Interviewed by Tally G
SoCal electronic music production talent is vast, so it takes a certain kind of artist to really stand out. Having a multifaceted background in music can certainly help, as does being multi-instrumental and extraordinarily motivated. Local artist Horge is all that and more.
Jorge Montoya, also known as Horge, is a North County San Diego native who has been creating music for about 17 years. Before that, he was a highly involved musical teenager, jumping into every school music program available and playing in metal bands on the side. A self-described music nerd, at just 12 years old he was already messing around with GarageBand on his older brother’s iMac, trying to recreate the songs he liked.
It is no surprise that he became obsessed with music given his family background. Born the youngest of seven siblings, all of the boys were trained by their father on a specific instrument. His oldest brother played guitar, the second played drums, the third played guitar and sang, and Jorge learned to play the bass. Jorge’s biggest supporter and influence is his father.
Horge: “He made sure I signed up for music classes in my middle school. He always drove me to all my band performances and practices. He helped me carry my tuba to marching band rehearsals as well as my standup bass to my jazz rehearsals. He’s always been there supporting me and I’m insanely grateful for everything he’s done.”
Learning to synthesize everything from scratch forced Jorge to think differently and pushed his production to the next level.
Heavy Roots & “Anxiety Music”
When asked to describe his current sound, Horge points to a description that stuck with him. He defines his production style as “anxiety music.”
Horge: “That’s a term someone else used that I haven’t forgotten about.”
Other words he uses to break down his style include heavy, evolving, syncopated, and melodic.
Horge: “I’ve always loved heavy music from the heaviest metal to the most obnoxious wall-of-sound pots and pans neurofunk. The earlier years of being an electronic music artist really borrowed from that influence, with my affinity for melodies and harmonies often breaking through in the spaces between all the chaos.”
While his roots are in that heavy sonic chaos, his recent inspirations lean toward club music and current sounds coming out of the UK. As a multi-genre artist, Horge produces everything from UK garage to jungle and neurofunk. However, dubstep was his first true love. He humorously describes his early production style not as “real” dubstep, but rather as “‘bright rave neon tank top with words’ dubstep.”
Lately, he has been gravitating toward more dance-friendly styles like garage and breaks, alongside occasional forays into hard techno and hardgroove (@OphanimSound). His versatility has also landed him hired production work across an incredibly diverse spectrum, including house, reggaeton, cumbia, metal, and trance.
His trajectory shifted toward drum and bass in 2015 after discovering the artist Mefjus. Blown away by the sound, he decided right then to dive into neurofunk. In the years since, he has expanded his toolkit to produce jungle, liquid, dancefloor, and jump up.
As of this interview, his favorite genre to produce is techno. He admits that music production is often a frustrating endeavor, but techno happens to be the least frustrating to make—and the most well-received by crowds. True to his multi-instrumental roots, he loves mixing elements from different worlds, like driving trance melodies layered over heavy techno kick drums.
Unorthodox Workflows & Accidental DJs
When it comes to his studio workflow, Horge relies on a few unorthodox methods. He often slaps a limiter on the master fader right at the start of a session, writing out his ideas with little to no regard for the mix.
Horge: “I treat the creative part and the engineering part of music very separately.”
Rather than getting bogged down in minute details early on, he prefers to focus on the bigger picture and finish a track’s arrangement before touching a single knob.
Horge: “Then I start dialing EQs and compressors. I look at my stereo fields and bring my faders low so that my limiter isn’t being overworked.”
While his production environment is highly deliberate, learning to DJ was an absolute accident. As Jorge started uploading his original songs to SoundCloud, a local promoter took notice.
Horge: “Max let me know a local promoter heard my songs and wanted to book us for a local dubstep night. We then had to figure out how we were supposed to perform so we were googling ‘electronic music concerts’ and stuff, eventually ending up on YouTube again looking up DJ tutorials.”
Jorge begged his parents to buy him a Traktor DJ setup to get ready for a gig they had accepted without actually knowing what they were doing.
Their first show happened at an old coffee shop in San Marcos, CA called the Undergrounds. Widely attended by their friends and family, the gig became the catalyst for everything else. That night, Jorge met another North County dubstep DJ by the name of Gabe (YaoGuai_SD), who introduced him to the local rave scene where he eventually met Rio (ADMRL.555tar).
Behind the decks, his DJ strategy heavily emphasizes mixing in key. When practicing, he challenges himself by blending tracks with completely different styles and arrangements, using harmonic keys as the tether. Experimenting with these multi-genre blends has allowed him to take more risks and easily improvise on the fly during live sets.
