DJ Mash Exclusive Interview for EDMDroid Asia

1. Please tell us and our readers more about the nightlife in India right now in times of Covid and most of all in your hometown of Delhi.

Even though the Night Life in India is great but has been adversely affected by Pandemic. The situation is the same, whether it's my city Delhi or any other city in India, nightlife culture has been affected big time.

The 2nd wave of covid began in March this year, and India again went into lockdown. Clubs are still awaiting permission to open. A few bars and restaurants are functional but only under time constraints as per the government regulations.

The current situation doesn’t look good and there are no signs of it improving soon after the alert of the 3rd wave.

Main cities that I play in are Delhi, Goa, Kolkata, and Bengaluru. The last gig I played was in January this year and since most of the states have been in complete or partial lockdown. So, occasionally I go live on Instagram and live streaming apps like Ombre, Sessions and Streo. This is the only way I can stay connected with my audience and followers in the current times.

However, because of the non-availability of party venues/clubs people have started organizing farm house parties to chill with their friends.

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2. How long have you been DJing/Producing and what can we expect next from DJ Mash?

This year marked 23 years of my DJing career. I have been Djing since 1998. Over the years I have worked hard and my music has evolved periodically.

My career began as a psytrance Dj. From the year 2001 to 2007, I was living in Sydney and was popular for playing psytrance and progressive. Eventually, I shifted towards Techno and progressive as my main genre.

In 2013 I started producing music under the Brand Name Mashter. Mashter was born as people started associating me as a psytrance and EDM Dj by the name Mash, probably because that’s the image I had created in their mind over the years. Now, it made sense to give birth to a new project name that was dedicated to techno and underground sounds. And hence mashter was born.

Over the last few years, I have majorly been focusing on Mashter projects, and have many releases on different labels. In the future, my objective is to release my own album and collaborate with various live acts to actually present Mashter as a live electronic band. I have already been working on this, and have done a few shows last year with me on live electronics fused with a Sitar player, flute player and other percussion artists from Rajasthan.

The ultimate objective is to perform at various international music festivals around the world and get a nice international artist management agency.

3. What has been your best and your worst gig experience so far. Be honest please, don't hold back.

It's difficult for me to point out one gig as the best so I will name three gigs, adrenalin of which I could never get over with. First is the Earthdance Festival of Peace in New Caledonia in 2004. Then the Epizode Festival in Vietnam in 2019. And finally Satellite beachside Goa in 2016.

There hasn't been a worst gig so far.

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4. If you had to choose, which profession would you be going with? DJ or something else?

Coming this far, I believe that I was born to be a Dj and always will be. However, I enjoy cooking as well. So alongside being a Dj, I wouldn’t mind being a part-time chef.

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5. Top 3 tracks at the moment?

1) Mashter – Mind Control (Due out release later this year on Submerge Music)
2) Belocca, A*S*Y*S – Macid
3) Stiv Hey - Flash

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6. With which intl. act would you love to collaborate and why?

There are quite a few but among the top of my list are Rebuke, SAMA, Illona, Ash Roy and Metodi Hristov. I love the sound that these artists are making. It's not just electronic dance music but also intelligent electronic dance music.

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7. Are you keen on cooking up an exclusive mix for us and our readers ? (60min)

Yes, I would love to and really looking forward to it.