About Cerbera: two worlds, one purpose
Cerbera's journey in music has always existed at the crossroads of sonic exploration and social purpose. Raised by parents who dedicated their lives to championing equality of opportunity in the arts, he grew up immersed in a world where music and social justice were inseparable. That early exposure shaped not just the artist he is becoming, but the person he already is.
At 20, Cerbera occupies two roles simultaneously: electronic music producer and community outreach youth music worker. For the past four years he has been quietly building both — developing his own sound in the underground world of Dubstep, while volunteering his time for a performing arts charity in one of Liverpool's most underserved communities. Neither path exists independently of the other. Each one feeds and informs what he does in the other.
The Producer's Path
Cerbera's relationship with electronic music began at 14, when he first opened Garageband and discovered a world that immediately felt like his own. What drew him in wasn't just the music itself, but the community built around it — diverse, accepting, and rooted in the belief that anyone with passion and persistence had a place at the table.
Since then, his production work has grown into a focused and deeply considered practice. Specialising in Dubstep and its more aggressive sibling Tearout — subgenres defined by visceral sound design, distorted basslines, and unexpected melodic depth — Cerbera approaches every track as a bespoke exercise in craft. He traces a lineage that runs from the echo chambers of Jamaican Dub through UK Garage and Grime, out to the contemporary sounds emerging from collectives across America and Europe. The studio became his laboratory: a place to interrogate rhythm, texture, and the raw physical power of sub-bass. It also became the foundation for something far greater than music alone.
Music as Positive Intervention
Four years ago, Cerbera began volunteering at a charity serving a Liverpool community facing significant economic deprivation and health inequalities. What started as informal Garageband sessions alongside a food poverty relief programme has since grown into something far more ambitious: a structured, detached street-level outreach project that has reached over 700 young people, bringing a fully equipped pop-up music studio directly to them — on their terms, on their streets.
His weekly sessions balance technical rigour with genuine creative freedom. Working with professional equipment, Cerbera teaches the fundamentals — drum programming, sampling, synthesis, arrangement, and mixing — while creating a space where young people feel trusted to experiment and express themselves. His role, as he sees it, is simple: to help young people translate their musical instincts into real production skills. The project has grown to encompass DJing, mentorship, and live performance opportunities, culminating in an open mic showcase performed to an audience of over 100 young people.
For Cerbera, the studio and the street are not separate worlds. They never have been.
Academic Roots
Currently studying for a BA in Music and Technology at the University of Liverpool, Cerbera is honing his craft under the guidance of leading academics in the field. Working alongside the likes of Dr. Jonathan Crossley, Professor Matthew Fairclough, and Dr. Giles Hooper, he is developing a deep theoretical and technical foundation that informs everything he creates.
At the intersection of technology and experimental thought, Cerbera has developed a particular passion for live improvisation in Ableton Live — an approach shaped by the radical philosophies of John Cage and Cornelius Cardew. Drawing on Cage's embrace of chance and indeterminacy and Cardew's commitment to open-form composition, Cerbera brings an intellectually charged spontaneity to his performances, where no two sets are ever quite the same.