Burt Cope is Building Bass Without Boundaries
From jungle flips to bassline throwbacks, the genre-blurring producer talks experimentation, live energy, and finding his own pace in a fast-moving scene.
Burt Cope isn’t here to follow genre rules. His productions skip across house, dubstep, bassline, garage, and now drum & bass, with a clear sense of fun and freedom. His latest release, "Staying Outside" featuring Claym, is a gritty, emotional jungle cut, but that’s just one moment in a much wider journey.
At his core, Burt is driven by instinct, experimentation, and a deep love for rave culture. Growing up, he was captivated by the raw energy of bass music, not just the sound, but the feeling. “It stimulates so many feelings,” he says. “The excitement, the heaviness, the emotion… it scratched an itch for me.”
Too young to get into clubs, he spent his early teens counting down the days until he could experience it all in real life. Once he did, there was no turning back. Burt’s sound has never stood still. He started out making house and more left-leaning electronic tracks before diving into dubstep, then bassline, then garage. Drum & bass is the latest chapter, but he still refuses to be pinned down. “I love making a bit of everything,” he says. “Dance music as a whole just excites me too much to stick to one lane.”
His influences are wide and unpredictable. The Prodigy, Chase & Status and Disclosure shaped his early taste, but he also pulls from trance, jungle, R&B, soul, rap and even rock. He’s excited by the genre-blending happening across the scene, the weird mashups that shouldn’t work but somehow do. “You could make something with Western, rap and DnB. Someone probably already has.”
That same playful approach runs through his creative process. He jokes that most days begin with a moment of panic over unfinished projects, followed by the belief that today’s the day he’ll make his best track yet. There’s no rigid formula. Sometimes it starts with drums, sometimes a melody, sometimes a vocal sample that sparks an idea. “I might want to flip a Justin Timberlake tune into a bassline banger,” he laughs. “The possibilities are endless.”
That same spark led to "Staying Outside", his new collab with Claym. The pair met at university in West London, Burt dropped out, but they kept in touch. Years later, when Burt heard a vocal Claym had released in another form, inspiration struck. “I knew a dark jungle flip would go crazy,” he says. They linked up in a London studio surrounded by friends and put the track together on the spot. One standout moment? Pitching Claym’s vocals way up. “It gave them this brightness and energy,” Burt says. “People were shocked when they realised it was his voice, they thought it was a woman.”
Live shows are a big part of how Burt shapes his sound. He builds moments into his tracks that are made to explode in a club, fake drops, massive breakdowns, anything that raises tension. DJing also acts as a test lab. He’ll play early versions of tracks, see what gets the biggest reaction, and tweak them afterwards. “It’s the best way to know what’s working.” He’s seen the cycle of bassline music firsthand.
Back in 2017, it was having a real moment. Then it dipped. Crowds weren’t responding the same way, and he found himself leaving those tracks out of his sets. Now, it’s back. “It’s thriving again,” he says. “I can play those older tunes and they still go off.” Burt’s take on the UK bass scene today is mixed. On one hand, he sees too many people glued to their phones, caught up in short-form content. On the other, he’s genuinely excited by the sound’s global reach. “There’s so much amazing music coming out of the UK, but also from Australia, New Zealand, Asia, the US… they’re all catching on. It’s growing, and it’s beautiful.”
As for where things are heading, he expects the pace to shift. “Everything’s got faster to fit into content. But people are gonna need a rest at some point. I think it’ll slow back down.” When he’s not making music, Burt finds creativity in routine, weekly gym sessions, long walks, trips to new cities. “Nature helps. So does being around people I love. All of it feeds back into the music.”
His advice to artists trying to break into the scene is simple. Don’t overthink it. Stay curious. Try everything. “Go at your own pace, and be kind. To other people and to yourself.” Burt Cope might jump between genres, but one thing stays constant: his ability to bring people together through sound. Whether he’s staying outside or diving deep, he’s making music that hits.
