The Night I Fell in Love With Dance Music: Forrest Hunt

Having grown up in the “bubble” of south Orange County, Forrest Hunt admits he had no idea what to expect when a high school friend passed him a rave flyer and suggested they go check it out. It’s been more than 15 years since that pivotal moment, and it’s safe to say that with his current position as Executive Producer at Insomniac, that was a night that would not only introduce a young Forrest to an entirely new culture centered around electronic music, but would prophetically transform his path and direction in life.

"The windows were broken out, and once you got inside, it was like chaos. It was as if someone had found the building and just let people in to run buck wild.”

Responsible for a wide range of behind-the-scenes activities that bring to life everything from large-scale festivals to local massives and intimate club nights on both the Insomniac and Bassrush sides of things, Forrest is the first to credit his formative rave years—and specifically his love and knowledge of drum & bass music and culture—for allowing him to move into the leadership role that he has.

It all started when Forrest was just a high school kid, on his way to his first rave and unsure of what to expect. Here’s the story of his journey from that moment forward.

Where’d you grow up, and what kind of music were you listening to back in the day?
I grew up in Orange County, so I listened to No Doubt, Metallica, Vanilla Ice, Milli Vanilli—whatever was popular. My brother was a huge influence on my taste, and he listened to ’80s new wave, Duran Duran, Thomas Dolby, Crowded House, Aha!, Bow Wow Wow, Herbie Hancock. So really it was that, metal stuff, and then white-boy rap.

Tell us about the night you fell in love with dance music.
It was sophomore year in high school. A buddy of mine found a rave flyer and said, “Hey, let’s go check this out.” It was at La Casa, which was a shitty, warehouse-type space at the time. It was near Downtown Los Angeles, and the windows were broken out, and once you got inside it was like chaos. It was as if someone had found the building and just let people in to run buck wild.

You have to remember: I had never been to one of these things before. I didn’t know what to wear; I didn’t know what I was supposed to listen to. The music was all over the place, and there was no production at all. It was just a wall of speakers and maybe some blacklights or something, but that was it. So it’s dimly lit, and there were all these different rooms with different kinds of music playing in each one. I don’t even remember who the main act was; I think it was Electric Skychurch or something.

“I was like, fuck it, I can do this; I can book this shit. And he was like, all right, go for it.”

Back then, there was a trance room, a drum & bass/hip-hop room, a house room, sometimes techno or hardcore. We would just walk around to all these different areas, because we didn’t really know about the scene or what to do. For some reason, that night we ended up in the drum & bass room, and something about it just made sense to me. I can’t tell you who was playing or what the tunes were, but that’s where we stayed, and suddenly it was over. Time went by so fast that I was actually sad that it was over. I knew right away that next weekend I wanted to go again.

This is back when there was a rave every Friday and Saturday night, every weekend, all year long. I can’t tell you why, but every weekend after that, the drum & bass room was where we ended up. It wasn’t even like a thing where I even knew what it was yet.

At what point did you start to figure out the culture and what to wear?
You used to have to go to these certain shops all around the city in order to buy tickets for these things. There was a ticket store in Mission Viejo—I can’t remember the name, only that it used to be next to this liquor store. That was the place where you’d get all the flyers and buy clothes, and then it took off from there. I never wore kandi, but I definitely had my fair share of JNCOs, khakis, UFOs, and all that stuff.

Once you realized that drum & bass was your jam, did you become a full-on drum & bass head?
Once I figured it out, I went out and bought every Dieselboy album I could find; one of my favorites was his 97 Octane mix CD. From there, I just really got into it and went to raves for a good amount of time and, as I got older, started to drive up to [Los Angeles] every week for Respect. There was Recon Tuesdays, Wreckignition parties, Databass, Magic Wednesdays, Shiva’s Erotic Banquet, Junglelogic—I just kept going to parties as much as I could, and pretty soon you start to develop preferences and taste and figure out the names of artists and your favorite DJs, and all that.

Back then, drum & bass parties were so sketch—especially the local parties, because they were always at some shitty location. R.A.W. and CRS? and all those guys would be headlining, but that was the real scene back then. You’d meet people, and then you’d start planning on going to a party and then just meet up there. It’s so different now.

Lots of UK talent was coming through back then, as well. Who were some of your favorite artists at the time?
Bad Company, Cause 4 Concern, Dillinja, Andy C, Mampi Swift, Bassline Smith, Jumpin Jack Frost, Roni Size, EZ Rollers, Konflict… The best song ever made was “Messiah” by Konflict. I’m still on a lifelong mission to find them and reunite them at one of our parties. I have everybody looking. I have Andy C looking. Kevin Gimble said he found Kemal on Facebook, but he won’t add him back.

It’s weird, because I started with jump-up, but now I’m into all that halftime techy stuff by Dub Phizix, Enei, Foreign Concept, Ulterior Motive, Emperor—maybe I’m getting older.

How did you transition from being a fan of the music to your current role as Executive Producer of the largest electronic music promoter in the world? It’s like a dream come true for every raver out there!
I was working closely with Pasquale as kind of an informal assistant. Something happened with the guy who was doing the Bassrush bookings, and so he needed somebody to take on that task. Bassrush was still pretty small at that time, but Insomniac in general was really taking off. With me always being passionate about drum & bass, I was like, fuck it, I can do this; I can book this shit. And he was like, all right, go for it. I think he thought I wouldn’t like it or something, but he took this huge chance on me; plus, he probably just had a lot going on and didn’t want to deal with the hassle of finding a replacement. So he said, give it a try.

I started working with booking agents, management, press agents, and the DJs themselves. We had a weekly club night, and then I started booking festivals like EDC and Nocturnal, and it just snowballed from there.

Why drum & bass after all these years?
I’ll be at a club or a Bassrush show or just listening to music, and I still get goosebumps when I hear certain tracks. There’s no other genre of music that does that for me. That, and the people. There’s a certain kind of camaraderie to drum & bass and just—I don’t know what you’d call it—passion? People just love it—Andy C loves it, Kevin Gimble loves it, people like you love it, Dino loves it. You go to another stage, and certain DJs have on their rider that you can’t look them in their eyes or that you can only talk to them through their management. With drum & bass people, everyone’s fucking cool. Take Andy C: The dude wants to hang out and chill after his set. Just the way the people are in the scene allows you to build these relationships over the years, and it sounds cheesy to say, but it’s like a big family. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Where do you see yourself headed next?
Do you mean when I’m 50, will we still be doing Bassrush shows? I hope so, because I just fucking love the music. I wouldn’t spend all this time and effort doing what I do if I didn’t. To me, it doesn’t even feel like a job. I get paid to book parties. I’m a party planner!