“Rïa Mehta – Metamorphosis, Authenticity, and the Journey from Playlists to Productions” on the Virtual Sessions 8/11/25

In this dynamic Virtual Session, Darran Bruce welcomes New York-based DJ and producer Rïa Mehta for a conversation that blends career-defining moments, creative philosophy, and personal insights. Rïa shares her transformative experience at Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE), describing it as a unique space for authentic networking, community building, and meeting inspiring women in the industry.

 

The discussion shifts to her debut album Metamorphosis—a two-year creative journey that evolved from individual tracks into a cohesive narrative. Refusing to alter her sound to fit label demands, Rïa stayed true to her artistic vision, crafting a diverse body of work that moves through progressive house, melodic techno, indie dance, and beyond. She credits the support of female artist networks for encouraging her to honor her style and originality.

 

Rïa opens up about her unconventional path into music, from curating Spotify playlists to discovering production during the pandemic using GarageBand, eventually transitioning into professional work with Ableton. She reflects on the challenges of mastering, the value of consistency, and why investing in self-education has been one of her smartest career decisions.

 

The conversation also explores social media’s role in artist branding, the balance between performance and production, and the importance of authenticity in a rapidly changing industry. Rïa shares her passion for travel, her goals for future performances, and her mantra for navigating creative burnout—embrace the ebb and flow while staying connected to your passion.

 

From festival dreams to industry insights, this episode captures Rïa Mehta’s evolving artistry and her commitment to growth, community, and musical exploration.

 

Host: Darran Bruce
Guest: Rïa Mehta
Location: Virtual Studios, Seattle WA & New York, NY

Overview:
Darran Bruce connects with DJ and producer Rïa Mehta to discuss her debut album Metamorphosis, her creative journey, networking at Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE), and the balance between artistry and industry demands.

Topics Covered:

Amsterdam Dance Event: Insights on authentic networking, community building, and inspiration from female industry leaders.

Metamorphosis Album: Two-year creative process evolving from individual tracks into a cohesive, multi-genre narrative.

Artistic Integrity: Staying true to her sound despite label pressures to change direction.

Female Artist Networks: Support and encouragement to embrace her originality.

Journey into Music: From curating Spotify playlists to producing on GarageBand during the pandemic, then advancing to Ableton.

Production Skills: Learning mixing and mastering through self-education and consistent practice.

Social Media & Branding: Leveraging platforms for visibility while maintaining authenticity.

Balancing Roles: Managing time between performing, producing, and professional development.

Creative Burnout: Embracing natural ebbs and flows in creativity while staying connected to passion.

Travel & Inspiration: Drawing influence from cultural experiences and global perspectives.

Future Goals: Expanding festival appearances and exploring new collaborative projects.

Industry Advice: Prioritize self-investment, consistency, and building genuine connections over quick wins.

Call to Action:
Follow Rïa Mehta on Instagram @riamehtamusic and stream Metamorphosis on all major platforms.
Discover more exclusive interviews and live sessions at thedjsessions.com

[Darran]
Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the DJ Sessions presents the virtual sessions. I’m your host Darran and right now I’m sitting in the virtual studios in Seattle, Washington and coming in all the way from New York City. We have Rïa Mehta.

How are you doing today?

[Rïa Mehta]
Hi, how are you? I’m awesome.

[Darran]
Awesome. What’s the weather like out there?

[Rïa Mehta]
It’s actually like 80 something and sunny for a change. So no complaints.

[Darran]
As opposed to what for NYC weather.

[Rïa Mehta]
Yeah, exactly.

[Darran]
You know, no, it’s actually right now it’s 83 and sunny here in Seattle. You know, it’s all those rumors that say it always rains here. Sometimes it does.

It’s awesome. I’m planning to come out there. I’m coming out there in October.

You know, I’m super excited to be back in the big city again. I’m going to have some fun while we’re there. And I know, but you’re going to be in ADE when we come probably.

I think I’m not sure. I’ve been to ADE twice. It’s a phenomenal experience.

Went in 2022 and 2023. I can’t explain it. I try to preach it whenever I can to somebody who has never been, never gone if they’re serious about being in the industry.

Why is it so important for you to go to ADE? What do you look forward to doing when you go to something like that?

[Rïa Mehta]
Yeah, you know, I’m not a good networker, if you will. And I feel like ADE is a lot of really just artists, but also like label people. And it’s everybody’s just there to meet one another.

There’s no pressure to kind of be somebody. You just, you know, you go as yourself and you will find artists of all levels attending. So I, the first time I went, I made so many new friends.

And to be very honest, I made a lot of new girlfriends. And actually that’s kind of what kept me going because I don’t actually know that many women artists or women identifying artists. And ADE was the first time I really got to kind of hang out with really cool people and, you know, feel like I was part of the crew.

[Darran]
You know, that is the, when I went, it was my first time traveling to Europe. It was my first time traveling abroad like that. And first time ever going to a major event like that as well.

I mean, I went to Winter Music Conference in 2009. That was crazy. But nothing could really experience, you know, nothing could set the standard for something like ADE.

And if I had to go between the two, I’d choose ADE. But, you know, that was back when Ultra and Winter Music Conference were kind of getting along and it was all one big thing. You know, and then when they separated it off, it was kind of like, you know, whatever.

So, but ADE, you’re right. There is a very laissez-faire attitude. It’s such a beautiful city, too.

Very easy to get around. The second time I went there, you know, I felt kind of like, oh, I know where to go. Oh, I know what to expect.

I know where to watch out for the bicyclists.

[Rïa Mehta]
Exactly. And it’s kind of cold at the end of October. It’s still worth going, especially coming from New York.

It feels like, okay, I’m in the same climate. And yeah, it’s just, you get people from all over the world are there. So, you know, for me, it’s a really cool experience.

[Darran]
I still carry my ADE umbrella with me that I got in 2022 in my backpack as an emergency umbrella. And I had to use it last year at Rave the Planet in Berlin when I was there. Because at the end of the event, this torrential downpour came.

And I was kind of coming off the Riverside Studios float, the truck there, because I was up there streaming live and everything was on. And luckily, I had this umbrella with me. And I ended up curling up underneath a tree and like sitting there.

It was just so crazy.

[Rïa Mehta]
Yeah, they have a lot of rain. They’re used to all of that stuff.

[Darran]
Yeah, yeah, I was like, I didn’t expect it was such a beautiful day. I didn’t expect it to come down. You know, yeah, that’s umbrellas that year.

I was like, okay, what to expect. But no, it’s always beautiful weather at ADE, always a great time. You know, like you said, you get to network, you work the circuit.

Unfortunately, I’m always doing interviews during the whole time. So, you know, but one time we had a really great place and kind of where the Rodeo Drive is of Amsterdam. Last year, or the year before, or after that, we got a houseboat.