For Jorge, the hook was completely set.
Horge: “Those early years were some of my favorite times of my life, learning about making music and all the different types of electronic music and scenes out there, playing shows in exchange for drink tickets. Being on stage was exhilarating, and performing became my favorite thing to do.”
His hunger to be on stage led him to take on countless unpaid gigs early on. For Horge, the paycheck never mattered—putting on a great show and entertaining people was all he wanted to do.
Collaborations and Dream Sessions
Over the years, Horge has collaborated with a wide network of talent. One of his favorite producers to lock in with is his long-time friend Rio (ADMRL).
Horge: “Hopefully by the time this interview is out, we will have finished the 5 to 10 songs we currently have in the pipeline.”
He is also eager to get back into the studio with vocalist Malkiya, who was featured on his track “Twist the Knife,” and has plans to follow up on potential projects with artists like Dr. Apollo.
AI, “Content-ization,” and the Modern Industry
As for his ultimate dream collaboration? That spot belongs to Skrillex. Horge deeply admires his production across every musical chapter, especially his current SOMA era. He notes that he would absolutely “LOVE to get down on a guaracha/bass fusion track while he’s in his current era.”
When asked about his thoughts on the rise of artificial intelligence in the studio, Horge draws a sharp line between efficiency and replacement. He strongly opposes the use of generative AI.
Horge: “I don’t like that AI is being used to replace a lot of humans out of work. Artists are already in a hostile economy, and the addition of generative AI is another obstacle artists have to fight against. When AI is used as a tool, it’s good. When it’s used as a crutch, it’s bad.”
First on his list is dismantling the mandatory “content-ization” of the industry.
While he supports using technology to smooth out technical workflows, he believes generative models threaten an already vulnerable community. This hostility extends to the structural realities of the modern music landscape, where Horge sees several critical areas ripe for change.
Horge: “I know that the attention economy is fierce and everyone is trying to game algorithms to try and get their music heard by people, but it didn’t used to be this way. You used to be able to find your new favorite song from someone who had less than 500 followers because social media feeds made organic growth possible—without the need of artists awkwardly dancing to their songs in portrait mode.”
He points out that an overwhelming amount of music content is currently created purely because artists are forced to appease algorithmic gatekeepers. Horge wants a return to a landscape where artists create because they love the craft, not because they are fulfilling an algorithmic quota.
Secondly, Horge wants to shift the mentality around who is allowed to have an opinion on music. He rejects the idea that someone needs technical music training to offer constructive criticism. Music, he notes, is ultimately for the average listener—not just a closed loop of local DJs looking to trade bookings. He firmly believes the feedback of an average person holds immense value.
Finally, he points to the systemic economic pressures that stifle raw talent.
Horge: “The economics of the creative arts need to change so that artists don’t have to suffer or juggle multiple jobs to try and sustain their passion. For many, success skews on just who can afford to maintain their artistic career. Throw bills, children, and emergencies in the mix, and someone who could otherwise have produced the next timeless anthem has to sidetrack their music career to work in an economy already designed against them.”
To fix this, Horge looks toward international models, noting that he would love to see a system of merit-based artistic subsidies similar to the arts funding infrastructure in Denmark.
What’s Next: Upcoming Shows
Horge has a busy winter and spring calendar lined up, kicking off right in his backyard:
- December 9, 2026 – San DNB (San Diego): He will be diving into a rare selection of jungle techno, PS1-style ambient jungle, juke, and footwork. He is excited to showcase these deeper subgenres and hopes to bring out North County selector Marketing Porpoises alongside a promising new artist, Illicit Exercises.
- December 12, 2026 – Pending Techno Event: He is currently awaiting final confirmation details for a massive techno show, where he plans to bring on a dedicated video producer to capture and edit the live set.
- March 2027 – Semi-Private Event: He is booked for a private birthday party with a very specific brief—to spin “the most belligerent Latin club music” he can dig up.
You can keep up with Horge on Instagram @HorgeAudio as well as on Bandcamp @ horge.bandcamp.com.
Whether he’s engineering heavy “anxiety music” in the studio, throwing down unexpected genre blends in key, or prepping a set of belligerent Latin club tracks, Horge remains driven by the exact same pure obsession that gripped him as a twelve-year-old on GarageBand. He has evolved from a teenage multi-instrumentalist hauling a tuba around North County into one of the region’s most versatile electronic music producers, but his core mission hasn’t changed a bit. It’s still all about the thrill of the stage, the pursuit of flawless sound design, and a refusal to ever be normal about making music.
Big up and till next time,
Tally G