American Drum & Bass artist Justin Hawkes officially unveils his highly anticipated second album "Now or Never" with the newest single "Stomp" - the next record that sets a fresh creative precedent for the composer, producer and vocalist. Four years on from his 2022 debut "Existential," Justin returns with a continuously mixed body of work conceived as "Experiential Drum & Bass": twelve interlocking chapters of cinematic storytelling, hidden meaning and character, with each song designed with intentionality and an enigmatic purpose. A softly spoken challenger to both musical and societal norms, Justin has crafted a powerful yet vulnerable answer to the current sound-meta within the genre, defying prediction and redefining expectations of what a Drum & Bass album can sound like. To match the ambition of the record, Justin is also reimagining how it reaches listeners. The album lands first as a Bandcamp exclusive on July 31 under a Pay-What-You-Want model - a rarely seen approach for a contemporary dance music album rollout - before its full DSP release follows on August 14. The dual-window rollout is a deliberate experiment in trust, putting the value of the work directly into the hands of the community before opening it to the world. "Stomp" sets the tone for the journey: a track that connects the ancestral rhythmic instinct with a modern, dynamic Drum & Bass mantle, threading the ritual roots of dance into a contemporary frame.

"Now or Never" arrives as the inaugural release on Justin's newly launched independent imprint Drumcaste Collective - a platform conceived not only as the home for his own catalogue, but as a broader artist world that will sign and develop other Drum & Bass voices. Drumcaste Collective will operate as a generative-AI-free label, prioritizing originality, artist-led storytelling  and championing music that explores and expresses rather than generalizes. Justin's vision for the label is part of a greater responsibility to his listeners and peers alike: creating an artist advantaged, forward thinking space with a mission to support authenticity and originality in a time where generative AI is rapidly sowing distrust within media consumption. Together, the album, the imprint and the rollout signal Justin's arrival as one of the most distinct North American voices currently reshaping the global Drum & Bass conversation.

"Dance music as a medium for expression goes back to the oldest times and places in the world. Now, being intentionally human in the age of AI feels like an act of resistance. We don't get the messy, empowering complexity of life delivered into music by letting go of the creative reins; especially not to a machine that could never experience your own life... therefore I wanted everything about this record to feel fully intentional, from the first to the last. 'Stomp' is one of my sequences, a place inside my journey, where the instinct to dance evolved. What draws someone to a certain tempo? What gives you that spark? Where did that come from? Stomp connects the ancestral rhythmic instinct with a modern and bouncy drum & bass mantle. It's a memory within the present. I wanted every piece of this next album to feel like discovering myself again in a new light, letting go of the pressure to please or do something commercially comfortable in favor of creating nothing but the raw, core memories. Now or Never challenged the concept of my reality, and I am so excited to finally share it." - Justin Hawkes

Justin Hawkes has spent the better part of fifteen years building an unlikely path through Drum & Bass - one that began in the foothills of Southwest Virginia in 2011 and has since made him one of the few American producers with a genuine foothold in a largely European genre. His records move between widescreen, melodic highs and harder, more mechanical club material, a range that has earned him plays and support from Sub Focus, Andy C, Wilkinson, RL Grime, Knife Party, Pendulum, Porter Robinson and Black Tiger Sex Machine. He spent his early career as Flite before adopting the Justin Hawkes name in 2020; two years later, his debut album "Existential" set out his willingness to ignore the genre's usual boundaries, anchored by the country-rock-leaning single "Better Than Gold." His catalogue has now passed 100 million streams, taken him through more than 14 countries, and led to sets at London's Alexandra Palace, Electric Daisy Carnival and Tomorrowland in both Belgium and Brazil. His music also appears in major gaming titles including Rocket League and Fortnite, and his live shows lean heavily on improvisation rather than a fixed set. Through 2026 he continues to tour across North America with festival dates at Shambhala, Bass Canyon, Electric Love and Friendzy Fest.