Heavy music and electronic music often live in separate rooms. GNZ is bringing them together through Club Metal, a sound built from heavy guitars, bass drops, breakdowns, and the physical release of a crowd in motion.
Born in Manila and now based in Brooklyn, Inigo Gonzalez is a producer, guitarist, artist, and co-developer of ANTVGONIST Studios. Through Club Metal, he connects electronic bass music with metal and hardcore. Through his studio work, he helps emerging artists shape sounds that feel distinct and true to their direction.
How Manila Shaped GNZ’s Start in Music
Inigo’s relationship with music began at five, when he saw Green Day’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” on television and became drawn to Billie Joe Armstrong holding a guitar. By eight, he was playing guitar himself. Bands such as Nirvana, My Chemical Romance, Slipknot, I See Stars, and Bring Me The Horizon later deepened his connection to rock and metal, showing him how heavy music could hold aggression, tension, vulnerability, and release at the same time.
At thirteen, he discovered GarageBand on iOS after using Voice Memos to capture ideas. The app gave him a way to turn fragments into songs. He later moved into Reaper, where he taught himself production, songwriting, and arrangement.
By seventeen, GNZ realized how strong his passion for building records had become. He knew that production was no longer a hobby and that it’s time to start taking the craft seriously. He would then spend the next few years putting himself out there, meeting all the local creatives around his area. His networking efforts would eventually land him an internship for one of the country’s biggest hip-hop producers, Yung Bawal. His time working for Yung Bawal landed him co-production credits on Bawal Clan’s final album: Tales of Tha Crypt Vol.1. GNZ was also fortunate enough to not only meet Jim P, another top hip-hop producer in the local industry, but be mentored by him. He considers Jim’s guidance to be instrumental for how he currently approaches the music industry. His education added structure to that foundation. Inigo earned a BS in Entrepreneurial Management from the University of Asia and the Pacific before pursuing an MA in Creative Media and Technology with a specialization in Songwriting and Production at Berklee College of Music.
In 2022, he moved from the Philippines to New York City to study at Berklee’s New York campus and commit fully to music. The move placed him inside the hardcore, alternative, and underground electronic scenes that would later shape Club Metal.
How Club Metal Brings Bass Music, Metal, and Hardcore Together
Club Metal grew from GNZ’s understanding that the mosh pit and the dance floor share a purpose. Both are spaces for release, physical energy, and connection.
As GNZ, Inigo built the sound around that overlap. Club Metal draws from UK garage, dubstep, trap, future bass, EDM, metal, and hardcore. Its main elements are sub-heavy bass, hard electronic drums, down-tuned guitars, sharp transitions, and breakdowns built for bodies in motion.
Each element has a clear role. Bass music gives the tracks weight. Hardcore rhythms and breakdowns give them impact. Guitars bring texture, melody, tension, and aggression.
That guitar-centered approach has become part of GNZ’s identity as a producer. He uses the instrument across pop, EDM, hip-hop, R&B, rock, hardcore, and metal. Rather than treating guitar as a fixed genre marker, he uses it as a flexible production tool.
For GNZ, the mosh pit is central to the idea. From the outside, it may look chaotic. Inside the culture, it often works through care. People collide, move together, pick one another up, and share a physical experience. Club Metal builds from that feeling.
How ANTVGONIST Studios Helps Artists Find Their Sound
Inigo’s work as GNZ continues to grow through his production work at ANTVGONIST Studios, a Brooklyn-Based Recording Studio which currently serves as his home base. Through his role as a producer for the studio, GNZ works across production, mix engineering, and artist development. .
His process focuses on creative identity. Instead of pushing artists toward a ready-made sound, GNZ looks for what makes each artist distinct and helps shape that into a clear direction.
That work can include arrangement, guitar performance, engineering, sound design, and creative direction. Through ANTVGONIST Studios and his production work, he has contributed to commercially released and upcoming records for artists including Andrea Turk, BXPOLAR, Chloe Tang, Dotia, and others.
Across these projects, his guitar-centered approach adapts to different styles while keeping a clear point of view.
Recognition for “Call Me On Drugs” and What Comes Next
A notable professional milestone came through Inigo’s work with Andrea Turk. “Call Me On Drugs,” a record credited to Andrea Turk and Inigo Lorenzo Gonzalez, placed 3rd in the Rock category of the 2025 International Songwriting Competition and was also listed among the Unpublished finalists.
That recognition places his work in an international songwriting context. It also shows how his production approach can support records beyond his immediate circle in New York.
Performance is also part of his development. As a guitarist, Inigo has played through his own Club Metal-focused work as GNZ and as a guitarist for artists including Andrea Turk, BXPOLAR, and Dotia.
Looking ahead, GNZplans to keep developing Club Metal through multiple records, collaborations, and live events. His goal is to help the genre grow into an entirely new sub-culture of music shaped by the underground communities that inspired it.
