IfElseWhatNext is a genuinely fascinating artist name, and clearly rooted in your coding world. Can you tell me how it came about and what it means to you both technically and creatively?

It stems directly from living in the modern tech age and that constant feeling of not knowing what comes next. Technically, if/else logic represents decision-making in code – a fork in the road. Creatively, it’s about uncertainty, curiosity, and possibilities. In software, you always plan for every condition, but in life and music, you step into the unknown. The name reflects both my day job as a developer and my open-ended approach to making music.

You’ve described your music as a ‘decompression chamber’ from software development; that’s a really vivid way to put it. Can you explain what that actually feels like in practice? What happens when you close the laptop and open the studio?

It’s an absolute shift in headspace. Life can get incredibly hectic between work and family, and there are days when you just need to unwind and escape. Closing the laptop and stepping into the studio gives me a place to channel that energy. In coding, everything is rigid logic and problem-solving. In the studio, I get completely absorbed in finding new structures, layering sounds, and building melodies. It’s my ultimate reset button.

Most people would assume that someone with a deeply logical, coding mathematical brain might struggle to access something as instinctive and emotional as music making. You seem to have found exactly the opposite. How do those two sides of you live together harmoniously rather than fight?

At my core, I’m quite an emotional and creative soul. I’ve always loved the arts, following and watching creative work, and lately, seeing my daughter’s deep joy for art bloom has been a massive inspiration. My career in tech comes first, but making music in my own free time gives me the perfect creative outlet to express that emotional side at my own pace. I’m not a man of great words, so music is how I pass on feelings that code or speech can’t capture. The logical brain handles the routing, sequencing, and technical setup, but once the system is running, the emotional side takes over completely.

Your bio mentions that your mathematical programming mindset translates into meticulously sequenced hardware performances, and yet the output is intentionally organic and warm, which sounds like a total contradiction. How do you create something that holds both of those things at once?

It comes down to contrast. I love merging structured electronic elements like tight, evolving arpeggios with warm, classical chord progressions. The mathematical side gives the track its backbone and timing, but the organic warmth comes from tuning hardware synths, dialling in ambient space, and letting the layers interact naturally rather than locking everything into a cold grid.

The Jurassic Coast is a very specific inspiration, not just the idea of the landscape, but the tectonic forces behind it, the permanent scars left by immense planetary power. What drew you to that particular aspect of it rather than just its visual beauty?

A huge part of my life right now is a love for ambience, relaxation, and escapism. When you look at the Jurassic Coast, you’re seeing millions of years of immense, slow force shaping something beautiful. That sense of deep time and powerful underlying movement parallels ambient and progressive music – it’s not just about a pretty surface texture; it’s about slow, massive shifts underneath that move the whole atmosphere.

You’ve described ‘Geographic’ as a progressive electronic odyssey. The film ‘The Odyssey’ is out now and very much in the cultural conversation. Is there any alignment between what you’re exploring and that story of peril, endurance and the hope of arrival, or is your odyssey a different kind of journey entirely?

It’s a journey through the hectic nature of modern life toward a place of calm and space. It’s less about epic physical battles and more about emotional endurance – navigating daily noise, finding moments of total absorption in sound, and ultimately arriving at a state of peace and decompression.

When I listen to ‘Geographic’, it feels like moving through different sonic chambers; the sound shifts in a way that feels like passing through different landscapes. Was that a deliberate structural decision, or did it emerge from the way the track was performed?

It’s a mix of both. I love exploring how different sounds layer on top of each other, and because I’ve been levelling up my setup with various synths and samplers, the track naturally moves through distinct phases. The main arpeggio acts as a continuous guide, while shifting chord progressions and textures make you feel like you’re stepping into a new room or landscape with every section.

The entire mixing and arrangement process for this track functioned as a live performance, that’s a genuinely unusual approach. What are the risks of working that way, and did anything happen during that performance that surprised you and ended up staying in the final track?

The biggest risk is that there’s no safety net or simple “undo” button! You’re manipulating hardware in real time, tweaking filters, riding faders, muting channels, and capturing the energy as it happens. I am sure there will be improvements along the way as part of the process of evolving my skills in this field, but the magic is in those micro-imperfections that give the track a living, human feel you just can’t replicate by drawing points on a screen with a mouse.

For those of us who don’t speak your music tech language, can you explain in plain terms what a DAWless setup actually means, what the Digitakt II, the Minifreak and the Korg synthesisers do, and why you chose to work this way rather than using a ‘standard’ computer-based arrangement?

“DAWless” simply means making music without a computer DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) at the center. I spent all day staring at code on a laptop, so the last thing I want in the studio is another computer screen!

