On Man’s creative roots lie deep. An artist with a unique gift for sound design, he’s able to conjure perfect pop songs and then corrode them, revealing the emotional truths underneath.

On Man’s eponymous debut album is his graduation point, a record framed by grief, the loss of identity, and the process of rediscovery. Challenging and rewarding in equal measure, it’s a revelatory listen.

As leftfield as some of his sonic impulses are, the producer wants to sculpt something melodic and open. “I just love good pop songs!” he exclaims. “The simple ones about love are the ones I’ve connected with […] Losing my mother changed the framework of those songs.” A profound, engaging and cathartic experience, On Man’s debut album works because it uses the cracks to let the light in.

If On Man’s world was broken by the solitary nature of grief, it was pieced together by the power of collaboration. Guests would drop by, gently pushing his music into fresh spaces; take the rap bars of F-M-M-F on ‘Squares And Triangles’, for example, or the incredible song writing talent of HAELOS’ Lottie Benardout.

On a more subtle level, there’s the contributions of On Man’s Herts neighbour Phil Plested – a hugely successful songwriter who recently worked on Bastille’s No. 1 album Give Me The Future.