HAXHIA – Origins, Emotion, and the Art of the Long Mix on the Virtual Sessions 10/31/25

From Tuscany, Italy, rising DJ and producer HAXHIA joins to share his story of passion, discipline, and musical heritage. At just 23 years old, he has already carved out a unique sound that blends disco, funk, and tech house influences while staying true to his Albanian and Greek roots. His journey began at age 13 when he discovered his uncle’s old CDJs, sparking a fascination that quickly grew into a lifelong pursuit. What started as curiosity became a deep creative calling, driven by emotion and the desire to connect through rhythm.

 

HAXHIA describes music as a universal language—an emotional exchange between artist and audience. Onstage, he transforms from a reserved personality into an expressive performer, channeling pure energy to craft an experience rather than a setlist. Influenced by Bob Sinclar and the timeless Defected Records sound, he aims to bring melody and heart back to the dance floor, reminding listeners that authenticity matters more than hype.

 

He speaks on the challenges of today’s fast-paced release culture, where pressure to produce weekly tracks often overshadows quality. HAXHIA believes in slowing down to refine his craft, working closely with Origami Management on both production and artistry. His recent track RM merges Balkan flutes with tech house grooves, showcasing his ability to blend cultural tradition with modern innovation.

 

For HAXHIA, success is simple: emotional connection, creative honesty, and the joy of seeing a crowd move as one.

Topics

0:10 – Introducing HAXHIA and his experience at ADE with Origami Management
3:30 – Early inspiration from his uncle and discovering electronic music
5:15 – Musical influences from disco, funk, and Michael Jackson
6:34 – The evolution of DJing and accessibility in the digital era
7:10 – Stage persona and expressing emotion through performance
8:02 – Influence of Bob Sinclar and Defected Records
9:36 – Music as emotion and a universal connection
16:06 – The importance of long tracks and storytelling through mixing
18:27 – Overcoming the pressure of fast release culture
27:16 – Collaboration with Origami Management and plans for new releases

Connect with HAXHIA

Instagram: @haxhiamusic

Management: Origami Management

[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 Tuscany, Italy, we have HAXHIA on the show today. HAXHIA, how you doing?

Hi guys, hi, hi Darran. Thank you so much for having me tonight. Absolutely, thank you so much for being here today.

Now you’ve been kind of on a little bit of a whirlwind right now, just coming back off of ADE. Yeah, that’s right. The Origami Management out there.

How was that trip?

[HAXHIA]
Was amazing. For me, it was my first time in ADE and also in Amsterdam, and was very, very excited for me.

[Darran]
What, what was one, outside of ADE, did you get a chance to take in any of the sites and travel around the city and see some stuff?

[HAXHIA]
No, man, it was impossible. It was very impossible.

[Darran]
Yeah. I mean, there’s so, there’s so much that happens at ADE. That’s totally understandable.

I mean, when I go to ADE, when me and my friend have gone the past two times we went, I made it a work pleasure trip. So the first three days, you know, we’d get in on Tuesday, have all day Tuesday, and then I would work Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday doing my interviews. And then we’d take off Friday night, Saturday, Sunday, and have Monday to make it to the airport, you know?

So we’d have time to explore the city. And that’s, I kind of like to do it when I travel. You know, I’m going to have to do some extended things next year when I do my EU trips.

And Italy is one of those places I’m going to be going to, like I told you before. Okay, amazing. But ADE, we will be making ADE next year, absolutely.

So yeah, Amsterdam is such a wonderful and beautiful town, but you’re right, there’s so much to do, so much. I think they said there were 600,000 people this year. Wow.

I thought it was impressive. When I went in 2022, coming right off of Pandi, you know, they said about 250,000 people, but I read a report, it was 600,000 people. I was like, whoa, it’s going to be even crazier this year.

So super excited you had a good time there. And you were there with the Origami Management team, correct? Yes, yeah, yeah, of course.

Yeah, so tell us, first of all, your name isn’t Aksia, it’s Marco. Yeah, it’s my first name. Yeah, how did you come up with the name Aksia?

What is that? What’s the meaning behind that?

[HAXHIA]
Because it’s my surname. Oh, okay. Aksia is my real name, my surname.

I have Albanian and Greek origins. So I thought to take my surname like DJ name because it was different from the rest. It was nice at the same time, so I chose Aksia.

[Darran]
There you go. That’s an easy play on it. I mean, it’s still your name, but it’s not your name, but it’s your name.

