Sacred-Bass Pioneer TEMPLE STEP PROJECT Blesses The U.S. 2024-2025 [Feature/Interview]
cover photo: Temple Step
Temple Step Project is a Melbourne, AUS-based electronic producer and sound healer, crafting transformative music that bridges cultures and elevates consciousness.
In the sprawling landscape of global festival culture, where the neon-drenched colossi of main stages dominate algorithms and attention economy, there exists a subterranean current flowing in the opposite direction. Rooted in Ecstatic Dance culture, it’s a movement back toward the micro-fest and community-based exchange.
At the heart of this resonant shift is Temple Step Project, a subatomic sorcerer whose sterling reputation in sacred-bass soundscapes precedes him on the other side of the globe.
The world of electronic music is often defined by its divisions. For Ben Last, the Aussie visionary behind the pioneering Temple Step Project, these worlds aren’t just parallel; they are deeply interconnected.
Our wide-ranging conversation was conducted in the tailwind of Temple Step’s kaleidoscopic escapades on U.S. shores, as Ben revisits profoundly pivotal tours of North America in recent years. We learn how it leveled up his art form, connections, profile, perspectives, and an already legendary career.
The celebrated producer/DJ from Down Under unpacks the divine synchronicity of the colossal, chaotic, but ultimately exhilarating Texas Eclipse Festival; how the values and ethos of the ecstatic dance floor are reshaping global festival culture; Temple Step further salutes smaller intentional gatherings making village magic happen without all the sensory-overload bells n’ whistles; he humbly embraces a couple of lovely U.S. locations where Last feels cosmically-aligned despite being so far from home.
The Texas Eclipse
A Pivotal Career Moment
The tale of Ben’s recent tour begins with what he describes as a pivotal career moment at last summer’s massive Texas Eclipse Festival. Playing the Earth Stage, an intentionally-curated environment for his ethnic sacred-bass fusion, Ben found himself immersed in a lineup that felt like a homecoming, alongside scene stalwarts SOOHAN, Desert Dwellers, and Mah Ze Tar, among others.
On the long-term impact of such serendipity, Ben notes, “It’s funny how you don’t know that’s going to happen until it happens. And it’s almost like you hear the reverb or delay occur over the next few years afterwards.”
While the festival was famously cut short due to safety/weather concerns just before the eclipse, Ben’s timing was pure luck. Having played his set before the shutdown, he evaded the cancellation that sidelined several peers, good fortune that’s already propelled him into more prominent booking opportunities.
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Massive Rager vs.
Intimate Shwirl
The transition from a stage of 15,000 people to a micro-fest campout of 250 requires unique artistic flexibility. For Ben, the heartbeat of the experience lies in connection rather than spectacle.
Temple Step isn’t just spinning electronic music, he’s dissecting the very energy of the exchange. Ben acknowledges the undeniable pull of the huge main stage slot; the thousands of souls, the high-octane production, and the sheer throttle of reaching a massive frequency. Yet for this cosmic bass Jedi, that scale comes with a hidden tax.
“There’s a trade-off there,” he acknowledges, noting the disconnection that can manifest when an artist is elevated onto a “fake position of power.” In the shadow of big decor and booming sound systems, the unified field we collectively seek can often get lost to a hierarchical situation where the DJ becomes a deity and the audience appears a distant blob.
For Temple Step, the true potency of his sound art is found in the energetic connectivity of smaller, more intentional gatherings. He fervently champions micro-fest and ecstatic dance spaces, where the barrier between creator and participant dissolves into a humanistic mystic brew.
Central to his philosophy is the breakdown of the traditional barrier between creator and participant, facilitated through collaborative Live Ritual Integration.
During various thrilling Temple Step performances across North America last year, he embodied a shamanic multi-instrumentalist. The music served as an intimate ritual offering; an approach that is rooted in a wider collective of DJ/producers including Liquild Bloom, Geometrae, Poranguí, and Savej, among other like-minded artisans who prioritize intentionality and a shared vibration over commercial appeal.
Reflecting on rewarding gatherings like Medicina, High Vibe and Unison, Temple Step shared deep insights into the mechanics of a successful dance floor and the specific allure of the micro-festival, campout. He observed that the most impactful gatherings are those curated by organizers who are themselves DJs and dancers, as they possess an innate understanding of energy arcs.
“I really do resonate with the ambitious diversity that they curate. Because for me, I see myself as a multi-genre producer,” he explained. “People will ask what’s your genre like? I’m able to say mainly ethnic-based.”
This refusal to be pigeonholed allows Temple Step to move seamlessly between huge pumping stages, intimate festivals, and ecstatic dance communities, or oscillate between sacred bass and sexy house, provided there is a through-line of authentic culture and connection.
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He acknowledges the inherent trade-offs between such scales. Though Texas Eclipse proved Temple Step can thoroughly rock the big festival massive, admittedly Ben thrives in smaller settings.
