Sound Advice: Ray Volpe

Join Ray Volpe on Sound Advice, the weekly interview series covering artists’ journeys and their creative process. In this episode, we discuss the making of Ray Volpe’s long-awaited debut album, 2025 headline tour, approach to collaboration and more.

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Welcome to Sound Advice, the series spotlighting artists’ creative process and their SoundCloud journey. We’ll get the inside knowledge straight from the source on how musicians, producers and creatives are leaning into everything SoundCloud offers to elevate their sound, get heard and catapult their careers. Sound Advice is now available in audio format on the SoundCloud Stories profile.

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On this episode of Sound Advice, we catch up with Los Angeles-based DJ/producer Ray Volpe. Ray came of age in the era of Skrillex-influenced sound design, “Call of Duty,” big action movie trailers, emo bands and Vengeance sample packs — and all of this has influenced his heavy dubstep sound and style.

Ray has had some big breaks over his career, from getting taken on tour with Dirt Monkey and Jantsen when he was only 17 to Excision licensing his SoundCloud remix for his iconic Shambala DJ mix series. He’s opened for the likes of Borgore and Krewella, and in 2022, experienced breakthrough success with his track, “LASERBEAM.” The track became a scene anthem, and has since been flipped by EDM kingpins Hardwell and Chris Lake. 

Now, after various EPs, singles and remixes, Ray has just released his debut album, ‘FOREVER, VOLPETRON.’ Throughout the long-awaited album, he showcases the true range of his sound; from heavy dubstep and brostep to gritty bass house and melodic bass — all with the cinematic flair, catchy hooks and high energy that fans have come to expect.

In this episode, we talk about the making of Ray’s new album, and delve into how he has improved his production and DJ chops along the way. We also talk about the rise of the Volpetron persona, fan engagement, and how Ray uses SoundCloud to stay in touch with fans and dig for fresh music for his DJ sets. If you’re a dubstep fan, you won’t want to miss this one.

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LISTEN TO THE AUDIO EPISODE OF SOUND ADVICE FEATURING RAY VOLPE

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LISTEN TO ‘FOREVER, VOLPETRON’ BY RAY VOLPE HERE

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Things We Talked About In This Episode of Sound Advice

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Ray Volpe’s Musical Roots and Early Days on SoundCloud

• We begin the conversation by hearing about Ray Volpe’s formative experiences in music. The DJ/producer was born in New York and grew up on Long Island, but it was when his family moved to North Carolina that his musical memories began taking shape. As a pre-teen, he split his time between discovering EDM and editing video game trick shot montages. Blending his love of dance music and visual work from an early age, he used tracks by formative artists like Skrillex, Dirtyphonics, Big Chocolate, Tha Trickaz, Doctor P and Flux Pavilion to experiment creatively.
• Inspired, he started making his own beats as a teenager in the early 2010s. Through a process of exploration, he joined online Skype and Facebook groups of fellow bass producers such as Dion Timmer, Tisoki, Barely Alive and Subtronics, who created an encouraging community that shared tracks and developed their sound in parallel.
• Ray Volpe uploaded his first track to SoundCloud in 2013, and the platform has gone on to play a major role in the development of his career and artistry since. Through encouraging listeners to follow his profile in exchange for free downloads of tracks, and engaging regularly with the comments on those tracks, he’s built up a loyal fanbase that’s translated into real-world connections, such as merchandise and ticket sales. 
• Also through SoundCloud, he joined groups of like-minded bass and dubstep producers who shared music for remix contests and self-promotion, and sent SoundCloud links to his tracks to contemporary blogs. In those critical early years, SoundCloud was Ray Volpe’s hub for music sharing. Today, he uses SoundCloud to closely engage with his global community of bass fans, replying to comments and keeping up the elements of exclusivity. “That’s what turns a fan into a super-fan,” he says sagely. That level of recognition is meaningful to Ray.  

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Ray Volpe’s Artistic Growth, and How He Uses SoundCloud to Prepare for DJ Sets 

• SoundCloud also kick-started Ray’s career, after DJ/producers Dirt Monkey and Jantsen DM’d him about working together and releasing tracks on Jantsen’s label, Kairos Audio. From there, Ray went on tour with Dirt Monkey in the US when he was just 17 years old — a formative experience that showed Ray how he could grow in his career as a touring artist.
• Over the years, Ray has worked through challenges and hurdles when it comes to DJing. In order to overcome his natural anxiety about performing, he says, he took advice from his collaborators and peers, especially those he toured with in the 2010s, like Borgore, Kill The Noise, Krewella and Boombox Cartel. 
• To prepare for his DJ sets, Ray Volpe uses SoundCloud to dig for new music. Here, he talks about how he goes through other artists’ likes to discover what they’re listening to and find inspiration; from hidden gems to bootlegs, remixes and more. He even confesses that he has a secret SoundCloud account purely for digging — so maybe Ray Volpe has discovered your music and played it in his sets. “I like being covert!,” he jokes.

