Dilemma is what happens when the dark brooding intensity of Nine Inch Nails sneaks out for a late-night rave with the Queen of the Damned soundtrack. 

This NYC-based Dark Pop project, led by producer Alex Elias since 2012, crafts a signature sound that blends Numetal and Industrial Rock with the electronic pulses of Darkwave, Dream Pop, and Synth-Pop. It's a moody cocktail of gritty beats, heavy guitars, and haunting vocals—a ghost at a goth club.

We sat down to chat with him about his newest release, External, featuring a remix by Faderhead. Check it out below!

"External" is a significant shift towards a synthwave sound with 80s influences. What inspired this transition, and how did you balance retro vibes with a modern edge in this track?

That’s a great question! 80s-inspired music has been making a huge comeback the last several years as I’m sure you know, thanks in no small part to mainstream artists like The Weeknd, and the unstoppable rise of Synthwave.

There’s also the occasionally nostalgic vibes of darkwave - a genre that seems to both tap into the past and the future on a song-to-song basis – and then of course there’s the timelessness of Post-Punk.  

Believe it or not, External was not directly influenced by any of these things! I was actually inspired by the fact that two other songs I’ve been working on and have yet to release, “Stasis” and “Sundown” inadvertently tap into the “New Wave” space and I really liked how those trace elements melded with my voice and style. 

So I set about creating a song based around those New Wave elements. So to summarize, External is actually inspired by New Wave and not Synthwave per se. In terms of balancing retro vibes to a modern edge; that I tried to do by using classic 80s synthesizer models but continuing to use my standard Dilemma modern production techniques and processing. I wanted to lean into the 80s for vibe and style but bring that into the future. A song that could be played at a club not just on an 80s night. So; Inspired by New Wave, arguably indistinguishable from Synthwave, but meant to sound more modern than both. 

Can you talk more about how personal experiences influenced the lyrics and overall feel of the song?

A little backstory –the way in which I write my songs is by creating a melody with random words. These random words fit the melody perfectly phonetically, but generally make very little sense. Once I’m satisfied with how that melody has turned out, I’ll then turn to lyrics, writing words to replace the random ones but trying my best to preserve the integrity of the original’s phrasing. I keep a list of song topics I’ve come up with on my phone and always consult that.

This list is everything from personal experiences I want to write about, to abstract concepts I wish to draw a connection between. Thing is, I’ve been making so much music recently that my list is completely tapped out! So then my options become - “Alright inspiration, strike me!” Or, I try to see if any of the random phonetic words I used when coming up with the melody can inspire new topics. External is actually a case of the latter. To that effect, the lyrics to this particular song did not stem from a personal experience. 

At this point, when there isn’t an initial emotional tether between myself as the writer and the subject of the song, the challenge for me as a writer is to tell a story through words and through sound that inspires an emotional connection in the listener. Writing itself, however - that is a personal passion of mine and to that effect, all my songs are personal expressions, even if not all of the stories stem from personal experiences.

You've described your music as a blend of Numetal, Industrial Rock, Post Grunge, Darkwave, Dream Pop, and Synth-Pop. How do you go about merging such diverse genres into a cohesive sound?

I tend to not think about genre when I’m creating music. For me, it’s all about the vibe. Allow me to quote the lyrics for a song I’m writing, “I always loved the melodies with a melancholic hue, the ones that paint an ethereal, nocturnal shade of blue.” I’ve talked previously about this imaginary soundspace I call the “gothosphere” that I try to tap into with my music. This is a place that exists beyond genre. One could create a playlist of music that all shares this somber, ethereal, dark vibe and have on it a wide expanse of genres from Gothic Metal to Dark Pop.

My goal as an artist is to shape and craft melodies with the goal of tapping into this gothosphere. As an artist a lot of my vocal influences come from 2000s era Numetal. Specifically, Queen-of-the-Damned style Numetal. The vocal melodic tendencies of this style have always been overwhelmingly gothy and yet Numetal has never been perceived on a broader scale as being a goth genre. With Dilemma, I am attempting to create a musical space for these vocals to sit where that wonderful vibey darkness that was always present has room to flourish and make friends with other, more modern influences. 

Working with Faderhead on the gothic, club-inspired remix of "External" must have been exciting! What was the creative process like for this collaboration, and how did you both contribute to the final version?

Working with Faderhead is a dream come true for me because ever since I first heard FH1 all those years ago, I thought, “My glob, I love this … this guy is making exactly the type of music I’m trying to make!” 

Faderhead’s music has been a constant inspiration on my own ever since. I reached out to Sami a number years ago on social media about possibly doing some mixing and mastering for one of my songs. The discussion had moved into email so I already had his contact info. I reached out to him about creating a club mix for my upcoming song External because club-based music is something the Faderhead brand is really known for and if he liked the song there was no one I would trust more to take it in this more dance-centric direction than him. 

I am so thrilled with how his remix turned out. He ended up taking the gothy bridge section of my song and turning that into a classic Faderhead-style dark-electro chorus. I provided some new vocals for his remix and some feedback on the mixdown, so there was a little bit of a back and forth collaborative process, but the vision behind the remix was entirely his and I couldn’t be more happy with it!