[Rïa Mehta]
Oh, nice.

[Darran]
It was a huge houseboat. Can’t talk about what happened at the houseboat. But it’s all fun stuff.

No, it’s just nice to be there, beautiful city. You know, I only got to go to one conference there. And interesting enough, it was one with Carl Cox.

Oh, wow. Yeah, we got in last minute on press pad. It was like a room full of 200 people, maybe.

And we were waiting in the press line for like 45 minutes to an hour, and they weren’t gonna let press in. And then they said, Okay, and luckily, we were like 10th in line for press.

[Rïa Mehta]
Nice.

[Darran]
And we got into the show. And Carl was doing this whole q&a thing, pretty big show thing. And he was talking about how he’s reinventing himself now doing his or like his kind of organic sets, where he does everything off a laptop and then has a CDJ next to him.

But he’s like, you’ll never hear the same show for me twice ever again.

[Rïa Mehta]
Yeah, that’s, that’s what makes him so unique.

[Darran]
And yeah, he’s like, and even he was joking about himself by saying, Oh, yeah, here’s Carl reinventing himself again. It was just really awesome. You know, being there and you know, who you can meet and what you can do in Amsterdam is wonderful as well.

But you know, you just spent two years in working on a project. And I love the title of this project. And I’ll tell you why in a few moments.

But two years in the making your debut album Metamorphosis. Tell our DJ Sessions fans all about that. What went into that?

[Rïa Mehta]
Yeah, I think when I started working on it, I don’t think I had an album in mind. But I had started with, you know, the first track I made actually was all of me. Then I made I want you and they’re so different.

So I kept going. I think my struggle was finding a place for the music. And when you do get replies, you know, from labels, many times they’ll ask you to change the music to fit their label, which is totally fair.

But that was something I didn’t want to do. And I was pretty sure that I wanted to stick with my sound. So I made the difficult decision to not change it.

After, you know, going back and forth, you know, with my friends and fellow DJs and producers, and I kind of stuck with my guns. And once I had about, I think I had like five or six tracks, I could have broken them up into two EPs at that point. Because if you hear the album, like the middle of the album is kind of dark, melodic techno-ish, it kind of goes together.

And then the bottom half of the album is very, it’s almost like, I don’t know, it doesn’t really fit into any genre. So that could be its own, you know, EP. But I liked the idea of kind of telling my story and my kind of depth and breadth of, you know, what I can do in one narrative.

So when I had about seven tracks, I’m like, I think I’m going to make two more. And I want to make this a whole cohesive story. And so, yeah, it’s probably been, now that it’s done, and it’s out in the world, I’m kind of like, okay, I don’t know if I want to work on anything less than an album anymore.

Because it’s really, truly, as an artist, it’s your soul in a way, you know. And an EP kind of, or even singles, they just, for me personally, they’re not feeling like they’re going to be able to tell that story anymore. And so it’s been, what, two, six weeks since the album came out, and I’m kind of like, I’m on pause, to be very honest.

I’m hoping when I go back to ADE and, you know, at the next shows I’m playing, I’ll kind of get some inspiration again. But for right now, I’m just, you know, taking it all in, and I haven’t started anything new just yet.

[Darran]
No, I totally understand about taking a break, hiatus, working, doing this show for 16 years, you know, and being in the industry for 35 years. I’ve had my burnout times as well, or pause times. I just recently came out of an eight and a half month hiatus, where a lot of people were like, where did Darran go?

What happened to the DJ sessions? He’s not posting every day about something that’s new and exciting over there. And I just kind of had to regroup, re-plan, re-strategize, get everything back in order again, and get that wind back underneath my sails.

I’ve seen the results in multiple different areas, where that happens, and you’re right, you can have a little bit of burnout, or, you know, you’re like, okay, what’s next?

[Rïa Mehta]
Yeah, and everybody keeps asking me, like, what are you going to do next? And honestly, I want to say another album, but I don’t know if I have two more years. It feels like so long, at least in the beginning, it feels like, oh, that’s so long.

But when you’re in it, when I was in it, at least, I never felt like this was, you know, such a long period, because I was like, the next track now, the next track. At one point, I had three tracks going at the same time. And I was like, okay, maybe I need to do like a remix, or something that’s not, you know, related to anything.

So I’ve been very fortunate, you know, I have really great female artists that I can look up to. There’s this network called Change the Beat, you know, it’s kind of spearheaded by Sydney Blue, who, you know, has been in the industry for a couple decades now. And then there’s this, there’s so many smaller initiatives now.

And I’m so like, proud to just know all these like, amazing women. And so a lot of this kind of like this push off, like stay true to your sound also came from these people, because they didn’t tell me to change what I was making, it was kind of like stick to what you want to do and be true to who you are. And I really appreciate that.

[Darran]
You know, I was just talking with one of our resident DJs the other day, who’s now dabbling into music production. And that’s one of the echoing, kind of echo chambers I hear a lot from producers in the industry is, you know, don’t go out there and try to make a sound and sound like somebody else. Find something you like, stick with that, and then find yourself into those circles around that genre.

But you know, don’t go out and make a song and go, Oh, I want it to be house, trance, drum and bass and dubstep. And I’m trying to mix all these elements into one song and make it that’s my music. That’s what it’s like.

Hey, that’s cool. Not anyone that wants to do it. But even if you’re a fan of the all you can eat buffet, keep my food separated on the plate.

Yeah, like I’m a Virgo. I’m like, precisely. Don’t mix the carrots and peas with the mashed potatoes.

Now I’ll mix them all and put the gravy on top and eat it with the chicken dipping in.

[Rïa Mehta]
Exactly, exactly.

[Darran]
Well, yeah, you just have to have your perspective and get into your groove and your genre of what you want to like and begin not to experience that burnout. What I found was interesting, though, is your title, your debut album, Metamorphosis. My first short film I ever filmed in college, the title was Metamorphosis.

[Rïa Mehta]
Nice.

[Darran]
Yeah, and I was really proud of it because the teacher had said at the time, I’d never really filmed a short film before. It was only about 10 and a half minutes long. But, you know, the challenge was there because the instructor had said, you know, he showed us this movie called Russian Ark.

I don’t know if you’ve ever heard about it or not.

[Rïa Mehta]
No.

[Darran]
It’s a really beautiful piece and it’s all one continuous shot. I mean, there’s no tricks. They have documented the background of it.

It’s like a huge continuous shot of this Russian mansion they go through and there’s all this choreographing going on with dancers and movement and everything. It’s all one take. He shows this in the class and he says, oh, I don’t recommend any of you go out and try to do a continuous shot for your first project.

Yeah. He didn’t even want us to film a project. He wanted us to do something really short, simple, sweet.