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The Genesis of Volpetron, Elevating His Production Skills and The Collaborative Experience of ‘FOREVER, VOLPETRON’

• Ray Volpe has released a steady stream of EPs, singles and remixes over the years, and it’s all led up to his 2025 debut album, ‘FOREVER, VOLPETRON.’ Here, he discusses the genesis of the Volpetron persona, and how a difficult time in his creative path led to Volpetron. Struggling to find a sonic and visual identity during the pandemic, and after parting ways with his first team, he took encouragement from his partner (and now visual collaborator) on bringing Volpetron to life. 
• Here, he talks about how Volpetron was born from a vocal tag, taking inspiration from rap and hip-hop production techniques, and how a collaboration with Dank $inatra set him on a journey that brought him to the creation of his debut album.
• Over the last 15 years, Ray has seen a huge amount of change in the US bass music scene, from production techniques to sonic trends and more. Here, he talks about what’s exciting him about the scene right now, and how he’s become inspired to lean into the songwriting process more. Reflecting on the making of tracks like “LASERBEAM,” “SONG REQUEST” and “SEE YOU DROP,” Ray talks about how he balances his growing songwriting techniques with maintaining the DJ tool energy of a great dance track.
• Ray has brought that inspiration into the process of making ‘FOREVER, VOLPETRON.’ Here, he explains how the album is a love letter to his fans and peers across bass and dubstep, and how it was a major opportunity to bring lots of collaborators into the fold. Breaking down the inclusion of acts like TYNAN, Virtual Riot, Sullivan King, Adventure Club and more, Ray talks through some of his most memorable collaborative moments on the album, and how his emo roots led him to working with the LA-based band Point North on the track “CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR.”

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What Ray Volpe Learned From the Album-Making Experience, and His 2025 Tour 

• Now that ‘FOREVER, VOLPETRON’ is released, Ray reflects on the journey of creating a debut album, how it can impact your career path and what he learned about his artistry through the solo and collaborative process. 
• Taking into account how quickly the dance music scene evolves, and how trends come and go, Ray gives fellow artists some wise advice: If you’re early in your career, don’t be afraid to experiment with different genres to find what you’re most comfortable with. Trends and ideas come in waves, but once you find your niche, run with it. 
• For Ray, one of the most impactful elements of making music collaboratively across genres is seeing fans from wider EDM culture get more and more into his world of bass and dubstep. With the release of ‘FOREVER, VOLPETRON,’ he hopes to bring even more dance fans into his loud, energetic world, and to his 2025 tour. You can find out more about the tour, including dates, locations and tickets, here.

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Links and Extras

Follow Ray Volpe’s journey on SoundCloud.
Press play on Ray Volpe’s 2025 album, ‘FOREVER, VOLPETRON.’
Listen to “LASERBEAM,” Ray Volpe’s breakthrough 2022 track.
Go back to where it all began with one of Ray Volpe’s first tracks, 2014’s “Cadillax.”
Check out Ray Volpe’s collaborative tracks with Sullivan King (“REWIND”) and Point North (“CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR”).
Explore some of Ray Volpe’s wide-ranging influences, including Skrillex, Dirtyphonics, Doctor P and Flux Pavilion, to name a few. 
Listen to the New Era Bass playlist on SoundCloud.
Never miss an episode and follow the official Sound Advice playlist on SoundCloud.

Getting The Most Out of SoundCloud

Learn more about using DMs to connect with fellow artists and potential collaborators.
Learn more about how to make a custom playlist on SoundCloud.
Learn more about unlimited uploads, available with an Artist Pro subscription.
Learn more unlocking access to unlimited distribution, available with Artist Pro.
Learn more about getting heard with SoundCloud’s updated algorithm, available to Artist and Artist Pro subscribers.

To discover additional features a SoundCloud Artist or Artist Pro subscription offers, visit here. To catch up on past installments of Sound Advice and make sure you don’t miss out on future episodes, visit here.

_{CREDITS Host: Vivian Host, Executive Producer: Mike Spinella, Producer: KC Orcutt, Audio Engineer: David “DibS” Shackney, Coordinator: Trevor McGee, Editorial Associate: Lauren Martin}