If you passed Jesse Kardon on the street you probably wouldn't look twice. The bearded 32-year-old, who sports full tattoos and wears his hair tied in a lopsided top-knot, acts like just another hipster from the neighborhood. 

But to millions of electronic music fans worldwide, he's anything but. He’s Subtronics, one of Electronic Dance Music’s (EDM) hottest, in-demand dubstep (see sidebar) DJs and composers.

It's a remarkable journey for a local kid who struggled through school and addiction before finding his calling in electronic music. Now, between headlining major festivals and touring internationally, Kardon has built a multi-million-dollar entertainment enterprise. But he still calls Philadelphia home, creating his signature brain-melting beats from a studio in his Chestnut Hill house, where he's busy installing what he claims will be "the best speakers in Pennsylvania."

Kardon travels the world DJing his immersive, multi-sensory show for tens of thousands of fans. When he's not boarding an international flight to Paris, Montreal, Australia, or Bangkok, he's headlining Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) festivals or packing clubs in cities across America. 

He has sold out hallowed musical venues like Colorado's legendary Red Rocks Amphitheater, where The Beatles, Sting, The Moody Blues, and Radiohead, Kardon's favorite band, have played. Last May, Kardon headlined the EDC Music Festival in Las Vegas performing to 70,000 people. The annual festival is considered North America's largest EDM event. A month earlier he entertained 50,000 fans in Bangkok.

Selling that many tickets would be sweet music to any artist's ears, but especially for one in a genre considered by many as niche. But here's another eye-popping number – 90 billion. That is how many times his song, “Griztronics”, has been downloaded, streamed, or used in videos.

Kardon is unassuming about his success. He lives quietly with his wife and fellow dubstepper Sonya Broner, (aka Level Up), and Ellie, their Keyshond, in a light-filled house on the edge of Chestnut Hill’s Wissahickon Park. All he wants is to continue creating new music filled with unconventional sounds. 

"My favorite thing in the world that I want to do for the rest of my life, is turning knobs and hearing cool noises and creating songs that are immersive and take you to this other place, that gives you that wow, that totally electric feeling," he says. "I get that feeling myself when I make it and I want to give others that feeling as well."

Finding his frequency

On a dreary February afternoon, Kardon is home alone on a rare day off. Okay, he's not totally alone. Shawn and Matt, audio technicians, are upstairs installing new speakers in his studio.

Growing up in Lower Merion, music has been the through line of Kardon's life. His father, Richard, was the road manager for The Hooters, a Philadelphia-based band that had several hits in the 80s. Kardon began playing drums when he was five years old, an influence that can be heard in his music. 

His parents brought him up on a musical diet of classic rock. To this day, one of his favorite songs is Pink Floyd's "The Great Gig in the Sky," from the 1973 album, "The Dark Side of the Moon." The five-minute piece features a powerful, soaring, female vocalist.  

"I love songs that feel like one big crescendo that starts really small and gradually works up into this tremendously powerful high energy thing," he says. "There are no lyrics. Her voice is an instrument. It's like a guitar solo in that song."

While most of his elementary and middle school classmates in Lower Merion were listening to pop music, Kardon was into Radiohead, indie and alternative rock, and instrumental music. 

"I always liked things that are more eclectic and a little bit more artsy and experimental," he says. "I definitely feel that I have a super sensitivity to sound."

That made him an outsider until he met a friend who helped him find his musical tribe.

"I found a group of friends who had equally different taste in music," he recalls. "We always discussed weird bands and cutting-edge bands."

Beats and breakdowns

But school wasn't his "jam." English, history, math, and writing were always solid Ds. But science, now that was his "jam." He's still the same "science kid" he always was – fascinated with string theory and quantum physics. He even named his last album Tesseract. (For all of us who struggled with science, the tesseract is a four-dimensional geometric shape that is equivalent to a three-dimensional cube.)    

Freshman year in high school Kardon was caught smoking marijuana, which landed him in a thrice weekly drug therapy group – with regular drug testing. Then he was diagnosed with "severe" ADHD, so his parents enrolled him in the Crefeld School in Chestnut Hill.

