COLE KNIGHT: I started playing piano and guitar when I was really little. I think a lot of kids play piano when they are little, but I became obsessed with the guitar. I was always excited to come home from school and sit in my basement just playing by myself. My mom wanted me to join a band, but I told her I only wanted to play alone. Looking back, I feel like I should have just joined a band, as playing by myself wasn’t always fun. My dad is a computer science engineer; he worked for Intel for 21 years and now works for Nvidia, where he recently started. He influenced me to go into that field because he knew I would have a good career outcome. However, when I went to school, I realized I didn’t really love computer science. I was the only girl in most of my classes and, being a shy young woman from the Midwest, I didn’t connect with it that much. But I think it gave me a really good foundation for working with software like Ableton. They are quite similar, and I do love sitting at a computer and tinkering, perfecting the sound. With my background in playing instruments and coming from a small town, I slowly moved to bigger cities as I got older. I truly discovered music when I was in college and beyond. It was such a new phenomenon for me to discover something so vast; you can really connect with music, I think.

CK: I started getting interested when I was in college, around the age of 20. One of my friends from my computer classes was a DJ, so we would skip class and just go play music in his room. However, I didn’t really start taking it seriously until I lived in LA much later on, when I was about 25.

CK: I think I have done a pretty good job of focusing on my health and prioritizing sleep when I need to. Obviously, when you first start out, that isn’t the priority. It is all very fun, and you think about how crazy the lifestyle is. But eventually, you realize it takes a toll when you don’t take care of yourself, especially as a woman. I think it is important to be cognizant of hormones and the fact that we sometimes simply need a lot of sleep. Since I was a runner in college and ran track, that athletic discipline is ingrained in me. I feel the need to go to the gym regularly. It makes me feel good. Having that balance is really important, but being able to travel and experience so many places that I wouldn’t otherwise see is such a cool part of the job.

CK: I met David when I was moving to LA at a very young age. He invited me to one of his sound sessions, which are essentially extended sound baths. It blew my mind, and I became obsessed with the idea of the ‘sound of the abstract.’ There is a book called The Mysticism of Sound and Music, which is based on Sufi teachings. It discusses how the path to enlightenment is most quickly attained through the sound of the abstract, by listening to it constantly and letting your mind dissolve into it. Sound is energy and vibration. You can measure it in Hertz, and since everything is measurable, we are ultimately made of sound particles. Our bodies consist mostly of water, and when sound hits water, it ripples. We are constantly in this play of vibration, which I found fascinating. As I studied deeper with David, he taught me about the esoterics of its origins and the different cultures that have used it. This has shaped a very conscious, rather than religious, approach to thinking. He also teaches you about different instruments used to put us into a state of deep meditation. My gongs are actually right behind me.

CK: Yeah, so I play fifteen to twenty different instruments, all designed to guide you into a deep state of meditation. I haven’t recorded anything yet, as that is one of my projects for this year, but I perform everything live. People lie down with eye masks on and enter a state of near-nothingness. This allows them to reset their nervous system and experience a profound sense of peace.

CK: I teach a few private students, but I haven’t offered any public courses yet. My fiancé and I facilitate sessions together, and we host several events in our community every month. I also travel for work; retreats occasionally hire me to facilitate sound sessions for them. Additionally, I have many private clients I work with on a regular basis to perform nervous system reset work.

CK: I eventually decided that I needed to name my sound meditation project, and ‘Duality is Reality’ is what I came up with. Technically, yoga means ‘unity,’ which is the highest state one aims to achieve in life, signifying that you have ascended. However, I feel that duality is a more realistic step toward reaching that unity.

This concept also ties into my personal life, as my fiancé works in nightlife as well. It is about being able to work in that environment while remaining on a path toward finding peace.

CK: I think that meeting David before I took DJing seriously allowed me to explore sound, consciousness, and meditation first. Having that background has always kept me grounded; it has been essential for me.

CK: I have many little notes everywhere, in my journals or on my phone, which are my version of poetry. I have been doing this since I was in school, writing notes in class. All the lyrics in my music come from those small notes. They are just notes I have saved somewhere. Sometimes I think a certain line would be cool in a track, or while I am writing, a melody comes to mind that naturally goes along with it.

CK: I should actually look in the closet at my mother’s house, because I have a bag full of notes there that I haven’t looked at in a long time. I am also constantly writing things in the Notes app on my phone, and I have a box of journals filled with various scribbles.

CK: I think so. I feel it has happened within the last year or year and a half. It is interesting because I have been working in this industry for a while now, but it truly takes time to understand what you love most about such a vast field.

I also believe this is because music is so closely tied to the expression of self. An artist creates music based on where they are in their life. As I am constantly learning more about myself and evolving, my music is doing the same thing. I am now at a point where I really love creating music for DJing. When I go out, I want to rave, dance, and have a high energy experience, so I feel that is the direction my music has taken as well. It is a high energy, almost old school 90s sound. It is very experimental because I always want to be surprised and interested.

CK: I walk so much while I am DJing. I sometimes track my steps and realize I have covered five or six miles during a ninety minute or two hour set. I am moving constantly because I am so excited.

CK: Especially at a show where I feel truly connected with the crowd and the energy of the room, I sometimes black out. I do not remember anything I played because I entered such a deep flow state. It is a ‘Jesus take the wheel’ moment.

CK: I was not even thinking about launching my own brand yet, as I did not feel it was the right time to take that step. Factory Town is a venue in Miami that opens every night during Art Basel and Miami Music Week. It is a massive space with six different stages that holds fifteen to twenty thousand people. Each night, a different DJ takes over a stage to host a party. When they approached my team and asked if I wanted a stage at Art Basel, my answer was an immediate yes. I did not have much time to put the brand together, but I am the type of person who gives one hundred and twenty percent to every project. I created a brand manifesto to ensure a fully immersive experience. I had done a photo shoot a year prior where I was dressed as a high fashion knight, and I wanted to tie the brand back into that aesthetic. When I came across the name Knightclub, it felt perfect. We designed the logo and the stage, hanging chains everywhere. The logo itself is a giant sword with a KC in the handle, which we built and hung above the DJ booth to create the feeling of a medieval, sexy dungeon. I launched the party with a great lineup and followed it with another event at Miami Music Week. It was significantly larger than the first and a huge success. The support and feedback were incredible, especially regarding the stage design. That moment felt like I had truly stepped into the next level as an artist. It is a project that extends beyond myself. For me, what is even more important is creating a community and reminding people why we do this in the first place. It is about connecting with your body, feeling good while you are dancing, and feeling safe. It is about being part of something bigger than yourself, something more than just a night out.

CK: We had about a month and a half, which I felt was not much time at all.

