This Friday, electronic music aficionados in Los Angeles will be treated to a unique and deeply personal experience at “Atish100 All Night Los Angeles,” a event hosted by atish. The producer, DJ, and Manjumasi label head, celebrates the culmination of a remarkable series of mixes that have defined his career over the past 14 years. From his humble beginnings in 2010 to now, with the imminent release of his 100th mix, atish reflects on the evolution of his sound and the profound impact of his monthly mixes on his artistic journey. This event promises to be both a retrospective of cherished musical moments and a forward-looking exploration into the future of electronic music, featuring a blend of timeless classics and unreleased tracks curated with meticulous care. Join us as atish shares his insights into the Atish100 concept and how this event will mark a significant milestone in his musical odyssey.
WWD: This Friday, you’re hosting “Atish100 All Night Los Angeles,” a special event. Could you elaborate on the Atish100 concept and how it will distinguish itself from your regular “Atish All Night” events?
I released my 1st studio mix in June 2010, and I just released my 99th studio mix this month. Those 99 mixes have been so many things to me. They’ve been a documentation of my taste at any given point in the last 14 years. They’ve been a rock solid foundation for my relationship with my crowd, carving the pathway for me to take DJing to an international level. They’ve been a vehicle for me to express how I felt every month. They are a very deep part of my artistic identity and evolution
I thought it would be nice to reflect on those 99 mixes, and use the recording from Atish All Night LA as my 100th mix. I recorded the tracklist for every single mix, and over the last few weeks, I went through the exercise of listening to every single track (over 1600!) and plucking out the best tunes that I felt have stood the test of time. My set will also feature quite a bit of unreleased music, so Atish100 All Night will simultaneously be a retrospective and a look to the future.
WWD: Tell me more about the All Night concept and how you came up with it.
Atish All Night is my brand of open-to-close DJ sets where I have the chance to play at length, typically 6 hours. It was inspired by my experiences as a club goer in the late 2000s, hearing extended sets by Lee Burridge, Dan Bell, and Danny Howells. Their ability to weave musical stories across styles, just going on a journey with them for hours, blew my mind in ways that typical 2-hour club slots couldn’t do.
Promoters would sometimes invite me to do longer sets, and I fell in love with the format. Eventually, I decided to produce and promote these nights for myself. I can thus create the ideal environment for these marathon seshes – I can direct all of the details that make for a great night, even the sound system when possible. And the more comfortable I am, the better I play. Most importantly, when I promote, I know my crowd of fans is showing up.
And my fans are… the best. They’re super respectful, there for the music, and ready to take the ride wherever I take them. People come with friends, but I’ve also heard more than a few times that people make great friends at the events, and that means a lot to me. This audience connection is what makes these Atish All Nights so special.
WWD: With 99 mixes under your belt, there must be a few that hold special significance for you. Could you share the stories or inspirations behind some of your most meaningful mixes?
Definitely Robot Heart 2012 holds the most special place in my heart. That was the biggest break I ever had in my career as it blew open the doors internationally for me, all when I had only been DJing for 3 years. I’m usually my own worst critic when it comes to my sets, but that gig brought the best out of me.
Beyond that, Anicca is one of the few mixes I come back to. This is the first mix I made after coming back from a 10-day silent meditation retreat, with my mind the clearest it had ever been, which I think came through.
Live at StereoBar, Montreal (2016) is an important mix because it’s 5 hours long: the longest mix I’ve ever released. It’s the only mix that showcases my artistic approach to an extended set, so it’s certainly a unique one.
WWD: In an era where music consumption is rapid, why do you find it essential to release a mix monthly?
It’s funny because I think the inverse of the question ended up being true for me: music consumption is significantly more rapid now than it was 15 years ago… But now I’m releasing mixes much less frequently than every month.
Given all this, I suppose the more interesting question to explore is why have I stopped doing mixes monthly?
There are far more demands on DJs today than 10 or 15 years ago. Let’s just start with social media, which I simply accept as table stakes for any sustainable artist career. All that time I spend working on social media is time taken away from working on mixes. Beyond that, when I started doing monthly mixes, I was a pure DJ. My first original production was released in 2017, which is roughly the inflection point when my mixes became less frequent. It takes A LOT of fucking time to get good at production, which is also table stakes for a DJ career. And a few other things came along, such as co-running my label Manjumasi and having a kid, that just made it impossible to balance all the spinning plates…so now I just release a mix when I feel like I have enough mental space to deliver something special…as opposed to a bunch of tracks beatmatched together.
WWD: Reflecting on the evolution of electronic music, how have you observed the changes in the scene over the years, and how have these transformations influenced your creative direction and style?
I’ve tried to be thoughtful about finding the sweet spot between retaining my authentic voice as a DJ and keeping up with the sonic trends of the moment. It can certainly be tempting to just play hot club bangers that get the kids’ hands in the air and yield massive fees, but I know doing that all day will leave me feeling empty. I walk away the most artistically satisfied not just when I’ve won over a room, but when I’ve won over a room with narrative, range, subtlety, and surprise. Sometimes the situation calls for an easy trendy tune to get the dance floor’s attention, and I’ll go there if that serves a greater purpose.
So over the last 15 years, I’ve seen the trends come and go: nu-disco, organic house, afrohouse, melodic house and techno, various incarnations of minimal, prog, melodic house and techno, broken beat, and whatever you want to call “deep house.” You’ll hear all these sounds across my 99 mixes, but you may also notice that I never fully immersed myself in one sound. I try to find my own artistic voice in various pockets to create a sound that’s uniquely my own.
WWD: Lastly, what can people expect this Friday at the Atish All Night Party in Los Angeles?
The best crowd. A walk down memory lane via my record collection. A look ahead towards where my sound is going. A wonderful evening!
Get you tickets for Atish100 All Night Los Angeles here
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