You've been part of the Outer Darkness Records collective since 2023. How has this collaboration with other dark music artists impacted your music and artistic journey?

Oh my glob, where to even begin. Outer Darkness has been one of the best things that has ever happened to me musically. Finding this incredible and supportive group of artists who truly appreciate my music and are so eager to not only work with me to make new music, but to band together with me and join me on this journey has been so wholesome and fulfilling.

It’s almost as if we are all part of one gigantic band. And in a sense, we are. Outer Darkness, in addition to being a collective of artists, was also the birthplace of 9th Circle, our supergroup project where a large portion of the ODR artists all come together under one banner to create music. 

We are presently working on a 9th Circle EP which will primarily consist of collaborations between myself, Arcane Strain and pixelgrinder. I would describe it as being reminiscent of post trip-hop with an industrial edge.  I couldn’t be more excited about what the future may bring. We are also in talks about setting up a Patreon page and offering more services beyond being a source of incredible music. 

You mentioned that you're heavily influenced by various forms of media, including fashion, television, and anime. Can you share some specific influences that shaped "External" and your overall musical style?

All I can definitively say is that all the things you mention color the visuals of my mind and inspire the process by which I think. So for example, if I’m writing a song like ‘Porcelain’ which is very much an ode to, or anthem in celebration of the goth aesthetic; my appreciation for goth fashion and for the vampiric beauty depicted in film and anime would be what I am visualizing and imagining as I write these lyrics and create said music. To quote ‘Porcelain’, “You’re the one that looks like a vampire, but I am stricken with the hunger”.  

As to how that actually affects things on a technical level, I couldn’t say. Well, I suppose in some cases the influence can be more obvious than others. In my song ‘Mana’ off my Woken EP, my usage of the word mana to refer to a well of untapped energy comes straight out of fantasy and video games. If you look closely at some of the lyrics I employ, I wouldn’t be surprised if you were to discover many other references and clues to my interests and inspirations.

As for External… the visuals I imagined while creating it really shone well in the album cover I designed. It’s a 1980s Miami sunset with an impressionistic oil painting and black spotlights superimposed on top in that iconic vaporwave cyan/magenta color scheme. The oil painting creates this haze over the city that reminds me of the dream-like reverb and chill vibes of the song. It’s very much a song that is both inspired by visuals, and visually inspiring. An Ouroboros, of sorts. 

"External" marks a new chapter for you musically. How do you see your sound evolving in the future, and are there any other genres or styles you're excited to explore?

Hell yeah. You know… prior to External, I honestly hadn’t really given much thought to my releases having specific vibes or themes. My albums were just collections of songs I’d created. I would think about how they flowed together but I hadn’t really given much thought to designing an overarching theme to those collections. With External and the majority of my music moving forward, these are all things that I’m thinking about now. 

My next planned release, an EP called “Becoming Alive” which drops on Halloween is going to be my gothiest release yet. Each of the songs on the EP represents a different type of goth music from which I draw inspiration; from Dark Pop  to Industrial Pop to Darkwave and Post-Punk. I have to say, having fun themes like that feels a lot better as an artist than it does to just have a collection of songs you made with no real cohesion other than sounding like they were all made by the same person. It is definitely a big step towards true professionalism as an artist and I am happy and excited to continue the trend. 

You talked about creating a "gothosphere," a melancholic, haunting, and ethereal space in your music. Can you elaborate on how you achieve this atmosphere in your production and songwriting process?

A siren beckons you into this portal to darkness. You want to follow her. You need to follow her. But how? Harmonic minor, with its augmented second interval and juxtaposition of major and minor elements, creates this tragic, bittersweet, simultaneously  tense and exotic flavor that instantly transports you to a realm of mystery and intrigue. As you tread through the darkness, in pursuit of your siren’s call you find yourself lost in this new world of darkness.

She uses tension and release to guide you to her, reverb to keep you lulled and obedient, and sharp pangs of dissonance to keep you entranced and afraid. Minor, harmonic minor, tension, reverb, discord, dissonance – all of these elements act as supernatural gateways to lead a song towards the gothosphere. 

What’s next for you?

So much more music. So, so much! I mentioned an EP around Halloween time. Shortly after that, I’ll be releasing another EP, ‘Sundown’ which features a single off my next full album ‘In Shadows’ which I’ll be dropping in Q1 of 2025. And there is even more to come after that, with each album occupying a slightly different space and genre but all feeling inherently Dilemma.

In addition, there is also the 9th Circle EP I mentioned in collaboration with Outer Darkness and another side project I’m pursuing called Midi Nation which is essentially what happens when Dilemma does not tap into the Gothosphere but instead pivots hard and goes all-in on sexy dance music. There’s a lot of fun things on the horizon and I can’t wait to share them with you. 

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Outer Darkness Records was built from a growing community of Industrial artists looking to create an inclusive space not only to collaborate and foster new music, but to just be themselves and make friends. To that effect, the official ODR discord server is open to all who wish to discover what awaits them in the darkness. https://discord.com/invite/6XJzZctbwM

If you love industrial, goth, or any dark music and are looking to discover a community of others who share those passions, I certainly hope to see you there in the future.

You can follow Dilemma at: 

Website I Bandcamp I Instagram I Linktree I External Pre-Save