You probably already know that Aresha is the Queen of Singapore Drum & Bass. And if you do, you’ve might already made your best bass faces at her gigs.  One-half of Kings of Bass with KANE MC, she’s gone from rave cassettes in school to reppin’ Singapore at the Red Bull Music Academy – flying the junglist flag since 1998.The first RBMA participant from Asia invited to play at Barcelona’s highly-acclaimed  Sonar Festival, she’s shared deck duties with heavyweights such as Kraftykuts, Annie Mac, London Elektricity, Logistics, Nu:tone, Samantha Ronson and Nero. Star power? Check. Malaysia & Singapore F1? Check. London’s legendary Fabric club? Check. This homegrown badgirl is back in Singapore after a 7-year career stint in London because even though the Jungle is massive, there’s no bass like home.

THREE QUESTIONS WITH ARESHA

 

Many of us know you’ve continued DJing online. Why didn’t you think of this pandemic as a hiatus?

 

I usually have a 30-minute jam at home over a glass of wine on my own to decompress after the work week. One night, I thought I’d try streaming it over Facebook Live, just to learn about the platform as I had never tried it before. I balanced my mobile phone on a kitchen stool and my 10-minute ‘experiment’ turned into 5 hours! I was surprised at how enjoyable it was to bring friends and music lovers together during lockdown nights just to chat over the livestreams, get silly and have a laugh over music. Once I realized that it was a good way to keep connected to the outside world, I decided to learn more about how to livestream properly and how to build a basic livestream rig through articles online and advice from livestreamers like Darren Dubwise and Ben Zushan. Within a week I gathered all the gadgets I needed to set up a “basic” livestream rig for Twitch on my dining table; I even had to loan a friend’s Macbook Pro (Thanks Dennis Guo, you’re a legend!)

Tell us one thing that most people don’t know about you.

I am terribly afraid of cockroaches. Especially flying ones and those chaotic mad running ones.

Those of us that are in entertainment have suffered for too many months now. But tell us, is there something you secretly like about this “new normal”?

I am not a full-time DJ and so I don’t depend on it for work, but my heart really goes out to everyone who has been hit hard in the entertainment, events and nightlife industry. If I have to consider a little sliver lining in all this darkness, it would be the work-life balance I have managed to get from the new work-from-home culture. I am a lot more productive with my hours in the day and I am not as exhausted from the work week as I used to be! Which leaves me with a lot more more energy to spend with friends, family and fun-time

Watch ARESHA at F for Fantastic!

More about the event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/305477767225022/

Interview and set at 10:30pm 19 September ’20!