Here I come with this television background, public access. I’m like, and I’ve been playing with a camera since I was six years old. I’m like, I’m going to make a continuous shot though.

[Rïa Mehta]
Yeah. It’s called a mise en scene, isn’t it? Or something like that.

What’s that? It’s called a mise en scene.

[Darran]
Probably if I went to film school, I’d know that term. But I didn’t go to film school. I went to school for business.

[Rïa Mehta]
Up here.

[Darran]
Wow. That’s a whole other story. I wanted to learn how to edit with Final Cut Pro, so I took a Final Cut Pro class in college.

[Rïa Mehta]
Gotcha.

[Darran]
First semester in college, I took Final Cut Pro. Gotcha. Along with accounting.

I’m the accountant that knows how to make a film. Basically, I used two tracks that I really love by DJ Shadow that really fit the whole narrative of the film really awesomely. Yeah, it was a cool project.

Metamorphosis, your first debut album, and my first film is Metamorphosis. Cool.

[Rïa Mehta]
Metamorphosis was actually one of the last tracks I worked on, if I’m looking at the whole body of work. I had heard this artist, her name is Galia. She’s based in Europe.

I had heard her voice on some colorized music. I was just blown away. She was so talented.

I dared to DM her on Instagram and be like, hey, I know you’re a colorized vocalist, but if you’re ever open to working with non-colorized music artists, let me know. She was so sweet. She was like, oh hell yeah, let’s do this.

What’s really interesting is, at that point, I had made about five tracks and they were very dance floor heavy, not as vocal heavy. I told her I really want one track that really translates the whole album for me, which is like, I’m at this place in my life where I’ve put in all the work. The thing with me, and I say this to everybody who meets me, is that I’m kind of a jack of all trades.

Similar to you, I’ve also been to business school, but I also went to film school. I went to hair and makeup school. I’ve basically done the entire gamut of schools at this point.

The reason that I’ve stuck around with music is because I just feel like there’s so much to learn all the time, and that’s what keeps me in it. When you listen to the whole body of work, it’s a constantly changing feeling, in my opinion, when you go from track to track. There is subtle changes.

You start dreamy, then you’re going to progressive house, and you’re going into melodic techno, then into indie dance, then into these multi-genre tracks. That whole journey, to me, is an embodiment of who I am as a person, because even I never can stay in one place and need to keep moving. I kind of told her that.

I told her, I’m going to give you full leeway or leverage to write the lyrics as you want, but here’s where I am so far. I feel like this is a change for me, but I’m committing to this ever-changing version of myself. Those were the vocals she wrote, and it just blew my mind because she just hit the nail on the head.

The vocals talk about making peace with your past. It’s just an ever-changing life situation.

[Darran]
Absolutely. I just love that term, metamorphosis, of how you just basically beautifully explained that. Then it was kind of like the core theme of my film was metamorphosis and changing and growing and adapting to the situation.

That’s basically what my short film is all about. I wanted to make a comic book series off of it one day. Oh, wow.

I don’t send questions out before I interview, so they don’t know what’s coming up, but right into my next question was, what was or is your strongest motivation to pursue a career in music? After all of that, you could have done business, hair and makeup, film school, music.

[Rïa Mehta]
It’s going to be a crazy story to hear, but while I was in film school, I started making this Spotify playlist of music that I would use in a movie if I was making one. I got really into that playlist, but I kept it on private. At the same time, I was going to all these amazing parties in New York, getting really influenced by the underground scene.

I started this chill house post on my Spotify. This was like 2017, 2018. I had no interest in getting into music at the time, but I wasn’t even DJing yet, to be honest.

People started reaching out to me on Spotify. At that time, Spotify used to have a DM feature via Spotify and Instagram DMs. If I was a DJ, they wanted to follow me as an artist. I was like, I’m not a DJ.

Why are you asking me this question? But after more than a few did, and this friend of a friend who I respect his taste in music, he also said the same thing a couple of times. Like, yo, you should be a DJ.

I was like, okay. Come 2019, I buy myself this little DJ 400, and I say to myself, very realistically, if I can make use of this $200 controller, then will I think about this seriously? Because it might be too complicated.

I might not like it. It could happen. I started putting out some guest mixes on my SoundCloud, nothing fancy.

That controller is super hard to use. But it’s time to exercise. And people started saying, yo, this is cool.

One of my friends who used to show these Raptor collectibles, they were like, you want to play for us? And I was like, yeah. So it was like 30 people at the time, and I was like, I’ll play.

But the first show I played really is, the first time I played for people, I played those guest mixes, is the moment I knew I wanted to play my own music. And that was crazy to my friends at the time, because the first time I played, I was like, oh, my God, I can’t wait to play my own music someday. And they were like, you just started DJing?

This is not something that you want to pursue. And in retrospect, if somebody had told me how much work, I love being a DJ, and I love playing, but it is ultimately buttons. And everything is, you have to take a USB to a show now.

It’s so much easier. But music production is an entirely different field. There’s this engineering aspect for mixing and all of that stuff that nobody talks about how complicated that is.

On the other end, I don’t have a music theory background. So how do you pick the melodies that have to work together? All of that’s a completely different science.

And then obviously, you have to be brutally honest, like, does this actually sound good? Or am I just crazy? Or am I being partial because it’s my music?

So if somebody told me it was going to be all of those different aspects, I probably would have gotten intimidated and not gotten into it. But believe me, COVID happened. And come March of 2020, I’ve already been kind of homebound for about three weeks at this point.

And I am bored out of my mind. You know, Netflix hadn’t really started with all these like shows yet. So I’m messing around on my computer.

And I opened GarageBand, which is for kids.

[Darran]
I don’t know what happens.

[Rïa Mehta]
But at three nights, I basically sit here like four or five hours each night. And I made three different tracks, I sent them to a bunch of friends, they were like, this is mixed terribly. But you need to learn Ableton because this is not bad for like a free, you know, DAW.

And the rest is history. Like I just, I got into it. And I think like I said before, you know, I’m super passionate about like learning.

And every year I try to like learn something new. So that in itself has kept me like kind of interested in music because no matter how good I think I am today, I know I can always be better tomorrow. So, you know, I’ll take a class, I’ll take like a YouTube tutorial.

I’m constantly like learning these new things that I would never like didn’t know before. And that’s what keeps me in it. Like it really does.

[Darran]
And if you could describe your music in three words, what would you call it?

[Rïa Mehta]
And I would say like bassy is almost like the third word I would use because I love a good track with a good bass. Good solid low end, you know, just to keep the dance floor going. And even in my like softer music, I like a good bass line.

So I’m just really addicted to that.

[Darran]
And do you master all your tracks yourself? Or do you send them out for mastering?