CK: We had to create all the branding for the entire project. I even produced a track that I now play before each Knightclub show. It features my voice introducing the audience to the brand and welcoming everyone into this world. The first line asks, ‘Are you ready to touch the edges of your soul?’ I needed to be all in, you know?

CK: There is a woman in Miami named Evie who works in production. I reached out to her since we were already friends. When I shared my idea, she was ready to help bring it to life. We collaborated on the project, and I am very happy with the result. It was a perfect coincidence that she already had a warehouse full of chains available. And I was like ‘That’s perfect, that’s exactly what I wanted.’

CK: I think Dekmantel is one of those festivals that has always caught my attention. It is not about the fluff; it is truly about the music and an audience that deeply appreciates it. As an artist, you can experiment knowing it will be well received. Houghton Festival is another one that has my attention. I have not been yet, but I always watch the videos and look at the lineups. That festival is full of legends and icons, and everyone who attends speaks highly of the quality. Every set is pure class.

CK: This year, I want to focus on music and production. I feel that 2025 was centered on my brand and developing Knightclub. Beyond that, it was about establishing the Coco Knight identity as an artist, taking the time to sit with myself and learn more about who I am. Now, I feel inspired and ready to pour everything into my music. I am releasing an EP on Life and Death later this year, which will be my first mature body of work. It will feature three or four tracks rather than a single or a two track release, creating a more cohesive journey through the music.

CK: Thank you for having me!

Leon Thomas: Good. I love Berlin.

LT: I came out here for a promo when I was doing the Nickelodeon show Victorious for the first time. I was like 19. It was a really cool experience then, and then I’ve been back and forth for just shows. I did Colors as well. Yeah, it’s always been a good city for me.

LT: I think if I had a normal job, it would be real estate. I’m really into flipping homes and stuff like that.

LT: I haven’t. I just bought my first investment property. So I’m in the process of remodeling. I’m going to keep it, though. I’m not going to sell.

LT: Yeah. I think in my early 20s, I had the opportunity to continue working on the network, but I knew that I had to separate myself if I wanted to evolve. If I wanted to be taken serious as an artist, I had to spend time working behind the scenes as well, just to really get a good landscape of how to take things to the next level. That’s exactly what I did.

LT: Yeah, It’s always been a constant theme throughout my life.

LT: I was very inspired by the neo-soul movement, like Joe Scott, Musiq Soulchild, stuff like that, Erykah Badu, D’Angelo. I think growing up in New York, that was a big thing. The radio really inspired me too, so being with my parents in the car and discovering new music that way was always really nice. Shout out to Hot 97 and Power 105. They definitely raised me. 98.7 KISS FM. I remember all of the radio stations. It was a big part of my culture. It’s what shaped my musical taste as well.

LT: Yeah. I think I write some of the best songs for other people when I’m pretending to write for myself.

LT: Yeah, there’s definitely a couple songs that I wrote that were just for me, but I accidentally played them and then people wanted them for their project. I was like, oh, good.

LT: If it’s stuck in my head. I make a lot of music. I feel like if I can remember the melody, it means that it’s got a mass appeal. It’s the kind of thing that can be catchy. So if it’s stuck in my head after I write it and record it, I usually go back to it. If I can’t remember the hook, it’s probably not catchy enough.

LT: Beats are very important to me. So yeah, I like to kind of put together different tracks or source different tracks from producers I’m a really big fan of. And then I go sit down and I’ll just do days of writing so I can kind of come up with a bunch of stuff. Sometimes we’ll come up with the track and the song in the same day.

LT: I think the biggest thing that inspire me are conversations about love. If I have a conversation with a homie or even with a girl I’m dating, I’ll write little things down that sound different or that I personally haven’t heard in the song. And I’ll try to find a way to kind of add that in. I think another thing that really inspires me a lot are movies. I’ll play movies on mute while I’m making music. And if the music doesn’t feel cinematic like the film I’m watching, I usually don’t continue.

LT: When I have to turn it in.

LT: A friend of mine, he’s working on a project and I did the hook on the song and he sent me the newest mix and it said mix 70. He mixed that song 70 times.

LT: That’s a lot of times to mix one thing. But a lot of artists can be very meticulous and detail-orientated and they’ll kind of grind until you have to turn it in. For me, I do my best to kind of keep my first in mind because if I allow myself, I’ll overthink. So I kind of protect myself from myself and I work hard not to overthink.

LT: I think my phone and modern technology is a big part of how I create music. I don’t think I’ve ever written a song on a piece of paper. I think most of my songs are in my notes because since I became a songwriter, there was always ways to do it. My notes are just filled with ideas. Sometimes I do something called morning pages where before I scroll through the internet and chuckle for the first 30 minutes of my day, I’ll sit down and I’ll just write my thoughts. But it’s free writing.

LT: It’s Monday, I’m feeling a little hungover. And then I’ll just write the whole thing and then from there, it’s kind of cool sometimes to look back at it. I very rarely look back but I think writing with the perspective of freedom and there being no rules and knowing that nobody’s ever going to read it, I think it’s also a good way to get my brain kind of cooking for the day.

LT: I try not to let situations like that define my art or even success itself. But I think it’s a really great marker to show people that I worked hard at something and I can follow through. The teams that I built around me, the music that I’m making is actually impacting cultures not just in the States but now I’m all over the world. It’s a cool thing. It’s a good totem of the hard work that me and my team put in. I won’t let it redefine success for me but it definitely is a great showcase of all the work we put in.

LT: Thank you, I appreciate that.

LT: Yeah, I think they should have therapy at every label. It’s a very unnatural thing to be famous. I know a lot of friends in the industry that could use a little check-in.

LT: It’s just a healthy thing to have somebody to talk to. 

LT: Neutral that also understands how to deal with somebody who maybe isn’t just a regular everyday kind of person. Somebody that can really comb through your mind and understand your perspective.

LT: I think my mom, she’s a good grounding force in my life. Every time I talk to her, I get a whole lot of truth. She’ll tell me everything she’s thinking, whether it’s good or bad. And then I think an activity that grounds me is playing video games. I like just sitting down and kind of entering into a different world. But it kind of makes me a big kid again. Sometimes you get all serious. I’m a serious artist. You’re all cool. Expensive clothes, whatever else. But then I’m playing Call of Duty and I’m freaking out. Or I’m just playing the homies online or something. And it kind of brings back the inner child, which I think you can’t let that go away. I want to keep my inner child alive.

LT: I don’t really think much about what I want people to feel. I just hope that they can relate to me in some way. I like to connect. So even if you haven’t been through the exact same thing I’ve been through, I try to build my songs around emotions. I hate songs that are just in the middle. It’s not exciting. It’s not sad. I like to be on really potent sides of the emotional spectrum. Whether it’s really happy, really exciting, or really sad. Very laid back. So I hope that I can evoke an emotion in somebody. That’s why my ballads are never on the fence. They’re like tearjerkers. I want to get you there.