[HAXHIA]
Yeah, you know, it’s also so personal for me because you have to have an identity, you know? For me, it’s so important to keep my origins to me.

[Darran]
So it’s nice. There you go. And now, how did you get started in all this?

You seem, you’re pretty young in the game and what made you want to get into DJing and production in the first place?

[HAXHIA]
Yeah, so I’m 23 years old and I started DJing when I was like 13, 14. And I started because my uncle had the passion for the electronic music and that’s why he was a DJ. He had all the gear in his room.

And one day I entered in his room and I found two CDJs, 800 and one Halenit. And I thought, well, this is crazy. It’s amazing.

I have to learn how to mix and to be a DJ, you know? And I started like this. It was very, very amazing for me.

[Darran]
Now, did you get in trouble for playing with this stuff or did he encourage it and help train you?

[HAXHIA]
I, yeah, he trained me at the start and after I learned it by myself.

[Darran]
Where did you, were you heavily influenced by his music selection that he had? And, or did you kind of gravitate and find your own style of music that you liked to play outside of what you were playing with, that you learned with?

[HAXHIA]
So he influenced me with the house music, but I grew on my own style because I’m a very disco-funk fan. And also I’m a one of Michael Jackson fan. For me, what’s, he is one of my musical hero, you know?

And I started to listen to him, to listen to Lou Rhoads, Set On Fire, Sister’s Leisure, you know, all the disco-punk. And for me was another world, you know? All this progression, the harmonies was amazing for me.

[Darran]
You know, having a lot of musical influences in your background has been helpful. But you know, the biggest thing is, and you didn’t grow up having to do this, but a lot of old school DJs, they had to find record, they were influenced by what they heard on the radio or what they heard on the nightclubs. But what you heard in the nightclubs wasn’t always what was played on the radio.

[HAXHIA]
Yeah.

[Darran]
So if you heard it in the nightclubs and you said, I wanna go find that music, where do I go get it? You didn’t go to the tape store, the CD store, you had to go to obviously to the record store. And if they had that record in the commercial record store, which they probably didn’t, you had to kind of search for it and find that music and put together that collection.

And nowadays, artists, DJs can just go and download the latest track off of BeatSource.

[HAXHIA]
Yeah.

[Darran]
Wait, I’m confusing. No, don’t worry. TrackSource with BeatSource.

And BeatSource, yeah, yeah, yeah, BeatSource. But no, I was just talking to somebody recently and they love going to TrackSource to get their house music. And the accessibility to music is much, it lowers the barrier to entry, not only for people to get music and play it, but for people to listen to it as well.

[HAXHIA]
Yeah.

[Darran]
And create that genre. Now, when you get on stage, are you the same person in life that you are when you get on stage or does HAXHIA take on a different persona when on stage?

[HAXHIA]
No, I’m a different person on stage because in the private life, I’m a little bit shy or so, you know. So when I come up to the stage, I’m another person. I’m euphoric, I want to, you know, like exchange my emotion with the people in front of me.

And I’m not the same person.

[Darran]
Nice. You know, that happens. I mean, a lot of people think of me as being a personality or being on the show or being an artist.

You know, I’m kind of a, I like to kick back and chill and watch movies and make food and do things like that. So, you know, entertainment has that duality to it that people get a perception of, oh, you must be a partier because you’re on stage and you’re at the parties and you’re DJing and doing stuff. And it’s like, no, when I do my jobs, like I said, I get to Amsterdam for ADE.

I do work, then I go have fun. Yeah, right. Who has been your biggest influence when it comes to your career as an artist, producer, DJ?

And why?

[HAXHIA]
I think for me, if I have to pick a DJ, I pick Bob Sinclair because I started to listen to his music, but also all the catalog of the Defected records for me is so inspiring.

[Darran]
Yeah. You know, we’re really honored to be working with somebody who worked with Defected for a while, as I was telling you a little bit about pre-show. Can’t announce it just yet, but there’s always hints at thedjsessions.com and you look at the intro of our series today, which was new and updated, including that Origami Management logo there. It felt right in line with that. So go back and watch the show again. You’ll find out who we’re working with.

That being said, yeah, Defected is really awesome. I’ve had people come on the show and say it was my cousin or it was my aunt, it was my dad or mom. I was my high school music teacher or somebody I ran into that was a DJ at a club, you know, that has been their biggest influence.

