Colorado's music culture has undergone quite the transformation in the past several years. The Rocky Mountain scene went from a tightly knit jam-band scene that peaked in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, to the present day's progressive conglomeration of fresh new sounds generated from developing technology, mixed with the fluid, organic element of live instruments. From this creative hotbed, a nationwide transformation has taken place, pushing the boundaries of what we all thought music and live performances could be in the first place.

That's where SONIC BLOOM comes in. As Colorado’s premier boutique electronic music festival, SONIC BLOOM has been at the forefront of this transformation since the beginning. Now in its 10th year, we were excited to sit down with Jamie Janover — the main brain behind Sonic Bloom, as well as a musician, physicist, lecturer and all-around awesome dude — to discuss his unique perspective on this cataclysmic change of which we are all so blessed to be a part.

Janover explains there are many factors that contribute to Colorado’s current role in the American music scene. He explains, “as a state in general, Colorado was in the right place at the right time.” It’s in between east and west coast cultures, and the ideal resting point for musicians on the road. Aside from geographical convenience, Colorado also offers a welcoming culture for artists, supreme weather, and the large amount of unique venues the state boasts, including State Bridge, the Mishawaka, and above all, Red Rocks. But the idea for SONIC BLOOM itself came from Janover's own personal experiences at early renditions of transformational music festivals, such as Burning Man , Shambhala and the String Cheese Incident’s festival held at Horning’s Hideout in Oregon.

Janover recalls a key moment at which this bridge linking jam culture to electronica began. It was during a trip to Burning Man in the early 2000’s with Michael Travis and Michael Kang of the String Cheese Incident, who are modern day all-stars in both the jam band and electronica scenes. The group, whose main focus at the time was in bluegrass and other related forms of organic, improvisational music, was floored by the creative potential in the progressive electronic music featured at the event. Perhaps the most auspicious moment that took place in this trip was the introduction between Travis, Kang, and Lorin, aka Bassnectar, a now well-known innovator who has become one of the biggest names in EDM. After connecting with each other and trading ideas about music, they began to make moves to combine their contrasting, but complementary, styles of music back in the Colorado jam scene, the state which String Cheese calls home.

“String Cheese was based out of Colorado, along with others, and there was a merging of the worlds that began in the early 2000’s,” says Janover. The band began hosting Bassnectar for its afterparties — the first of which was held in 2003 — and even did some notable, genre-breaking collabs which are still revered amongst the ranks of SCI and Bassnectar fans alike (check out SCI x Bassnectar at Sea of Dreams San Francisco in 2006, below).

Bringing an artist like Bassnectar in for Cheese shows meant many fans of bluegrass and jam were introduced to a style of music they had, for the most part, never heard before. As a result, a new niche arose for electronica that did not exist before. At the same time, technology was getting to the point where musicians could successfully merge live performance and computer generated elements in a cohesive way, thus opening the door for this new fusion to march into the forefront of the music culture.

The first of many of these sorts of artists to take note of is STS9 . Back in its initial ascension to jamtronica stardom, the band was booked as openers by the String Cheese Incident, opening for SCI at Red Rocks in 2003 and playing with them around the country doing genre-busting superjams at early renditions of SCI’s festival at Horning’s Hideout. These early collaborations totally changed what many fans could expect to see at live shows. Pretty Lights, Big Gigantic, Lotus and others soon began to bring their musical statements into the collective consciousness, and the era of livetronica was officially born.

Furthermore, a lot of the credit is due to computers themselves, and how these extremely creative artists decided to use them. Janover said it best himself: “When the wah wah pedal first came out and Jimi Hendrix used it the way he did, every 16-year old that listened to Hendrix got a wah wah pedal, and the sound of music at large changed.” The same could be said about the computer, and the awe-inspiring feelings that same sense of innovation can instill in people when they first heard Pretty Light’s groundbreaking production techniques on a quality sound-system, or David Phipps of STS9’s rich, textural modular synth work overlaid with organic piano and drums. The unfolding of technology is exponential, and with so many new artists contributing to these progressive, new modalities within music, things have continued to change at an ever-increasing rate.

