“The world is ending.” That’s the common feeling one gets from his first listen of dubstep, the electronic genre that’s been taking the music world by storm. Characterized by the darkest of dark sounds and deep, thrashing bass, it evokes images of head banging metal heads and evil lurking around the corner.

            Bartek Karas sat quietly at the local café booth, a sly smile spread across his face when asked about the genre he’s been at the forefront of in Chicago for several years now. No black clothing or angst visible on his face, he politely ordered a coffee and looked at me with soft blue eyes that suggested anything but the gloom of the music he produces.

            Karas, a 37-year-old who moved from Warsaw to Chicago in 1987, said he grew up on punk rock and metal before transitioning to electronica. “I went to some party in ’97 and came across drum and bass. It blew my mind. It was just as intense and heavy but a new sound,” he said.  “It took me over completely and I needed it in my life all the time.”

            Drum and bass, which peaked in the late 1990s, is also characterized by heavy basslines, but with emphasis on fast breakbeats at around 160-190 beats per minute. Dubstep emerged after the drum and bass scene died down, slowing the tempo to 140 beats per minute and boosting the deep sound.

            “Dubstep was equally intense but a new format. Drum and bass was getting stale for me so I jumped on dubstep. And it stays exciting, still evolving week to week,” he said, grinning.

            Karas now produces music under the name Jeekoos on Dubfront Records and DJs a weekly radio show on WNUR entitled Part Time Suckers. As one of the first in Chicago to get involved with dubstep, and the only Polish dubstep producer in the United States, he’s been very successful thus far, but it wasn’t without struggle.

            “My biggest obstacle in music has always been other people. With drum and bass, they used to omit me from my own DJ crew when we would play shows,” he said, looking down at his coffee. “People didn’t notice me until the drum and bass scene died.”

            Putting the past aside, he has played some of the most prestigious Chicago venues, including Smart Bar and Lava. News of his music has spread as far as his native Poland, where he was interviewed for a blog and remixed a popular emcee’s track.

            Music has also played an important role in his life in a different way, uniting him with people of similar musical interests, including his girlfriend Evelina Bershadsky. First meeting at a show three years ago but not dating Karas until fairly recently, 25-year-old Bershadsky said it’s more than just the music that sets Karas apart.

            “He’s very calm. And all the different things he has his hands in, all the stuff that he’s into…he does so many things that I think are really cool,” she said.

            Indeed, Karas spoke passionately about hobbies far outside of the heavy music realm, with a glimmer in his eyes as he described his interest in surfing (both on Lake Michigan and in Hawaii), freelance graphic design, and mountain biking. He says he draws inspiration from more than just darkness.

            “I love randomness and weathered stuff. There’s inspiration everywhere to me,” he said. “Sometimes, I just can’t wait to go home and work on something new based on what I’ve seen in the world that day.”

                                                                                 - Bela Zecker