It doesn’t have to be a superstar, you know, person, but yeah, it’s been somebody that really motivates you to keep going and says, I want to kind of get to that level. You know, beyond the entertainment and the collaborations and the releases, we’ll get into some of those collaborations and releases in just a few moments, but beyond the entertainment, what does this music, what does all this mean to you as a whole?

[HAXHIA]
So for me, music and first, it’s emotion. And, you know, and to share with the people your emotion. If you leave happy the people, you won for me.

So yeah, emotion first. And also to, every time I listen to a track, I thought how this artist wrote this track, how he’s thought inside him before to write this track, you know, so the psychological and emotional part.

[Darran]
You know, that’s the one thing I love about electronic music too, and me being a fan of it for so long is that a well-produced electronic music track can stand the test of time. You have tracks, I could go back and take somebody to a track that came out in, let’s say 1997, play that track today. And they think, did that just come out yesterday?

And they would, there’s so much music being created out there. You could have stuff that’s old, even though it’s old, you can hear the old stuff. I mean, I listened to a lot of 80s music and 70s.

You can hear the 80s synthesizer. You know, you can hear that like certain level that they didn’t drop the bass or the way they mastered it back then as according to now. But around the late 90s, it becomes kind of discernible because of the digital age coming into play and the techniques, you know, maybe they’ve changed over time.

I’m not a producer, don’t cut me up out there, you master engineers and producers out there. But you know, you might be able to hear, okay, I get it. I can hear that is probably from the late 90s.

This is from the 2000s. You know, this is from 2010. This is from 2020, you know.

But I mean, the last, the rise of electronic music in the last 20 years is now outperforming at the major festivals, not the major electronic music festivals, but even the major music festivals as a top genre that’s getting the bookings for those shows. So obviously that rise come up and I don’t, personally don’t think it’s gonna go anywhere because electronic music, the thing I love about it is that to me, it withstands not only to test the time, but it breaks down the gaps between, between, what’s the word I’m looking for here? I don’t wanna say just nationalities, but it breaks down between language barriers because I can listen to some song here.

Somebody can listen to the same song in Italy. Somebody can listen to the same song in Tokyo. We’re all listening to the same thing.

There’s no necessarily words behind it.

[HAXHIA]
It’s a universal language.

[Darran]
Thank you. That’s the word. It’s a universal language.

It’s universal, whereas you might have different translations that don’t exactly work out from language to language to language. You know, I was watching K-pop Demon Hunters the other day and I love going to the Korean barbecue as much as any other one else. And they put a lot of K-pop in the background and I watched some of those videos and I’m like, that’s a really kick-ass video, but I have no idea what they’re saying.

You know? And how do they translate that into English? And I’m like, well, okay, it’s still a kick-ass video because I’m a visual guy, video guy, so.

[HAXHIA]
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Darran]
And then, you know, you mentioned the emotional side of things, but what is your personal connection when it comes to music? Does it, is it something you use as kind of a meditative or an outlet to, a creative outlet for you? Or is it, what’s the connection there for you as opposed to the on-demand?

Or is that the emotional connection is the personal connection?

[HAXHIA]
I think that for me, the personal connection is when you put a track and you see the crowd reaction that follow your reaction. So, you know, so like, we are on the same journey and you’re following me on this journey with the same emotion, with the same energy. And I think that it’s the perfect party.

[Darran]
That is one of the things I’ve heard that’s very key since I first started doing a DJ show. I never really interviewed and got too in-depth with DJs because I used to only get five or seven minutes with DJs backstage or at a club. I never got to sit down with them and talk with them for an hour at a time.

But in the beginning stages, you know, the one thing was searching for your music, finding your music, and then, you know, but being able to tell a story with the music.

[HAXHIA]
Yeah, exactly.

[Darran]
And take them on a journey. And a lot of my sets on the show, on the DJ sessions, I used to do one hour sets because it was supposed to be a taste of the DJ. Interview them for five minutes, let them play for 45 minutes, and then do an exit interview with them for five minutes, rinse, wash, repeat.

That was the format of our show. And as of late, the last few years, I actually opened it up and I made it so the DJs play almost two hour sets. So they get a time to take you on a musical journey.

I mean, with the exception of our show we did a few weeks ago, the mobile sessions, I had four DJs on and four hours. So each one got an hour long set. But traditionally, I like to give that two hour breathing room to DJs.

And I thought something that was interesting is one of the DJs that played our mobile sessions the other day, they submit me their track list. All four of them sent me their track list. One of them submitted me a track list of 12 songs for the hour.

Yeah. Two of the DJs submitted me track lists of 30 plus songs for each of their hours. Yeah.

