Beyond the Algorithm: UNTER STRØM on Creating a New Sanctuary for Electronic Music Outsiders
Alex Gonzales and John Kunkel join TOITEK of the Skauss Collective to discuss the creation of "Orynth", the tension between chaos and beauty, the gear behind their sound, and the community around UNTER STRØM.
I tend to keep to my own currents, and it takes something distinctive to pull my attention elsewhere. UNTER STRØM did exactly that. Formed by Alex Gonzales (MATTE BLVCK) and John Kunkel (The New Division, John Grand), the duo occupy a space where industrial textures, melodic house, and cinematic atmosphere intersect. Their debut single, "Orynth", feels less like a first release and more like the opening chapter of a world that already existed somewhere beyond the reach of ordinary perception - a universe built on tension, movement, and immersion.
I speak with the electronic duo to explore the philosophy driving the project. We discuss abandoning creative rules, trusting instinct over certainty, the gear and software shaping their sound, the realities of burnout, the larger world they are beginning to construct around their music, and more.
TOITEK (Skauss Collective), Musicngear: "Orynth" feels less like a debut and more like the opening of a world that already existed somewhere in the dark. What was the first image, emotion, or atmosphere that made you realize UNTER STRØM needed its own identity?
Alex: The first thing that made it feel separate was, honestly, the tension between movement and emotion. John and I have both made melodic music before, but with UNTER STRØM, there was this darker physical energy happening underneath everything. It felt less like “songs” and more like environments. I remember hearing early ideas and immediately visualizing massive empty spaces, industrial architecture, fog, glitch, projection mapping, highways at night, and warehouses after hours.
It didn’t feel like a side project. It felt like its own world with its own visual language and emotional weight. The project needed its own identity because the music demanded a different type of presentation. Not just sonically, but visually and physically too.
John: I think for me, the unique emotion around this project started when we worked on our first demo/song together. It just felt really different from anything I’d heard, and I knew we had something special from day one.
That first day, the first time we wrote anything for this project, I knew we had something special on our hands. We could’ve ended that day with a bad song, but thank god it was a good one because it gave us the confidence to build out a body of work from the get-go.
Musicngear: You describe the project as a collision between industrial grit and melodic refinement. During the making of “Orynth,” was there a moment where the track drifted too far into chaos or too far into beauty?
Alex: I wish it were this romantic, but the process was actually a lot more fluid and instinctive than that. The track started at my studio in San Diego. At the time, I was consciously trying to inject some of John’s workflow and mentality into how I approached building dance records. In MATTE BLVCK, I usually build around vocals, emotion, and more traditional song structures. Even though that project can get dark, industrial, and EBM-leaning, this was still a very different mindset for me creatively. What really clicked was the tension, the pacing, and the constant progression of the track. Instead of thinking in terms of verses or hooks, I focused on movement and atmosphere.
I built the entire first half right up until the breakdown and sent it to John around 6 PM, honestly not knowing what he’d think or if I had pushed it too far. He immediately loved it. Then, by around 11 PM that same night, he sent back the rest of the track almost completely finished. What he added completely changed the scale of the record. The time-stretched atmospheres, the massive sonic landscapes, the sense of space and emotion, those were all his creative reaction to what I had started.
What’s crazy is I probably never would have made those choices myself. That’s what made the collaboration feel special. It felt less like forcing ideas together and more like unlocking a language neither of us fully reaches on our own.
John: It's funny to think about it in that context – drifting too far into chaos or beauty because that definitely was the tension we were both experiencing at different times. Alex was worried he drifted too far with the initial concept. I felt I was going overboard when I started playing around with the track.
It's also ironic how we were both “fearful” of breaking the rules, or creating something that was going beyond “what should happen,” when in reality that process of going against our fears and relying on our instincts drove the song into what it is today. You have to let yourself go into autopilot sometimes, get out whatever’s in you and not think about it. I love that tug and pull of going all in when you feel insecure… I think it delivers great results because it forces you to be uncomfortable and ultimately create something beautiful.
Musicngear: Both of you come from projects with very defined sonic languages. What creative instincts did you have to abandon for UNTER STRØM to become something truly separate?