[Rïa Mehta]
No, no, no, no. When I first started sending out labels, tracks to labels, I would, you know, SoundCloud has this automatic mastering one. There’s a bunch of other websites.

I would just do a quick master on that and before sending it out just because, you know, you don’t want to sound awful. But honestly, I stopped doing that to maybe like two years ago. Once I knew that my mixing had gotten to a place where I was comfortable and it wasn’t going to sound terrible.

I just ran a quick home master myself. But most labels that I’ve worked with in the past want to use their own mastering engineers. That’s why I don’t end up mastering it myself.

[Darran]
That’s good to know. That’s a piece of advice. I don’t produce music, so I would never know that.

But that’s a good piece of advice for people to understand and know out there. And definitely like I was just in a conversation with somebody that’s new producing music and said they sent me a track. I said, listen to this.

And I’m like, all right, cool. I know it’s his third track that he’s ever made using Ableton. I get it.

But he shared it into an open forum. And one of the first things that a producer came in and said is, before he even listens to it, he goes, have you mastered this yet? Yeah, you can tell.

Obviously, he knows he knows the textbook. Like, here’s what you do to make a song. You know, I actually had a conversation that maybe you should like look at some official courses.

He’s doing the YouTube video route. But like, when I worked for Apple, I was a certified trainer. I worked my way up the corporate ladder, worked my way up the ranks to be one of 300 people in the world.

But then I was also certified to train trainers in their high end software. Not to become director, editors, not to become musicians, to use the software. And I said, maybe you should buy a book to start there to understand the basics.

GarageBand is pretty, like you said, intuitive.

[Rïa Mehta]
Yeah, it’s a good starter. If you can’t figure out GarageBand, I would strongly advise not to get into production. That’s really the entryway for music production.

[Darran]
Exactly. No, it’s a great little tool. I mean, back when I was working for Apple, I believe Trent Reznor had released a pack, like a remix pack.

And he put it out there for free. That was all the GarageBand things for his song that you can do in GarageBand. It never caught on.

It’s like something that other musicians did. It was really cool, though. You get that.

And then he had like a remix competition. Kind of like before Stems came out. Somebody would send the stems and say, here you go.

Boom. He was doing it with GarageBand and sending all the stuff and go make your own songs using GarageBand. I thought that was a really cool project.

Trent Reznor.

[Rïa Mehta]
Yeah, exactly. I was like, whoa.

[Darran]
Okay, cool. So you’re right. Getting started with something like that.

And that’s the dabble. And that’s what I tell people in training at Apple. They go and they want to buy Final Cut Pro.

They want to buy Logic. And it’s like, whoa. Just because you heard this artist uses it, doesn’t mean going and getting it or spending $5,000 on a computer.

Let’s start you out here. And a lot of customers would come back. I was really topping sales there.

They come back and go, I’m so glad you didn’t make me spend $2,500, $3,000, $5,000 on this. You got me a MacBook and you got me GarageBand. I started playing with that.

I had my one camera and I started playing with iMovie. And that’s all I really needed to get this in and make it work. Do what you need.

The rest is history. But yeah, definitely starting somewhere. I’m glad you had that experience with using GarageBand and found out you loved it.

[Rïa Mehta]
Because of COVID, we couldn’t really go anywhere or do anything. I mean, that had such a big part to play. Because if I did have things to do, I’m a huge traveler, by the way.

[Darran]
I can kind of tell that from your Instagram.

[Rïa Mehta]
Pre-COVID, I was averaging seven to nine new countries a year. Since COVID, it’s been about six to seven. I’m not targeting a number, but I like to travel.

Had it not been for COVID, I actually may have never become a music producer because I would have been on my next trip. But you know, life is unpredictable. So I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I’m so grateful that it did.

[Darran]
I don’t want to use the word envy. I feel it’s a little too strong, but that’s exactly the level of I want to get to is about six to seven, nine trips. That’d be awesome.

I’d be on the road. But the cool thing is, because of the technology, the world we live in now, I can take my show on the road and do it anywhere in the world, one, with virtual interviews, but two, I can also be on the ground and doing the in-person interviews and setting those up, which is one of the reasons why I went to ADE and working with Martin Jensen over at Riverside Studios, going back to Germany, going to Mexico. Later this year down for Dreamfields and those kind of things.

Get out there into the bigger world of things. There’s so much out there and there’s so much food. Oh my God, I love food.

I’m a foodie. So I love trying the food for the real, on the streets, in the area. Although we did find a really good barbecue joint in Amsterdam.

My friend who travels with me a lot, she’s from Kansas City, and she’s like, everywhere we go, she goes, I’m going to check this barbecue out. And if it’s not up to standard, I’m dissing it. She goes, this is the best barbecue I’ve had in Amsterdam.

It’s not too far from Melkweg, I think, somewhere around that area. Anyways, if you’re into barbecue, check it out. And they have beers from the States there as well.

She works as a waitress. She’s like, you can’t find this stuff in the States, let alone find it in Amsterdam. That’s crazy.

Back to the music, though. Do you ever sometimes get fed up with playing and making music? And what do you do to deal with that?

What is your go-to mantra to get back in the zone?

[Rïa Mehta]
I’ve never gotten sick of playing, I gotta be honest. Actually, DJing is probably the most fun part of the job for me. I genuinely love engaging with the audience I’m playing for.

And I genuinely like traveling. So it kind of is like the best of both worlds for me. On the production side, I have gone through periods of not making music at all.

And what I’ve found is, if I force it, I’m not going to love it anyway. So I actually allow myself to take the downtime. I am hard on myself, don’t get me wrong, as is probably everybody who’s watching this.

But I make music entirely on my 14-inch MacBook Pro. And that means that I’m usually lounging on my couch, I think of something, I’ll open Ableton up, and I’ll quickly write down the idea because I don’t want to forget it. The last couple months since the album’s been out, I haven’t had any of those moments and have been thinking like, oh my god, am I never going to make music again?

But the truth of it is, it’s an ebb and flow situation. You have your periods of really, really good productivity. But to be very, very honest, I tend to burn myself out.

And so the last couple months have been kind of like a breather for me. And I’ve been telling myself that every time I start to spiral, like, oh, I should be releasing more music and this and that, I’m like, hold on, I did all of this amazing stuff. It’s okay.

So you’ve got to recognize the patterns in your own behaviors and give yourself leeway. Obviously, I do have friends who make music but never release it. That’s a very different problem.

It’s not really burnout. They either don’t like the system or the rules or whatever. That’s a completely different situation.

But there’s, I think, what, 10,000 tracks being released a day now publicly.

[Darran]
Is it a day or is it an hour?

[Rïa Mehta]
Honestly, I would not even be shocked if it was an hour.

