We’re stoked to have Melbourne/Naarm based Kāmna of the Kerfew crew present us with an extremely sentimental and nostalgic mix for our 45th installment in the series.
First and foremost, can you tell us a little bit about the energy behind this mix, is there anything you would prescribe doing while listening?
This mix feels deeply sentimental to me. I’ve mainly selected South Asian influenced Drum N Bass tracks, edits and compositions that play off that sweet spot between melody and heavy drums. There’s a lot of music from my childhood, and music I admired from afar as a fan of the British Asian underground, and tracks from contemporary producers that feel like a perfect blend. Honestly, I started djing to try and communicate this very clear relationship the music of my Indian childhood and heritage had to my contemporary love for the club and drum heavy music in my brain and body, and while I’ve had the chance to explore that before in live sets, or in mixes such as my mix for the Bleus series, this feels like the best reflection of that special part of my brain and heart.
I shared the mix with my friend and collaborator Izzi and we both listened to it (in separate cars) as we drove to meet each other at the beach, in Waddawarrung country, and it felt like the perfect soundtrack to that? I’ve separated the mix into two with an interlude so the first part I think travel somewhere, and the for the last bit dance cos you’ve arrived at your destination.
Can you give a shout-out to any tracks or artists in particular that hold special meaning for you?
So many of the tracks I’ve selected mean so much to me but here’s an attempt… so much has been celebrated recently of the Punjabi Garage anthems that came from the British Asian underground but I feel like the masterpieces of Bengali and other artists like State of Bengal, Asian Dub Foundation and Nitin Sawhney have seen less of this of love and I really see them as genre-defying and defining as being both DnB and South Asian melody focused - so I’ve chosen my favourite tracks by them to showcase. To me these tracks sit perfectly along work of my fave dnb producers right now - like Coco Bryce and Kublai. I’ve also selected some favourite bollywood tracks from growing up that mean the world to me as they remind me of home <3
Congratulations on playing Dialled In earlier this year - how did you find it??! (Shout-out to Dhruva!!!)
Dhruva - what a legend. What Dhruva, Ahad, Almass, Provhat and the whole Dialled In family created and have been creating in their events and spaces is soo so special. Four lads who were punters blessed me with this agarbathi (incense) like four mins into my set which they later showed me was ‘Against Jealousy’ scented and that’s pretty much all you need to know about my experience to be honest… it was magical and something I’ll cherish for a long time.
“Four lads who were punters blessed me with this agarbathi (incense) like four mins into my set which they later showed me was ‘Against Jealousy’ scented and that’s pretty much all you need to know about my experience to be honest… it was magical and something I’ll cherish for a long time.”
What else are you working on at the moment (any side projects/music in the making?)
The thing I’m most excited about is planning our Narrm launch with my collective, Kerfew. We had a huge celebration and party in October this year in Eora to launch and now I’m exciting to bring a space for family in Narrm to connect over, dance in and share their love for their relationships to their culture outside of tired norms of representation and identity. We’ve got something big planned for March.
How are you finding parent/DJ life? And congratulations!
Thanks, my kid is simply the best person in the universe and I get to hang out with them every day! Coming into parenting is like juggling a whole new identity anyway and trying to find ways in which it mashes in with or juts up against previous versions of yourself, so adding being a dj to that mix, along my day job in legal advocacy, just kind of adds another dimension to it all? I’ve been really lucky to have a community of supportive friends who created a really inclusive space for me to still turn up to clubs and parties and be who I am and celebrate every part of me so that has helped a lot, and having a dreamy partner and lots of help too.
Where else can we catch you spinning in the not too distant future?
I’m having a nice needed break over some of summer to find other ways of rebuilding energy, so that’s going for ocean swims and eating lots of yummy food, but come January I’ll be restarting my monthly show Service with bestie DJ MUM at Hope St Radio and planning at a Malhalla event which I’m so amped for.
Stay up to date with Kāmna here!