NEKTER GUN Turns Jersey Shore Nights Into UK Garage on “Hold Me Close”

Summer nights on the Jersey Shore, ocean air, the boardwalk and early-morning drives home after all-night raves in New York all found their way into “Hold Me Close.” Rather than beginning with a strict genre formula, NEKTER GUN built the track around a feeling: romantic, nostalgic and slightly bittersweet, like remembering a night you wish had lasted a little longer.

The sound grew from his recent obsession with UK Garage and Speed Garage, combined with the House and Tech House influence he associates with Chris Lake. A romantic vocal became the starting point, while the production introduced a more local element through the melodic dance music he grew up hearing around the Jersey Shore. The result blends UKG swing and bass movement with touches of the bigger Progressive House character that has long connected with audiences in his hometown scene.

That combination is especially clear in the piano breakdown, arpeggio and lead pluck, which he considers some of the most personal parts of the record. He also deliberately avoided a standard pop or dance chord progression, aiming for something jazzier and more emotional. Even the bass came together through experimentation. A wubbier UK Bass sound initially started almost as a joke, but worked well enough to stay. When faster bass fills began sounding out of time, he switched to two additional bass sounds that could preserve the groove without losing the character of the original idea.

His path into electronic music began long before UK Garage entered the picture. NEKTER GUN had been writing songs and playing guitar since his teens, with Incubus, 311 and Radiohead helping spark an early curiosity about the intersection of rock, electronic music and DJing. After years in a rock band, he began studying Ableton and sound design at Dubspot in New York City in 2016. While waiting for classes, he would regularly hear G House, Bass House and Future House sets happening in the DJ lesson area, and those sessions helped push him toward producing dance music himself.

A trip to Ibiza in 2023 pushed that evolution further. He played what he considers one of the best sets of his career at Plastik Ibiza, but the larger impact came from experiencing the island’s dance culture firsthand. Visiting Eden and Amnesia and meeting artists including Paul van Dyk, Hannah Wants, Sam Divine, Junior Sanchez and Todd Terry exposed him to a different relationship between audiences and dance music. He says the experience strengthened his love for House, UK Garage and Tech House and directly influenced the music he is making now.

That sense of place remains important to his identity. He describes the Jersey Shore as a mix of Italian, Irish, Hispanic and Brazilian influences, all shaping the way people gather, celebrate and experience music. Away from the studio, he is also a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu brown belt under Kurt Pellegrino, a discipline he connects with patience, consistency and the years of work required before progress becomes visible.

“Hold Me Close” also arrives at a point where he feels increasingly confident about his direction. After releasing dance music since 2019 and exploring a range of styles, he says the newer material is the first time he has truly felt that he has found his identity as an artist. He has also launched The Oasis, a private community where listeners can stream and download unreleased music as well as tracks he has previously taken down. His first solo release as NEKTER GUN remains his most successful to date after, according to the artist, charting on electronic iTunes rankings in multiple countries during 2020 and reaching No. 18 in Mexico, something he initially thought was a prank when Chartmetric emailed him.

For all the different influences inside “Hold Me Close,” its purpose is ultimately simple. He wants the record to bring back the feeling of driving home after a perfect summer night, when you are not quite ready for it to end. If it reminds someone of a person, a memory or a moment from their own life, then, in his words, he has done his job.