LT: Yeah, I hope they connect with me.

LT: Trust your gut and keep the blinders on. Don’t worry about what everybody else is doing. Just focus on you. Social media is so easy to start comparing yourself to other people.

LT: I think that’s the biggest thing for me. I wish I did more just focusing on me. Because everything would probably move a little faster.

LT: Okay, great. I hope you guys enjoy the show.

DUA SALEH: Yeah, I feel that sometimes when we focus our energy on a specific sound, the music eventually comes to you because you surround yourself with like-minded people. We were both in Minneapolis, even though we both make music that is outside of our typical genres, his being folk and mine being Indie Pop or R&B. I’m only just venturing into folk now with Bon Iver. Being in similar circles in the same city and connected through the music community in Minneapolis and Minnesota really helped. To my knowledge, he lives between Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Los Angeles. I remember listening to him a lot back in middle or high school; I was hyper-focused on his music and thought his live performances were outstanding. It feels like the universe brought him to me because I hadn’t actually met him before we started working together. I just received a random text from him.

DS: Yeah, I was geeked! I was like, ‘What the heck?’ It was crazy, but it made sense because my friend Simon, who executive produced three of my albums, exists within the same circle of music producers and creatives in Minnesota and Minneapolis. So, he gave him my number, and then I sent over my verse for a song we did.

DS: Yeah, it felt a bit intimidating at first because he’s a genius. Seriously, the first time we met, he was freestyling on probably five or six songs we did together. I was just sitting back, letting people produce and play the drums, while feeling completely overwhelmed. I was thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, this is an icon.’ Because I felt so intimidated, I didn’t write to the music right away. I waited, let my emotions settle, and allowed myself to be guided by his voice, really listening to what he was saying, applying it to my life, and asking myself: ‘How does this make me feel? What does this remind me of?’ He’s just very special. I’m so excited to be in the studio with him while he’s producing, singing, and just being a ‘nerd’ about it. I think that’s pretty cool. 

DS: Thinking back to high school, I was on the debate team and never went to parties because my family was religious. I spent my time in after-school programs and minded my own business, but my grades weren’t the best. I did really well on tests, so I was still able to earn college credits, but I was definitely a ‘slacker nerd’, I would often fall asleep during class.

DS: I feel neutral toward it, mainly because in a dystopian world, the physical Earth prospers regardless. Even if it’s a dystopia, once that is gone, only the Earth remains, plants, vegetation, and water. The globe can take care of itself once the ruins of humanity are gone. So, I don’t think it’s strictly good or bad. Obviously, as a human being, I have empathy and wouldn’t want that to happen; it wouldn’t be ideal for anyone. It’s not that I want a dystopian world to exist, but I’m imagining what it would be like after all the decay. People would be trying to make sense of themselves and stay true to their identity as humans, but it would be warped by this new world they don’t really remember. That is very similar to how Sudanese people feel, being ripped away from their indigenous culture. For instance, I know my indigenous tribes didn’t necessarily speak Arabic. There were alternative languages they could have spoken, but I don’t even know their names. They might have had a specific religious or spiritual way of life, but I don’t know anything about it, not even how they counted. We have access to history, but so much of it has been destroyed in warfare.

DS: I lived there for the first year of my life, but I moved away shortly after.

DS: No, I figured out pretty early that I was gay, so I’ve always been hesitant. Actually, I ‘jumped the gun’ in a way. I didn’t know what transness was yet, but I remember watching Will & Grace. There was a gay character, and I realized, ‘Oh, you can be gay.’ For some reason, I immediately jumped to the conclusion: ‘I’m a boy.’ I don’t know why that happened, but I identified as a boy for two years straight, starting when I was eight. But then we had some family issues, and my focus shifted. I was more concerned with withdrawing into myself and figuring out where we were going as a family. I didn’t truly focus on my identity again until we gained stability in high school.

DS: Yeah, especially because they only recently abolished the death penalty for gay people in 2020. And honestly, I’m too smart to go back there because I know how impulsive I can be. I don’t like wearing a hijab, it makes me feel dysphoric and it’s not good for my heart. If I were there, I wouldn’t want to be forced into it. They treat you almost like an alien, it’s as if they don’t see your whole life there. To them, you’re just a foreigner. Especially since I live in more progressive places now, such as Minneapolis and Los Angeles.

DS: The album Of Earth and Wires is actually an extension of the story from my first album, I Should Call Them. The first record follows two lovers in an apocalyptic time who survive the ruins after society collapses. Together in this new world, they try to make sense of their surroundings. Even though it’s disorienting and they feel like they are losing their identities, they still know they love each other.

DS: I feel I should maintain this narrative about climate change and, as you mentioned, the theme of decomposition. I see it as a decomposition of identity. They are trying to make sense of themselves and stay true to who they are, but after a while, you begin to forget the old ways. It’s an allegory for the Earth; right now, it feels as though we are constantly living in apocalyptic times. Global climate change is real, the world is deteriorating, and the politics are heinous, it’s just terrible.

DS: I actually live in Los Angeles, but my family is still in Minnesota. I’m very concerned because English isn’t my mother’s first language. We are Sudanese, but we are often perceived as Somali, and there’s a lot of hostility toward that community right now, partly due to the political climate and because ICE is targeting Somali people in Minneapolis. My mom is an educator who works with autistic children in kindergarten. Recently, ICE agents arrived at her school. The school didn’t let them in, so they couldn’t take anyone, but they remained posted outside, waiting. My mom told me they weren’t arresting people at that moment, even though immigrants, both staff and parents, were clearly coming and going. It’s the heart of the community. I worry constantly about my siblings and I call them regularly just to make sure they’re safe. At one point, my mom even warned me to be careful because organizers were saying that phones were being tapped, so she started speaking to me in Arabic. It’s a deep concern for me personally as well, especially as someone who received their citizenship later in life, at 17. It makes me nervous. 

DS: Yeah, it’s like the detention camps where people are forced into labor. There are even allegations of sex trafficking involving children, women, and men. It’s absolutely terrifying. I think people understand what’s happening, and Minneapolis is obviously a target because the community is so well-organized when it comes to protesting. They’ve held protests at the Mall of America and shut down highways, even in -40 degree weather. They really have their act together, which makes them a threat to the American elite or the right wing, mostly because other people are inspired by it. It reminds people that we should actually be there for our neighbors and work together. American citizens are literally willing to die to protect their neighbors from being kidnapped by ICE. It’s horrendous, heartbreaking, and terrifying, but it just goes to show how much people love each other and how they’ve been there for one another since 2020.