Flashback to the first SONIC BLOOM back in 2006. It started as a two-night party centered around the supergroup Zilla, consisting of Janover, Michael Travis (drummer for the String Cheese Incident) and Aaron Holstein (Vibesquad) at the Mishawaka in Bellvue, CO. Janover said to Travis, “Let's do a big fire ritual where a bunch of fire dancers perform in the crowd as we perform on stage, just like you guys do at Horning's Hideout.” Combine that with the introduction of yoga and workshops, and art installations inspired by Burning Man over the years, and SONIC BLOOM began its life on Earth. From that point, Janover and his team took these blended elements and expertly turned SONIC BLOOM into its own unique entity, which has over time hosted many artists that, now, are far too big to play SONIC BLOOM.

Looking at posters of past lineups, you can see artists like Pretty Lights, who was almost at the very bottom of the lineup poster in 2008; only two years later, he was selling out Red Rocks. Many staple artists today such as EOTO, Bassnectar, Big Gigantic, Beats Antique, STS9, Lotus, and many more have all made appearances at SONIC BLOOM over the years, and have helped contribute to Colorado being one of the most prime hotspots for diverse, progressive music and raw talent in the country. Janover says “the whole scene in general is just going to keep growing. People that used to be support for people like Bassnectar, are now having their own Red Rocks shows. SONIC BLOOM continues to hold down its part of the spectrum.”

This year’s lineup is perhaps the most special yet, featuring not only the huge addition of two sets by STS9, but also the Trancident, an electronic version of the String Cheese Incident, featuring all members of the band except Keith Mosley. Other headliners include Psychedelic music cosmonaut Simon Posford, aka Shpongle, as well as Emancipator, Phutureprimitive and Talib Kweli, to name a few.

STS9’s return to SONIC BLOOM after a year of touring – declared by many to be their best year to date – is yet another testament to how things have come full circle for SONIC BLOOM in its 10th year. Jamie Janover has known STS9 since 1996, when the band was first starting out playing High Sierra's pool party. They haven't played Bloom since 2007, and since then, both the band and the festival have reached heights that neither probably thought were possible back then. In its many permutations, SONIC BLOOM has changed locations a number of times, with this year being the first year at the new spot in Spanish Peaks, Colorado – a locale Janover says is their best to date.

“There’s lots of open space, almost like you’re in New Mexico," he says. "It’s warm in the day, cool at night, and has a creek running through it that you can submerge your body in. We also have lots of trees that we can use for shade and lightning. There’s camping with trees as well as open field camping, and there's also a lot of grass, which means less dust. It’s also really easy to get to, only a few minutes off of I-25.” He says they are also doing a superjam this year to top all others, with “such special guests, we’re not even allowed to announce them yet.”

Beyond the music, SONIC BLOOM clearly puts a high priority on the transfer of ideas and passions in its diverse selection of workshops, and movement and yoga classes. With more and more efficacy every year, SONIC BLOOM transmits new concepts and better ways to live life, spreading ideas such as the Unified Field Theory in physics, shamanism, and permaculture throughout Colorado and the rest of the country by creating an atmosphere that facilitates personal growth, community, and a genuine love of life. Through its high standards in sustainability, learning, and diligent consideration for its artists and fans, SONIC BLOOM was named one of the Top 300 worldwide festivals by Fest300 this past year. It’s one of the smallest festivals in the list, and the fact that it could even land a spot on the list is a testament to the unique environment and timeless memories created every year by Janover and his team. It sounds like this year’s SONIC BLOOM: The Unified Field, will be the best yet for an abundance of reasons; for those who haven’t taken part in this transformational experience, now is the time to hop on the bandwagon.

Perhaps Jamie Janover’s passion and vision can be summed up in one statement, when he references the idea behind the festival's name. “Everything in the entire universe is connected to everything else in the entire universe by the structure of space itself. SONIC BLOOM is a festival microcosm of the universe where we create resonance in the unified field through collective collaboration and have as much fun as humanly possible.”

Cheers Jamie, we’ll see you in a couple weeks!