Jacques Greene and Nosaj Thing on ditching file-sharing for Ableton Link: “We could build songs without speaking”For producer Jacques Greene, electronic music was, at first, a fine excuse to post up in a dark room, away from the outside world, and take complete control of his music-making process.
“I got so excited about electronic music as a way to not be in a band. I played in some rock bands in high school. Now I can make the drum part myself. I don’t have to argue with my drummer about the fill at the end of this bar,” says Jacques Greene, real name Phil Aubin-Dionne.

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In this spirit of individuality, many collaborations have become as separate as possible (especially during the pandemic). Sending computer files over vast distances with little to no communication about the music in question.
But when Aubin-Dionne and his good friend Nosaj Thing, real name Jason Chung, started their band Verses GT, they sought to celebrate the spirit of individualism that is unique to electronic music while working towards the common goal of creating something gestalt.
At the core of this intention was Ableton Link. With two computers running Live separately, but perfectly in sync, Chung and Aubin-Dionne had total freedom to operate as they would on their own while enhancing and expanding the ideas of one another. In short, they let each other cook.
Nosaj Thing of Verses GT. Image: Press
“There’s a beauty in playing into each other’s strengths and letting the people who are genuinely the best at what they do, [do what they do]. It’s as much a coming together as it is allowing space for expertise,” Aubin-Dionne says.
“It’s a pleasure to work with long-time friends that you fully trust,” Chung continues.
On top of a longstanding friendship and individually impressive solo careers producing moody, alternative dance music, Verses GT is not the first time Aubin-Dionne and Chung have collaborated. They embarked on a co-DJ tour back in 2017, and have shared credits on several production precursors to the band, such as the spacey break tune Too Close (2023) and the dense techno track RB3 (2024).
Both of the aforementioned singles are now credited under Verses GT on Spotify, but making an official project together gradually bubbled to the surface throughout their years of camaraderie.
Image: Press
“We so slowly started working together, but at first, there wasn’t a plan. We didn’t know we were gonna do a band or an album,” Aubin-Dionne admits. “Over that time, we built this tacit understanding of a workflow that really worked for us.”
The first layer of that workflow is simple, yet becoming less and less necessary: working in the room together. Verses GT was produced in London, Los Angeles (Chung’s hometown), Tokyo, Paris, and Montreal (Aubin-Dionne’s hometown). A truly global process, and no matter how much time passed between sessions (sometimes it was months), they made music in person in every place. Working alongside each other defines the core theme of the album:
“This record is about our relationship with the internet and friendship,” Aubin-Dionne says, sharing how rejecting internet communication and leaning into their personal connection sparked many of the ideas that became tracks. “I’m visiting LA, and we’ll drive out to the valley and get some Vietnamese food. Then we’re talking about a movie we just saw or a friend’s photo show that we’re excited about. We felt pretty strongly about making sure we started all these ideas in person.”
The second layer of the workflow is Link, which, as simple an update as it may seem, transformed the ability of these two longtime friends and bedroom producers to collaborate. Rather than a stop-start method of trading the hot seat in front of the computer, they could operate different machines simultaneously to build the songs as a band. Some of their favourites are the Prophet 5, Prophet 6, and the Erica Synths PĒRKONS HD-01.
Image: Press
“We often refer to ourselves as a band, which is maybe an insult to people that are out there playing real instruments, but the songs genuinely came up that way,” Aubin-Dionne says. “Having the two laptops running Live at once, in sync, meant that we could build a whole song without speaking. It allowed a spontaneity and musical conversation that if you stop and pass the baton, you’re always iterating, as opposed to something emerging.”
“Everyone uses Ableton quite differently. So, it’s almost like we both had our own refrigerators with our ingredients,” Chung adds, sparking immense enthusiasm and laughter from Aubin-Dionne, who Chung then describes as an “amazing chef.” It seems like Chung is referring to Aubin-Dionne’s ability to make food, but he could also be lauding his production skills per the aforementioned metaphor.
With such a strong rapport, they mixed their separate ingredients with minimal hassle, never being set into specific roles like drums or melodies, and adding what was best for the song rather than what they each wanted to hear.
“Once a song and the structure come into place, everything has to work together,” says Chung. “I always feel like writing a good song with vocals is like solving a 1,000-piece puzzle.”
Image: Press
“We were almost cautious about always leaving enough room for the other person to respond to something,” Aubin-Dionne explains. “The initial bursts of ideas in Link were more of a controlled chaos than a messy situation.”
One aspect that helped balance the individuality with collaboration was leaning on particular synths to create a cohesive sound. Chung loves the Prophet 5, and Aubin-Dionne loves the Prophet 6, and the emanant noise from the Erica Synths PĒRKONS gain stage became a sonic hallmark of the record.
“It’s this really unruly drum machine that a lot of people use for industrial techno. But if you use two or three of the drum parts, it’s an amazing machine for these strange noise oscillator bass percussion sounds,” Aubin-Dionne says. “It’s quite a noisy machine, and instead of painstakingly trying to EQ all that away, we let a bit of that fuzz take up space.”
By leaning into the commonalities, they were able to eliminate extra steps of getting into the flow state during their sessions.
“Hardware gear allows that, because the well-constructed, simple stuff we can turn on, hit play, and punch in a few sounds,” Aubin-Dionne says. Their flow state started by having something come out of the speakers as soon as possible. As long as something was playing, they could build from there.

When they were making the haunting breakbeat Unknown, they had the pocketed drumbeat playing in a loop as they swapped out different melodies. But there are also ambient tracks on the album, such as the album’s closer, Vision + Television, that were, by nature, built without a defined foundation.
Chung was noodling around, building a patch on the Sequential Prophet T8. Then Aubin-Dionne silently recorded it into the session and began building more elements on top. But after sitting on that initial raw recording for months in between their in-person sessions, Aubin-Dionne came to a conclusion: They only need the chords.
“They’re so nice and pleasant, and it comes after the back half of the record that’s really drum-heavy and intense. Let’s just have a soft landing,” Aubin-Dionne says. “A lot of my music starts as ambient songs, then I add the drums later.”
“Me too. 80% of the time, I start my songs with chords,” Chung says, chiming in.

“That’s our Venn diagram of where we meet on our separate projects. Mood and texture are very important,” Aubin-Dionne adds.
Mood and texture are the most nebulous elements of any piece of music, but no matter how undefined they may be, with a uniting process, any two producers can come together like Jacques Greene and Nosaj Thing.
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