But I didn’t know, to me, the untrained ear, that you’re not looking at it like that. From a DJ perspective, from my perspective, we know you’re telling a story. Yeah.

What is your take? Do you think DJs should maybe go back to telling the story and playing the full track or samples or short versions of a track that they can mix the story well?

[HAXHIA]
Yeah, because I think that I’m a long track guy. I like to leave the track three, four minutes because I don’t like to put verse, drop, verse, drop, verse, drop. You can’t build a journey with this perspective of DJ set.

You have to leave the track and the people have to listen to the break because it’s the best part of the song, you know?

[Darran]
Yeah.

[HAXHIA]
So you have to, because in the break part, all the emotion comes up, so you have to create this journey, you know? You can’t put only verse and drop, verse and drop, verse and drop. For me, it’s not a DJ set, you know?

[Darran]
But… You know, I witnessed that starting to happen and maybe it was happening way before I saw this, maybe back in Vegas in 2009. And I noticed, I mean, I think a lot of DJs that I would go to, electronic music DJs, were playing a lot of trance at that time.

I was listening to a lot of trance, trance in the clubs, house music as well. And you’re right, it was telling that story, letting the full track play out. But when I went to Vegas, they’d play like 30 seconds or a minute of a track.

I mean, the typical mashup is what you hear, but they have to cater to so many different audiences that are coming from all over the nation, if not over the world, and get that little bit and keep it hype, little bit, keep it hype, little bit, keep it hype. You never get to hear the whole song play out, you know? And it’s like, to me, I’m not knocking anyone’s style, but it was like, let the song play out, you know?

Yeah, keep the track breathe. Yeah, let it breathe. Perfect, like a good glass of wine or a good bottle of wine, which I’ll probably have some when I come over to Italy with you and the Origami Management team.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[HAXHIA]
Yeah, so- We can do a nice trip around Rome and Tuscany with wine. That’s so amazing.

[Darran]
Absolutely.

[HAXHIA]
Hear the wine, you know?

[Darran]
Definitely looking forward to doing that. So we gotta let it breathe when you come to Italy. You gotta let it breathe on the decks.

Yeah, of course. You gotta let it breathe, you know? Yeah.

If you could change one thing that bothers you from the electronic music scene, what would that be and how would you go about it?

[HAXHIA]
I think the fast life of the releases. You have to release, like, no days, one track a month. Or there are so many DJs that release also one track for a week.

That’s okay for the new market, but you have to push yourself in a wrong way because you can’t stay all the time at this level to produce every week a track. This is my personal opinion, you know? But I think that we have to take it slow a little bit, you know, for me.

[Darran]
You know, I can relate to that, at least being consistent, consistency. When I talk to a lot of podcasters and give them advice on their podcast, one of the first things after we’ve determined what their, you know, determining what their topic is gonna be, find out if there’s somebody else already covering that topic, and kind of guiding them to reach out and then prepare their shows so they know what they’re gonna be talking about so it isn’t just a who, what, why, where, when, and you do all the talking and I’ll just sit back and say, when did you get, you know, and make it an engaging podcast is next thing you gotta set up is your schedule.

How often are you gonna put out a podcast? And if somebody comes to me and says, I’m gonna put out a podcast once a month, I go, okay, you’re not gonna have anyone listening to you. Unless you were interviewing the leader of the, wannabe leader of the free world.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry, I’m taking a pot shot there, but I won’t name who it is. Unless you’re getting some really big celebrities and it’s exclusive interviews that you’re doing once a month, you have to be at least on a schedule of at least once a week, you know, to even keep that frequency going so people will tune in next week, tune in next week.

And then you gotta figure out how, well, before that, how long your podcast is gonna be. You know, if it’s gonna be 15 minutes, it’s gonna be 30, it’s gonna be an hour, okay? And then once you’ve got all that determined, you gotta plan that in your schedule and don’t expect to be an overnight sensation.

It takes time to build your library up because while you’re doing all this, it could be six months, it could be a year down the road, but just keep going with it, build your library, build your library because as you build fans, they’ll go back to previous episodes and be like, this person knows what they’re talking about. So when it comes to me and the DJ sessions, we’re ramping up to produce 60 hours of content by the end of the year, a month. And by the middle of next quarter, by February, our goal is to be at 100 hours of content because I wanna be able to set myself aside a different, set my side, ah, tongue twisted here, set myself at a higher, oh God, why am I pulling a tongue twister here?

