Terminal V Podcast 060 || Mha Iri

Mha Iri manages to harness the power of driving techno while also capturing plenty of evocative emotions with her melodies. The UK-based producer has landed on the likes of 1605, Orange Recordings and OVER Records, often working in her own ethereal vocals for extra layers of late-night enchantment.

In a very short space of time, she has managed to carve out her own musical niche and won fans across Europe as a result. From Berlin to Sydney she has also made her mark on global dance floors and now gives us a taste of what she brings with this week’s mix. It’s a potent selection that is accompanied by an interview in which Mha Iri talks about her upcoming Drumcode EP, why she likes to use her own vocals, how she approached the mix and plenty more…

How has 2023 been for you? Seems like a breakout year from this side, does it from your side?

2023 has been a great year so far but I do think every year feels like a breakout year in some sense as I always find every passing year brings new achievements and different goals to put my mind to and work towards.

You have a new EP coming on Drumcode – how did you approach it, did you have a plan of what you wanted to say specifically on this EP?

I just write music that resonates with me at the time of creation and if it suits a certain label then that’s great. I don’t try to write music specifically to suit a label otherwise I find I get a creative block. Luckily Drumcode liked the tracks that I submitted and that has been really encouraging.

It’s had early support from Charlotte De Witte – does that mean anything beyond being nice to hear? Does it give you the external encouragement or vindication you may look for once the music is out into the world?

It is nice to see support from highly successful artists as it means that my music has the ability to reach a wider audience and for more people to potentially enjoy dancing to, listening to and feeling my tracks.

You often add your own vocals to your music – have you always been comfortable hearing your own voice or did it take a while? Have you ever had lessons?

I was a singer/songwriter before I got involved in the production side of things so it was something I was already comfortable with before I started.

Are the vocals about adding a human element into the mix or are the words themselves important? Where does inspiration for them come from?

Usually there is a message within the vocals for the listener. For example I wrote ‘Your Heart’ during peak covid time when it seemed there was a lot of division between people because they had different opinions and the government, media etc was actively encouraging this division. It made me sad to see how fear could be weaponized and morph into intolerance and discrimination. So I wrote ‘your heart’ and the words are simple ‘open up your heart’. For me it felt important to spread a message of love and to remind people to open their hearts to one another. I always try to use vocals that convey a positive message regardless of how little the impact may be.

What do you have coming up?

I’ve got a number of really nice gigs coming up in different countries so I am excited about that specifically a very special new years day gig but I’m not sure I can announce that yet so I’ll just say it’s been a bucket list gig for a while.

Tell us about your mix, the aim you had with it, and what you wanted it to say.

I enjoy regular peak time techno and hard techno plus a bit of trance so I wanted to explore that within a set, make it cohesive and bring it back down with something beautiful at the end, and so that’s what I did.

What gear did you use, is that important to you in any way whether in the booth or studio?

I used pioneer cdj x-dj 1000 mk2’s and a pioneer djm 350 as that’s my set up at home. It’s not overly important although I do much prefer a pioneer mixer to allen and heath but that’s just due to using pioneer for years and personal preference.

 

Interview by Kristan Caryl