Lorin Ashton (born February 18, 1978), better known under his stage name Bassnectar, is an American DJ and record producer.^[2][3]

Ashton grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and initially identified with visual arts rather than music, creating movies with his dad's camera at the age of ten.^[4] When he was 16 years old he played in a death metal band named Pale Existence. He experienced an immediate sense of welcome and comfort going to raves in the mid-nineties, which led to the confluence of his heavy and electronic style of music.^[5] In the following years, he became exceedingly more involved in the scene, promoting shows, distributing food and assistance to concertgoers, buying records and eventually learning to DJ after studying electronic music production.^[6] He began creating music in the 1990s, using Opcode Systems Studio Vision Pro.^[7][8] In the mid-90s, he briefly toured with Exhumed as a bass player.^[9]

Bassnectar played house parties in the San Francisco Bay Area and began gaining momentum at Burning Man, often playing up to 7 sets a night.^[5] He released his first album in 2001 and performed as Bassnectar for the first time in 2002. He was previously known as DJ Lorin.

Ashton created the name Bassnectar after meeting with one of the members of DJ collective Spaceship Gaia in Santa Cruz, California. Ashton and his friends were on the beach when the man and his friends approached him. The man handed Ashton a sticker that said "Butterfly Beings Drink Bass Nectar"^[10] and he decided that if he ever started his own heavy metal band, he would name it Bassnectar. His fans are known as bassheads, and they are known to bang their heads as if at a rock concert when experiencing his music.

Bassnectar performs regularly at a variety of music festivals, including Bonnaroo, Camp Bisco, Coachella, the Electric Daisy Carnival, the Electric Forest Festival, Lollapalooza, Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival, Life is Beautiful Festival, Oregon Eclipse, Wakarusa. In 2012, Bassnectar sold over 250,000 tickets, not including festivals.^[5]

Bassnectar finished in fourth place in the 2013 America's Best DJ competition conducted by DJ Times magazine and Pioneer DJ.^[11]

Bassnectar stopped touring and started hosting his own events and playing in festivals.^[12] In early 2019 Bassnectar hosted his own festival called Deja Voom.^[13] Deja Voom had five total stages: Pool Party, Beach Stage, Deja Room, Voom Room, and The Oasis.^[14] These rooms brought different sub genres of electronic bass music to cater to everyone's music tastes. The festival took place at a resort in Mexico, called the Riviera Maya, February 27 through March 2, 2019.^[13]