Name: Rïa Mehta
Occupation: Producer, DJ
Nationality: Indian-Sri Lankan  
Current release: Rïa Mehta is one of the artists on the most recent House Music With Love compilation. It also features Tigerbalm, Idd Aziz, Arina Mur, Lex Ludlow, and Sean Ae.
Recommendations:
1. Hans Zimmer’s music is beautiful - from Dune to Interstellar, I’d recommend listening to any of his music.
2. Read The Secret by Rhonda Byrne

[Read our Lex Ludlow interview]

If you enjoyed this Rïa Mehta interview and would like to keep up to date with her music, visit her on Instagram, Soundcloud, and Facebook.



Do you think that some of your earliest musical experiences planted a seed for your interest in production and technology?

Definitely!

As an Indian abroad, I watched a lot of Bollywood movies (which are full of song and dance), and I was wowed - can you imagine the production - both in film making and musically, to keep an audience interested for 2-3 hours? Truly amazing!

What were your very first active steps with music technology and how would you rate the gains made through experience?

My first experience with music technology was probably through Ableton, the DAW I use for music production.

2 weeks into lockdown (2020), I was bored out of my mind and decided to try my hand at music production, but I was hesitant to invest in any music tech - I don’t know how to play any live instruments, and was unsure if investing in this venture upfront would be worth my while. But Ableton’s capabilities blew me away. Once I got into it, I got obsessed - the more time I spent (and continue to spend), the more I learned and got better.

I owe my music career to my production skills, and a big thanks to the technology that helps me produce.

Were/are you interested in the history of production and recording? If so, which events, albums, artists, or insights stand out for you?

The score of a movie determines so much of how you feel about it. Subtle but game changing, my favorite movies have always had the best scores - Interstellar, The 007 Series, etc.

Once I started producing music I became more curious on how some of these scores were made; how did they determine which soundtrack belonged where, and how did they choose the elements for that score? My curiosity ended up making me watch the behind-the-scenes documentaries about how these movies/soundtracks were made.

The one that’s stood the test of time is the 007 series - they’ve been using a version of the same track for the last 5+ decades, only modifying it slightly to fit the generation it was released in. Even now, you can hear the theme from the 60s and immediately know what movie it’s from! SO good. (Bonus FYI: the original 007 theme was made using Indian instruments, but then modified to fit the British/American audience!)

Making music, in the beginning, is often playful and about discovery. How do you retain a sense of playfulness and how do you still draw surprises from tools, approaches, and musical forms you may be very familiar with?

As a music producer with no formal training in any musical instrument or music theory, I’ll say making music is STILL very playful for me. I often start a project with only an idea of 1 element in mind (specific vocal, bass, or even a percussion) and then keep exploring new ideas until something clicks.

I also take a class every year to keep things fresh. It varies each year, sometimes it's a deep dive on Diva or Serum, other times it’s a masterclass from a producer I look up to. But the annual learning process helps me keep things fresh, and I really enjoy it.

For your own creativity, what is the balance and relative importance between what you learned from teachers, tutorials and other producers on the one hand – and what you discovered, understood, and achieved yourself?

I learn by doing. So I’ll say music production is 75% more important to learn by doing and 25% learning from teachers/tutorials, etc. (but that’s just me!).

In my opinion, everyone’s music journey starts differently so no matter how much you learn from someone else, you’ll never be able to replicate their work 100%.

How and for what reasons has your music set-up evolved over the years and what are currently some of the most important pieces of gear and software for you?

I started with a laptop and headphones, and my setup has almost stayed the same (only an audio interface has been added since then). I’ll say the audio interface has been super important, as it’s really helped me improve my mixing skills.

I travel everywhere with all 3 things, so I can make music whenever, wherever I want to. The mobility aspect is super important to me, so I wouldn’t change that for anything!

