From Sheffield research to global music innovation

For Dr Alex Stamatiadis, a fascination with music began long before his career in research and innovation. Since high school, he had been curious about why some melodies were better than others. Years later, that curiosity would lead him to the University of Sheffield, where he studied Cognitive Studies before completing a PhD.

Today, Alex is the founder of Dreeemwave and the creator of Bassliner, a music-production plugin now used by thousands of producers around the world. His work sits at the intersection of cognitive science, music production and technology – and has recently been recognised with a British Council Study UK Alumni Award for Business and Innovation.

Receiving this award was indeed a great honour. It means a lot to me because it shined a spotlight on 15 years of extremely hard work that was being carried out in silence.

He describes the achievement as the culmination of a journey that required him to become proficient in multiple disciplines, including statistics, music production, coding and research.

His ambitions extended beyond understanding music theoretically. During his early twenties, an exercise about what he wanted to leave behind through his life work helped him define a long-term goal: “decoding music and making tools to help everyone bring their emotions to life.”

Rather than waiting for a gap in the marketplace to emerge, Alex followed that vision.

His work has since brought together scientific research and music production in unexpected ways. One example was his involvement with PreMusic, a project exploring how music could improve the cognitive sequencing abilities of newborn babies. Working with the University Hospital of Amiens and the University of Picardy, Alex helped combine science with music production to explore the responses of very young brains.

Watching a 1 year old baby "dance" to my song, while it was sitting idle during the usual children's songs, was one of my proudest moments as a cognitive scientist and music producer.

Alex credits Sheffield with playing a significant role in shaping the way he approaches his work today. He recalls the experience as transformative, describing the University's infrastructure, attention to detail, respect for minorities and wealth of events as though he had “time-travelled 20 years into the future”.

Alex has since returned to Sheffield to deliver guest lectures, sharing the lessons he has learned with current students.

His advice is straightforward: success is possible even in highly competitive industries without established connections, a large budget or the right location – but it requires creating something unique.

Your biggest asset is that there's only one you.

Looking back at the student who first arrived in Sheffield, Alex admits he wouldn't have told himself quite how long the journey would take – or how difficult financing the project would become. Instead, he believes that some optimism and naivety can be useful when pursuing a long-term ambition.

“Sometimes, being optimistic and slightly unaware of what's coming is really the best way to endure the struggle and keep going forward.”