you can’t beat them join them. Back then I would call it bass or “UK bass. Even bass house, for me, wasn’t right because my stuff wasn’t house-y; it was faster, more like bass garage if anything.

But then, to me, UK bass has two meanings. It refers to those specific genres, but now also a wider sense of dark UK club music. It’s always been a bit of a debate. I think that shows you how unique it was at the time – people didn’t know what to call it, which is quite rare with how recycled music has become. The buzz around that time was special, and I’m glad to have been part of it. So many people tell me “you were the soundtrack to my uni years.”

Your 2021 album Faith in Chaos covers a lot of genres. Do you know what genre you are going to make before you start a tune?

A lot of it is on the fly; just what I’m feeling inspired by at that time. Luckily, I’ve always been flexible in that way. It’s nice that I can switch it up now and again. The album was one of the most rewarding things I’ve done. I did it throughout lockdown, which gave me a goal when there was no structure to life. Every day I was changing things and working on it. Releasing it felt great because I genuinely didn’t care about numbers, so it was nice not to feel that pressure.

I want to do another album. Potentially next year or the year after I’ll be looking to do the second one. It also gave me free reign to release a wider variety of songs. These days everyone just does singles because no one has got any attention span anymore. I’d been making a lot of different stuff at the time, and it was nice that I could find a meaningful place for it. I could contrast the chilled tracks with the heavier ones; I didn’t have to put twelve face-melters on there. That was my favourite thing – having the freedom to make whatever I wanted. 

There’s a lot of spoken word samples on there. What were you trying to convey with those?

That stuff contrasts nicely with singers and rappers. For the ‘Magna (Intro)’, I found this old video of a guy talking about how early music technology worked. I wanted to display how things have progressed since then but show that that’s still the core of it. For ‘Acid’ it was all about those 90s warehouse parties. The government was cracking down on them, but more kept popping up, which shows our need to feel the music and have a good time. I found that clip of the news reporter and we actually filmed a whole music video where I dressed up as a reporter. That was my acting debut. In the intro, as well, I used the audio from the first time I played Bassfest – where I dropped my remix of Mr Virgo’s ‘Hypnotical’. The reaction to that was crazy. It was like a football crowd reacting to a goal. 

Your workrate in 2025 has been crazy, but you didn’t seem to release much in 2024. Have you had more inspiration this year?

It’s interesting you say that. In my head I feel like I’ve been quite lazy this year. Basically, last year I entered a new record deal and had a long transitional period with a lot of red tape behind the scenes, so I didn’t release much for a while. I ended up with so many unreleased ideas. Sometimes I’ll play stuff to some of my friends and family that aren’t in the music industry, and they’ll be like, “why haven’t you released these? They’re so good!” – I wish it was that straightforward. But this year I unloaded everything, and it’s been a good year overall.

I had some pretty mental collaborations. I released one with Tinie Tempah, ‘Eat It Up’, who came all the way up from London to perform in my set at Bassfest. It was mad how that happened actually. I was in a studio in London, and I just shot my shot on Instagram and then the next day he came. I message a lot of people. You get aired sometimes, which obviously can be hard to take, but I feel you’ve got to drop your pride because great things have come out of it for me. If you don’t try, you’ll never know. I released a tune with Kairo Keyz as well, who’s pretty big and doesn’t normally do drum and bass. I didn’t expect any of that to happen so I’m excited for next year.

When you’re making a tune, do you consciously do it with a vocalist in mind?

I prefer letting a tune run its natural course. If I sit down and I say, right, “I’m gonna make a tune for a rapper”, it never seems to come out as well. I don’t know why that is, but I think you almost put yourself in a box doing that. 

I know you played drums for a while. Do you feel drums are the most important part of your productions?

I think it varies depending on genre. In drum and bass, I feel they are. You could have amazing drums in your track and the rest could be average, but the track will sound good if the drums are hitting. In other genres, it’s more balanced. I would love to start playing again. It’s just so hard because drum kits are so impractical.

No one has a drum kit in the house, it’s too loud, so maybe if I found a studio, I would pick it back up. But I’ve been having piano lessons recently. I wish I had learned when I was younger, but it will hopefully help my production. Where I go, because it’s mostly school kids they’re teaching piano to, I look really out of place. It’s been good so far, but it’s a long process.

Words by Charlie Edmondson