What's The Point Of Dance Music Without A Story?

Chris Emerson is one of those friend-of-a-friend type of guys, which tends to happen when you both grow up on Sydney's Northern Beaches. "[I'm from] Dee Why," he laughs, "the hood of the Beaches." When the storms smashed through the Peninsula two weeks ago they hit hard on a section of Narrabeen Beach where Emerson's Mum is situated, causing a bit of stress for the Sydney producer from his current location in Canada.

"It's pretty scary for us. It's not good to know that what everyone's been saying [about beach erosion] has actually happened. I guess people have known about it for years, the council's known about it for years. There should not be houses there," he protests. It's obviously an issue Emerson has thought long and hard about - his year 12 D&T project was on ways to protect that very stretch of residential coastline from erosion, something that has been cause for local debate for many years.

'[Skrillex and Toto] are some of the most phenomenal musicians I have ever worked with in my life. I think I'm about ready to come back into it and make something of it."

After splitting from fellow Beaches producer Harley Streten last year, Emerson has pushed the What So Not project in his own direction, landing feet firmly first as a solo act. "In terms of producing by myself, that was definitely a daunting thing because I had to work very, very hard across probably the last five years to get myself to a level where I was completely confident in my own ability," he explains.

Although Emerson seems like a confident, chilled out guy on the phone — articulate, open and extremely amicable — his honesty about becoming plagued by self-doubt is an endearing attribute that reveals itself throughout our chat. We finally have a reason What So Not's hotly anticipated collaboration with Skrillex and Toto hasn't dropped. "It's definitely not curled up and died, I just haven't finished it," he confirms. "To be honest — and I've never told this to anyone except here, right now — I was so daunted by what we created in that room that I needed to get my skills up significantly so that I could create all that the song could be. Those guys are some of the most phenomenal musicians I have ever worked with in my life. I think I'm about ready to come back into it and make something of it."

Before the Toto project comes off the back burner, he's getting set to release the follow up to 2015's Gemini EP. "Funnily enough, there's a significant amount of songs in there now that it could almost be called an album, but I'm not going to call it an album," he reveals with a laugh. Impatient fans will have to hold on a while longer — What So Not's debut record won't come about until he finishes the "narrative" he's writing - a kind of musical autobiography and mythology. It's a concept that seems to go hand in hand with a lot of dance acts — think Daft Punk and Gorillaz. "I mean, what's the point?!" he impassions. "What's the point if it's not going to really mean something? It's gotta be more than a song; you gotta create entire worlds, you gotta create entire concepts."

At the moment he's taken to jotting down a literal tale about "where I've been and where I am right now": "I kind of funnily enough wrote my own narrative. I ran out of the shower with this entire melody and chord pattern in my head and then just sang it in my phone, jumped back in the shower, ran to the gig, and then the whole way to the gig I suddenly had this whole narrative as well. I wrote this sort of, like, this whole story out in my notes in my phone... It's going to be the title track for the next body of work, so it should come out around about the time I'm in Australia."