Klute

Unlike many of his contemporaries, the musical career of Tom Withers aka Klute began way before the sounds of Drum and Bass or even Rave music had first emerged. As Tommy Stupid he fronted skate punk outfit The Stupids, favs of John Peel, David Bowie etc and took the band on tours of Europe, the USA and Australia during the late 1980s before venturing into electronic music and starting his own solo career.

From acid house and techno he made a natural progression into rave and then Jungle before playing his first gigs as a D&B DJ around 1996. Throughout his career, Klute’s always been happy to show his rebel roots and has never been afraid to buck the trend. His ability to combine a multitude of influences in his music, from techno to thrash to dub, with punk attitude is his trademark.

“My whole purpose is to organically release music I like for the sake of people who like music; not hype and lies.”

Klute’s early forays into Jungle brought several outings on the seminal Certificate 18 label and a relationship grew that resulted in the release of his first artist album, ‘Casual Bodies’ in 1998. He went on to release a further album ‘Fear of People’ on Certificate 18 in 2000 before seeking a new home following the demise of the label. Initially fearing that no-one else would want to release his music, he went his own way and set up his own imprint.

Klute kicked off Commercial Suicide with the genre-defying classic ‘Tranceformat’ in 2001 and set the tone for the label that has since come to be held in the highest regard and built a reputation for varied output across the spectrum of Drum & Bass, testing both musical boundaries and the dancefloor.
Over the years Commercial Suicide has released music by: Break, Calibre, Marcus Intalex, DJ Marky, Optiv & BTK, The Upbeats, Skeptical, Digital & Spirit, Dom & Roland, Nymfo, The Invaderz, and more.

Klute himself has also released on labels such as Metalheadz, Hospital, Ninja Tune, Shogun Audio, Soul:r, 31 Recordings and is a prolific remixer having worked with Mogwai, Natacha Atlas, Lamb, Photek, Bis, John Tejada, Digital & Spirit and many others.

Now an incredible eleven albums deep in his D&B journey, Klute is one of the most loved and enduring pillars of the scene. He’s a prolific, intensely skillful and in-demand DJ who regularly performs all around the world.