Alex: Both of us came from projects with very defined songwriting identities, so one of the biggest things we had to abandon was the need for structure and resolution in the traditional sense. In my case, I’m very used to building around vocals and emotional payoffs. With UNTER STRØM, we allowed repetition, tension, and atmosphere to carry the music instead of constantly chasing hooks or release moments. We also stopped over-polishing ideas. Some of the best moments in this project happen when things feel slightly unstable, aggressive, or unexpected.
Instead of asking, “Does this fit?” we started asking, “Does this feel alive?” You can still hear our individual production personalities in the music, but the end result feels separate from either of our previous projects.
John: I think for me it was leaving behind the “this is how it’s done” mentality, and being open to experimenting. It’s easy for me to rely on systems, rules, and procedures to get a job done, but I knew that being bound by those rules and systems wouldn’t open up new possibilities; it would just repeat what’s been done, which isn’t particularly exciting.
It became evident pretty early on that to truly do something unique and special, we would have to abandon some old habits, practices, and relearn some things from scratch.
Musicngear: "Orynth" emerged through a constant back-and-forth between you. Was there a mistake, accident, or unexpected production detail that ended up becoming part of the track’s final DNA?
Alex: A lot of “Orynth” came from pushing sounds further than we originally intended. Audio was heavily time-stretched, resampled, and over-processed until it started breaking apart in interesting ways, and instead of cleaning it up, we leaned into it. Because of my drumming background, I also obsess over transitions and fills. We wanted every section of the track to feel alive and evolving rather than repetitive or copied and pasted.
A lot of the atmospheres and textures that became central to the track were really artifacts of experimentation, degraded synths, stretched transitions, and reverbs reacting unpredictably. That became part of the DNA of UNTER STRØM.
John: In some ways, the whole track was a happy, intentional accident. I don’t really remember how some parts were made, what was going through my head at the moment; it was one of those tracks that felt driven purely by instinct.
Musicngear: Since Musicngear lives close to the technical side of music, I have to ask: which machines, synths, software, effects, or even unconventional tools became the emotional backbone of “Orynth”? Was there a sound source that immediately felt like the core of UNTER STRØM?
John: When we produce, we’re largely in the box - while we have a Prophet-5, OB-6, Juno 106, and several outboard units - it's sometimes easier to deliver quick ideas with virtual synths. I know for this track specifically, we used Arturia’s Prophet-5V on nearly every track. Since we have the real synth and are familiar with it, we knew the tone we were going after.
Effects-wise, we’re both really big fans of Soundtoys, Universal Audio pre-amps (modeled after the Neve 1073, and others), Goodhertz Tupe & Vulf Compressor… that really help shape overall tone. We both work in Ableton Live, which is a plus, so we can easily share projects and develop our live set. Our main bus compressor is usually the Shadow Hills Dual Vandergraph, paired with two Neve 542 Tape Emulators, which are amazing for overall musical saturation.
As far as other virtual synths we used throughout the track, U-He’s Diva was peppered throughout, alongside ReFX Nexus and Serum 2. I think we even used Zebra HZ on a few parts, which is Hans Zimmer’s mod for Zebra… it's got some great filters, highly recommend!
A lot of electronic artists approach sound design like engineers chasing precision, but your music feels physical and cinematic at the same time. Do you build tracks more like engineers building a machine, or more like scenes inside a film?
John: It’s a bit of both, honestly. There are times when I feel we’re both acting like mad scientists, and other times where we really hone in on the cinematic story the sounds are telling. You really can’t have one without the other, in my opinion–keeping those two aligned throughout the process is massively valuable, but you also have to be conscious of when you’re dipping too far into one or the other.
The engineering helps you hone in on the limits of what’s physically possible, the cinematicness helps aid overly-surgical dullness.
Musicngear: Experience leaves marks. What have been the hardest realities to overcome as artists and collaborators, and what would you say to musicians trapped inside burnout, industry fatigue, or the pressure to constantly reinvent themselves?
Alex: This question is important, and I appreciate you asking it because burnout and pressure are very real. Over the last five years, I’ve spent most of my life building MATTE BLVCK. As the project has grown, the shows have gotten bigger, the team has gotten bigger, and so has the responsibility. At the same time, family and the people depending on you add another layer that most people don’t see.
I’ve also learned that a lot of the things I used to chase, like streams, placements, labels, and validation, did not ultimately mean what I thought they would. What matters more is whether your art has a foundation strong enough to survive time. If you stopped tomorrow, would people still care? Would the work still mean something? Burnout happens when you build entirely around trends, algorithms, and constant reinvention because eventually those things shift.