[Darran]
Because I know that YouTube, I think it’s a million videos an hour go up to YouTube.

[Rïa Mehta]
That’s totally believable. Yeah. The one thing I will say is when I first started, I was really into the idea of my friends liking my music.

And it really like, music is so subjective. You know, even within house and techno, you have like hard techno, then you have like bassy techno, then you have like minimal techno. And basically, there’s like a bajillion genres.

And so what I’ve gotten used to in the five years that I’ve been producing music is not everybody’s gonna like your music, including your friends. And that’s okay. Do you like it is what’s important.

And so if you force it, in my opinion, I at least when I’m forcing it, I’m not creating stuff I love, you know, I’m like, this sucks. Anyway, what’s the point? But I tend to not finish the idea.

If I really do hate it that much, I won’t invest that much of myself. But there have been times where I really believed in a track. And it was just an okay track to you know, that does happen.

So a lot of people are like, why don’t you change your your artist name and start over with this new sound? And I’m like, you know what, everybody starts somewhere. I’m okay with with having my history out there.

And like knowing that, like, let people see my journey, how much I’ve grown, and you know, kind of where I am today. Yeah.

[Darran]
You know, I had somebody once told me that, after years of doing a brand, they suggested, why don’t you change the name of your brand and rebrand yourself and come out of something different and new. And this is in this is literally early 2020 2019 2020. I think 2019.

And I had at that point, 10 years under my belt as a show is the DJ sessions, you know, and I’m like, granted, I was nowhere near where I would say that I’m at. And I still have so much further to go. Yeah, what I want to do.

I mean, I, some people think, oh, you’re at the top, you’re like here. I’m like, uh, that was the marathon. I’m ready to run to the next galaxy.

That’s what I’m trying to get to. And that was just a around the block.

[Rïa Mehta]
Longest marathon ever.

[Darran]
No, and they’re like, how did you make it so far? You know, it’s like, they wanted me to rebrand him. And I go, No, there’s, there was no reason for me to.

And funny thing is, is that person’s non existent in the industry.

[Rïa Mehta]
Yeah.

[Darran]
So you’re getting advice on something you’ve never done before, telling me to do something, knowing that I’m gonna have to start all from scratch. And everyone’s gonna it’s like, Oh, I’m gonna be like the artist formerly known as Prince. Oh, yeah, he used to do the show called the DJ sessions.

Now he does a show called the sessions of the DJ.

[Rïa Mehta]
Yeah.

[Darran]
You know, you go through trials and tribulations, some things work, some things don’t you catch the wave, you ride the wave. Yeah. And that’s what happens in the industry.

I don’t know, could anyone keep writing away forever, ever, ever and be like, do they ever come up for air?

[Rïa Mehta]
You know, you have to do the thing like, you better remember that social media is just a front. Like even the people that look like they’re riding the wave all the time aren’t riding the wave all the time. And I think that’s something that, especially myself, you know, who is not releasing music, as friends who are releasing music every six to, you know, eight weeks.

I don’t know what else they have going on in their life. What I’m seeing is their social media posts about their next track coming out. And I’m like, Oh, my God, I haven’t done so much.

And I’m like, Oh, my God, I haven’t done so much. And I’m like, Oh, my God, I haven’t done so much. And I’m like, Oh, my God, I haven’t done so much.

And I’m like, Oh, my God, I haven’t done so much. And I’m like, Oh, my God, I haven’t done so much. And I’m like, Oh, my God, I haven’t done so much.

And I’m like, Oh, my God, it’s too much. Like, it’s okay, I’m 50 year old right now. I don’t do so much.

[Darran]
And I don’t do as much as some people that are like a bit older, but I’m like, Yeah, kind of reactionary. And I’m like, Well, maybe you’re right. media about take it with a grain of salt.

Unfortunately, a lot of newer artists are getting booked. I guess it’s not unfortunate, they’re talented, but they’re getting booked solely on their social media numbers alone.

[Rïa Mehta]
Yeah.

[Darran]
And and there are things like it’s like, wait a sec, you have producers that have been making phenomenal DJs have been doing this for 25 years. Yeah. And it’s like, I, it’s the balance I saw it was a graph I saw a few years back.

It was like 20% of was your PR and marketing and 80% was making the music. Now it’s 80% social media and all that shit and 20% making the music. And you know, it’s like, Whoa, how does that dynamic shift affect the scene as a whole?

I’m not going on an attack. I’m not saying anything bad here. The one thing I don’t understand is why are these DJs now playing these major festivals?

And they’re not wearing headsets?

[Rïa Mehta]
Yeah, I mean, I think that’s been a growing trend. I want to say like, I’ve seen in the last five years, maybe, especially when you’re looking at these like main stage DJ sets.

[Darran]
I mean, we know why we know why they’re doing it. The public should know why they’re doing it. But I mean, yeah, I don’t get it.

[Rïa Mehta]
But yeah, I think it’s, you know, today, it’s all about your brand. Who are you as a DJ? And when you’re on that Tomorrowland stage, which by the way, is my, you know, end all be all goal.

Yeah, hey, I’ll take I’ll take the bathroom stage if they have one. I genuinely like that’s my dream festival to play. And so I feel like it’s a lot about your image.

And you know, I, I personally, I can’t even play it cool when I’m playing for like 50 people. I like to be happy and excited. Sometimes I’m wearing my headphones, sometimes I’m not, it’s not really a conscious effort either way.

If I know what the tracks really well, especially if I’m playing back to back weekends, sometimes I won’t need to wear my headphones because I’ve just played, you know, a similar set. So I know that the music really well. bigger DJs, you know, it’s hard, it’s hard for me to like really know what what their goal is.

But just based on my own experience, you know, I know how big branding has become as an exercise now. And so it’s, it’s less, it’s, it’s cooler to have to, you know, have your videos and pictures without your headphones on, I suppose, then otherwise, obviously, it’s probably pre recorded as well, which is a whole different topic.

[Darran]
I don’t have to worry about the hair thing. I don’t have to worry about messing up my hair, my image. Yeah.

A lot of people always think that I’m a DJ because I do a show but no, I’m like, yeah, I’m not a DJ. I just play one on TV. But no, I get it.

I know why they do that. But it’s just kind of like, now with the advent of AI coming in now, we’ve got a whole round of like, it’s not a band, it’s a DJ. And with a band, you have to play an instrument or be a vocalist, you have to be able to sing.

Yeah, some somewhat sing, I guess. Yeah, be talented. Yeah.

And with DJ market, you know, as a young kid looking at going, Oh, I can do that. I can get up on stage, I can jump and dance around a button and Oh, wait, what? Whoa, they don’t have to search for your music library for vinyl anymore.

Yeah, no, even producing tracks, you just produce tracks.

