Andrew Jenkins, also known as Droptonix, leads a double life, working 40 hours a week and producing music.

Jenkins and his partner and co-founder of Jetpack Brigade, Coco, bonded over wanting to break away from the style of the more mainstream electronic dance music (EDM) scene.

“I never listened to EDM,” said Malissa Clark, Jenkins’ girlfriend of two years, said. “I called it techno, and I thought it was stupid until I met him. He showed me the good stuff, the more underground, the more complicated and heartfelt music.”

Jenkins and Coco first formed Jetpack Brigade when they were roommates living in an apartment in Cle Elum. They decided their extra space would be best used as a studio.

Jetpack Brigade does not collaborate as often anymore.

“My style is a little more spacey and Coco’s has a more raunchy style,” Jenkins said. “I try to be a little more musical and move things more fluidly because one thing that I don’t really like about EDM is how chopped up everything is.”

As a kid, Jenkins used to play around with music editing software in his downtime. Jenkins can do more than just play keyboard and create EDM sounds. He’s also a self-taught guitarist and took drum lessons when he was younger.

“I just like to beat on things,” Jenkins said. “I used to have an ‘84 Suburban, when I didn’t have a drum set, and I would just play drums on my car because it was a rickety old Suburban, and you could get some nice sounds out of it.”

As Jenkins got older, he grew to love electronic music production and see it from a different perspective.

“Once I realized that [music production] is really an in-depth science, that’s when I got really interested in it because I’ve loved science my whole life. So once I realized that – that sound is science – that’s when it became more interesting. It’s more than making music; it’s creating sounds.” Jenkins said.

When Jenkins first attended Central, he was looking into a major in geology, but it was a class in philosophy that essentially changed his outlook on life.

“Everything that that professor was talking about just got me thinking,” Jenkins said. “I realized that I wanted to be free, free of the burden of the world. So I started to make music and I found that that was the best way to express myself and feel comfortable, to feel like I’m contributing something, and I feel great about it.”

Also at that time, Jenkins was bored, and his job at the Safeway in Cle Elum left him unenthused.

Jenkins’ style is influenced by a variety of sounds and genres including classical, ‘90s metal, rock, grunge, ambient music and underground hip hop.

“Andrew loves music more than anything. He dedicates most of his time to it. Even if he has to slave away at a job, he’ll come home when he’s really tired and he’ll work on his music,” Clark said. “It gives him energy and makes him happy.”

On Halloween, Jetpack Brigade played at the House of Haze, a hookah lounge in Ellensburg, where Jenkins used to work. Izaak Fukuyama, a friend of Jenkins and also an employee of the House of Haze, says he liked Jenkins’ music from the start.

“I’ve had other people show me their music, and it was just generic electronic music, but when I listened to [Jenkins’], it has this unique sound that he made, this organic, metallic sound. It’s really unique. It’s so peaceful,” Fukayama said. “It was thought out and layered.”

On May 30, Jenkins not only played at the House of Haze’s Space Cowboy Rave, but helped decorate and organize the event. He has been very involved with promoting the business as an outlet for his music.

“He just wants to share how much he loves the world through what he creates and how it makes people feel,” Clark said.