I wanna differentiate myself from the other podcasters because I want people to come back daily, if not in the morning, in the afternoon, in the night. So I can relate to wanting to always be inconsistent what you said there with at least once a month, but I can see why DJs wanna push stuff out once a week, once a week, once a week. But you can do it, but you have to keep the quality high, you know?

Exactly, and I was talking with Peter Mack from MN2S the other day, and he goes, he wasn’t trying to be mean to anyone because the quality of what’s being put out there now is just, there’s so much garbage you gotta sort through to find the good stuff because it’s easy for anyone just to publish, publish, publish, publish, publish, publish. So that being said, finding the good stuff is hard or just producing good stuff and that people know you’re producing good stuff. I don’t know, producing a song a week, I couldn’t produce a song in six months probably.

If I try.

[HAXHIA]
I think that nowadays, if you are an upcoming DJs like me, you have to stay at this level because you have to grow your followers, your public, but you have to keep, how I said before, the quality of the tracks because I love to put so much quality in my tracks. So if it’s not good for me, at 100%, I don’t release.

[Darran]
Yeah, yeah, and it does have to be right. And I know a lot of DJs, I know from my industry, from a filmmaking standpoint, a lot of people will make their film and have done this and then they would sit on it and they wouldn’t share it. Before YouTube, there was no distribution to get stuff out there unless you put it into a film contest and hope they screen it.

Maybe they put it on the screen and you get a viewing for that one film festival, but you may have submitted a hundred copies. But now with YouTube and BeatCore and everyone just going out of the gate, I finished it and went, maybe it wasn’t done. Maybe it wasn’t finished, but they do it anyways just to push something out.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. One of our artists is looking for a really good master engineer to come in and master his tracks before he releases them because his ear may be great, but I want somebody else to do that. Do you do all your own mastering or do you send it out to somebody to master your tracks?

[HAXHIA]
I try to make kind of delts, mix and mastering. And after I put it out, because, you know, when you are an artist, you have a strong bond with the track. So you are not, how to say, you’re not able to say, this is technically good, this is technically not good.

And I prefer to give to another person to make this work. To be at the 100% professional, you know?

[Darran]
Yeah, I always sometimes now when I write stuff, I have to give it to somebody else to proofread it. Because what I might think is awesome, I might not even know. I mean, at least I’ll throw it into Google Docs.

And I go, I didn’t even see that I spelled the word because five times wrong. Because I’m doing my typos and I’m just not noticing them and I drop it over and I’m like, oh, okay, I gotta remember some of these just typos, you know, having that proofreading, especially if something’s gonna go live online as an article, but same with music. You wanna make sure that everything is right there and it’s tight.

Do you do the, when it comes to audio testing, do you get to do the car test?

[HAXHIA]
Yeah, every day, every time. Every time I do the car test, the iPods test, the phone test, all the tests possible, you know? Phone test.

Yeah, that was something.

[Darran]
Somebody dropped that on me a few years back. They said, I do not let anything go out unless I listen to it in my car. I went, I never thought about that.

Or even some people have multiple sets of headphones. You go, what does it sound like in these ones? What does it sound like these ones?

What does it sound like on the phone? You know, and I’m like, wow, that’s taken it to a whole nother level. You know, but that’s awesome.

You know, by the way, if you could describe your music in three words, what would you call it?

[HAXHIA]
So I think in two words, energetic, emotional, and, you know, and with a strong bond with my origins. Because I released my last track a few months ago on the Only Last Records called RM. And I tried to put my Balkan origin style, you know, these flutes and folk guitars with the tech house.

And this is a genre that I’m trying to develop. And so I, these are the three words for me.

[Darran]
Those are three great words. I can’t wait to come see you perform live in Italy. Doing all that.

[HAXHIA]
It’d be a pleasure.

[Darran]
Now, how did you get involved with Origami Management and Leandro Da Silva? Yeah. Said it right this time.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Da Silva.

[HAXHIA]
Yeah, Da Silva. So we chatted on Instagram. We started to make the first call chat, you know?

What’s up? For know what I’m doing. My musical styles.

And I found a very strong and big team. They are so amazing people. So professional.

Big shout to Leandro, Alessandro, and Gioia. Thank you for all. And also I meet at the ADE, the first time, all the artists of the management.

And they are also amazing people and amazing artists. So we are a very big, strong family.