"It's so funny that when you're a kid you think ‘I'm not supposed to like school’ – that it sucks," he says. “But I loved Crefeld. It was a great experience."

He was introduced to dubstep at 16, during an internship at a small recording studio in Ardmore. He heard what he thought was music from experimental bands – and turned out to be EDM producers and DJs. He was hooked - and not long after he bought his own digital audio workstation (DAW).

"I liked playing drums but I wanted to make cool songs," he says. "It wasn't as fulfilling or satisfying just playing along. I wanted to make the entire thing."

But his drug issues continued. After consuming mushrooms and passing out at an Electric Factory concert, he woke up in Thomas Jefferson Hospital's emergency department. He was off to rehab again, this time to Caron Treatment Center in Berks County for a month as an inpatient.

After spending another month at a halfway house, Kardon came home and was again caught smoking weed. This time he was sent to a halfway house in Nicholson, Pa. 

And something took. Instead of coming home after he was released, Kardon moved to Scranton where he got a job, an apartment, and enrolled in Lackawanna Junior College. Three years later he returned home and enrolled at Temple University.

Amplified success

Throughout high school and his trips to rehab, Kardon continued making music, most of which he says was "really bad art, really bad music." But he also started connecting with musically like-minded people online – which helped him grow.

"I really do believe I was part of a very small underground movement," he says. "As that community gained steam, a rising tide raised all ships. It kind of put us all in the doorway."

He started releasing songs on tiny labels and landing opening slots at shows. In 2017 he was invited to play the Camp Bisco Music Festival. The following year he earned a spot on a bus tour. In 2017 he quit school for good.

"I would say a really significant turning point was probably dropping out of Temple and going full time professional and using music to pay my rent and support myself," he says.

Of course, no musician’s story would be complete without a tale of being scammed. For Kardon, it was an online wannabe manager who told him he’d signed Eric Silver to be Kardon's agent. Kardon added Silver's name to his SoundCloud account. Except, the wannabe manager never contacted Silver, who knew nothing about Kardon.

But it all worked out for the best. Discovering that his fake manager was stealing from his PayPal account, Kardon asked Silver to take over. And Jake Berstein of Wasserman Music became his agent.

"That was the point where things started skyrocketing," Kardon says.

The science of sound

Today Subtronics is three companies – touring, music, and merchandise – employing more than 50 employees. 

"I have to give a huge amount of credit to my team," says Kardon. "I am very fortunate to be supported by a lot of really smart people who are brilliant in their field. We all work together to put on something far greater than the sum of the parts."

While each component has a role to play, it's the music and show that pays the bills. Putting together a show means synchronizing the music with three video screens (Jake Keenan), lights, lasers, pyrotechnics (Spencer Michaels), and stage operation.

It starts with Kardon. He writes, designs, arranges, mixes, and masters all of the music "from scratch" on his computer. When the music is ready, he meets with creative director Ray Elemento for all-night sessions forging a vision of the show. Elemento then puts together a 40 to 50-page presentation for the whole team and the work begins. 

"Everyone is so good at what they do," Kardon says. "One of my favorite expressions is, everyone is an assassin. They just show up, they murder it, and then they are out."

Home studio, global stage

Upstairs, Kardon slides in behind an elaborate computer console that is his studio soundboard. He untethers his top knot and shakes his head, causing an avalanche of hair to go sliding over his shoulders. It's time to try out the new speakers.

His early music was a cool chaos, a search for crazy, unusual sounds. And while he still wants to "blow their brains out," his music has become more sophisticated and nuanced. He wants his shows to be safe and inclusive, where everyone is friendly and feels welcome.      

"It started out turning knobs and making cool sounds," he says as his left hand fiddles with the controls. "But one of the most powerful things that happens is when we meet fans and they say, 'I had severe depression and your music helped,' or 'I had severe anxiety and your music helped.' That is totally unexpected but unbelievably rewarding."