Farah Nanji is N1NJA. The London-based DJ, producer and podcaster recently made her debut on Mobilee Records with ‘A Frequency Illusion’ EP. Having honed her craft and production style over the last seven years, she comes out of the traps with a mesmerising progressive techno sound, which is heavily influenced by her roots from the Indian and African subcontinents. We caught up with N1NJA to discuss the release and more. Enjoy!

WWD: Hello Farah, welcome to When We Dip! Thanks for joining us today – what’s good and bad in your world?

Hello! Excited to be here.Thanks for having me.

What’s extremely good is that I finally crossed the ocean and have released my first few records this year after honing my production craft for 7+ years! It feels absolutely liberating to finally reach this milestone in my career.

What’s bad? Haha well, nothing major really. Summer is finally on its way, and if anything the only challenging thing right now is having less time to dedicate to some of my other projects, and goals for 2023 like reading more. But I’m sure I’ll catch up on that ASAP over a plane ride or two ;-).

WWD: How would you describe your sound to someone who hasn’t heard your music before?

Ethereal. Evocative. Experimental.

I love to paint my creative canvas through an exploration of live sounds that are inspired by my ethnic roots from the Indian and African sub-continents bringing my listeners into a groovy yet sacred dimension. You’ll hear beautiful notes from Eastern instruments like the Sarangi, Oud, Sitar, and so forth, mixed with tribal percussion and layers of intricate guitar. I like to loop these sounds into pulsating waves of deep progressive techno.

WWD: Congrats on your latest release ‘A Frequency Illusion’ on Mobilee Records! Can you tell us a bit more about the release and your inspiration behind it?

Thank you so much! It’s my debut EP after several years of honing my craft and it features two records; A Frequency Illusion and London Blues.

A Frequency Illusion takes its name from the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, which refers to seeing something frequently after first encountering it. The track is a hypnotic progressive techno track that is sonically crafted around the elusive, mysterious nature of ninjas and how sound can alter the perception of time and space. Featuring shimmering synths and rhythmical tribal percussions, the soundscape mirrors the agility and fluidity of a ninja’s movements, delivering an entrancing energy that transports listeners to the heart of a starry Balearic night, where the boundaries between reality and illusion become blurred and life is celebrated through dance. It’s funny because it’s the fastest track I’ve ever written, after encountering ‘a frequency illusion’ with many things at Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) in 2022. I wrote the track in 7 days from conception to mixdown.

London Blues is a fusion of progressive electronica and blues guitar. The track was written during the lockdown and the blend takes listeners on a journey through the urban streets of London, capturing the essence of the city’s musical heritage and the inspiring energy that many communities call home. The track is driven by a timeless blues lead adding a raw, emotional depth to the electronic soundscape, while layers of tribal percussion and groove drive the rhythm to deliver a powerful energy that is both melancholic and uplifting, reflecting the many moods of the city.

WWD: How did you hook up with Mobilee? What makes it a good home for your sound?

I met Ralf from Mobilee for the first time at ADE last October when I invited him to be a guest on my podcast, Mission Makers. As a DJ, I’ve been playing and collecting records from Mobilee since the start of my career in 2010, it’s an imprint I hugely admire and I wanted to find out how the label has managed to keep evolving and innovating for so long. It’s rare that labels can stand the test of time and become so iconic across so many different generations, and especially on the back of the pandemic. It was the first ADE since Covid-19, and for many, the first time the industry could connect in person again, so there was a heightened sense of urgency around the changing dancefloor culture and the challenging roads ahead.

During our meeting, we really connected on our shared values of preserving the culture of electronic music and making changes in the scene, as well as work ethic. We had a lot to talk about, and we also connected on my love for motorsport, and how the sport has impacted my leadership journey. Ralf manages the Formula 1 driver turned DJ, Squire, so he knew firsthand what I was talking about. After our meeting, I gave him a USB with 10 of my unreleased productions with deep curiosity to hear his feedback on my production style, and the conversation naturally grew from there.

I have spent more than 7 years perfecting my productions. It’s been a wild ride that has tested me in many different ways to make it to the finish line. I really wanted to find a home for my music that connected with me first and foremost on values, and secondly on the innovation of vision with longevity at the core. It’s a huge honor to be welcomed into the Mobilee family, it’s certainly set the bar very high and I’ve learned a lot from Ralf already!

WWD: As well as producing and DJ’ing, you also run your own podcast – what can you tell us about that? What are your goals for it?

Yes! So the Mission Makers podcast was born out of my love for showcasing stories that dive deep into the misconceptions of success and the industry that our guests come from. It features leaders from the worlds of music, business, and motorsport and has had some awesome guests so far from Carl Cox to Deepak Chopra. There is a very interesting red line between the mindset and challenges athletes, musicians, and business leaders face from sustaining peak performance to being scrutinized under a global media lens and I wanted to create a space to talk about these things, in the context of the changing business world. The podcast was born in Davos, a place widely recognized for gathering world leaders to facilitate conversations on urgent global issues. The success of our show has grown Mission Makers into becoming a boutique podcast agency, and we’ve been behind the lens of producing some of the most disruptive conversations in Davos too.

My goals are to really create change through conversation and to create a very special and unique interview experience for our guests. They are trusting me with their story, and that trust is something I don’t take lightly. We carefully craft our interview to unlock the highest value for our audience, going deep into purpose, and intention around a person’s mission, how they have navigated challenges, and what they feel needs to change in their respective industry. I want each episode to almost be like a mentoring session for our listeners, and for them to be empowered by changes they can make in their own journey. We’re also one season away from making a huge change to the format for our show, so stay tuned for that!

WWD: Where do you think the underground music scene is at right now with regard to gender equality?

I think it’s amazing that there has been growing awareness and conversation backed by industry initiatives in the last few years. This of course, barely existed even 10 years ago. However, I feel like we are standing at the base of a very steep mountain with a huge amount of work still to be done.

It’s not acceptable that 2% of music producers are female. That’s without even touching upon people who are non-binary or people of color. I was at IMS in Ibiza recently and there were very interesting conversations being held about how the industry treats women over the age of 40 with many feeling like they have become invisible to club bookers and the media. What is the industry doing to support these people who have dedicated their lives to this career path and those that want to balance motherhood too? Their career shouldn’t just crash into a brick wall at 100MPH after rising to fame because they hit 40.

There is also constant pressure surrounding the image of female artists and questions about safety always both for women and for the LGBTQ+ community. We need to change the perception and parameters of what other genders can do by the media, by key stakeholders in the industry, and ultimately by our industry’s fanbase. There needs to be much more done by artists and leaders at the top to pave the way and set industry benchmarks. Important things can include gender-equitable lineups, equal pay for all genders, more support for parents in the workplace, equal and diverse boards, an equal amount of executive positions across all genders, providing unconscious bias training, and much much more.

I would highly recommend the initiatives by Annie Mac through dancing before midnight, by shesaid.so and by Jaguar to empower underrepresented communities toward a more equitable music industry. Big respect for the work they have done to tirelessly turn the wheel for others.

WWD: What’s in store for N1NJA for the rest of 2023?

More music of course! My next release is a very special track I recorded with Deepak Chopra in Davos around the spirituality of success and the concept of self. It will be coming out on Sounds of Khemit in Autumn. Following that, more music with Mobilee and a new season of Mission Makers airing over the summer, recorded live at IMS with Danny Howard and Marshall Jefferson.

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