He goes by Stock, and he is Boston’s latest producer/dj to hit the underground electronic music scene.

You may have seen him play, you may have heard one of his tracks, but what you might not know is- who is the man behind Stock? Where did he get his start? What is his story?

Second Society Report sat down with him this weekend after he played an intimate set at Cambridge’s ZuZu to find out.

Stock, also known as Tim Wardell, is a 26 year old producer from Cos Cob, Connecticut.

After growing up around his family’s musical talents, Wardell started playing instruments at a young age. Starting with percussion, Wardell fell in love with both playing and making music.

“I can play a lot of instruments…but drums were always my favorite.” He laughed.

As a kid, Tim listened to a lot of the classics, such as Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. And, since his parents had different tastes in music, they helped contribute to the wide variety of genres he was exposed to.

“My dad listened to a lot of Bluegrass but my mom listened to a lot of mello stuff, such as Amy Helms,” He explained. “Music in general has been a part of me my entire life, my parents had music on in the house all the time.”

But where did his passion for live music start?

In highschool,  Wardell not only created his own band with a group of friends, but was also asked to join a separate band as the frontman.

“I was in Hot Fidelity. I was the drummer for that. And then, I HATED this name…I was the singer, and I wanted to change it so bad but they asked me to join the band so I wasn’t going to change it. It was called Playing With Fire,” He laughed.

He went on to assure us that there was no bad blood between him and the guys from his previous band.

“Nothing happened with Playing With Fire but I love those guys”

While live instrumentals certainly held a special place in his heart, Wardell began to experience a lot of new musical genres while in high school. One of them being drum & bass.

“What really led me to dive into electronic music was I found drum & bass music in 2006 at the beginning of high school and I was kind of obsessed with it…but drum and bass led into this sort of trance-like music and then I found dubstep.”

He reminisced about how long it’s been since he discovered his love for that type of music. “It’s crazy to think about it…I’ve been listening to drum and bass music for 13 years now, but dubstep for only 9 or 10 years.”

It was during the latter half of high school and beginning of his time at Bay State College, that Wardell began making the shift from live instrumentals to electronic mixes with his friends.

“One time in electronic music class we started to figure out how to make dubstep! We learned how to send a sine wave through a low frequency oscillator, distorting it a little bit…we just kind of found out “oh…we can do this” and that was the beginning for me”

Some of the artists that inspired him and his musical direction included the likes of Tom Morello from Rage Against The Machine.

“A lot of his guitar work is super influential in electronic music and dubstep because of songs like Born as Ghosts…” He added. “It has always been interesting to me and then when I found dubstep, I realized this is kind of wobbly and similar.”

His experiences with live instrumental bands such as Rage Against The Machine helped to shape certain elements of his tracks but they weren’t the only musicians to influence his music. It was producers/dj’s such as Caspa & Rusko, and even artists like Excision & Downlink, before they became mainstream, that paved the way for Stock.

One producer that has meant quite a bit to Wardell over the years has been Bassnectar. Not only has he attended plenty of his shows but he has never missed an opportunity to travel to different states to do so. All you have to do is mention his name and Wardell could go on for hours talking about how incredible he is performing live, the beautiful composition behind all of his tracks and the unique style he brings to the electronic music scene.

As his growth continued as a producer and dj, Wardell has also expanded his musical tastes. As much as he enjoys talking about Bassnectar and how insanely talented he is, other artists including a few from the UK have been a staple for Stock’s creative paths.

“My favorite producer right now is Tsuruda, that dude is on some other level, and I am convinced he’s from the future But I also like Eprom, G Jones, Bassnectar, Alex Perez, lots of people on Crucial Recording like Sleeper, Foam Plate, a lot of UK dubstep, all the deep dark bass.”

Although there’s plenty of artists he couldn’t keep from talking about, one that really stood out of from the rest of the pack, was Thriftworks. “I have a lot of respect for him because he releases all of his tracks on bandcamp for free, well for “name your own price” so it basically is free unless you want to pay which i have done. I just love supporting music.” He added. “He can write a track like no one else. There’s no repeated sections, they flow like a river and then expand into a lake if that makes sense…it’s not just “copy, paste, copy, paste, copy, paste”.”

While Wardell has a ton of industry favorites, he also has his dream show lineup picked out.

“Alright I’ll go like this, I’ll start at the opener and go all the way to headliner, from people I know, to people I kind of know, to people I would love  to see live, people I have seen live and then my favorite to see live. So my dream lineup would be probably be me opening…or…well, honestly, I haven’t done a back to back with Jamie yet but I’d love to do, me back to back with BioKoi opening…then maybe see Brightside from New York, that dude Eric Tully, he’s killing it right now. I’ve watched him play Wonder Bar to 20 people to a sold out downstairs show opening for Bloodline. After Brightside would be like…Commodo because that dude is on some other level right now and then maybe something like Ivy lab to get a little more upbeat and then close out with, not going to lie, with a heavy ass Bassnectar set because a climax like that….honestly…”

As for his where this ultimate dream performance would take place, Wardell would choose the Electric Factory in Philadelphia. “I love that venue, I’ve only seen one show there. But It’s a great venue”

We were eager to know what embarrassing moment(s) Wardell had experienced either while producing or during a live show. Of course, every artist starts somewhere, and with every beginning there are mistakes to be made you wish you could erase.

“One embarrassing moment I can think of that happened during a show…my first set I was playing “Whale Sized Dabs” by Tsuruda and I was queuing up “Respect Yourself” by Russ Liquid and when It got to the drop i forgot to hit the play button so when I released the queue button…there was nothing but silence in zuzu. It was only for a couple second’s I just pressed the play button and it started over. Woops, it happens.”

While his music continues to reach more and more people through social media and his soundcloud, Tim went on to explain the only thing he wants from his listeners is to just relax and enjoy what his music has to offer and the sets he composes.

“I just want to see heads bobbing, not going to lie, I’m not looking for the “woowoowoo” or screaming and jumping, going crazy, I just want to see people engage in the music and just getting down.”

Simplicity at its finest.

Tim Wardell and his project Stock was nothing short of phenomenal during the Sunday Sets performance at Zuzu. We were glad we could catch up with him briefly and for those of you that don’t know Stock, don’t miss out any longer.

Like him on his social media page and check out his soundcloud now!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stockbass/
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/stockbass