• The Elektron Digitakt II is my central brain and sampler – it holds the rhythm, handles sequencing, and controls the timing. I am really starting to enjoy finding creative ways to modify steps, sequences and parameters, the device is very powerful.
• The Arturia MicroFreak and Korg synths create the actual sound engines -synthesizing lush leads, basslines, and hypnotic arpeggios. Working hands-on with tactile buttons and knobs makes making music feel like playing an instrument rather than editing a spreadsheet.

Your influences span DJ Shadow, Bicep, Moderat, Kavinsky, Faux Tales, there’s quite a range. When I listen to ‘Geographic’ I also hear something of Jean-Michel Jarre, maybe Kraftwerk, possibly even Floating Points in there. Would you agree with any of those, and are there others you’d add that people might not expect?

I absolutely agree – digital pioneers like Jean-Michel Jarre, Kraftwerk, Orbital, and even influences from artists like Lemon Jelly have influenced everything I do. I see so many influences every time I visit or hear music from my past. Everything overlaps in some form or another, with artists’ attributes and styles merging over each other to form their unique signature. I’d like to think I have quite a distinct sound myself, and that will only continue to evolve as time goes on.

The arpeggios in ‘Geographic’ have an almost hypnotic, binaural quality; there’s something almost trance-inducing about the way they move. Is that effect something you engineered deliberately, or a happy consequence of the hardware you’re working with?

‘Geographic’ features an amazing central arpeggio that acts as the heartbeat of the track. Arpeggio patterns can vary greatly, but this one was more of a “walk” that lent itself directly to the feel of the music I was trying to produce – with shifting octaves and progressive movement. Sometimes a pattern might shift up one note too far, but you have to accept that and allow it to go. Combining that with subtle modulation and panning across the synth engines helped give it that hypnotizing, trance-inducing quality.

Who do you imagine listening to ‘Geographic’? Is this music aimed at the general listener looking for something immersive and atmospheric, or are you thinking about music supervisors, film directors, sync placements, or both?

Honestly, both. I could easily see ‘Geographic’ fitting into a late-night chillout playlist or radio show, something like BBC Radio 6 Music or a Jarvis Cocker Sunday service vibe. Because of its cinematic scope, it also lends itself really well to film, media, and sync placements. On top of that, I’m planning to work on personal projects to evolve my visuals for social media, creating something that instantly connects my music to imagery and produces a visual experience I find truly captivating.

Electronic music that is genuinely cinematic and landscape-inspired tends to sit in an interesting space between what’s considered accessible and what’s considered niche. Where do you see your music sitting, and does that actually matter to you?

It doesn’t bother me where it gets categorized, as long as it connects with people. It sits comfortably right in the middle – it has enough melodic warmth and progressive beat structure to be accessible to anyone needing to unwind, but enough technical depth and sound design to satisfy deep electronic fans.

You bridge what your bio describes as classic breaks, progressive beats and deep electronic DJ influences. Do you see yourself as a DJ as well as a composer and producer, or are those different things entirely for you?

DJing is in my roots – I DJed during my teens and university years on old-school Numark decks. That background completely shapes how I think about structure, energy flow, and build-ups. Today, while I focus on composing and producing original hardware performances, the DJ mindset of taking a listener on a continuous, flowing journey is still built into every track I write.

Are there plans for live performance, and if so, how do you translate what is essentially a live hardware performance in a home studio into a stage context without losing what makes it feel the way it does?

I’m not planning live performances at this stage, no. Right now, I’m keen to focus on evolving my skills and set up to build out my music catalogue further. I might look at performing or streaming something online later down the line, but for now, the priority is creating and refining the music in the studio.

You spend your days writing code that has to behave in entirely predictable, logical ways. If your music could contain a bug, something small and unintended that changed the experience in an unexpected way, what would you want it to do?

Bugs in code are usually very easy to isolate and solve. Music issues in my hardware setup are much more complicated! I actually jot down my sequences and flow on paper, which acts as my blueprint or planning document for a track. However, I still have to perform it live into my recording software to get it where I want it to be. If there were a “bug” in the music, I’d want it to be a glitch that pauses time and forces the listener to decompress just a little longer.

The artist name IfElseWhatNext implies a decision point or a fork in the road. If you had to answer it right now, not in code, not in music, just in a sentence, what comes next?

What comes next is continuing to level up, exploring new musical territories, and enjoying the journey wherever it leads. I think many people are reaching out to find out more about where their future may lie – there’s no certainty these days.

What do you want people who hear about you and your music to do next?

Hopefully, they can find some space in an already busy world and take time for themselves to just relax. I’d love for them to put on a good pair of headphones, press play, press pause on the world, and let the music take them somewhere else for a while.

‘Geographic’ is available now on all streaming platforms and currently features on my ‘Echoes on the Dancefloor‘ playlist.

And you can find IfElseWhatNext on Spotify and Instagram.

July 28th 2026

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