Meet DJ Jock: the crazy story behind his Adam Beyer collaboration

Sometimes one message can change everything. Croatian stalwart DJ Jock was recovering from a serious knee operation — and unable to play gigs — when an email from Adam Beyer landed in his inbox suggesting a collaboration on 'Let Loose', a demo Jock had earlier sent him. For the Croatian producer, who had looked up to Beyer since the beginning of his career, it was a much-needed boost during a difficult time. We spoke to DJ Jock about how the track came together, the struggle to clear its System of a Down sample and its eventual release on Drumcode.

Q: For those unfamiliar, can you intro yourself and tell us about the kind of music you’re making and playing?

A: Hello, my name is Stipe, better known as DJ Jock. I was born and raised in Split, Croatia, where I’m still based today. I’ve been DJing professionally for almost 17 years and producing music for around 16.

Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to win the Ambassador Award for Best Croatian DJ six times and to release music on respected labels such as Carl Cox’s Intec, and now Drumcode.

My main sound is rooted in techno, but I’ve always enjoyed exploring music beyond one particular style. I’ve also worked on music for movies and video games, and I have a few other aliases, including JØL, where I release different kinds of music and explore another side of my creativity.

In 2017, I started Roots as a series of club events in Croatia. Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to bring artists such as Paul Kalkbrenner, Bart Skils, Cristian Varela, Marco Bailey, AFFKT, Juliet Fox and many others to play at Roots. Recently, I finally took the next step and turned Roots into a record label as well, Roots Trax, which is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.

Q: You’re a powerhouse of the Balkan scene and were born in Split, Croatia. How’s the local scene these days, especially post-pandemic when the clubbing landscape has changed a lot?

A: Thank you for the nice words! The local scene is good, although of course it can always get better. We have some amazing DJs, producers, promoters and collectives, and the scene is quite diverse. You can find everything from more laid-back sounds to house, minimal, techno and harder styles, so there’s definitely a lot happening creatively. Like everywhere, though, the pandemic had a big impact. It closed the doors of many clubs that were really at the heart of the scene. Before Covid, I remember we had three or four clubs in Split doing electronic music, and on the weekends they could all be full. Some were bringing international DJs, others were more focused on local artists, and somehow it all worked together.

Unfortunately, the combination of the pandemic, inflation and rising costs has created a situation where it’s much harder to make electronic music events profitable, especially on a regular basis. Clubbing habits have changed as well, so the whole landscape is quite different from what it was six or seven years ago.

Croatia is obviously famous for its summers and festivals, but for me, some of the real magic happens during the winter. That’s the time when local promoters do events in clubs.

One of my favourite events to play is All Night Long in my hometown, which happens every year around January or February. It’s mostly local people, the crowd really knows the music, and the atmosphere is always amazing. We go on the journey all together. There’s something special about those winter nights that you simply can’t recreate during the busy summer season.

Q: What are some local spots visitors to the area must check out?

A: Definitely Diocletian’s Palace and the Old Town. It’s the heart of Split, UNESCO-protected and just an amazing place to walk around and get lost in the small streets.

I’d also recommend grabbing a beer at Matejuška, especially around sunset, and checking out some of the beaches like Žnjan, Kašjuni and Bačvice. Take a walk around Marjan Hill and afterwards stop for a coffee at Vidilica, where you get a great view over the city. For food, I’d recommend ZAP Kitchen & Bar. There are obviously many more places, but those are my favs.

Q: Tell us about the making of ‘Let Loose’ with Adam Beyer. We understand it came together over an extended 12–18 month period. What’s the story behind the record?

It’s still crazy for me to think that we actually collaborated and that the track is finally coming out. Adam is someone I look up to since day one.

I made the first demo of “Let Loose” towards the end of 2024. I wasn’t really sure what to do with the track because it was the first time I had sampled something . I started playing it in my sets for a couple of months and the reactions were amazing. After almost every set, people were coming up to me or messaging me asking about that track.

So in 2025, I sent it to a few DJs, including Adam, Carl Cox, Bart Skils and Joseph Capriati. A few months passed, and at that time I was recovering from a serious knee operation. The recovery wasn’t going as planned and I was really down during that period. I couldn’t play gigs, I was walking with crutches and everything was taking much longer than it was supposed to.

Then one morning, I got an email from Adam saying that he really liked the track and thought we could collaborate on it, make it better, try to clear the sample and release it.

