Tell us where your sound is at now, and what you are trying to achieve with your music.

My sound is an individualized combination of all of my favorite things. There are 2000's nu-metal guitars, psytrance bass drops – even dreamy IDM or modular breakdowns. Think if Seven Lions, Slipknot, and Porter Robinson had a baby. That's the wave I'm on these days.

What was the biggest A-HA! moment for you in music, and how did it change your approach to production?

I hit a massive writer's block after winning "Future Favorite" on A State of Trance. Armin van Buuren did the world premiere of my track "Train to Nowhere" with platinum singer-songwriter Mickey Shiloh. I got excited! 19 year old me would be beaming - this would have been the entire goal. Yet, I found myself constantly trying to write new, less inspired versions of "Train to Nowhere" to get on ASOT again. It destroyed the process for me.

One day I finally admitted to myself "this isn't even making Tom Rogers music - this is making Armin van Buuren music." And I wouldn't be at the top of that game ever, because that's not who I am. So I had to sit there and think of what I loved most about art?

There are so many greats in this industry - Deadmau5, Skrillex, Porter Robinson, Seven Lions... and none of them sound like each other. They all have their own sonic identity. Once I internalized that, that's where the most significant changes happened.

What do you think is your greatest accomplishment in music and how much does this accomplishment mean to you? 

I recently debuted the "Castle of False Light" (my EP title) Visual Experience at BETA Nightclub in Denver, Colorado. It incorporates my own manga comic, which I designed the characters for and created alongside a talented team of artists. The primary insignia is a pentagram, co-created with Daniel Jung, mostly known for his design work on the Seven Lions and Ophelia brands.

We went through many different concept iterations to arrive at this unique symbol, which combines the alchemic symbols for fire and gold, as well as a particular sigil from Solomon's Goetia.

Tell me a bit about what you do for work. Does the knowledge gained through the Masterclass get applied in your career work too? 

It all feeds into each other! My work through college to this day has been primarily in digital marketing. I've helped other artists get tours (shout-outs from Marshmello on their covers of his work) and I've worked for agencies.

Over the last few years, I've promoted the full gamut of what high-income verticals marketers love to work with (auto, construction, e-commerce, real estate, etc). The Visual Experience is a marriage of all of my art forms, which includes my marketing.

Do you do anything to creatively recharge when not working on music? What are your favorite non-music activities?

Well, first and foremost: GOOD FOOD. Cannot understate the value of a good meal, especially on the road, with quality people. This can serve as a short-term solution to most stress - even when there's little time for many choices to be made.

I take a lot of walks in nature - parks, botanical gardens, anywhere with a lot of nature where I can get lost. Something about separating and reconnecting to nature resets the mind. I try to do it at least once a day.

How much do you think community matters to the music you're making? What kind of people and circles do you surround yourself with? 

It's significant - but when you're making the music, it's mostly you - alone, in a room full of machines. Collaborations help and revitalize you when you've been creating alone for too long. They're very useful in that way. At the same time, the creation process is in itself a solitary activity. Even if we're in the same room as I'm making something, you don't have access to my mind.

Sometimes I don't even have full access to why I make the music I am making or what I'm bringing forth in a piece. There are raw feelings, there's conscious thought, there are impulses based on what else happened that week. Sometimes I know why and sometimes I realize later - and sometimes no one will ever know why I've created what I did. That's part of the beauty of art.

We'd love to all wax poetic about having a design written in our heads, but part of the magnificence of art is that it is so free-flowing and all-encompassing. You can get lost and drag parts of the universe back from across the veil you weren't expecting to - and there is tremendous value in that.

As art becomes more accessible, and access to like-minded artists becomes more common as well, you'll find more groups aligning with a higher purpose.

Most of my contemporaries either run their own artist collectives or are a member of mine. The private Akashic Rift artist collective is about 20 artists across multiple disciplines. We have lighting and pyrotechnicians, video editors, sound pack designers, producers, DJs, burlesque performers, and many more.

What makes you most excited about music as you look to the future?

These styles of collectives and collaborations I'm talking about - I think this is the future.

We're going back to something like rave crews, or small factions of rebel artists (think Andy Warhol's "The Factory"). There's going to be a wave of incredibly unique yet refined art as the world reopens from this pandemic.

Artists are going to have to be more. The days of being a "baby" or "junior" [insert label owner's name here] are over. You have to bring something truly unique to the table to have any longevity in this industry.

It's a great challenge. But it's also an incredible upside if you're willing to seize the opportunity.