[Darran]
I’m so glad to be in there. Yeah, you know, that’s one of the things that I always promote, especially with the DJ sessions when it first started out, was that sense of family, teamwork, of working in other DJs, working together to help uplift their networking skills or their networking opportunities or promote them to the world. Because we started, literally, we started this show in my living room, you know, and then moved it a week later to my bedroom.

And then we started getting bigger name artists on the show and the idea, and then started taking other people from around the city of Seattle and having them collaborate together and doing shows together with us. And to highlight the showcase, the great talent that was here in the Seattle area to the world. Now, 16 years later, we’re taking a much more international approach and working with companies like Origami and highlighting what you’re doing, especially those awesome, I hear that it went down really well, it was fun.

So we’re gonna be getting some exclusive mixes from the Origami team, the Origami management team, to put up here on the DJ sessions soon.

[HAXHIA]
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Darran]
So we’re super excited for that. And the partnership will be working with Leandro, having you on the show. We just had Andrea Costa on the show.

I know we’ve had a couple others as well. And, you know, hint, hint, working with some of the labels that Origami management works with as well. You know, hint, hint, some new things, you know, coming out on the site.

We’re super excited to be working with that. But how has that inspired you? How has that been?

Or let me ask you this. It’s been beneficial for you, but how has it been beneficial for you working with a company like Origami and that team?

[HAXHIA]
So for me, cause they helped me from to technical part of a production music, you know, how to mix a vocal, how to mix a bass, to how to put a post on Instagram. They entered me at 360 degree, you know? So it’s very amazing to collaborate with them.

And also for the musical advice and also for the artistic part on the social media advices. So they’re so amazing for this, for me, in my opinion.

[Darran]
And, you know, management can come in so many different forms.

[HAXHIA]
Yeah.

[Darran]
Like people, artists don’t understand that really to do this, and I’ve told a lot of people this, the entertainment game is, you could have a million people out there that are all talented, equally boom, right? They’re talented. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But if you have a hundred thousand people that are putting $10,000 into their profession, they’re going to step themselves up just a little bit higher than the million people. And then if you have 10,000 people put in, say 20,000 or $30,000, they’re going to be a little higher up than those hundred thousand. And I’m not trying to say this game is a money game or a cash grab, but in order to make it successful, you have to have a team around you, helping you out.

Only so much can be done for free, you know? And that can take having a management team, that can take having a PR person, that can take having a booking manager, that can take having a mastering engineer, that can take managing your website and doing, you know, that kind of development for you to make sure all of that is cohesive. And all those people deserve paychecks.

You know, I recently found a few months back that while I wear many different hats on what I do, I have about 14 other people in my team.

[HAXHIA]
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Darran]
This is an expert there, this is an expert there, this is an expert there. Not one of them would I ever take, say if I had A, I would never take A over to B. Not for micromanagement, because I want B to be 100% knowledgeable on what they do and A is 100% knowledgeable.

They could probably do it, but why not have a team of experts around you?

[HAXHIA]
Yeah, because nowadays it’s very difficult to be a one-man show, you know? Because you have to produce the track, you have to promote the track, you have to promote your social media, you have to make your flyer, you have to make your Instagram and social contents. I made also this, but with management is better, I think.

[Darran]
Yeah, especially if the tools are there and they’re helping you out on the backend. One of the companies we work with too is MN2S and they’re directly with their label services division. And people don’t understand, you can push a track to Beatport, you can get it out there, but other companies may know how to get that really out there up in the charts and get it up there, because they have somebody focusing on doing that.

Whereas you just come in and it’s like, oh, I lived here, where does it go now? Because there is so much competition, you need a strategy. You know?

A strategy, exactly. Yeah. It’s huge.

You know, and what are your future plans with Oregon? Is there anything you can announce that you have that you’re working on that you can tell our DJ Sessions fans about today?

[HAXHIA]
I can tell that in a few days, I’m gonna release a new track with Amlex, and it’s another artist of Origami, called Break It Down, and will be out the 5th of November. You know, I hope you like it. It’s like a tech house with tech influences.

And I hope you like it.

[Darran]
You know, I’m gonna ask you, it’s not a trick question, but it’s kind of a loaded question. It’s a question that I’ve been asked before several times on the DJ Sessions, and the question for me, it comes in the form of, what was your favorite episode? Or who was your favorite person you’ve ever met on the show?

And the question I sometimes, I ask producers, is that I say, if you had to pick one of your productions as your most favorite one, which one would that be? And what’s the thought behind it being your most favorite question, or your favorite track, not favorite question. That’s my favorite question.

