Your songs are like glimpses of abandoned worlds, very organic and visual. Like lucid dreams. Is it your intention to convey a certain emotion, mood, or pattern of thought through your music?

I like to take people on a bit of a trip. The rest is not as much a plan as it is a result. I sit down to play and things unfold on their own. A song of yours is a cake of many layers. How do you stick the different pieces together? What does the process look like? How do you know when you're done? I tend to play around with different variations on a theme until I've got a small collection of material I'm happy with, then I start laying that out into a composition and fiddle around with it for a while. I jam over that, loads, and eventually I pull out all the lousy stuff and get the remainder tightened up.

Is your approach to sounds and textures meticulously planned or do you let things evolve on their own? Do you know beforehand where you want the path you're on to take you or is there no map to where you're going?

I'm constantly trying really hard to create a much more minimal sound. That might sound weird and counter-productive given my style, but I think that if I didn't take that approach, the music would sound an absolute mess. Aside from that, I really don't have plan. If anything, I'm focusing lately on getting a much better handle on my recording process in technical terms. It can be incredibly difficult to give space to each element, particularly when there are massive kick drums and detailed bass lines wrestling with each other.

If you compare the first songs you did with your latest compositions, what is your impression? Is your material structurally or thematically coherent? How would you describe it?

I think the trajectory has been fairly straight - with every crack at making new music, I get a bit braver. My earlier stuff was so cautious and overly meticulous, whereas now I like to go with the chaos and grapple with piles of noise. It helps hugely that I've been able to remove the computer and hone in on some particular instruments and bits of gear that can give me a more wild, dramatic sound.

In what way do you transform your studio songs to a live setting? How much do you open up for improvisation?

Simple - it all begins as live sets. The hard part is translating those into more compact recordings. I would say that about 50% is improvisation. I mix synth improv with preprogrammed drum patterns and sample loops when I play, but I do manipulate those on the fly a bit as well.

Does your studio setup stay the same or do you reassemble it every once in a while? What does it look like nowadays?

If I had bags of cash, I would accumulate gear like mad. I would love to have stacks and stacks of drum machines and synths, but in reality, I rarely buy new gear. I currently use two Vermona synths, the Mono Lancet and the DRM1 MKIII, and a Novation Bass Station. Those go through a few distortion pedals, the Tube Screamer being my current favourite. Sometimes I add my little MFB 522 for extra drums. And of course at the heart of it all is the Octatrack.

What's next for you in terms of releases?

Unfortunately, in typical fashion, I cannot give any details, but there are a couple things in the works! And they are quite contrasting, which is good.

Interview by Jon Mårtensson