DS: My brother was telling me how neighborhoods are becoming self-organized. Each area has its own specific system. They are using private chats to coordinate and prepare for protests. He told me it’s been incredible, people warn each other whenever ICE is on one block or another. Everyone is watching out for their neighbors, making sure food gets to pregnant women and those in need. It sounds exactly like what you said: it feels like we’re living in a war. It has even become a form of political voyeurism for some. I noticed that Minneapolis was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, which is wonderful, especially considering how much Trump wanted one. It’s a bit of a ‘slap in the face’ to him, but it also makes me feel uneasy inside. A Peace Prize is being discussed while people are still terrified in their homes, wondering if their five-year-olds or their grandmothers will be taken away to a detention center. In the end, you want more than a nomination. You don’t want to be part of this hypothetical ‘cold war’ or a political spectacle. You just want to exist.

DS: That’s what it feels like for real.

DS: It ties back to the concepts we discussed. Home is the Earth, the entire planet. We’re just happy to exist. But of course, the album is deeply inspired by my real life, especially Sudan. There are elements from Minnesota, for instance, Justin Vernon worked on several tracks and produced much of the record. To capture the Sudanese elements, I brought in an oud player. I also collaborated with Gaidaa, an incredible Dutch-Sudanese R&B artist, she’s a wonderful singer, and I’m so glad to have her on the album. Since I’m based in Los Angeles now, I also worked with Adeline. She’s in LA but originally from Florida; she wrote a book called Florida Water that I’m actually reading right now. I’m a huge fan of her work. Like Justin, she’s Grammy-nominated, though Justin actually has a few Grammys, but that’s an aside. I’ve tried to merge all the elements of my different homes. While filming Sex Education, I lived in Cardiff, Wales, for two years. My life wasn’t just bi-coastal; it was bi-continental, split between the UK and the US. That really shaped my songwriting. I’m processing the different places I’ve lived and seeing how climate change affects each of them. In LA, we had a massive firestorm, and the song ‘Firestorm’ is literally about the aftermath. I wanted to present it in a slightly cheeky way, it’s not a subject to take lightly, but I still want people to be able to ‘vibe,’ enjoy the music, and maybe even clean their house to it. Similarly, the song ‘Flood’ was inspired by me witnessing flash flooding in Cardiff, Wales. It happened so consistently that I was shocked by it. While I wasn’t personally affected in my accommodations for the show, I would see the roads. It’s actually terrifying. It is happening in Los Angeles right now as well, which is spooky because the song just came out, it feels almost too relevant. Beyond that, there’s Minneapolis, where they had the major protests against the oil pipeline they were putting through the Midwest. Talking about the different places I call home, Sudan, for instance. As a war tactic, crops and homes are often burned down, which is devastating for the environment writ large and tragic for the displaced people living there. I’ve been thinking about all these places and how they are all connected to the Earth. It is all sacred, and we should care for it deeply. At the same time, the album doesn’t take itself too seriously, it’s lighthearted in moments. It follows the journey of two lovers navigating their emotions while living in a post-apocalyptic world. They’re just young lovers trying to make sense of their destiny as soulmates or ‘twin flames.’ It’s a love album for the Earth, but also for these two characters in the series I’m writing.

DS: I can see that. I might actually use that as inspiration for future reference! 

DS: Don’t worry, I’m definitely going to reference you. Ms. Nowak definitely helped me with that. But my initial thought was actually about AI. Around the time of the Sudanese war in 2019-2020, I was thinking about climate change just as AI was going viral, specifically when it was being marketed as a ‘rapper.’ While AI systems have existed for a long time, the scale we see now is depleting vital resources like water, and I was trying to make sense of that impact. I began imagining a world where humanity is gone and only wires are left hanging from the buildings. If AI takes over but eventually can’t sustain itself, it would simply collapse into ruins. That’s where the title Of Earth and Wires comes from. It represents the parts of the Earth that stay alive, the natural biospheres that survive the conflict, contrasted with the wreckage left behind by a collapsed artificial intelligence. Without humans to direct it, AI would eventually decay because that’s the natural order of the world. Even in a world of ruins and falling asteroids, the humans left behind are still just trying to make sense of who they are. 

We’re turning to tools like ChatGPT to find our answers, and it is literally decimating the artistic world. I don’t know how it’s affecting journalism, but in music, it’s horrifying. I imagine you might feel the same way.

DS: That’s so real. So much of the world is grappling with that right now. It’s not that technology is always bad. For example, autonomous vehicles like Waymo can offer real safety, especially for trans women. But it’s still detrimental to the planet. While we enjoy these conveniences, people still lack access to clean drinking water. We’re digging deeper into our reserves without considering the long-term impact. I think this is just what people do. We are predictable. If you make things easy, people follow their evolutionary drive to choose the path of least resistance. We think we’re making the ‘smart’ choice, but we’re only thinking about the next three seconds, not the fact that it all might disappear shortly after.

DS: I feel exactly the same way, even on a lighter note. For example, I find myself listening to those ‘Baby Boo’ remixes on TikTok. I think the song goes, ‘She gonna call me baby boo,’ and there are ten or more AI-generated remixes that I end up liking just because they’re too funny to ignore. I try not to engage with AI, even when I’m using search engines, but it’s difficult because it’s so deeply embedded now that I sometimes forget it’s even there. It doesn’t feel fair, it’s being forced on everyone to the point where we can’t help but use it. It’s crazy.

DS: I think usually I don’t talk about my family life, but for this album, I really ventured out. For example, on the song ‘Enemie‘, I say something that doesn’t necessarily put me in the best light. It’s about meeting my father and finding out he’s an ‚a-hole.’ Beyond that, I talk about grief. My grandmother passed away last year, and it affected me intensely. ‘Flood‘ addresses that grief in a way I rarely even discuss with my friends. While my last project let people into my personal relationships, this time I’ve expanded and grown. I’ve allowed people to see even deeper into my personal world.

DS: Definitely, but most of the time I don’t release those songs because they’re just too personal. People are often shocked when I choose not to include certain tracks on an album, but it would be hard for me to navigate that as a human being. We aren’t just empty vessels, we have real emotions. 

DS: Thank you. I really appreciate that. It’s been wonderful talking to you.

LAUREL HALO: Maybe both those things. I love this Lao Tzu quote from the tao te ching, ‘cut doors and windows to make a room. Where the room isn’t, there’s room for you. So the profit in what is, is in the use of what isn’t.” It feels like with composing it’s more about this kind of approach with music making, rather than the kind of worldbuilding that comes with recording artist albums.

LH: The first time I was shown the material it was suggested to not interpret too much from a human lens, to not anthropomorphize the material too much.