[HAXHIA]
Yeah, I think that for me, my favorite production now, it’s the last that I released, RM. Because how I said before, it’s the first track where I try to mix my origins with tech house music. So for me, it’s very important, this.

So I say RM.

[Darran]
Fair enough. And how do you balance your DJ producer life with all your other obligations that you have going on? Do you work a day job?

Are you gonna do this full time? Or how do you manage all that?

[HAXHIA]
No, I have not so much problem because I finished my studies this summer, because I moved from Tuscany to Milan to study music production and sound engineering. I studied three years in Milan, and I finished this summer. So I’m trying to improve now my technical musical skills.

So I stay focused all day to music production.

[Darran]
There you go. And in taking that music production, like we mentioned a few times early in the show, going on a trip, I mean, to me it’s a little far because I think it’s like a 14 hour flight. To you, it’s a few hour flight.

It shouldn’t be that far. But your first participation at ADE this year with Origami Management, what did that mean to you personally? I mean, obviously you knew about ADE before you’d gone to ADE, correct?

[HAXHIA]
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Darran]
Was that something when you were first DJing in your early years, saying, I wanna go to ADE. I wanna play there sometime. Was that on the roadmap or something that just fell into your lap in the last partnership with Origami in the last few months or years that you’ve been working with them?

[HAXHIA]
So for me, it was a truly honor to participate to ADE because I think that for the DJ, it’s one of the biggest dream to have to play in this conference and festival. I see this first ADE like the point of start for me because I’m young. I started a few years ago to music production, so I have to keep going and stay focused to the music.

It’s nice, but I have to improve all my skill of my confidence in the music. So I’m grateful to Origami for this opportunity. Very, very grateful.

And I hope to make another ADE with them.

[Darran]
Do you ever get nervous before a performance?

[HAXHIA]
Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The hour before the show, I’m a little bit nervous, but when I come to the stage, I change personality like this, you know?

So the problem is the hour before the show. When I come to the stage, it’s okay for me.

[Darran]
All the stress go away. Excuse me. I heard some DJs this year were having a lot of fun.

They were having a few little troubles at the DJ booths because a lot of places may have been using the 3000s, you know, and their drives weren’t formatted for it. So they’d get up and get ready to play and nobody had done a sound check or checked it beforehand. They get up there and it was like, your drive isn’t working, you know?

But something just got, I can’t remember the company’s name off the top of my head, but apparently they’re trying to make it so that you can make your tracks and everything and it’ll be universal, it’ll play on everywhere the same way. Did you hear anything about that or see that or witness anything like that there at ADE? For the USB device?

Yeah, did anyone’s show got caught up by putting in a drive and like, oh, this doesn’t work.

[HAXHIA]
No, no, in real, but on the social media, yes.

[Darran]
Yeah, on social media, yeah.

[HAXHIA]
Some big DJs had this problem because I saw that Rekordbox made an update a few months ago for a new library for the new console generation, you know, you have to update your library to the library plus, it’s called.

[Darran]
Yes, library plus, that’s right.

[HAXHIA]
So you have to make this update for play on the new CDJs or the new ways, the new compact, sorry, compact console of the Alpha Theta, you know? So there were many problems I saw on the social media.

[Darran]
Well, that would make somebody nervous on stage, I think. Who’s the most inspiring person you’ve ever met backstage and tell us why that person was such an inspiration to you.

[HAXHIA]
I met during the last CMS, Simon Dunmore, and I spoke with him about the new generation of DJs, the evolution of the music industry, the evolution of the house music. And he gives me some good advice for this. I’m so grateful of this opportunity.

And he was so inspiring to me because I said before, I’m a big Defected fan since I was a child. So for me, it was an honor to meet him.

[Darran]
Nice. And you mentioned that was at IMS, was that IMS Ibiza or IMS?

[HAXHIA]
Yeah, Ibiza, Ibiza, Ibiza.

[Darran]
Is that the only place that it’s handled? I thought IMS is done in a few different places.

[HAXHIA]
For the parties, but for the conference, it’s in a big resort in, I don’t remember the Kala, Kala Lunga, in Kala Lunga, a big resort in Kala Lunga. And it’s all in this resort. And the parties are all around the island.

[Darran]
Okay, because I saw something online, it said IMS over here. And I go, I thought IMS was in Ibiza. And I was like…

Yes, because they made the IMS Dubai also. They, that’s what it was. It was IMS Dubai.