[Rïa Mehta]
Yeah, if you wanted to, I mean, you know, I’ve seen these people, you know, generally, I’ve seen like the six or seven year olds now on Instagram. I’m killing it as DJs. And like, they’re better than like a lot of the adult ages that I know.

And I’m like, wow. So when people complain about how the scene is changing, I’m like, it’s always been changing. It’s just that before the change would take a while to get known about because we didn’t have social media.

Now we see the trend like the next day, essentially, and sometimes during it happening. And so we’re just finding out about things a lot faster. But that doesn’t mean that change wasn’t happening before.

[Darran]
Yeah. I’m sorry.

[Rïa Mehta]
No, I’m just like, just when when, you know, I know social media plays a big part of it. The truth is, you know, people want to know more about you. And so before they had to buy a CD or a DVD or whatever, you know, media type you were selling, and you would have your story on there, or you would have photoshoot with pictures on there.

But back then, you know, digital cameras didn’t exist either. And so computers didn’t exist either. So it was all with its time, I think it’s kind of played a similar role.

It’s just that now with Instagram and socials, generally, it’s kind of taken over the music thing. But if you if you really, really look, the ones that last are the ones that are doing more than the socials, right? They’re the ones released, they’re working behind the scenes to release the music, work on music.

Otherwise, you have a ton of DJs just coming in for the minute of fame. You know, a lot of people buy followers now, it’s all a facade till it’s not because it’s probably really expensive to maintain that too, right? I mean, personally, I don’t know, but I’m assuming that that’s, in the long run harder to maintain.

[Darran]
I’ve done the research, it is an upkeep. You know, I’ve talked to people about it in behind the scenes, the practice of that. And, you know, and yeah, it’s a very interesting thing.

I mean, that was the whole thing. You go back to people buying Spotify plays.

[Rïa Mehta]
Yeah, you know, I mean, what’s the end goal? You can do that a couple times, you can do it. If you’re rich, you can probably do it a few more times.

But eventually, if the music’s not good, if the effort’s not there, it does catch up. And you see DJs that have been around for 25 years, they’re still playing shows. Why?

It’s because they’ve put in the work, you know, and I think that will even show even through the social media game, eventually.

[Darran]
You know, talking about that, that kind of leads me to my next question, which is awesome is what is the most important thing that record labels should be doing for their artists? And are they doing a good job with that? I mean, you’re with Perspectives Digital, Dara’s been around for a while, they just had their 15 year anniversary.

I actually saw that he moved over to the mentioned earlier, the Riverside Studios. They’re not too long ago. Beautiful location.

I can’t wait to get back over there. I said it wrong. I said Martin Jensen earlier.

It’s actually Martin Ayer. Sorry, Martin. Sorry, Martin.

No, Martin Ayer, really good guy, really great team over there. You know, I could literally get into that studio and just spend a weekend there talking to all the artists. There’s no way to conceive the people.

I assume you’ve been to that studio.

[Rïa Mehta]
Yes, I’ve been there. Everybody’s so down to earth. You’re in the presence of all these huge artists.

Berlin in general. I went to this non-descript house that was actually a club in the middle of nowhere in West Berlin. It’s not even in the east where all the bigger clubs are.

And I walk in and this guy is playing an all vinyl set. And I’m like, oh, cool. And I start dancing.

And suddenly I’m dancing next to these two ladies. One of them was Dixon’s manager for a while. The other one knows somebody at Berghain for guest list.

And I’m like, OK, everybody in Berlin is there for the music. And it really, really shows because they’re not competing with each other. They’re promoting each other as artists, as friends, as labels, as whatever.

And even if you when you see the labels, to be very honest, they love their own German friends first. So I got ahead of them. They’re very focused on the music and what’s right.

You have clubs in Berlin that cover up your phone. You’re not allowed to take it off. But then you also have clubs that don’t.

So there’s no rule per se, but you can tell they’re genuinely into the music versus, I would say, non-European stages, which are more about like, you know, the facade and all of that.

[Darran]
Yeah. No, I mean, you almost hit on three points there that I wanted to touch on very briefly is one. I basically when I went there last year, I was it was in my mind starting to inkling like, why don’t I relocate to Berlin?

It’s so everything I want to do European wise anyway, even though I just moved over there for six months and made Berlin my home base. And again, I will literally always, I will never forget the, what’s the word? Hospitality that I was showing when I was there.

And I was literally doing an interview with Martin in June of last year. And he said, come to Berlin, parade the planet. We’ll get you on our float.

And I’m like, what? And I just bucket listed and went, boom. When I went by myself, I didn’t have anyone that could just pick up last minute and go, went over there.

It was just phenomenal. And I had an experience that I’d never done like anything like that in my life before. I was this close to going to Ibiza right after for my 50th birthday.

But I was like, oh, the flight home is going to kill me because it would have been like $2,800 for a ticket from Ibiza. Oh, I just didn’t have time to plan it. I could have planned it a little better.

Long story short, but you’re right in Berlin, you know, I went to clubs and they put the stickers over the phones.

[Rïa Mehta]
Yep. Not all clubs.

[Darran]
Not all clubs, but that was something that just came up as a topic of conversation. The culture is now this on the floor. And it’s like, you know, Apple had back in the day and launched something.

Look at the stories years ago, they were going to make an infrared sensor in phones and then stage performers, they could put and send a signal out. And when you put your camera towards this, it wouldn’t let you record video. I think you might be able to take a picture, but it wouldn’t activate your camera or your recording if that signal was going out.

You’ve heard of the night clubs that take your phone out the door or put it in the magnetic seal bag. I’m a fan of putting the stickers over the cameras. And yeah, if you’re in there and you get caught using your phone, you’re kicked out or make cell phone like they used to do for smoking, make a cell phone area and you go in that area, you can use your phone and text and do whatever you want.

But we see using that in public because back in the day, you know, you go to a concert and it says no recording devices, no cameras with fixed lens. I mean, cameras were cameras back then, you know, cameras, they didn’t have 25 megapixel cameras with recording device to sit there and record a whole performance and then share them. I went and saw Lady Gaga a few days ago.

And my friend went to the concert a few days before that and he’s posting pictures, videos of the concert. And I’m like, dude.

[Rïa Mehta]
Yeah, I, you know, I also feel like the festivals themselves have had such a big part in that because think back like 10 plus years ago when, you know, the phones had come out, but people weren’t really taking those videos. We kind of had these really big festivals start taking these really cool videos of the show. And once they started doing that, everybody was like, oh, because I’m like, it’s everybody’s own experience.

If they want to be on their phone, that’s their experience. Like you can’t control it. If you really look, especially places like Berlin, and even to be honest, even New York, there is a trend of smaller parties happening with no phones and people are genuinely there for the music and they don’t really care to film it anymore.

