When Julian Treweeke left the Blue Mountains at age 17 it was to travel the world as an electronic musician, performing everywhere from American festivals to European castles - and making new friends all the while.
Now back in the Mountains more than 20 years later he's continuing his music, but has found himself missing those human connections.
So he said it was an exciting moment when his idea for a co-working group in the Lower Mountains was met with a swell of like-minded responses.
"I only expected to get maybe a handful of people, maybe meet up with someone in the area for coffee. But it seems like it could be a much bigger thing," he told the Gazette.
Mr Treweeke was raised in Hazelbrook, surrounded by musically-driven siblings and father Vernon - who painted the murals seen in Katoomba's train station tunnels today.
Under his artist name Dysphemic he moved to Melbourne to build his drum-and-bass tempo, a genre he found through an early passion for the instrument.
"Making electronic music is like having as many arms as you want as a drummer," he said.
His tours saw him perform everywhere from Burning Man in the United States, to a castle in Germany, to a squat party in the meatpacking district of Athens.
He has also been credited by Vice Magazine as pioneering classical Dubstep, and his track 'Snake King' was used by Go Pro and broadcast to millions of viewers during the 2019 Tour de France.
"It's a great culture, great community, you get to travel the world and meet other people who have the same interests as you, across different language barriers," he said.
"That's probably my favourite bit of doing music, is that you just meet such like-minded people wherever you go."
Eventually Mr Treweeke began balancing his music career with a remote job in tech, living in Sydney, until he returned to the Mountains six months ago to live in Blaxland.
He said that while he missed the natural beauty, he soon realised that between his work and his music it was difficult to find time to connect with other people.
"It seems like there's a lot of people in the same kind of situation, working remotely during the week, and probably spending the weekends with their family," he said.
This is what drove him to post on Facebook to find other remote workers interested in meeting up occasionally to work alongside each other and get that human contact.
He said the surge of more than 70 comments in the Lower Mountains Discussion Group was unexpected, but wholly welcome.
"Seeing how many responses there were was pretty amazing," he said.
"It's definitely needed in the area... It's super easy just to be knuckled down, especially in the Mountains where it's beautiful even when you're inside."
Emma Madison, owner and manager of Springwood co-working space INDY MTNS, said there's a wealth of benefits in the idea.
"A co-working space can help improve isolation, so you don't feel like you're working on your own, can help connect you with like-minded people, and through those connections it can open up different opportunities," Ms Madison said.
"I have, through INDY, met my people in the Mountains... I've had all of those benefits myself from opening the space."
To learn more about co-working or INDY MTNS, visit their website at: https://www.indymtns.org/.
Those interested in joining Mr Treweeke's casual co-working group can contact him by email at julian@dysphemic.com.au.
Dysphemic played at Splendour in the Grass Festival last year and is now set to perform Earth Frequency Festival near Brisbane in early May. To listen, visit: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4lw0QYSR9txxIDgpTdeitX?si=OKolCpkQQaCnF49rvQazSQ.
