SOTA

SOTA is Tom Southon, a producer and DJ from Horsham whose jump-up carries something of his first musical love, metal. He played drums before moving towards electronic music, with Pendulum providing the bridge into drum and bass. The energy of that background remains part of how he approaches records and sets.

Early releases on Low Down Deep Recordings arrived in 2019, followed by collaborations including FLAPPERS with Turno. Tracks such as Realise, Pray For Me and Machete brought his solo production to a wider audience, with A.M.C later remixing the last of those.

He has described jump-up in terms of energy rather than one fixed set of sounds. That leaves room for melody and detailed synthesis alongside the immediate impact of a drop. The metal influence also offers ideas about songwriting and arrangement, rather than simply a reason to make every track heavier.

His State of the Art tour brought those ideas into complete nights, with support acts chosen for music he liked hearing himself. Moving to Bristol in late 2023 placed him in another busy D&B community, while the Drum&BassArena Best Newcomer award that year marked a step forward in public recognition. He continues to think about the whole experience of a show, from the opening sets to his own time behind the decks.