LH: I think I was just responding to the visual. It made a lot of sense to have this kind of music be the sonic support. It’s interesting to think about the pressure of being that far underwater, and how effortlessly the sea life swims and dances through it.

LH: I didn’t want the music to sound overly epic, sentimental or foreboding. It’s hard to make this kind of music with a more naturalistic approach. I guess I’m musically anthropormorphizing whether I want to or not, as I am approximating with the score the feeling of what it might be like to experience that remote region of the Pacific in total darkness.

LH: Maybe the music was relating more to the smallness of the Fresnel lens, removed from its natural setting as a lighthouse ‘eye’ to become this momentary intruder or observer. Also there was a certain lyricism or tenderness to the shots of bioluminescent creatures later on in the film I was probably responding to.

LH: I guess it’s something I’ve always been drawn to, the somewhat alien effect or element of surprise.

LH: I guess that might be more a question for the filmmaker than me. It sounded like it was quite a challenging project to film given the dangerous context. The Clarion-Clipperton Zone is itself highly vulnerable given that it’s so rich in rare earth minerals.

LH: Maybe, it’s hard to say. I think there’s some sympathy that lies with the region.

LH: Yes, I think that was part of the intention. I had experimented with a more thematic approach initially, but as viewers will likely drift in and out of the film, it wasn’t necessarily the best approach.

LH: I experience a fair amount of basic silence in my day to day life – when I’m not making music I like to give my ears a break. Sometimes it’s a bit boring to not listen to music as it’s more motivating when doing tasks, but it’s nice to allow some headspace. I guess I never experience real silence though. Where I live and work in LA is a backhouse on a hill that is surrounded by other people’s homes. My studio faces a persistent onslaught of home improvement, construction, leafblowers, dogs and helicopters. Plus my windchime goes off a lot of the time, and I hear the police sirens and garbage trucks in my neighborhood a lot. There’s a lot of mysterious booms at night, and I also hear owls and coyotes. There was a citywide celebratory drone when the Dodgers won the World Series a second year in a row. It feels unnatural when there’s too much silence. I’m already sitting alone with my thoughts enough of the time!

DENZEL CURRY: When it comes down to my influence, how I got into it, it was mainly because of Toonami and Dragon Ball Z and stuff like that. There’s this band called Pantera and me and my brother was into metal when we got tired of listening to rap a lot. Yeah, we got into it through, you know, just Dragon Ball Z and finding those songs and stuff like Korn and Rage Against the Machine. But mainly, Pantera was like my favorite band, and that’s how I got into it for real.

DC: Not really. Bro, like, they’re doing the same shit we’re doing. It’s just over a different kind of instrumental.

DC: I mean, yeah, but you know, they could interchange. You could put someone who’s a metal vocalist on a rap record, and then you could put a rapper on a rock record, you know what I’m saying? But it depends on who you get. For example, DMX. DMX had Marilyn Manson on his record, which was ‘The Omen (Damien II)’. And then vice versa, you got people like Eminem shouting out Marilyn Manson also. And then you got people like Korn, and Korn did crossovers with Ice Cube. We had Linkin Park who did crossovers with Jay-Z, on the Collision Course album, where they put Linkin Park instrumentals over Jay-Z tracks and Jay-Z instrumentals over Linkin Park tracks. So they’re pretty much in the same vein, in the same pocket.

DC: Exactly. Yeah, Strictly For My R.V.D.X.R.Z., we got a new album coming out. It’s a collaboration project and it’s with this supergroup, which is formed as The Scythe. It consists of myself, BKtherula, TiaCorine, Ferg, Key Nyata, and Working on Dying members, such as BNYX, Oogie Mane, Lukative, Swaggy Uno, et cetera. And also my boy Ilovetramane, who’s part of Ultra Glound Records.

DC: Yeah, yeah. Because you got to catch these motherfuckers, man. But when you got them, you got it. And because they all have their respective solo careers, it’s kind of hard to narrow it down and get everybody on the same page. But once you get them all on the same page, it’s magic.

DC: Nah, nah, nah. Certain members will all be in a studio at the same time and other members will be in different studios, or different places of the world. It could be me, James, which is Oogie Mane, and Austin, which is Ilovetramane, will be at a studio and we might have Ferg in there, cutting records with me, or Key Nyata. And then if we’re on the West Coast, we got to wait for people to come over because they always got to come to LA to do some kind of work. Then they’ll end up chilling at my house for some reason, and then we’ll end up going to the studio, or they’ll end up being at a studio and I go to them, or they end up coming to the show, or I’ll go to their show and they’ll come to my house. But the majority of the time I’m with the producers and we’re coming up with ideas. And then we’ll send them, and when we got them in proximity, that’s when we start making the shit for real, for real. Everybody processes differently, but all of us at the same time, the exact same time? We didn’t start seeing that until we started making the music videos and doing the press runs, and all of us were actually together and shit. Yeah, funny as hell.

DC: You’re not gonna make me rap in front of you, are you?

DC: Nyck Caution. Because he likes to battle. With any MC really, you gotta bring your A-game. As you can see what happened with Drake and Kendrick and everything. You gotta bring your A-game with anybody, because anybody could take you out.

DC: Not really. But I explored Berlin before, but that was years ago. Nowadays, it’s more you get out there, you go in the city, you do your thing, and if you have time, you can go explore and do some stuff. Other than that, we’re just on the Bus a lot.

DC: Man, the crazy thing is, I don’t remember my good shows. I remember the bad ones.

DC: Because it sucked.

DC: Oh man, I remember the sound cut out at Revolution Live and I didn’t know what to do. So I was on stage awkwardly trying to figure it out, and then the music cut back on at an awkward time. And then I was performing at Timberland and, it just wasn’t a good night. And then there’s a festival that I’ve done called Something in the Water. Totally hated that show. Show sucked. Sucked balls.

DC: Oh, this is going to be a good show, for sure. This whole tour has been amazing. Everybody from Drug Church to the Deftones guys, everybody’s being super chill, super nice. And it’s kind of tight-knit. Everybody’s on a roll, we all want the same thing, we’re all laughing all the time. And it’s only a three-week tour. We got a good slot and it’s pretty easy for us. Compared to our own headline live shows, whenever we’re in support of somebody, it’s less work in a shorter amount of time, but we manage to get it done and get it down effectively.

DC: Well, back in the day, it was more mood. Now, it’s mood and calculation. So, if I feel a certain mood and I want the vibe of an album to be a certain way, I go and study the albums that sound that way in my mind. I study them to a T—to the tiniest detail. Even as far as: ‘Who can I get from these past albums to incorporate into the stuff that I’m doing?’