“Because of the sense of energetic connectivity that I have with an audience where you can literally feel them like right next to you… you can feel them in your aura”.
Temple Step describes a sense of meditation that occurs when a person truly commits to the sound system, moving into a space more intoxicating than any alcohol-fueled main stage. In these evolved communities, Ben observes a culture with higher level of respect.
“Presence comes in a lot of ways. One, the respect to not stand and talk on the dance floor… when people are communing with the music, their ears are in that sensitive zone and if someone starts talking, it takes them out of their body”.
Last is particularly vocal about a phenomenon he calls genre fatigue, which he believes is the greatest threat to a festival’s vitality. “I see so often, if you have a dance floor and you have bass artist after bass artist after bass artist… by the fourth producer/DJ and the tenth hundreth drop, it’s f*cking boring,” Ben remarked with characteristic bluntness. “It doesn’t matter if it’s even Dimond Saints at the end, everyone’s so used to the same beat, structure, tempo and sound design that it loses its impact.”
To combat this recurring problem, Temple Step champions festivals that manage a through-line while constantly adjusting the vibration, ensuring that people remain locked in, engaged and fresh throughout the full lineup.
The Influence of
Ecstatic Dance Culture
He credits the rise of ecstatic dance for liberating the festival scene from these rigid structures. This culture allows him the freedom to be a rule-breaker. “If we don’t have rule breakers in the scene, we don’t get new music.”
Ben believes this freedom is essential for the musician’s soul: “Every artist, if they’re going to feel stuck, they’re going to stop creating great art… we – as receivers of the music, we want to hear rules broken”.
Intimate gatherings, campouts, and large-scale pumping festivals each offer a different container for the Temple Step experience. These wide-open, choose-your-own-adventure spaces facilitate a more expansive, full-spectrum sound journey than a standard venue show or gigantic, mainstream EDM event.
Ben repeatedly lauded Unison Festival, hosted at Tico Time River Resort in Aztec, NM. Last highlighted a mastership of programming, where the diversity of the lineup served as a remedy for the boredom of repetition.
“What they’re focusing on is music. It’s not about genre and it’s not about cool kids. It’s not about happy versus sad. It’s about music and it’s about culture,” he noted. He found great value in the mini arcs created across multiple stages, which allowed participants to curate their own emotional expedition through the soundwaves.
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Finding Community & A Look Toward The Future
During his US tours, certain regions have become creative homes for Temple Step. He describes Nevada City as “an amazing hub of some of the most amazing artists in the US… probably the most fruitful area of artists across the United States for my genres”.
Similarly, Boulder, Colorado holds a special place: “Boulder is just like an absolute home for me… the demographic of the community there really understand myself as a multi-genre artist”.
Temple Step’s fortified independent label, Motiv Records, allows him to release his own music as well as alot of people from the scene in the US and around the world that are now remixing my music” such as Deya Dova, Liquid Bloom and Nyrus.
From the sacred ground of Oregon ceremonies and blissed-out Nor Cal campouts; to the massive stages of Texas mega-fests; to historic ecstatic dances on Hawaiian islands, Temple Step Project continues to blaze a brilliant, righteous trail. Proof that when a DJ/producer/artist is free to break the abritrary rules and follow their intentional muse, they can lead the dancefloor seekers into elevated consciouness and a deeper state of dance, unleashing the unquestionable healing power of music.
words: B.Getz
Temple Step Project
Selections: U.S. Tour 2025
“An epic Ecstatic Dance in Portland Oregon USA after the Medicina Campout, sharing the stage with dear friend and awesome DJ, Dar. Such a joy to play for this amazing community thats brought together by Sheena Medicina.”
“Such an honour to play Kalani Ecstatic Dance. The birthplace of the Ecstatic Dance Movement. Its been a bucket list experience to play this dance after hearing about it for so many years. Giving thanks to all the people that keep this linage strong sharing the original vision of the creator, Max Fathom.”
“Step into the Sonic Sanctuary — This is not just a bass set, it’s a ceremony of sound and soul. Crafted with intention, we have bought together the highest quality sound designers, Dance, connect, and to remember what it feels like to be moved—truly moved—by rhythm, by beauty, by each other.
This event included Savej – a Louisiana-born artist blending ancestral wisdom with modern bass, known for his “Ancient Future” sound.”
“Few nights come close to this night as far as quality of event production, crowd into it factor, all star music producer community that Nevada City Ecstatic Dance holds so high. Not to mention the 8 subs and mid highs speakers that just rumble when the bass hits.”\
“An unforgettable evening of music and connection at Hawaiian Sanctuary Retreat Center. We immersed ourselves in a mesmerizing fusion of sounds, as Temple Step Project, Chris Berry and Jämi Deva transported us to a world of sonic bliss. With Opening Cacao Ceremony guided by Madhu Honey, the music guided us on a journey of self-discovery and togetherness as we explored the Magic of the 5 Elements.”
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