LEVEL UP
Level Up has spent the last several years proving that bass music’s heaviest wobbles can come from anywhere — including the world of turntablism. Born Sonya Broner in Los Angeles, she got her start as a battle DJ before moving to Brooklyn, where she trained under respected turntablist Rob Swift and spent four years sharpening her scratching before ever touching a DAW.
That background shows up everywhere in her production. After discovering bass music through artists like Rusko and Caspa, Level Up made the jump from turntables to dubstep, bringing a technical, hands-on sensibility to a sound built around heavy wobbles and tricky rhythmic doubles. She’s cited influences ranging from DJ Jazzy Jeff to Porter Robinson, and that mix of old-school scratch culture and modern bass production is exactly what makes her sets stand out.
Her early releases — the Scared Of The Dark EP, “Satan Works Alone,” and “Hell Hole” with JEANIE — landed her a home on labels like Deadbeats, GRVDNCR, and Buygore, and tracks like “Find U” and “Blade” helped build out a catalog that’s dark, aggressive, and unmistakably hers. She’s played major stages including Lost Lands and Electric Forest, ran a stretch of over 30 drive-in shows in 2020 alongside artists like Subtronics and Boogie T during a stretch when live music barely existed, hit the road on the Cyclops Invasion Tour, and headlined her own Summoning Tour in 2021.
Her signing to United Talent Agency was a real milestone moment, recognition that put her in the same conversation as bass music’s biggest touring names, and she’s also repped by Red Light Management. It doesn’t hurt that she’s plugged directly into one of bass music’s tightest-knit families — she’s married to fellow heavy-hitter Subtronics, and the two regularly share bills and festival lineups.
Level Up has built her name the hard way, through scratching, touring, and relentless studio work, and she’s become one of the artists to watch as dubstep’s next generation takes over. Keep an eye on her — she’s just getting started.