DC: More so nowadays, I usually just go with the same flow over and over. And then, the more you start scatting and babbling and stuff, you start figuring out different ways to say things and just trying to piece lyrics together.

Nowadays, I’ll come up with one thing, hate it, come up with another thing on that same beat, hate it. Go again, write something new… may like it in the moment, hate it the next day. I just keep going through renditions until I land on the absolute best one.

DC: Mm-hmm. It was less of that on KOTMS, but for the majority of my work, when I’m really thinking about it, I go in-depth. I write and write and write until I figure it out.

DC: I don’t know to be honest.

DC: That’s the thing, I don’t really calm down at all. Anybody who knows me knows I don’t calm down, at all. And when I actually do calm down… it’s a problem.

DC: Because people think something’s wrong with me when I’m actually calm. They know me for being at a hundred all the time. And the moment I’m not, and I’m just like, ‘You know what? I’m just gonna chill. I’m just not gonna talk to nobody’, they’re like, ‘Hey bro, you alright?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m just… just chilling’. But I find comfort in drawing a lot.  

DC: I’ve got an iPad that I do it on, but it really depends on the medium. It could be the iPad, it could be construction paper, it could even be on fax paper. But my favorite is the composition book, because it takes me out of that headspace where I feel like I have to overthink what I’m drawing, it’s just a doodle.

DC: See you.

ROCHELLE JORDAN: It’s interesting as I step into all these cities, you know, I’m bringing my particular energy right from this album. And I never know what I’m going to get in cities. Sometimes you can predict that they’re going to be all just like over the moon, super excited, but some cities, they’re literally sitting in the moment and just listening. And I’m surprised by that. So with Berlin, I didn’t have any expectations. I just came here thinking, okay, let’s just give them the vibe and kind of see what their reaction is. But I have a feeling that they’re gonna turn up. I have a feeling they’re going to be super excitable and I just feel good energy already just touching down so I feel like it’s gonna be a really crazy show. I’ve got a good feeling about it.

RJ: Exactly. Let it happen naturally. Let’s all just be here together.

RJ: Yes, I didn’t expect that. I’m one that definitely tempers her expectations. I do things with great intention in hopes that people can connect and can understand the musical language that I speak. But it really did hit home when I made all these lists at the end of the year. I was like, wow, you know, because the album essentially had just come out, it’s still very young. It’s only four months old and we still got so much to do. With the album and for it. So for it to have that kind of reaction, especially amongst all the amazing artists that also dropped their album on the same day was really, really incredible. So Yeah, I’ve had a couple of moments in my career where I’m like, Mama, I made it. Where it’s just a big reaction to different projects. But this time it feels really special. This time, it feels a bit different. It’s hard to explain, but I just think it’s the connectivity of all these people that are finding out about me. That’s probably what I’m feeling. Just everyone is talking about the project and connecting through the music. It’s a different moment and it’s a very special one.

RJ: It’s interesting because throughout the years I’ve played with so many different genres like R&B, essentially all the in-betweens of what R&B was in the early 2010s, you know, we’re coming out of the 90s sound into the early 2000 sound. 2000 sound which was very loud. It was very loud and very interesting and it was a transitional sound and in the 2010s it was whole new school of artists that were coming up that were just defining what would be us moving forward and the sound of R&B and all these beautiful genres. I’ve always written just to write. And I’ve always found it quite entertaining to write to music that’s a little bit left, not so on the nose. So if I’m playing an R&B, I like it to be different. If I’m playing in house music, I’d like it to be different.

That’s where I find the entertainment for myself as an artist. I guess whatever genre it is, I attack it the same way. It’s still with the intention to write a great story or just to pull up a really good feeling. So when the listener hears the music, they fall deeply in love. They feel a chemical rush in their mind or some kind of dopamine effect, deep inside their core, or in their soul. That’s the goal for me always. So I guess whatever genre I’m getting into or whatever it is that I’m feeling at the time, it’s the same process. Just like, how do I make this feel really good and how to make this make sense on this type of thing.

RJ: I thank God for my audacity sometimes. Sometimes I just don’t give a fuck. I think that’s the right approach for me. There are so many different pressures, like societal pressure to keep up with everyone, business pressure, and self-inflicted pressure. When it all hits me, I tend to retreat and retract, just feeling like I don’t give a damn anymore. That’s when I find myself either rebelling musically by taking a left turn so people can’t predict where I’m going, or simply going away and not posting on social media for a long time.

My last hiatus was very long, seven years between projects, but I was privileged to be an independent artist. When you’re your own boss, no one can really tell you anything. You’re just working for yourself, trying to figure it out. I learned so many lessons during that time away from the music business. I was always making music, but I had to learn about the business side, what it meant to partner with people, and how that dance really feels. Sometimes you’re with a team you think will take you to the next level, and they don’t. It takes time to identify who your real people are versus those who are only there for the moment but can’t actually help you. Those are hard lessons, and I was privileged enough to learn them when no eyes were on me. I needed that hiatus to go through all of that. And I’m happy for it. It felt awful at the time, I’ll tell you that. I was having health issues and business issues, and it seemed very chaotic, but out of that chaos came “Play with the Changes”, which was the project that followed that hiatus. From that point forward, I started moving at the pace I wanted. I feel like as artists, we need time. Time is one of the most important things in order to develop as an artist, your sense of self, resilience, and your own empowerment to understand the sharkiness and shadiness of this business. And also just to find your sound. All these things take time. Sometimes you need to go away in order to find yourself again, if that makes any sense. It’s an interesting process.

RJ: I was always making music and painting a lot, just like other artistic outlets, but music never stopped. In the seven years that I went away, we were still making some crazy things which you heard in “Play with the Changes”, even moving into “Through the Wall” as well. These were ideas that were born so early, in that time where I was just going crazy. We were able to repurpose them and make them into these songs, you know, so it’s always worth it in the end.

RJ: I think the reason why I’m able to engage with different collaborators in such a defined and assured way for myself as an artist is because I spent over a decade with my executive producer, KLSH. We developed my personal sound. Because we were so developed and knew the identity of the sound of Rochelle Jordan, which is KLSH Production, throughout the years we were able to engage with other producers in a way where they are coming into my world, they are coming into our world, versus me getting lost in theirs. We are always seeking out producers that also have originality and a strong identity. They are not just doing house music to be trendy. They are not just doing R&B music that is kind of passive. We are always searching for something with extra sauce wherever we can get it. When talking about Kaytranada, he is a producer with that sauce. Talking about Terry Hunter, that is a Chicago house legend. DāM-FunK, he is an LA legend. MPH is incredible in the UK garage and house space. It is just really unreal, actually, these guys that we’ve worked with. And then you have the Rochelle Jordan core sound through KLSH, so you can’t lose. You can’t lose when you understand the formula. There is only winning.