That gave me such a boost. The next day, I was trying to get into the studio and turn everything on, which honestly wasn’t easy because it was really difficult for me to move at that point. But I managed to export all the stems and send them to Adam.

From there, we went back and forth with a couple of different versions until we finished the track. I was still recovering at home while watching videos of Adam playing it around the world and seeing people having an amazing time to the track. That was a pretty surreal feeling.

The hardest part of the whole process was clearing the sample. Adam’s team started working on it, and at one point I honestly thought we wouldn’t be able to get it cleared and the track might never come out.

Then one day Adam messaged me saying that the singer of the band really likes the track and that everything had been cleared.

That was honestly one of the happiest days of my life. After everything that had happened during that period, i needed few days to process that track will be out.

Q: Were you a big System of a Down fan? What do you look for when sampling music from other styles of music?

A: Not really. I listened to some of their songs in my early teens, but I can’t say I was a huge System of a Down fan. The day the idea came into my head was really strange. It was almost like someone whispered the line “Everybody’s going to the party” into my ear, and immediately I heard the synth line that should go with it.

To be honest, at first I wasn’t even sure what the original track was! My wife was the one who told me it was System of a Down’s “B.Y.O.B.”

The crazy thing is that I basically had the whole track finished in my head while I was walking from my house to the studio. That had never happened to me before. When I got there, I just translated what I imagined in my head and track was done.

And the funny thing is that only a few weeks earlier, I was talking to an old-school Croatian rock producer who told me that in electronic music, you have to sample if you want a big track. I guess somehow that conversation stayed in my head!

Q: Overall, who are your production heroes?

A: Liam Howlett from The Prodigy has always been a huge production hero of mine. I also have massive respect for Petar Dundov, Steve Rachmad and The Chemical Brothers. They all have such distinctive sonic identities. You can hear their music and immediately know who made it. That’s something I really admire.

Q: What’s a dream bit of studio gear you’d like to add to your collection?

A: Instrument-wise, a Moog One. For processing, I’d love to have a Manley Massive Passive, and for monitoring, a pair of PMC 6-2s. That would be a pretty nice upgrade to the studio!

Q: Share a musical recommendation you can’t stop listening to.

A: Echo Season - Solarmetric (Space Ambient)

A good friend of mine recommended this album to me about two years ago, and since then I find myself coming back to it every summer, especially when I’m travelling. It’s such a great sonic voyage from the first track to the last. It’s one of those albums I prefer to listen to from beginning to end.

Q: What’s your most anticipated gig of the summer fans should check out?

A: I opened for Carl Cox last weekend, which was unreal. At the end of the month, I have an All Night Long set at Boogaloo in Zagreb, where I’ve been a resident for more than 10 years. Those long sets are always special for me because I can show exactly who DJ Jock is.

Q: Outside of music, what sort of hobbies or practices do you have to keep balance in your life?

A: Training, reading and spending time with my family and friends. I love walking in nature or just being near the sea. That always helps me clear my head. I recently became a dad for the first time, so everything is now based around the little one! It completely changed my perspective and priorities, but in the best possible way.

Q: Do you set career goals and try to manifest certain things or just let things flow? If so, what would you still like to achieve in 2026?

A: I think it’s a bit of both. I definitely set goals because I like having something to work towards, but at the same time I’ve learned not to force things too much. Music industry can be very unpredictable.

I usually have a bigger picture in my head of where I want to go, but I don’t put too much pressure on myself about exactly how or when I need to get there. I work hard, stay consistent and try to enjoy the process. If something feels right, I follow it. Most of the time I am trying to be better DJ and better producer. Some of the best things in my career happened naturally and weren’t part of some big plan.

The collaboration with Adam is the perfect example. I don’t think I would have even dared to put that down as a goal that’s how crazy it still feels to me!

For the rest of 2026, one of my main goals is to keep building my career internationally and play more shows outside Balkan Region, I feel like I’m at a point where I really want to bring my music to new places, reach new audiences and establish myself more on the international scene. At the same time, I want to keep building Roots Trax and, of course, continue releasing new music.

Q: What’s coming up next in terms of your studio projects?

A: I’ve just finished the first couple of releases for my label, Roots Trax, so I’m really excited to finally get that project moving. I have some music coming out on other labels, but unfortunately I can’t say too much about that yet.

At the same time, I’m working on a few projects outside of the electronic music industry, which has been really interesting creatively. And I’ve recorded a bunch of new material for another alias of mine as well, so there’s definitely a lot of music coming from different directions.