CØNTRA’s Roots Revival arrives the same way he does on stage. Before the bass drops, before the crowd moves, there’s a kind of aura coming off the person behind the decks that sets the whole thing in motion. The energy of a person fully in their element is its own kind of presence, and with CØNTRA, it’s visible. The joy isn’t performed. It radiates from the inside out, pulling you in. Roots Revival is the sound of someone fully at home in their craft, where the hypnotic pull of world bass and the grit of UK dubstep become one – happy feet guaranteed.
“I really do think this is my calling. It just feels right. My gift as a human on this earth is creating cool art and being able to share that, and hopefully making people feel better than they are at that time.”
Who is CØNTRA
CØNTRA (Ezra Arenson) began his music career with the introduction of violin at the age of 4, with 10 years of classical training beneath him, and transitioned to guitar, which piqued his interest in metal music – a similarity shared with other producers. Growing up in the Bay Area, CONTRA was influenced by the hyphy movement, and the combination of those two sounds sparked his interest in rave music because “it’s aggressive and obviously electronic,” which led him to pursue producing.
Finding His Sound
In his early years, CØNTRA explored the UK Dub sound, but in 2020, he began to lean into his distinct hypnotic low-end, embracing a unique sound he describes as “World Bass,” found in the magnetic Imperial EP, which bridges the connection between UK Dub and Middle Eastern magic. Artists like The Widdler and PushLoop showed him it was possible. Producers he admires for holding both worlds at once, balancing heavy, dungeon-lurking dubstep with a more mystical, eastern sound. That balance became his own, though he’s the first to admit the sound is still finding itself: “I still feel like it’s evolving. I think we’re always evolving as people in general.” Four years sober, CØNTRA describes that grounded quality in his sound as inevitable – “it really comes from the ground up” – the inner work showing up in the music, whether he intends it or not.
“I think a lot of the more intense energy that I express probably comes from me being an introvert. I’m pretty soft spoken, and maybe it’s my way of expressing myself because I’m pretty quiet and shy. Probably why I liked metal music so much — it’s just an expression I wasn’t able to get rid of in my body.”
Payge Perdue, The Electric Hawk: What feels fundamentally different now versus back then about the intention behind your music?
CØNTRA: Well, I feel like now my music is getting a bit more honest. I think because I’m a little more honest with myself, in that I’m like sober now. I think that would be a big difference, ’cause back then I was partying a lot. I know myself better now, and I constantly check in on myself. I think that creates more honest art.
The Inner Work
PP: So you’re sober now. I’d love to hear a little bit about that journey and how it’s influenced your music.
CØNTRA: Since sobriety, I’ve generally been making a lot more music. I’ve been feeling better — when people are going out, I’m in the studio. That’s my way of having fun nowadays. I’ve been cold plunging, doing yoga, breathwork… I feel high off that, loose and relaxed.
What I Can Do
That clarity has a track record, and “What I Can Do” with Saturna is where the world took notice.
PP: Your most listened-to track, “What I Can Do” with Saturna, has taken a life of its own. Why do you think that specific track is something people keep coming back to?
CØNTRA: I think a lot of it has to do with the minimal nature of it and the simple, ambiguous lyrics. From an international standpoint, I think a lot of foreigners can probably digest it. It’s kind of straightforward. I think it touches a few different bases. It has that eastern, little-vocal, kind of cinematic build. It’s quite emotional, I’d say. When Saturna and I were writing it, we didn’t think anything of it. We actually thought the other song on the EP(Evoke) was gonna do better. I’m grateful for that song, though. It’s really grown my project.
Roots Revival
With the recent release of Roots Revival, CØNTRA and Abstrakt Sonance trace electronic music back to its origins. “We wanted to go back to old dubstep culture and rave culture with its Jamaican roots,” CØNTRA explains. The minimalist vision they set out with loosened along the way, “the best art isn’t really forced,” and what emerged is an EP that grounds you to the earth. A few tracks carry that deep reggae-dub pulse; others find their own path, but as a unit, it holds together. At the heart of this album is the creative force of friendship: “It was a joy creating with a fellow friend of mine – Abstrakt Sonance.”
The final track on Roots Revival says it all. Living Water, featuring Abstrakt Sonance and TwinnFlame, carries the lyric: “Drink from the living water / flood my heart like a river / sink my roots into soil / call my spirit into stillness / fill my soul with sacred fire / hear the earth sing my name.” This is where the world bass sound reveals its deepest intention, not just a genre, but a returning. Roots Revival not only traces the lineage of dubstep culture back to its Jamaican roots, but it also reaches further – back to the earth itself, to the timeless human need to feel connected to something ancient and alive.
The Stage
And when CØNTRA steps behind the decks, you feel it. The gnarliest bass face, a body that can’t help but move, eyes scanning the room, not performing for the crowd, but witnessing them. There’s something about watching a producer clock the exact moment a room surrenders to the sound, when bodies stop thinking and feel.
“When you see people closing their eyes and getting lost in music, it’s like the best feeling in the world.”
For CØNTRA, that’s the whole point: the music is the bridge, and the crowd crossing it is the reward.
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