RJ: Yeah, I do. Interestingly enough, I would say “Pressure” and “Play with the Changes” feel the most like the UK to me. I would say “1021” feels like LA. My experience is just so ingrained in my mind with that city because that’s where we created it. And yeah, “Through the Wall” is similar. “Through the Wall” to me feels like all over the world, which is super fun. These projects define these eras so much for me because I’ve been doing this for so long and I was in a particular place in my life with each and every project, so I’m instantly transported back. For some of the earlier projects, I was just a baby. I didn’t know how serious this would get or the cult following that would be developed over the years. But yeah, there’s a lot.

RJ: Yes, exactly, exactly. My god, so much stuff had gone on with each project.

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RJ: Hmm, if I’m speaking honestly and transparently, it’s probably more something that I do to please the audience. I think that’s just the natural way of art, self, and humanity. Artists will never be the same as they once were because we are constantly evolving and changing due to life and the situation at hand. In the beginning, I was writing all the time just for fun because I had so much time. My imagination was going crazy and I was just writing my feelings, perhaps angry at the world, while now I am more strategic. I love to create songs that are smarter or just more relatable and easier to understand and consume. That is not so easy. The thought that you really have to come with it and make sure that it’s tight and sounds a certain way helps my skill. It helps me to challenge myself to think a little bit more. I am always going to write because I love writing, but it definitely is for my fans now. I think that’s something I have had to accept over the past couple of years too, that I am making music for people now even more so than for myself. When you enter the music industry as a fan, you hear a song and wonder how they did it. To a consumer, it is magic. Now that I am the magician, the trick is not magic anymore, if that makes sense. It feels different. It probably happened to all the artists I have ever loved, where I am overwhelmed with what they are giving me and they are probably just glad I like it. Their job is to give me that feeling more so than to give it to themselves. That is part of the purpose, and I am fine with that. Whether I am writing because I really feel this way or because I need to work on a new album, it is still part of the purpose. I accept the challenge because I know it is for the greater good of other people now.

RJ: Yeah, exactly. The truth is, I love the end result. It might be hard in the grit of doing the thing, but with the end result, I’m always like, ‘Yes, baby. Yes, yes.’ I am still feeling that way, so that’s good.

RJ: Yeah, I feel like most artists are. We’re kind of crazy.

RJ: It is very important. Visuals are one of the most important connectors for people that listen to music. They also want to see it. They want to be in the world sonically and visually. Throughout the years, I have definitely gone through my different eras. I was just talking to Chrysalis about it, a DJ that I roll with. I was grungy back in the day. I thought I was like the black Avril Lavigne,  just with big hair. Gosh, I was so experimental, with black lipstick, just very gothy. I went through that stage and the braid stage, just different times. Where I am now is more of a refined, seasoned woman in the industry, empowered, with the big hair, the class, and the chicness of it all. But all the times before, I wouldn’t trade them for anything. That is part of the growth, that is part of the development, and part of seeing yourself in different stages. I look back and reflect and it was cool. In the end, I am glad I did all that so I could come to this point now where it feels different, just like the music feels different. Now, I feel like I am very much centered. As far as visuals go, it was hard over the years being independent to deliver visuals because I didn’t have a major label to help me with the resources to really enter a world and shape the visual dynamics to reflect what was happening on each album. But we did a really good job of having people understand the visual world as well. Even if it was very minimal, we were able to pull it off in the right way. Now I am able to really push the visual energy with this particular album, which is really fun. I am finding it to be really interesting because it is just as much of an effort as it is to create the music. I am feeling excited about people seeing further in the year just what the visuals are and how they connect to this album. It’s actually really fun to create visuals, because it’s the same concept as the music. It has to be well thought out.

RJ: I think my advice came more through experience than being told something. We can be told so many things, especially when we are young, but you don’t feel how hot the stove is until you touch it. I learned at the end of the hiatus I went through that you have to remember why you’re doing this. Why are you making music? Why are you an artist? You have to remember the ‘why’. So often in the music industry, with people who have been there for a long time and want to support you, there can be a dance between the artist and a manager or a label that they feel can take them past the finish line. People in these executive positions understand that you are vulnerable because you are an artist seeking a team. At that point, a power dynamic issue arises. Because you are vulnerable and trying to build a team for yourself, you can fall victim to the power you perceive these people to have. You can start to feel inferior, as if you are the artist working for the label, or for a major producer, or for a manager. Then you lose yourself, you start to feel small, and you become a victim of the industry because people will take advantage of your vulnerability. They will take advantage of that because they see that they can. So you have to constantly empower yourself and remember that you are the artist. You have a manager, and they work for you. You have a label, and they work for you. You have a vision; don’t let anyone infiltrate that. I was very lucky to have KLSH by my side again so that we had two heads seeking out who was coming in with good intentions and who was coming in to take over a situation because they saw potential in it. They want it to be theirs instead of ours and what we developed. So yeah, that was a really valuable lesson, just to remember why and to continue to empower yourself and remember that you are the artist.

RJ: Yeah, so similar to what I said, remember the why. Remember why you’re an artist and what you came here for, like what your purpose is. I also think you should refrain from following trends. If you’re looking around at what everyone else is doing and what the fad is right now, you’re going to fall into the ocean and get completely swept up. You’re going to be another brick in the wall. You have to find something for yourself and find the originality within yourself. Making music is hard enough, so doing it because you’re following everyone else is going to be a very tough road.

Music is creation, it’s showcasing who you are and the gift that God has given you. That is the light you want to follow, and that’s the one that’s going to keep you making music every day. That’s what’s going to make you a happy person in this industry. So that would be my advice to newer artists coming up.

RJ: Oh, thank you, Sophia. I appreciate that.

RJ: See you there!

Maara: I’ve been making music for over a decade. I’ve been at it for quite a while, and I think it solidified pretty quickly when I started making dance music. That was in 2019. When I show my friends my music, they’re like, ‘Oh, it sounds like you.’ I think, because I can make different genres, the question for me personally is always: What is my sound? Even though to other people it’s recognizable. I think it’s certain stylistic things that are recognizably mine within the production realm; but however, I think because I don’t stick to one genre, I’m always thinking about what is my sound. So, to answer your question, I think there’s always been a through line with all my work. There’s always things that make it sound like mine, even when I think I’m doing something really different. People always tell me it still sounds like me, it sounds like Maara.

M: I felt more free to explore different sounds and more uninhibited in terms of what I was doing. I guess we’ll see how that holds up over time. You know, as things evolve and as people grow, the newness of the project Maara will fade over time, and maybe I’ll want to explore different aliases and start different projects to do a different sound. But there’s no classic alter ego for it. I’ve played around with ideas, and I’m doing a minimal dance project. And when I still put it out under Maara, I feel like it’s going to sound so different. But then again, when I show people this music, maybe they’re still going to be like, ‘It sounds like you.’ But maybe just to conceptualize the approach differently, it would help psychologically having the option to change my artist name again there. But we’ll see what happens.

