By 
We dropped the .less EP back in August, and it’s been in heavy rotation every week since. The project has this undeniable pull: gritty textures, thick low-end, and that drippy bass that gets under your skin in the best way.
I first came across .less about a year ago. The moment I heard his sound, I was immediately hooked. There was something raw and intentional in the way he builds tension and space, minimal but immersive. After trading a few messages, he sent over a folder packed with tracks, each one carrying that same moody, hypnotic energy. I picked my favorites and we landed on a 3-track EP. We recently linked up to talk about his journey into electronic music, the evolution of his production style, and what’s next on the horizon
Where did you grow up and how did you get into Electronic Music?
I grew up in a suburban town in North County San Diego. Back in 6th to 8th grade, I had a friend whose older brother was deep in the local rave scene—going to events like OMFG, LED, and early Insomniac shows. My friend and I got obsessed with light gloving (RIP Emazing Lights), and the dubstep and EDM tracks in those gloving videos were my first real introduction to bass music. I’d already been listening to more mainstream electronic artists like Kaskade, but that scene completely shifted my taste. I still remember watching a gloving video set to a Benga & Skream track—it blew my mind and changed the way I experienced music forever.
Can you describe your typical workflow when crafting electronic music
In a way, I actually feel lucky that my time to make music is limited. Since I work 60–80+ hour weeks at my day job, I only really sit down to produce when I have an idea, feel inspired, or happen to get some rare free time. When inspiration hits, I’ll try to get the idea into Ableton right away—whether that’s a melody, a drum beat, or a bass line. Sometimes I’ll pull in a track that inspires me and use it as a reference to recreate the vibe. I’m not the most technically skilled in Ableton, so I can rarely replicate something exactly, even if I try. But honestly, that often leads to interesting results—it ends up sounding familiar, but with my own twist and at a different level of polish than the original.
Were there any challenges you encountered during the production of this EP?
One of the biggest challenges with the You’ll be Fine” release, and honestly, with any release is knowing when to call a track “done” versus endlessly tweaking the little details that don’t feel perfect to me. In my opinion, a track is never truly finished. There will always be tiny elements you could adjust in the moment that might sound better to your ears right then. But if you keep doing that forever, you’ll be the only one who ever hears the music, and nothing will ever get released. For example, the track “You’ll Be Fine” was started in 2023, wrapped up creatively in 2024, and then mixed and mastered throughout late 2024 into 2025, almost three years of work.
How did the last two tracks come together on the EP?
Did you incorporate any external hardware during the production process of this EP?
Learning how to fully utilize in-the-box effects and Max for Live devices—rather than outsourcing—has made a huge difference in my fundamental understanding of Ableton. Realizing that an audio clip can live entirely within the DAW, even if it originated from a third-party plugin, showed me that I don’t necessarily need those external tools. In many cases, the same sound or result can be recreated directly in Ableton itself.
Over the past couple of years (2024–2025), my main focus has been mastering Ableton from top to bottom and relying less on outside plugins or audio sources to achieve a final sound. I’ve come to believe that the best musicians, regardless of genre, truly master their instrument—and if the “instrument” in electronic music is your DAW, then that’s where the majority of your time and energy should go.
Were there any synths or effects that were crucial in defining the sound of this EP?
I’ve got a small Eurorack case with a handful of modules I use for sound design and inspiration—things like the BIA, Tiptop Forbidden Planet filter, Mutable Instruments Clouds, Maths, and a few other basic analog pieces. I usually use the analog gear to make what I call “mudpies”: long, messy audio recordings full of random samples and textures with no rhythm or real song structure. Later, I’ll dig through those recordings, chop them up, and manipulate little pieces until they fit into a track—even if it’s just a two-second bass sound pulled from a 20-minute jam. I’ve probably recorded hundreds of hours of garbage audio from that rack, but only about 30 minutes of it has actually made it into the music I’ve posted or released.
Are there any up-and-coming artists that you’re excited about right now?
Volume Unit is super sick. This guy Indek, I don’t know much about him personally, but the music speaks for itself. It’s some of the most forward-thinking stuff I’ve heard in a long time. I met this guy Yancey at Outlook and his music blew me away. Check out “Talk to Em (Westside)”: Every time Zah Boh sends me new tunes, I get stoked. His sound is always evolving. Give him a listen on SoundCloud
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Any upcoming projects or releases you’re working on?
I’m really drawn to music that doesn’t sound like anything else — artists who carve out their own lane and create something that feels fresh and distinct from any specific genre or motif. That’s the direction I want to keep pushing my own sound toward: developing my production style to the point where it feels unmistakably mine, not like a copy of anyone else.
Thanks for your time!
Shoutout Justin at Beatsfordayz for believing in the sound and being willing to help get some of my tracks out into the world. I’ve spent a ton of time over the last 10 years making music just for myself, and it means the world to me that I can start sharing it with others.
