As Bro Safari, Nick Weiller is considered a force in the ever-shifting landscape of electronic dance music, in part, because of his emphatic drums.
His love of drum programming, a pillar of his genre, can be traced to Atlanta, where Weiller was a middle-school student in love with N.W.A. and Dr. Dre's booming bass made from a Roland TR-808 synthesizer. Now, as EDM and hip-hop artists collaborate and tour together with increasing regularity, Weiller can't help but be excited, if not a bit surprised.
"Growing up, there couldn't have been more separation between the two [genres]," Weiller said on the phone earlier this week at a tour stop in Nashville. "There was nothing in common with what I was doing and the hip-hop world. Now, the walls have completely broken down, which I think is awesome."
Earlier this year in Baltimore, Weiller watched the cultural melding occur firsthand, as Harlem, N.Y., rapper ASAP Ferg hyped the EDM-dominant Moonrise Festival crowd during Bro Safari's set. The rapper, who captured the raucous audience on a handheld GoPro camera, happily bounced along on stage with the Pimlico Race Course audience.
Months later, Weiller — who returns Friday for a Rams Head Live show — talks excitedly about upcoming collaborations with rappers and other vocalists from outside EDM, but demurred when asked to be specific.
"That's definitely in the cards," he said, "but until they're set in stone, I think [the artists] would rather I not say."
Fans will have to be patient, but likely not for long. Weiller, who first made his name more than a decade ago as a member of the drum-and-bass trio Evol Intent, said he has "a lot of material in demo phase right now." Next year, he hopes to release at least two follow-up records to March's "Animal Remixes" project. One, he said, will appease fans who have followed Bro Safari since his popularity rose a few years ago, while the other moves away from his usual Moombahton and trap sounds.
"I would like to do an EP of dancefloor material that I think people will want from me, and then please myself by putting together an album of quote, unquote, 'other' material," Weiller, 35, said. "I want as many people as possible to get their hands on my music."
When it comes to creativity, Weiller said, he simply follows whatever he's feeling in the moment. Inspiration can come in many forms ("Just earlier today, I was listening to Of Montreal, which is psychedelic rock from Athens, Georgia"), and he said he recently noticed a common thread between the new material.
"If I were to sit down and listen to all of the demos I have right now for the album, a lot of them are more melodic than the past material I've done as Bro Safari," Weiller said. "Maybe it'll even be the birth of a new project."
Before then, Weiller will finish Bro Safari's Animal House tour, which also features Ape Drums, Crnkn, Etc!Etc! and Craze. He picked the supporting artists, and is particularly proud that "every artist on the bill has their own sound and their own style."
"It's all really unique," he said. "I didn't want the same stuff all night long."
The tour's lineup is something Weiller can control, but the tour's audience is not. This year, the EDM scene made national headlines for multiple incidents involving drug overdoses, sometimes fatal, at concerts. It's a topic that concerns Weiller, a father, greatly. On social media, he sees "young kids just making dumb decisions," but doesn't believe they deserve the entire blame.
"That's been around for generations and generations, and it's going to continue to happen," he said. "I think it's up to the promoters to work with the venues and local law enforcement to make sure they're providing a safe place for people to have fun. You don't want to take the fun away. It's just going to drive them to parking lots, sitting in cars and driving intoxicated."
Next year could find Weiller, who lives in Texas, touring less. He finds writing on the road difficult, and wants to focus on finishing the new material. Artistically, what matters most, he said, is continuously challenging himself while avoiding "the trap of making what people want me to make all the time."
"Then it just becomes a job," Weiller said. "I love that this is my job, but I don't want to call it my job. I just want to be creative and uninhibited."