Lately, I’ve become more focused on building something lasting, bodies of work, communities, and projects that genuinely mean something to people. Projects like MATTE BLVCK, UNTER STRØM, Modern Wav, and my work with Breathing Records all fulfill different parts of me creatively. Some are personal, and others are about helping create opportunities for other artists.
I’m also lucky to have an incredibly supportive wife through all of this. But I’ll be honest, I have a six-year-old son now who’s starting to notice that dad leaves for work a lot, and I still don’t fully have the answer for balancing all of it. I think I’m still learning that in real time.
Musicngear: With “Orynth” now entering the world, what does success actually mean for UNTER STRØM at this stage? Streams, live presence, underground connection, the right audience - or something less measurable?
John: I think for me, success at this stage is all about building a fanbase. If the music is resonating, and folks are buying into what we’re doing, that’s massive. Hypothetically, if we were to play a festival tomorrow in front of 20,000 people, some would call that success, but if it doesn’t land, or people just don’t care, then what did we gain?
Ultimately, I want people to feel the way I feel when I get excited about an artist I’ve never heard of before. I look them up, I start going through their catalog, and I get bought in.
Musicngear: This project already feels tied to very specific spaces: abandoned warehouses, massive stages, 3 AM clubs, empty highways at night. If you could choose the perfect environment for someone to experience UNTER STRØM live for the first time, what would that space feel like?
John: Ha, I think all those spaces described are great, but if I had to pick something different, I’d love for future fans to experience us in an intimate setting, not a huge room or massive stage - something where they could get a close-up of sound, the visuals, the mood.
Some of the best shows I’ve ever played were in smaller rooms, not massive ones where you see an endless crowd of folks. Seeing folks' reactions and sharing that with them in close proximity is an amazing feeling.
Musicngear: In a time when music discovery is driven by short-form videos, instant hooks, and disposable attention, how does a project like UNTER STRØM preserve atmosphere and immersion without disappearing into the algorithm?
John: First and foremost, the music has to hit. If the music sucks, it won’t matter how cool your visuals are or how much work you put into a reel.
I also think we’re living in a time where folks are craving authenticity, and this is something Alex always talks about: being authentic and not just repeating what everyone else is doing “content-wise.” Folks are more bombarded with content than ever, but I think if the music’s powerful, it might just stop you in your tracks while doomscrolling.
Musicngear: There’s already a feeling that UNTER STRØM is building more than just an audience around the music. How do you see that community forming - just listeners reacting to releases, or something that starts to behave more like a shared space that exists around the project itself?
John: My hope is that we build something more than a passive following - a community that's genuinely bought into whatever we end up creating together. We're trying to do something special, and I know that's what everyone says at the start, but for me, it's not a sales pitch. It comes from experience. Growing up on Depeche Mode, New Order, Joy Division, and The Cure gave me a real sense of purpose and belonging - those artists introduced me to some of my closest friends, people I'm still close to today. That's what I want us to be for others.
Musicngear: “Orynth” feels like only a fragment of a larger structure. Without revealing too much from behind the curtain, what paths are pulling UNTER STRØM forward right now? audiovisual performance, larger concepts, full-length releases, collaborations, or something nobody would expect yet?
Alex: Definitely audiovisual performance first. We're premiering The Bleach set on May 29th. It was intentionally designed as an introduction to how we see this project existing live. Live synths, samplers, drums, projection mapping, lighting design, long-form performance, and immersive visuals are all deeply connected to the music for us.
There’s also a massive amount of material already in progress. We’ve been creating very quickly, and it honestly feels like we’re only scratching the surface of what UNTER STRØM can become. More than anything, we want the project to continue evolving without becoming predictable. That’s very important to us.
Connect with UNTER STRØM
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About TOITEK
TOITEK is the electronic music voice of SKAUSS, exploring the intersections of club culture, technology, underground scenes, and emerging digital subcultures.
SKAUSS emerges from the shadows of contemporary music as a producer and composer exploring the boundaries of perception. Enigmatic and elusive, he nurtures a private circle, The Secret Community,, for those attuned to his vision - a realm where his artistic currents intersect. His work fuses darkwave, industrial, and futuristic textures, weaving diverse genres into immersive soundscapes that hit with visceral intensity and linger in the listener’s consciousness long after the last note fades.
Contact TOITEK at toitek@musicngear.com
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