Spotlights On: Gage Baggs

Mortala Takes the Decks in Multi-Genre Showcase

On August 29th, Gage Baggs—also known as Mortala. during his DJ sets— will play a unique set alongside Northern Michigan artists The Sordid Orchids, Federales, and CloudLifter at a special multi-genre house show hosted by Kevin Summers. 

The Sound

Baggs dedicates his sound to a dark, dance–oriented dubstep. With influences like Nine Inch Nails and Bring Me The Horizon, his sets often bring together several cross-genres, from metal and dance to goth and dubstep. While starting out in his music ventures, he sat with locally loved bands like Biomassive and Boardman River Band. 

Gage Baggs performing at a live show. Taken by Wabanung Bussey.

His production roots lie in lighter house sound, with muses such as British artist Fred Again inspiring his first beats. The beats, while light and danceable, felt too flat.

"I was at Electric Forest and saw a group called TRUTH,” he described. “Everyone was dancing. In most of these festivals you see people headbanging or in mosh pits, but everyone was dancing. That’s the vibe I’m trying to exude."

Ego Death and Artistic Honesty

Mortala., as a musical project and a new era of his artist identity, represents artistic honesty, and ego death, in Baggs’ own words. 

"The best piece of advice that I've gotten collectively from a lot of people was just stay true to yourself,” he recounted. 

This is him putting that into action. After growing up in the Northern Michigan scene, with now-household names such as Billy Strings impacting his journey from the early stages, he’s found ways to inject that integrity into all he does during this progression. 

During sets, he finds himself including variety, deliberately building in quieter and emotionally heavier moments, while still intermingling electric tracks that encourage the crowds to move. 

"Having those dynamics in the set is a super important thing to do. It gives you time to look in the crowd, make sure everyone's okay, drinking their water, or see if anyone's hurt or passed out. It's a nice moment of clarity before you go back into dancing,” he described.

The Hometown Trade-Off

However, he hasn’t received complete open arms from his hometown audience. While DJing sets at Sidetraxx trained his ear to prepare for ranging sets and sound design, he realized quickly the trade-off that authenticity is often packaged with. 

When audiences prefer familiar, requestable music, artists are often forced to make a choice between adapting, or opening their options to opportunities that are typically farther away. Baggs’ path has taken him to cities like Kalamazoo and Detroit, where crowds love the “roller coaster” of a set that he enjoys, and therefore produces while onstage. 

Roots in Rhythm

For any DJ set, especially one set that embraces variety and range, a certain skill set is required.

Baggs on the DJ deck, photo taken by Antonio I.

"You’re always thinking about rhythms, and being a drummer comes in handy a lot... You have to use a lot of rhythms in those basses to make it dancier. If it's just a straight baseline, people aren't going to dance."

His first avenue into music was drumming, which he did for a significant portion of his youth, which eventually transitioned into his electronic route.

"I wanted to get more into sound design itself,” he explained. “I saw more of a rich avenue to go towards dubstep; not so much the heavy dubstep, but more of the dancier, sub-bassy low-end stuff."

What's On Deck 

For him, Mortala. feels like an evolution. While he slowly releases remixes and original tracks, he plans for it to become an ongoing album, following his headspace without a defined “box” to be stuck in. 

This most recent evolution is the fruit of his mission all along: to spread joy during his sets. 

"It’s always just been about watching people be happy, dance, and enjoy themselves,” Baggs noted. “It’s never been about anything else; just making people happy."

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Stay tuned for updates on Mortala. as it releases through his Instagram, or catch the house show on August 29th—more details available through Kevin Summers.