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While many in the scene already will read this as a very familiar and serotonin - inducing name – this spotlight is meant to grab the attention of others outside the festival gates and shine light on arguably one of the best performers currently in the arena of electric dance music. This jack of all trades, multi-instrument, scream enthusiast has spiked Los Angeles, CA’s weather even hotter than we believed humanly possible. Keaton Prescott, better known as Sullivan King, is hardwired genetically with aspirations of becoming 50% bass and 50% metal –and that’s exactly what he delivered.
Having seen this Guitar God perform live on numerous occasions, the only comparison that would even speculate some understanding would be a shining resemblance to Thor and his great hammer, Mjölnir. It doesn’t come across as a surprise to learn that growing up, King idolized Van Halen and several other hardcore rockers and begun following his own passion out of respect for those previously. After following the high of heavy metal, he invested all his time in guitar-based music – having created his own versions of songs comparable to bands such as Avenged Sevenfold, or A7x.
However, in early 2012, right around the time of Skrillex’s release of Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites, and the overall bloom of dubstep – everything clicked. Having heard Steve Aoki blend bass with other entirely separate genres, Prescott knew what was forming. 2 years later in 2014, The Sullivan King project begun. Birthed from the black soot and ash that once was Keaton Prescott emerged the angel of death – SullivanKing.
While tweaking the detailed aspects of fusing metal with bass, King attended Icon Collective Music Production School in Los Angeles. Emerging from school, his solo career was ready to skyrocket. From early on, such as 2014, King’s worked with A list names amongst the EDM scene, such as the track Pure Evil with Jauz. It was no surprise that this was a raw form of music awaiting the right artist to undertake the challenge of mastery – similar to King Arthur and his sword.
Within the last 2 years, stemming from his Come One, Come All EP in 2018, King has received a multitude of more fans, additionally creating merchandising lines concurrent with jerseys, pashminas, and other clothing pieces. However, if you’re still not sold – listen to his SHOW SOME TEETH album, since that’s what sold us. Dropped in 2019, we were privileged enough to see it live at Forbidden Kingdom Festival in Boca Raton, FL during February 2020. Wow. Professionalism aside, Sullivan King’s 2-day, 4-time appearance performance was in short what the French call “the little death." Who believed it possible to take the pure element of neck-breaking bass and feed it through a metal machine, in hopes of acquiring something even more pristine?
We’re beyond satisfied with the 8 individual EP releases from Sullivan King we’ve received through 2020 – but he’s promised even bigger things due to being quarantined and taken away from festival season for the remainder of the year and beginning of 2021. Stay up to date with him on all social media platforms, @sullivanking – as well as us for featured artists you need to be listening to @engmtent !
-RB