HOW IT ALL BEGAN
Phraktal grew out of over thirty years working with electronic music, first as a DJ, then as a producer, sound designer, and label owner.
It began in Dublin’s club scene in the early 1990s, with residencies at venues including the Harp and later Spirit. Those years shaped much of what still interests me about electronic music: atmosphere, repetition, sound systems, and the relationship between a DJ and a room.
That path took me well beyond Dublin. I played across Ireland and internationally, including a performance at San Francisco’s Love Festival where I warmed up for Grandmaster Flash. Alongside DJing, I worked in music promotion during the late 1990s, collaborating with Deviant Records on releases from artists including Paul van Dyk, The Orb, Spooky, and Humate.
In 2000, I received an IRMA Double Platinum Award connected with the Irish success of Delerium’s Silence feat. Sarah Mc Lachlan.
Production gradually became as important as DJing. I studied music production and sound technology through Berklee and later had the opportunity to learn from producer and engineer Ed Cherney. That combination of club experience and studio practice became central to the way I work: instinct first, supported by an understanding of the technology behind the sound.
Phraktal has continued to change with me. The music has moved through progressive house, techno, electronica, ambient work, and sound design, without ever fitting comfortably into one category. Today it sits within a wider creative practice that also encompasses writing, visual work, and world-building.
That crossover has become increasingly important. Music now feeds directly into projects such as NANOHACKERZ and The Gaelic Throne, while ideas developed through writing and visual work find their way back into the studio. The boundaries between those disciplines have become less useful to me over time.
I’m also moving away from some structures that defined earlier stages of my career. Radio residencies, release cycles and streaming platforms have all had their place, but I’m increasingly interested in direct relationships with listeners through my own platforms, YouTube, and Bandcamp, where there is room to show not only finished work but some of the process behind it.
Technology remains part of that process. Vintage hardware can sit beside contemporary software and AI-assisted tools. I’m less interested in whether a technology is old or new than in what I can do with it, and whether the result still carries human intention.
After thirty years, that is probably the thread connecting everything.
The tools change. The formats change. The places where people encounter music are changing.
The curiosity remains.