Genre-defining Australian producer and one of trap music’s earliest pioneers, What So Not, officially launches a new creative era with the announcement of his new project, I SAW A TRAP DJ AND IT CHANGED MY BIO CHEMISTRY set for release later this year, today sharing the spine-tingling first single, Everest feat. Alina Pash.
Ukrainian multi-genre artist Alina Pash soars on Everest. From ethereal beauty to tribal power, the first taste of this new epic trap revival project is a dynamic and otherworldly warcry with a cinematic ascension driven by What So Not’s clever production, signature dramatic beats and hair-raising synths.
What So Not describes the song as “Elastic threads connecting earth and sky, a hymn to the universe sung from mountain tops.”
Speaking to the collaboration on Everest, What So Not shares, “A friend of my roommate at the time, Alina pulled up to my apartment in LA one day and this record is what we created the first time we ever stepped in the studio. When Alina first heard it, she wrote a mantra in her native language, a call for strength and unity and troubling times. I can’t imagine a better suited performance for this production and what I’d hoped it would become.”
“As a Ukrainian, my roots, my language, my culture – they feel more precious and more fragile than ever right now, when so much is being threatened,” explains Alina. “It has long been my dream to share who we are with the world, to simply say: we exist, we are beautiful, we are here.”
“What moves me about What So Not is his elasticity, the courage to abandon the recipe, to risk, to let in something unfamiliar and let it breathe. We talked before we ever made a sound together, and I understood quickly that we share the same values: life, artistry, the strength of the soul. Creation came naturally after that. When I stepped into that space and felt the freedom to just be myself, to bring my tone, my language, my ideas without hesitation I felt truly inspired. That kind of acceptance is rare and I cherish it. The production is so powerful, and together we created something that feels like a mantra – positive, strong, uniting. After everything my people have been through, after so much trauma and pain, I believe this song can move something in people in a better way. And maybe, for a moment, remind the world that we are here.”
Working with Jonti Wild (Bring Me The Horizon), assisted by Kenz Lawren, paired with Lucille Croft as creative lead, What So Not was thrilled to bring Alina to Australia to film the visuals for Everest, explaining, “Alina grew up in the Carpathian mountains of Ukraine, so when she came here to perform this song, we wanted to show her ours. The title Everest, Alina’s upbringing, and having just played a show with Australia’s very own Hermitude, everything pointed us towards the Blue Mountains for the shoot. And filming the visuals while on tour here in Australia truly brought the imagination of the song to life.”
To mark a fresh beginning of this revival era, What So Not wiped his social platforms entirely – replacing years of archived content with a singular narrative-driven post introducing the themes behind the project: reclaiming artistic identity, cultural nostalgia with a modern lens, creative evolution, and the emotional impact of the electronic music movement that helped shape a generation.
The launch arrives as both a personal reflection and a broader recontextualisation of the trap and bass music era that transformed global dance culture throughout the 2010s. Long regarded as one of the defining producers behind the rise of cinematic trap and forward-thinking bass music, What So Not helped pioneer a sound that reshaped festival stages, internet music culture, radio programming, and electronic music’s crossover into the mainstream.
“This exact record here is me at my core. I wrote it in a flow state, everything happening like magic. I knew it was something so special that for almost 10 years I didn’t dare try and say it was ‘done’ and release it,” explains What So Not. “For a long time I found myself running away from a sound I helped create. In my journey to always do the ‘next’ thing, I think I neglected my thing. I feel like I’m coming back to myself, taking ownership of my story and reconnecting to a beautiful community that came together from all corners of the globe to change it for the better.”
“I think I’m coming back to a childlike form of myself, how I used to think and create from a place of joy and playfulness. Sometimes music is meant to be messy, raw and unpolished. I SAW A TRAP DJ AND IT CHANGED MY BIO CHEMISTRY embraces the 2016 nightclub energy of phones down chaos. And maybe a stupid tweet the next morning like the title of this EP!”
Drawing inspiration from cultural moments spanning iconic collaborations and early SoundCloud culture, and the explosion of globally influential trap and bass music, the project reflects on an era that fundamentally altered how electronic music was consumed and emotionally experienced online.
While What So Not’s career evolved toward larger crossover stages, live instrumentation, songwriting, and collaborations with artists such as Daniel Johns, the emotional DNA of that early movement remained foundational to his creative identity. I SAW A TRAP DJ AND IT CHANGED MY BIO CHEMISTRY revisits that influence through the lens of artistic maturity, combining the emotional intensity and unpredictability of early trap culture with years of sonic experimentation across drum & bass, analog production, cinematic songwriting, and global rhythmic influence.
“I feel like I’m finally writing the music everybody wants from me, but on my own terms, on my own time, with the tools of a lifetime chasing ‘what’s next’.”
Since his breakthrough in 2013 with tracks like High You Are (Branchez Remix) which has amassed more than 158 million Spotify streams alone, What So Not has built a legacy defined by innovation, emotional depth, and forward-thinking production. His sound and artistic identity have consistently pushed electronic music into new territory while maintaining the emotionally charged and cinematic sensibilities that first set him apart.
From the emotive pull of Gemini to his iconic reimagining of RÜFÜS DU SOL’s Innerbloom, What So Not carved out his place during electronic music’s most transformative era not by following trends, but by defying them through a genre-blurring and emotionally immersive creative vision. More than a decade later, he continues to bridge nostalgia and reinvention, creating music that resonates deeply with longtime fans while introducing a new generation to the emotional DNA of that era.
Everest feat. Alina Pash is out now.
I SAW A TRAP DJ AND IT CHANGED MY BIO CHEMISTRY EP is set for release later this year.