What started as Alex’s solo project has grown into something much bigger. After years of experimenting with edm production, Alex brought Dan into PTCHWRK, turning the project into a live duo that blends electronic production with live drums, improvisation, and a wide range of influences. The result is a project that doesn’t fit neatly into one genre, and that’s exactly the point.
From 140 and dubstep to downtempo, garage, and more melodic territory, PTCHWRK is constantly changing while still finding ways to make everything feel like their own. With their new EP Expansive Measures now out through Odyzey, we sat down with Alex and Dan to talk about how PTCHWRK came together, finding their sound, learning how to create together, the unpredictability of their live sets, and where they want to take the project next.
Photo Credit: Kristopher Faria
In Conversation with PTCHWRK
Kat, Electric Hawk: PTCHWRK originally started as your solo project, Alex. Can you take us back to where it began and what changed creatively when Dan came into the project?
Alex: I originally started DJing when I was 14 or 15 under the alias ZANDRO. I eventually rebranded to PTCHWRK in 2023 and started getting more into analog synth design and hardware, learning how to create my own patches instead of relying as heavily on digital sound design and plugins like Serum.
Then Dan and I were watching the Hulaween Pretty Lights livestream, and I remember saying, “Dude, we could start doing this stuff live. We both play instruments, and I think it’d be cool.”
At the time, I was running Ableton and Dan was playing drums. We started doing PTCHWRK live sets, including Northern Nights in 2024 and Badger Bass Camp, before it became Badger Music Festival. Eventually, we decided to make PTCHWRK a duo project..
Kat: Dan, what made you want to come into the project and explore music this way?
Dan: I wanted to explore creativity differently. I don’t want to be trapped in a box. My Dan Wolfzs project is very post-neuro, very technical, with a lot of complex sound design. When you’re constantly in that technical rabbit hole, everything starts sounding like that. I love it, but sometimes you need something that can breathe.
PTCHWRK gives me the opportunity to explore different styles and make them my own. I don’t want to limit the musicality of what I’m doing. I want to keep pushing myself, and I think that fuels all of my other projects too.
Kat: Alex, how did bringing Dan into the project change the way you approached production?
Alex: I started changing my style to create beats that Dan could actually play over and layer percussion onto. I also moved away from the classic EDM structure of intro, bridge, build, drop. We started working with more progressive structures. Some sections are really high intensity, while others are much more free-flowing. It’s still straight electronic production, but now we’re intentionally building live instrumentation into the projects.
Kat: For someone hearing PTCHWRK for the first time, how would you describe the sound you’re trying to create? What makes a track feel distinctly PTCHWRK?
Dan: We cover a pretty wide range of styles, but the goal is always to make them feel like our own. There are certain elements that I think make something identifiable as PTCHWRK.
Alex: I’m naturally drawn toward more downtempo, earth-tone sounds, while Dan brings a lot of heavy percussion and post-neuro sound design. Those things can live together without one of them completely taking over.
Kat: What makes that collaboration work so well?
Dan: Alex’s downtempo music and 140 stuff gave me a completely different perspective. I’m bringing in all these other musical realms, and that’s what makes PTCHWRK “patchwork.” We have friends who contribute and bring other perspectives too, but we’re always trying to make everything sound like us. It’s a big “patchwork.”
Electric Hawk: What’s it like learning to create together in such different ways?
Alex: We’ve just learned how to adapt to each other’s workflow. We rarely sit down and write something simultaneously in the studio. Usually one of us starts something in our own studio and passes it back and forth. Dan is a cracked wizard, but our creative flow is different. I can’t really listen to digital sound design as it’s happening. I need to detach from it. Sometimes I’ll go play a video game or do something completely different. I don’t want to hear every little change being made to my elements while it’s happening. I’d rather get the whole version back, listen to it, and then move forward without changing what Dan did. I think that process has actually helped us figure out what PTCHWRK sounds like. We don’t beef. This is my brother. We got Abuelita whipping up breakfast for us right now as we speak.
Photo Credit: Henry Frey
Electric Hawk: Your live performances move through a lot of different genres. How do you approach that?
Alex: We’re moving through 140 dubstep, house, drum and bass, liquid elements, whatever makes sense at the moment. The goal is to make those transitions feel seamless. We’re incorporating live instruments, breaks, and a lot of audience interaction. The room’s energy plays a huge role in what we do.
Kat: How important is reading the audience to your live performances?
