Words by David C. Obenour
It’s hard finding solid ground in the year 2025. Artificial intelligence threatening the jobs not already eroded by automation. An economy beaten into recession, if not depression. Regularly occurring once-in-a-generation natural disasters. Unmasked and unstigmatized cruelty and oppression from leaders at home and abroad. Unmasked and unstigmatized cruelty from the people next door. Only a few years separated from a global pandemic.
Refusing to be dizzied or desensitized by it all, DJ Haram has a clear vision for herself on Beside Myself. Already celebrated for her earlier EPs and collaboration with Moor Mother as 700 Bliss, as a debut it comes fully self aware. Everyday recordings of life in the city ground an array of influences and impressive guests but the sound could only come together through – and from – DJ Haram.
Off Shelf: Before accepting the request you didn’t ask about our readership numbers but you wanted to see previous interviews. When you’re engaging with press what are you looking for with an interview? What do you want or hope to convey about yourself and your music?
DJ Haram: I’m like Haram Mamdani just kissing babies and signing bosoms and throwing out slogans and hoping something sinks in. [laughs] I want to convey that all power belongs to the oppressed people of the world. I want to use my art as the medium through which I negotiate with power for autonomy, agency, liberation. On the personal side, I’m sending out a big red flag for anyone who needs warnings.
OS: I was really intrigued to read that you first came to DJing because of a desire to create but a lack of formal training. Could you talk about that “intentional listening” and how you turned studying music into your method of making your own?
H: When I first started DJing I didn’t know anything about music theory or the technical side to making music. I never thought about how songs have structures — intros, verses, hooks, bridges, outros — and I never thought about why I like things that stray from that format. Started from the beginning and found out that the actions of “study” and the “listen” are nonlinear.
OS: Beside Myself is your debut full length but there’s a long list of credits to your name already. Having a long time to think about it, and a few EPs to explore your sound, how did you want to shape your introduction here?
H: I wanted to be loud as possible, as truthful and raw as possible, and exceptionally expansive and tumultuous. If I had the skills to make a full length album in 2012, when I first started DJing, I bet it would be pretty similar to Beside Myself — at least in spirit and sonics. I’ve learned so much about the music industry that’s led me here to say, “the ruling and managerial classes of this industry have money and power but no good ideas and no taste.”
OS: In addition to your earlier EPs, some know you from 700 Bliss, a duo featuring yourself and Moor Mother – who’s also featured on Beside Myself. Could you talk about your artistic relationship over the years and what influence she’s had throughout your progression as a musician?
H: Moor Mother has been a close friend before either of us were anyone special in the eye of the global music community. She is extremely loyal and has brilliant perspective on anything I bring to her, be it music, family, or love. One of the strongest impacts shes made on me is the conviction that there is power in being a Revolutionary Artist and that giving is an important part of community.
OS: I was struck by the field recordings and not strictly musical moments scattered throughout Beside Myself. For as much as there are great songs here, it definitely feels like “an album” – that enhances when listened to as a whole. Can you talk about how you approached sequencing and setting a flow to things? How is it similar or different from when you do that in a live setting?
H: billy woods helped me sequence the project. We sat and did it together after sitting with it separately. A lot of the in-between chatter and field recordings were final touches to bring it together. At this time I don’t know what the sequence of the live set will be. I’ve listened to music much more than I’ve watched performance art or theater so for live sets I really just try things, see how they go, and adapt.
OS: Beside Myself credits a lot of collaborators and musicians but you’ve said you don’t think it’s an inordinate amount – more that you are trying to show respect to the people who’ve contributed. Can you think of where that instinct comes from? Was there an instance where it did or didn’t happen that left an impression?
H: Armand Hammer credit their producers like this.
OS: You’ve talked before about your family’s influence in exposing you to a wide array of Middle Eastern music and instruments. How has your relationship with that music evolved over the years? Did it always resonate with you growing up or is it something you came to respect or relate to more over time?
H: It has always resonated. My relationship with music from the region now feels most personal and mature after having spent more time there, including time for collaboration. I’m trying to look around me and ahead of me, not so often nostalgically backwards. I hope it reflects well on how I interact with culture, peers, politics and history in the region. I worked on my album while in Istanbul, Beirut, Cairo, Sahel.
OS: I hope it’s not presumptive to assume this is a consideration but could you talk about the intention that goes behind balancing what you want to represent of yourself and represent of your cultural identity within your music? Have those feelings changed throughout your experience as a musician?
H: I’m not a representative to any peoples more than myself. I mentioned Mamdani to be funny, no one voted me in. I don’t endorse any specific political or ethno-religious organizations. I’m not some kind of cultural-commercial brand ambassador. I don’t work as a representative, that implies working on someone else’s behalf. I’m an artist, I create and share from an intimate place, a collective struggle that I’m in as just one person. And I am with the people that engage and work alongside me.
Audre Lorde, said poetry is not a luxury “but as we become more in touch with our own ancient, black, non-european view of living as a situation to be experienced and interacted with, we learn more and more to cherish our feelings, and to respect those hidden sources of our power from where true knowledge and therefore lasting action comes.”
OS: Sticking with that, do you feel those expectations from other people in your life and profession? Do you guard yourself from that or do you still feel those influences?
H: I’ve mostly come into this conversation with press and corporate gigs, as is to be expected.
OS: Now that Beside Myself is out, how does it feel? What creatively excites you to explore from it and outside of it? Has playing any of the songs given you insight or inspiration on your continued evolution?
H: I’m very excited to build the live set, play with all of the components in a new way. I like to watch people’s faces and hear what they think of the music too. I’m having a lot of fun producing for other people and letting go of tracks way easier. I’m also having fun doing vocal features and using my voice/writing poetry just to express myself, not with another album in mind yet. I’m getting very into my visual side, learning about graphic design and video work. I make vlogs now. I want to take more seriously the documenting of what I’m doing, what I’m going through, what I see around me. I like these as new challenges for a new way of thinking about storytelling/evoking feelings/sharing knowledge.