And I was like, okay, well, wait a second, which one do I go to now? Because I mean, I would love to go to Dubai. I think that would be just such an amazing experience.

Yeah, yeah. I would just love to go completely outside of show reasons or music reasons, just to see the architecture alone. I think it would just be amazing.

I mean, I remember seeing pictures of Dubai when it was like just desert, nothing. And then you look- Yeah, yeah, like 30 years ago. Whoa, yeah, what did you say, 30 years ago?

Yeah, like 30 years ago. Nothing, so. So do you have some live performances?

Are you on tour? Are you booking shows currently right now? Are you doing a European tour?

Anything on the works?

[HAXHIA]
Now, after AD, I have a rest period. So to stay relaxed and to focus on the music production. I have few demos to release in the seven months.

So not very big show now, but I am focused on the production for the moment.

[Darran]
I know how decompression goes, it happens. I think I was telling you pre-show that my decompression from last year of going to rave the planet with Riverside Studios, what I thought, and it was also my 50th birthday. I was this close to going to Ibiza for my 50th birthday.

So it was right after- Yeah, oh, amazing. I had to fly back home. Well, it was gonna cost me like 2,300, $2,400 to fly home from Ibiza.

And I was like, I didn’t have time to plan it and route it all out. I could have probably done it, but I was like, nah. But I’ll make it back there.

But I came back and what I thought was gonna be a two-week decompression, three-week decompression turned into two months and then turned into four months and then turned into six months. And I was like, I tell people all the time, I didn’t sit in this chair for eight and a half months. No interviews, no looking, no doing anything.

I just kind of disappeared. That kind of real decompression, kind of figure out where things were going, come back and take in all the information you learned, especially at a conference like ADE with so many, you got performances going on, networking going on, sights and sounds that you’ve never seen before happening. It just takes time to come back and let it all soak in.

I totally understand that. So keep the momentum going. You know, keep the excitement going.

I was gonna ask you, in your downtime or when you’re not producing stuff, do you listen to podcasts or live streams? Yeah, yeah, I do. What are your top three you listen to?

[HAXHIA]
I haven’t a particular podcast, but I like to listen, you know, the crime story. Okay. You know, for me, it’s so interesting to listen to this true crime story, you know.

Also, I’m also serious on Netflix, on Prime Video about these stories.

[Darran]
So, it’s not music podcasts or live streams.

[HAXHIA]
No, no, no.

[Darran]
Crime story, that’s your, okay. Cool, crime stories. I don’t remember that one.

Yeah, yeah. Awesome. Well, is there anything else you wanna let our DJ Sessions fans know about before we let you go?

[HAXHIA]
I think that, I don’t know, man. I say the most important things of my artistic journey. So, it’s okay for me.

[Darran]
No, it’s okay. We’re gonna follow up with you. We always love talking to new and up and coming stars, rising stars on the show.

Congratulations on your partnership and making it through your first ADE and your first interview, I might add. Thank you.

[HAXHIA]
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s my pleasure to be here.

[Darran]
Yeah, thank you very much. Where’s the best place people can go to find out more information about you and what you got going on?

[HAXHIA]
Yeah, for me, Instagram. On my Instagram, Axiom Music, you can find me. And you can see all my Russian stuffs.

You know, you can find my short videos from DJ Sessions from ADE and also more contents about my music journey. Awesome.

[Darran]
And that’s H-A-X-H-I-A, music, M-U-S-I-C. All right, at Instagram. Well, Axiom, thank you so much for coming on the show today.

We definitely will be following up with you because we are kind of kindly related now in partnership with Origami Management. Super excited to see everything they got coming out for the rest of the year and the future. So, thank you for coming on the show today.

[HAXHIA]
Thank you so much for having me, Darran. It was a pleasure to meet you, and to make this first interview with you. Absolutely.

[Darran]
Thank you so much. It was fun. Thank you.

Thank you. Don’t forget to go to our website, thedjsessions.com. You can find live interviews just like this one, exclusive mixes, even ones filmed from ADE and delivered right to us because we love doing things like that.

But also 700 news stories a month, our merch store, our new music section coming soon, along with our internet station. We have a virtual reality nightclub. We have a mobile app.

We have a bunch of different stuff. But all of that and our social medias are at thedjsessions.com. I’m your host, Darran, coming to you from the virtual studios in Seattle, Washington.

And coming in all the way from Tuscany, Italy, we have HAXHIA from Origami Management on The DJ Sessions. And remember- Bye, guys. On The DJ Sessions, the music never stops.