So you will continuously have like the phone phenomenon. Probably tomorrow it will become a VR related thing or augmented reality or whatever, you know. But I like embrace the change.

I’m like, you know, it’s their personal experience. What is your problem? Like if you are that bothered by it, you know, go stand on one corner of the stage or like stand right in the front where you can’t see anyone behind you.

But I personally, I don’t get why it’s being complained about, right? Because they’re making, especially when DJs complain about it, I’m like, they’re making you famous. So what’s the problem here?

[Darran]
You look at it from that standpoint, it is a free publicity, they’re going to hashtag you, they’re going to mention you, the nightclub or venue, a promoter gets a bonus out of it, and they get the chat going and that makes total sense. I get it. But I come from a world where we didn’t have that.

Yeah, I started dancing in nightclubs when I was 15 and started going out to electronic music clubs when I was 18. And the DJ was up in a corner booth up here, you didn’t see them really. And the dancer was going, I mean, we were on the stage as the dancers.

Yeah, dancing out in front of the to the crowd. Yeah, warming. And the DJ was up here just playing music.

[Rïa Mehta]
Yes, man. Yeah. And it’s very, I think there are still clubs like that.

But like, there are fewer and far between because most people now are okay with seeing the DJ. So I think it’s become a two way street. But I think, to be very honest, like if the culture were to shift back or become like half and half, I don’t think there would be a problem on either side of that.

Like people who will want to not look at the DJ will go to the clubs and aren’t you know, bringing them in but people who want to see the DJs and there are a lot of people that do want to see them because they feel like oh, I’m relatable to this person because they look like me or they dress like me and I like that, you know. So I think it’ll go either way. But like, I genuinely feel like before we can stop complaining about the phone phenomenon, like a new phenomenon is going to come in and give it like a couple years.

And then we’ll be right back talking about this, like, you know, a completely different thing that we have no control over. So yeah, embrace it.

[Darran]
Like I asked somebody in the interview the other day, I said, should DJs stop being looked at as rock stars and be more off to the side of the event? And he goes, I think we’re way past that. It’s not gonna, it’s not really going to go back that.

I just saw a report come out the other day that electronic music has now surpassed rock music as the main genre on big, big, big shows.

[Rïa Mehta]
Yeah, worldwide.

[Darran]
I don’t know those states are worldwide. But it’s like, yeah, it is. And I can see that perspective, because I don’t want to say rock music is typically a US phenomenon, in the sense of things, but electronic music transcends so much easier throughout the world, you know.

[Rïa Mehta]
It’s also like everybody’s making it now, you know, I just feel now that this AI stuff is coming in next, electronic music will change even more. And then you got to be, you know, with the with the times at that point. So one thing we’re going to be arguing about something else.

[Darran]
So you know, let’s just stay true to the game keep going on. What would be you know, if you could give one production insight or tip to new producers out there, what would that be?

[Rïa Mehta]
I think consistency is really undervalued and underplayed, to be honest. Consistency can mean a lot of things. It depends on where you are in your journey as an artist.

You know, if you’re an artist who’s been doing this for seven years, 10 years, you already know the fundamentals, consistency is then you know, making the music and kind of putting it on a regular basis. If you’re an artist who’s just starting out, you know, just learning music production, consistency is going into the production into Ableton or whatever DAW you’re using and learning because there’s so much to learn. So my go to is always, you know, stay consistent, even like if you look at my social media, people ask me, how did I grow the following?

I said, honestly, I have a rule of thumb, I post once a week, more, not every week, but like 48 out of the 52 weeks of the year, I will post once a week. And it’s because I want, you know, to keep people engaged, but also because people can count on seeing one thing from me. And so sometimes it’s twice, don’t get me wrong, when I have big shows coming up, when I have a big announcement.

But even that in this way is consistency. And that consistency is what’s helped keep my audience interested, you know, kind of growing. Also, you get all this advice from people like don’t do this and don’t do that.

But the truth of it is you can do whatever you want, as long as you’re authentic and real about it. So for example, people told me like, you should make a private Instagram, but don’t put your travel stuff on there. I was actually no, I think people kind of want to see me doing more stuff outside of music.

Music is great. I love it. Obviously, I want people to be with me for the music.

But I try not to post only about it. I want people to get to know me. And so that’s my my two cents.

[Darran]
You kind of touched based on the 8020 rule of social media. But I really like the fact that you say consistency, because that’s one fact that I give to a lot of podcasters and startup or live streamers to start their like, what’s the number one thing you can do? I said, Well, okay, after you pick your topic for your show, you know, you know what you want to do, you’ve researched, you find out who else is doing it.

So you know, you’re not entering a sea of 85,000 of the shows that are doing the exact same thing, which nowadays, because of COVID, or pandas, like I like to call it, there are 80,000 versions, everyone’s shot there, you’re gonna find some define your niche, make your content, refine your show, you don’t have to spend that much money on gear. I mean, you can use your phone to start out on camera to start out with. Um, no, no, your topics, don’t just do a who I would, but the main, main thing is be consistent.

If you say you’re gonna launch an episode every week, yes, something out every week, don’t put that, hey, I got backed up too much work today, I’m going to put an episode out next week, because the viewer attention ship will go by. Exactly. Viewers need to know there’s something consistently happening and going on.

And I see a general practice of what I’d like to do from a producer standpoint, because I get a kick out of, I mean, I’ve done the pre production to broadcast television, I’ve done, you know, the production and edit and post submit to broadcast television. Same with the podcast series. I like this live aspect, because it’s what you see is what you get.

I got it. This keeps me excited because I’m on my toes, not knowing what you’re gonna say next. My questions, research, it’s like, Oh, and I don’t go back and edit my show.

Some people go back and edit and ask me perfect, and the audio wasn’t right. And I’m like, Yeah, oh, come on people. You’re Joe Rogan, or you know, Gary Vaynerchuk, or those are kind of I don’t watch Joe Rogan, Gary Vaynerchuk, but you know, you got a production team and crew and all that money coming in, but just start out but be consistent.

You know, let your followers at your reason every Thursday, every Wednesday, once a month, well, once a month in the podcast was a little too long.

[Rïa Mehta]
That might be too far.

[Darran]
Songs once every one or two months. That’s generally the trend is what I see once every, like you said, I think you said six to eight weeks, you’re putting something out. Yeah.

But consistency, I think is the biggest one that I would recommend as well. It’s really great.

[Rïa Mehta]
It’s really underrated, to be honest, like most people don’t even think about that as a thing. Yeah, actually is a thing.

[Darran]
Yeah, it is. It is.