Dan: It’s huge. Sometimes Alex will signal to me that we should change the next track or freestyle something. We’re always freestyling in some capacity. We practice our songs and transitions, but most of our sets are freestyle, even at festivals. You never really know what you’re going to do until you’re in that room.
Kat: How do you approach creating an experience rather than just playing a set?
Dan: We’re performers. It’s about the audience. There’s a really thin line between expressing your art and remembering that you’re a performer. At the end of the day, it’s about the audience.
The crowd finds you. Your versatility is being able to shape-shift into different rooms, stages, and environments. I tell students this all the time: you can have the most artistically perfect set you’ve ever created, but if the crowd is going in another direction, you have to be willing to go with them without abandoning your style. You have to take people through the right places so they enjoy it and remember it.
Kat: You can’t really be rigid when you’re trying to create that kind of experience. You have to leave room for people’s reactions, the vibe, and the energy. That awareness seems like a big part of how PTCHWRK continues to grow, especially because different crowds are going to want different things.
Dan: Exactly. You can prepare the perfect set, but you still have to be aware of what’s happening around you. You maintain the craft while allowing the audience to take you somewhere different.
Kat: We’ve talked a lot about how PTCHWRK came together and how your sound has evolved. I want to shift gears and talk specifically about Expansive Measures. How did making this EP shape the way you’re thinking about PTCHWRK moving forward?
Alex: Every style has its time and place. Our previous EP through Mugic.us Records was much heavier, more neuro, post-neuro, breakcore, and I love performing that music. For me, the fun is connecting different styles. Every EP kind of leads somewhere else. I don’t want to make the same thing twice. Expansive Measures has vocal chops, but the only actual vocals are on “Keep It Raw.” Everything else is really driven by the music, the sounds, and the instrumentation. Some of our flips can be more sing-along, but the EP itself is very music-driven.
Dan: We just want to make whatever feels exciting.
Alex: Exactly. We don’t want to box ourselves in. We could make Bass Rush-type harder music. We had sent Odyzey 140 and dubstep material before, and it wasn’t necessarily their vibe.
But this EP has downtempo, halftime, garage, and a bunch of other elements, and that range worked. Expansive Measures has a really strong flow, but I don’t think we’re going to stay in one sound forever.
Kat: What’s your favorite track on the EP? Do you have the same favorite, or are they different?
Dan: My favorite track is “Keep It Raw.” When Alex first showed me the ID, with the trumpet and everything, I immediately fell in love with it. Whenever I hear an actual instrument or organic element being used in an electronic song, it really grabs me. And then the whole structure of the track, the way it flows and builds into that heavier drop without losing its essence or that melodic side. I just love the nostalgic sound. I’m just trying to feel something.
Alex: Exactly. That’s the whole EP, man. It was just trying to feel something. It’s like that feeling where you don’t know if you want to dance super hard or just cry at the same time.
Dan: That’s the feeling we’re looking for.
Alex: It’s a journey. “Shells” with Collapsis is really special to me. That one just flowed out. It feels like the soundtrack to my life, like a highlight reel. I’d never written something like that before. It almost feels like something a band could play. There’s no obvious electronic template to it. It progresses through these melodies and eventually turns into this distorted melodic pad, but the whole thing just flows naturally.
Creating that track helped pull me out of some really bad thought patterns and spirals. It was about creating something that actually changed how I felt.
Kat: Take me back to the moment you found out Expansive Measures was going to be on Odyzey. What was that like?
Alex: For months I’d been saying, “This is going to be on Odyzey.” So seeing that email was surreal. It felt really special because we’d wanted the EP to have a home on that platform, and we created it with that goal in mind. It really speaks to the power of manifestation and intention. Huge shoutout to Odyzey and Clozee.
Kat: Now that Expansive Measures is out, what’s next for PTCHWRK?
Alex: We have a pretty substantial catalog, so now we’re focused on finding the right outlets and building an audience organically. We’re also exploring bookings and agents, but the live project is really where we want to go. We want to keep developing this live electronic format, incorporating instruments, and maintaining that flexibility. There really aren’t any limits. We want to keep evolving, exploring different genres, and still somehow make it sound like PTCHWRK.
Photo Credit: Jacob Leone
Kat: If you could pick five festivals to play in 2027, what would they be?
Alex: Infrasound, Lightning in a Bottle, and Submersion.
Dan: Dirtybird Campout x Northern Nights, again.
Alex: Why not EDC?
Kat I love it. Shoot for the stars.
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