M: I think the crowd needs to be there and needs to be with it. When I play for crowds where there’s that energy and receptiveness, and I sense an open-mindedness to what I play, people who just want to party and have fun, that’s the crowd for me. If it’s in a club, I really like playing in a dark room with not too much light on me. That allows me to feel immersed, and it feels like it’s more about the dance and less about the DJ booth.

M: I’m a freestyler, so yes and no. Yes, to an extent. Especially with a longer set, I want to pace myself and play things I don’t normally get to play. I play with a lot more patience, and I’m not just going to play high-energy bangers the whole time. I want people to wait for it a bit and let me work my way into it. And when I feel like the crowd has that patience and receptiveness, I can do it. But then there are other times when I don’t feel that at all, and I just have to start playing bangers and then figure it out from there, how to rebalance the energy.

M: It really depends a lot on the party and the overall vibe. I think that in North America there is, at least right now, a different sound going on. Some clubs I play at are really special and amazing and I just don’t think I could get that in Europe. But then some European gigs have been really fun and lit and I probably wouldn’t get the same energy in North America. I guess whether I can really do me or express myself comes down to the party and the crowd.

M: Yeah, I would have to say New York City. It is consistently good, the crowd is really committed and there for it. I have only played there a couple of times now and even the ones where I did not feel like I played that well, I still felt that energy there. It felt special and it has just always been consistent.

M: I try to stay as focused as possible and I would say I am a little bit more in my logical brain. I keep a bit of a thought process behind it and I like to treat it like work because I want to do a good job. But some parties are so fun to play that the boundary becomes a bit more blurred and I get to really enjoy myself and have fun with it.

The crowd is so there for it that it doesn’t even matter what I play next, it’s gonna be really good. Other times it’s not like that at all.

M: Yes, definitely. Because you enter into this circuit of producing and DJing, and you get recognition for it. Then there is this pressure to continue, especially in the context of the capitalist world we live in. Give the people what they want, which in my case is a lot of dance music. But I try to balance that with my ethical and authentic drives and desires because at the end of the day, I truly make music for myself. I make stuff because making music is like a sonic journal for me.

I just really enjoy the process. I have a wide range of sounds and stuff I want to do. And even with my album coming out, it’s not really dance music per se, but I’m associated with dance music. But I’m always going to do what I want.

M: Yeah, I like it to an extent because it keeps me focused and locked in. I feel like I always have to be working towards something or working on something. I have a fear of not actualizing my full potential or dying and feeling like I could have done more. I never want to get complacent with anything either.

M: I try to depersonalize things as much as possible. Divesting some of your ego from it is a really good thing because the worst is when you are thinking, ‘Oh, it could have been better,’ or ‘Maybe the crowd did not like what I played.’ It is about having confidence in yourself and thinking, ‘I am here for a reason.’ I am doing this for a reason, and there are going to be really good gigs and then there are going to be not so good gigs, and it is all fine. I am never going to feel well rested. I am never going to feel in the mood for it anyway. But I think at the end of the day, I really try to just adapt for a second. I will sleep when I sleep. I will be okay. Being tired is not the end of the world. I used to get anxious before playing when I was really tired and felt like shit. But now I try to really be like Buddha about it.

M: I kind of do both. When I was starting out, I definitely had model tracks. I would try to emulate things, but I feel like I would always end up somewhere else. I started off wanting to do one thing, but it ended up being something different, which is also nice. Currently, it is a bit more intuitive. I just start. I am trying to find new inspiration and make the dance music I want to make. I want to sonically explore the next few sounds I want to cover in my production. But I guess there is a bit of pre planning of sorts.

M: I made it over a span of time. I think the earliest track on there is actually from 2021, followed by others from 2022 and 2023. Those are some of the earlier ones, while many of the others are more recent. It depends on the specific song. With some of them, I was very heartbroken, distraught, and anxious. I was dealing with a lot of things. Other songs were more about longing and lust, and how people relate to themselves.

M: Definitely. I think some of the songs were a collaborative effort between me, Francis, and Patrick Hollins in Montreal. Originally there was a one minute loop on my computer with just a very rough vocal idea and we went back to that song. They read the chords of the sample, sampled it and then we really scratched it out into a full song. And with the vocal stuff Pat really pushed me to hit the right notes. I am not really a singer, I am just making vocal music and writing songs. So it was really interesting to be privy to that process. To really go back to the tracks on the album and dive deep and do the extra 10 percent on it. I think that has made a difference and I am proud of it. It is hard sometimes and at the same time, it is like whatever. I made the songs because they felt cathartic and important for me to write. I am not thinking too deeply about it.

M: I mean, the obvious answer for me would be the people in my life, the relationships I have inspire me a lot. My friends, the dynamics I have with certain friends. Yeah, just having a sense of humor about things and making myself laugh about stuff is very important to my process and not taking everything so seriously.

M:I mean, it’s all been a surprising sequence of events to some degree. You know, I wasn’t really expecting fully doing music. But in a way, I also never even thought about it. I was just like, next thing, next, next. And I think I’ve always kind of moved through life like that, especially with music. I’ve just always stuck to this drive and being like, ‘Who even gives a shit, I just want to make music’ kind of got me where I am. Because all I’m focused on is making music and everything else falls to the side. I’m very disorganized about everything else. So, I guess something I wouldn’t have expected is still having this apartment and not changing any of the furniture. Or that I feel really happy, I don’t think I would have imagined that.

M: On a creative level, collaborating with other people.

M: My dream collaboration would be Kelela, that would be sick! And then I am working with Maricas and Context on two different EPs. It is a music label, and I think, just finding time to create and rebalance myself out in terms of my inspiration right now, just having a creative reset. Just continuing to make music and be good about planning things. And what was the other question about DJing?

M: Yeah, I think just applying myself. You know, prepping and taking the time to dig and really putting effort and struggle into everything from wanting to write music on the weekdays to digging in and then getting ready for the gigs. If I am really deep in a project, sometimes I will be producing up until the gig. And then, I want to be more locked in. You know, every gig I play one different song or, you know, I find one song a week or something similar for sure. That would maybe be, yeah, just strengthening me as a DJ.

M: A bit of both. I have gone back and forth between wanting to chill for a second and thinking, ‘Okay, what is next?’ I want to be locked in the studio whenever I can. But I am going to Sao Paulo now, and then I am going to Rio after playing a show there. I should just embrace it and relax.

M: Thank you!