[Rïa Mehta]
Whatever decide whatever aspect you decide you want to be consistent and do it. Well, you know, eventually, you got to play up on quality and all of that stuff. But all of that will come as long as you’re consistent.

[Darran]
Yeah. And I’ll go right back to that. People like, they come to like, you have 2600 past episodes and like, uh-huh.

Yeah, like, yeah, we’re 16 years and it’s like, and I’m getting ramped up to basically have 60 hours to 100 hours of content a month.

[Rïa Mehta]
Yeah, that’s a lot.

[Darran]
You know, I’m responsible for producing at least 30 plus hours of that myself. Yeah, that consistency of everyone knows I go live at 11am pacific time, I go live at 1.30pm pacific time. If they missed it, they can subscribe to our shows or go to our website and we’ll get all that information later on.

I got to plug myself during your interview because I’ll do that at the end of the show. What do you think the best business decision of your artists in favor of your artist career has been?

[Rïa Mehta]
I think investing in learning has been a really big one. You know, people will, I’m not saying drop like two grand on, you know, a masterclass because I love masterclasses, but I feel like they’re very advanced. However, there is value in investing in yourself.

And so my best business decisions have been, you know, taking those bootcamps and sessions that were a little bit more than I probably would have wanted to spend, but ended up getting so much more out of it because I learned a ton of new stuff that I wouldn’t have known before. So probably that. Invest in the business.

So if you are the business, then invest in yourself.

[Darran]
Exactly. You know, and I think that’s, I explain this to a lot of people from time when you say investing. I think that’s a really key point because when I looked at it from, I used to sum this up with people explaining to where the progression of making it to having broadcast television credits or putting a show on broadcast television back in the day, or even now podcasting DJ and music production, it applies to the whole base.

But if you start out like everyone says, I want to do that. Okay. But then you invest in something and now you’re one of a million people.

Then those people that spent, let’s say $5,000 puts them up another tier. Exactly. And they’re in that tier.

And then these people spend 10,000 tier up, keep tiering up.

[Rïa Mehta]
Yeah.

[Darran]
Soon all of a sudden you’re looking back and you can say, oh yeah, I used to be down there. Not like you’re looking down.

[Rïa Mehta]
It’s not even just that, to be honest, Aaron. If you look at, if you think about it from a very like business mind, you also got to recognize what you can and cannot do. And that is the other part of investing.

So if you invested, I don’t know, $1,000, you tried your best, but actually at the end of the day, this is not working. Reinvest the next thousand into something that is working. So speaking in music production terms, I realized I can’t make a good master.

So I could pay all these websites to do it, which was also very not great as a master, or I could find somebody who could do it for me. It’s kind of a different investment strategy, but if it gets me to that label, to that big audience, and if it’s played out at a festival, I want it to be the best master possible. I don’t need to spend the time because I’ve tried it.

I wasn’t good at it. Let’s reinvest it somewhere that is actually going to pay its dividends.

[Darran]
Absolutely. I mean, I sat back the other day and I didn’t really realize it. People think I’m a one man shop, one person shop doing all this, but I have like 14 different people that do just whatever it is, different things.

I have a PR guy out of the UK that I pay X amount of dollars for that gets me in with his Rolodex to some connections. I have a virtual assistant over here. I have a marketing person over here, but I’m just bits and pieces, but it all culminates together.

It has an end of a budget at the end of the month, and then obviously my time to do all this. If I put it on paper, yeah, I’m still in the red in time, but it’s like, I’m trying to build this as an international brand. You’ve got to have all those moving parts.

Otherwise, you just can’t do it all yourself. Even though AI is coming to help you out with some really cool things, it can’t replace that networking call of saying, Hey, I know so-and-so and I was at a party with him last night. He’s totally willing to come down and do an interview on your show and build that confidence in my brand so that somebody will.

I wanted to go back on this just because you mentioned your Instagram and how you keep it business and personal at the same time. I guess I’d say, if anyone wanted to find out, what do you prefer doing when you are taking a break from all this music stuff? I guess you can say, go to my Instagram, you’ll find out.

[Rïa Mehta]
Yeah, that’s accurate. I try to be good. I don’t post every day.

Even stories, I won’t do that. Probably a couple of times a week on stories and then posts, whether they’re real or post once a week. I try to keep it within the last few days and not posting stuff from a year ago most of the time.

I love to travel. I can’t highlight that enough. My Instagram, if I had to be broken out into two parts, would be music and travel at a very high level.

Then occasionally, I get to promote some shows and stuff like that, which I know falls into the music category, but music has the production side and then the DJing side. In my mind, there are three different categories, really. You have the DJing, the shows, then you have the new music stuff, and then you have the travel and the personal stuff that comes in the third bucket.

I guess I feng shui my Instagram like that.

[Darran]
If somebody were to write a biography about you, what do you think the title should be?

[Rïa Mehta]
That’s a… Wait, could it be as many words as I wanted?

[Darran]
Many words as you want. It’s your biography.

[Rïa Mehta]
Yeah. That’s a tough one. You’re putting me on the spot, huh?

I love this question. You really do. I mean, you put me on the spot.

Let me think about that. I would say a fusion of rhythms and modern soul is what I would caption that.

[Darran]
Nice. I like that. That’s awesome.

[Rïa Mehta]
Yeah.

[Darran]
Awesome. I’ve had a pleasure, a great time talking with you. If there’s anything else you want to let our DJ Sessions fans know about before we let you go, what would that be?

Anything we didn’t touch on, you want to reiterate, talk about?

[Rïa Mehta]
No. You can always find me on Instagram. It’s just Riamera, my name.

If you want to look up my shows and past, I did start posting YouTube sets. I also made these really cool animated videos out of my artwork for my album. They’re on my YouTube channel.

You can find everything on riamera.komi.io. Awesome.

[Darran]
Right down there, the website, riamera.komi.io. Awesome. Well, thank you for coming on the show. We’re definitely going to stay in touch with you and follow up with you.

We try to do that once every six months, send an invite out. What do you got going on? What’s happening?

If you ever make it to Seattle, maybe you have to come play our mobile studio sometime as well. Love to have you out here.

[Rïa Mehta]
That would be awesome.

[Darran]
Thank you so much for coming on the show today.

[Rïa Mehta]
Thank you so much for having me. You’re welcome. Okay.

[Darran]
On that note, don’t forget to go to our website, thedjsessions.com. Take a picture with QR code right there. Thedjsessions.com.

You’ll find all our socials. We have over 700 news stories a month that get published, live interviews, exclusive mixes. We have a new music section we just launched.

We’re going to have syndicated programming coming in from other artists and so much more. Our new clothing store will be there, everything and more at thedjsessions.com. I’m your host, Darran, and that’s Ria Meda coming in from New York City.

Don’t forget, on the DJ Sessions, the music never stops.