Half-British, half-Japanese DJ and producer Maya Jane Coles has become one of the most interesting names on the house/electronic-music scene in the past decade, injecting hip-hop influences into her DJ sets, live shows and extensive discography for labels such as Hypercolour and K7. Ahead of her headline appearance at Blue Marlin Ibiza UAE this weekend, she gave The National an insight into her music.
I genuinely can't remember what the first record I ever bought myself was, but when I was about 6 years old, my dad took me to the fairground, and we went on the waltzers. The track playing at the time was SL2's On a Ragga Tip. For days afterwards, I kept on asking to hear the "waltzer track", so my dad ended up buying me the record. That was the first record I owned, I guess. I love that it brings back that memory every time I hear it.
My weirdest show ever was when I played a gig some years back when I was also doing a live project at Torture Garden [in London]. Some pretty weird stuff goes on in there.
If I could make an album with no limit on collaborators (dead or alive), the list would be endless, but right now, in this moment, I would love to produce a hip-hop album featuring a bunch of my favourite hip-hop artists, such as The Pharcyde, Missy Elliott, A Tribe Called Quest, Jean Grae, Nas and Bahamadia. Hip-hop was the music I made first before house/electronic music, so it would be cool to put something out that represented that side of me.
The song that I wish I had written is Aaliyah's Try Again. It's one of my favourite R&B songs of all-time.
When I'm playing a set, it definitely differs depending on how big the venue/stage is and the territory, etc. But I never compromise what I play – I let each place bring a different side of me out, because musically I have a lot of different tastes. The key thing for me is to leave people with some sort of emotion that stays with them in a positive way.
Maya Jane Coles plays at Blue Marlin Ibiza UAE's fourth anniversary party this Friday (May 13) in Ghantoot. For more information, visit www.bluemarlinibiza-uae.com. For more on Maya Jane Coles, visit www.mayajanecoles.com.