Already as a little kid, I was drawn to all aspects of electronic/electric music but I've never quite been able to put a finger on why this is. What's your own relationship to electronic sounds, rhythms, productions like – what, if any, are fundamental differences with “acoustic“ music and tools?

I produce 100% of my music electronically, so I do my best to make it sound acoustic - acoustic for me means more natural sounding.

Take a hi-hat for example: if a drummer’s playing it live, there are slight articulations that make every performance unique. In electronic music, the most frequent giveaway is this mechanical sound because they’re copy-pasted.

Late producer SOPHIE said: “You have the possibility with electronic music to generate any texture, and any sound. So why would any musician want to limit themselves?” What's your take on that and the relevance of limitations in your set-up and process?

I completely agree! Even genre-wise, I feel more freedom in creating music that is within the house and techno realm, but not limited to one subcategory - thanks to the limitless possibilities while creating music.

It’s allowed me to make a variety of music which fits my upbringing: diverse and unique, which I really love.

From the earliest sketches to the finished piece, what does your current production workflow/process look like?

I tend to get obsessed and usually start and finish 80-90% of a track within a day (not including mixing! Just the creative part including arrangement). If I’m not feeling excited about it the next day, I’ll drop the project and start something else. If I am excited about it, I go deeper and enhance the tracks with bells and whistles or rearrange slightly.

But, before I re-open the project the 2nd day, I’ll listen to the track on different systems: DJ headphones, phone speaker, computer speaker, etc. to get a feel of what’s sticking out, and also jot down notes for improvements that I’ll make all in 1 go, later.

Writing changes like this really helps me stay on track when I open the project the next day.

Rhythm, sound design, melody/harmony, something else – when do the different elements of a piece come into play for you?

When I first started producing it was more about melodies, but as I’ve evolved my project my focus has shifted more to sound design. It truly differentiates the pros from the newbies, and the best producers have their own unique identifiable sound; something I’m trying to build for myself too.

And, as I play bigger shows, rhythm has also become increasingly important, as I feel it lends to the dancers' experience.

In relation to sound, one often reads words like “material”, “sculpting”, and “design”. How does your own way of working with sound look like? Do you find using presets lazy?

Well, no. What’s lazy is using a ghost producer to produce your track. Using presets is fine; modifying them to make them ‘yours’ is better though. I’m still working on refining my own sound, so my way of working is TBD. But, I’m currently working on identifying frequencies that work well together to make the track sound more polished.

Sound design is a massive field of engineering that isn’t talked about nearly enough. From frequencies, to sound selection, and then ensuring it’s all mixed together well, everyone’s process is different.

I’m not an audio engineer, but if you talk to producers who have that background their process is completely different to say, a producer who plays and records the guitar live.  

What, to you, are the respective benefits of solo work and collaborations and do you often feel lonely in the studio? Can machines act as collaborators to you?

Solo work moves quicker, although, yes, it can get lonely. Depending on where you’re at in your music career, some people prefer speed while others prefer the joy of collaboration. There’s no one ‘right’ way.

I personally never say no to collaborations. The collaboration track may never be released (because not every track is great :)), but you never know what magic can come of a collaboration. So I always say yes! (And no, a machine can’t be a collaborator for me …  yet!)

To some, the advent of AI and 'intelligent' composing tools offers potential for machines to contribute to the creative process. What are your hopes, fears, expectations and possible concrete plans in this regard?

AI in every field is inevitable, so I think it’s better to embrace it. I’m sure it’ll be exploited in the music space, but it has the power to also enhance.

I plan to adapt as quickly as possible, to see if I can get even better as a producer!

If you could make a wish for the future directly to a product developer at a Hard- or Software company – what are developments in tools/instruments you would like to see and hear?  

Probably for Apple to have better sound cards in their computers so I could stop carrying my external audio interface everywhere (lol).

The mixing aspect of music production is so important and takes so long to finesse as it is; it would be nice to have built in hardware that made the whole process easier!