Ill.Gates

Not to be confused with Bill Gates.

Ill.Gates
Background information
Birth name	Dylan Lane
Also known as	the Phat Conductor
Born	(1982-10-08) October 8, 1982 Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Genres	Dubstep drum and bass drumstep electronica IDM breakbeat downtempo nu skool breaks
Labels	Producer Dojo Amorphos Alpha Pup Records Muti Music Impossible Records False Profit Records
Website	illgates.com

Dylan Lane, professionally known as ill.Gates (born October 8, 1982), is a Canadian electronic music producer, DJ, and educator known for his contributions to the dubstep and bass music genres, and has garnered acclaim for his innovative musical approach, collaborations with notable artists, and efforts to share electronic music production knowledge within the community.

Career

Lane began experimenting with instruments around the age of seven. In high school, Lane took interest in the rave scene, learning to DJ in his basement and playing small local shows, including DJing for a breakdancing crew. After high school, Lane moved to Toronto, Ontario to pursue higher education, while also pressing original songs to vinyl under the name "The Phat Conductor".

By 2005, his songs had piqued the interest of Bay Area DJ and music producer Bassnectar, who requested Lane join him on tour. While on tour, Lane attended Burning Man for the first time in 2006, gaining inspiration from the scene. Upon returning to Toronto, Lane discovered his computers had been damaged, assumed to be related to a power surge. This event forced the abandonment of several works in-progress and prompted Lane to start new music from scratch. At the same time, Lane decided to change his alias to ill.Gates. Following the completion of writing new music, Gates published his first album, Autopirate, in 2008.

Originally taking interest in industrial and experimental sounds, Gates was influenced by the likes of Skinny Puppy, Nine Inch Nails, Aphex Twin, among others. He also enjoyed hip hop as well as Jamaican dub music, which helped to formulate a more eclectic approach to songwriting as he developed under his own name. As he matured, Gates continued to incorporate elements of other electronic music genres, such as dubstep, glitch-hop, drum and bass, as well as non-electronic genres like hip hop, jazz, and classical music. In describing the songwriting process, Gates had this to say:

It’s a lot like starting a fire. I get a bunch of flammable things in a pile and try to set them up in such a way that they want to ignite. Then I start striking matches and watching them die in my cold fingers. Eventually one of them lights up and I get very excited. I try to calm myself and blow on the fire gently at first. Once it’s going I start blowing harder and harder until it has a life of it’s [sic] own. Then I just have to stay awake until it’s done.

— ill.Gates

Gates has consistently collaborated with many artists over the course of his career, most notably Bassnectar, as well as others, such as Mimi Page, Liquid Stranger, Masia One, Minnesota, G. Jones, and Mr. Bill.

Sound design and production techniques

In addition to his musical endeavors, Gates helped pioneer various production techniques within Ableton Live, creating and selling his first Ableton templates in 2006. Seeking to expand capabilities in manipulating sounds during live performances, Gates began publishing performance templates to Ableton forums, still posting as his original moniker "The Phat Conductor", around 2011 for various MIDI controllers such as the Akai MPD32 and APC40.

Originally offering in-person lessons, increasing demand, along with a regular gig schedule of his own, grew to the point of the in-person format becoming unsustainable. This eventually spawned the creation of Producer Dojo, Gates's online learning platform, which offers resources, tutorials and workshops, along with mentorships to aspiring producers. Following the murder of George Floyd, the platform also began incorporating music history lessons focusing on various racial and political events.

Personal life

Gates' father, an afro-asian from Trinidad, was a professional guitarist and his mother was a teacher.

Gates is married to his wife, Nunich, a war refugee from Laos. Together, they have a daughter, born in 2019.

Discography

Studio albums

• Autopirate (2008)
• The ill.Methodology series (2011)
• Terminally Ill (2013)
• Departures (2018)
• The Arrival (2021)
• Bent (2022)

EPs

• The ill.Collaborations EP with Opiuo (2010)
• Sweatshop Labor EP (2008)
• Church of Bass EP (2012)
• Bounce EP (2016)
• Smoke EP (2022)
• Racks EP (2022)
• Boom EP (2023)
• The Muse EP (2023)
• Toxic EP (2023)
• Wave EP (2023)