Curvework Vol. 2: Saffron / Iti Memon [Interview]
Evolution of self translating to the evolution of creative processes, the liminal space of belonging to multiple cultures & the creation of Curvework Vol. 2: Saffron.
We spoke to Itrat Memon, Iti, who is a DJ, producer & live performer from Meanjin/Brisbane, Australia. Iti is the Co-founder of an Australian South-Asian collective ‘Kerfew’ & electronic label ‘Pocketmoth. Nickila spoke with Iti about his practice, his culture and his recently released EP ‘Curvework Vol. 2: Saffron’.
Stream Saffron on Soundcloud & Spotify. Purchase it on Bandcamp.
Ontogeny DJ Shot, captured by Rafet Grima.
Iti is a driving force within Australia’s current music soundscape. Iti facilitates spaces & creates music that indirectly embodies values of participation & sharing within the music industry, rather than competing - Manifesting from the values that have been passed on from his cultures.
Tell me a bit about where you're from and your culture?
My mother is Irish, from a small rural village called Lorrha in Tipperary, and my dad is Pakistani of Memon ethnicity, from Hyderabad, Sindh. I was born in the US, spent my early childhood in the UK, and am now in so-called Australia. In the UK, it is a lot more common to meet someone that is british-pakistani or irish-pakistani, but as the Pakistani community in Brisbane is quite small, it’s not so common here.
I grew up Muslim & I still identify as such. Spirituality definitely plays into my music and what drives it. For a long time I struggled with identity, because I am what people call a third culture kid: someone living and growing up in an environment that is very different to their cultural heritage. Being mixed race and then having moved around the world as well, I felt really nomadic and never really felt like i’ve had a place that feels like my home. It’s difficult to have a deeper conversation about it, as while I relate with people that share one of my cultural backgrounds i.e fully Pakistani or fully Irish, the mixed-race experience presents unique circumstances, for example, neither of your communities fully accepting you.
But then, I’m not fully ‘Australian’, not American or British, or anything of any place that I have lived my entire life. Kind of a boring conversation to have with people, but it’s something that has affected me profoundly. Music has given me the language to explore my cultural hybridity through, by incorporating various timbres and instruments of my background into my music. I feel this is the way I can have that conversation… and it's not even a conversation with any ends, it is just like, this is who I am.
ATP Warehouse Party, captured by Katy Chan Dyer.
I feel the exact same way - I wasn’t expecting to share these exact lived experiences with you - My mum is Sri Lankan and she grew up as a muslim and then married my dad and converted to Catholicism. However, we grew up with lots of Buddhist and Hindu values - I resonate with what you were saying about not really feeling that sense of belonging in any set tangible place - it is cool addressing the multi-dimensionality of self that comes with that.
Did you ever have the realisation where you were like, oh shit, I kind of don’t have this set tangible place that I fully see myself in & it's in something intangible - which is your music? So that leads on to one of the questions i had which was; What element of each culture really stood out for you & what was it like carrying them into your music?
Community-orientated musical practice that stresses open participation is the biggest thing for me, from both cultures.
I think a lot of people tend to conflate white so-called Australian (and British) culture with Irish culture, but they are very different, particularly rural Irish culture. There’s a lot of similarities with eastern cultures in a sense; obviously there is a difference in circumstances now, and different optical representations also. But you know, Britain’s colonial legacy is still raw in Ireland, which I guess is visible in the way that Irish politics aligns with certain issues, particularly on the international front. But away from that, there is a great sense of hospitality and family in Ireland, much like Pakistani culture.
I am equally as proud of my Irish culture as I am of my Pakistani culture. I don’t see myself as half, I see myself as both. It is an important distinction to make. Islam is a defining element of my identity though, which naturally leans towards the Pakistani side. Pakistan as a country was built around Islam, so it’s a very integral part of Pakistani culture, both consciously and not.
But I guess when I came to Australia, I was kind of separated a little bit more from the Pakistani community - or perhaps the Pakistani community here was less open to the idea of music as a career, as compared to communities in the UK. So my musical and Pakistani cultural lives were sort of separate, and as I grew older, I interacted with the community less. One way i maintained my connection with culture though, was seeking out Pakistani music.
Music has always been the thing that has stuck out for me from both cultures, both have very rich musical traditions, both have rich folk musical traditions as-well, musical traditions based around participation, not based around skill level or something like that. Very much an emphasis on involvement rather than competition, which I think is very special. I guess that is why I gravitate towards dance music, as there are parallels there.
Catalogue, captured by Jack McKenzie.
I really appreciate the statement about music being about participation rather than competition - it is so easy to get those lines blurred in the music industry - it is a really good perspective to have.
Leaning into that statement, in your creative process - Did you see an evolution in your creative process or a lesson you learnt about your creative process?
I come from a live music background, so as I continued to make dance music, I realised that I really enjoy the tangibility of hardware, rather than making things directly on the computer. The limitations of hardware get the best of me, in the same way an acoustic instrument does.
OH you have a live music background? Can you elaborate?
I’ve played bass in a band called ‘Twin Haus’ from the age of 16. I’m 26 now, and still view it as the most important project in my musical career. It's how I became exposed to the industry, performance, touring & everything like that.
Reflecting on my live music background often serves as a good reminder to not stress myself about making things ‘perfect’, as with live music, its character comes from imperfections and beautiful accidents. I think people should push themselves to provide their optimum output, but attaining ‘perfection’ is super subjective, and the pursuit of it without perspective can be really damaging.
A primary example is where producers confine all of these great ideas/unfinished tracks to their hard drive and never share them. I always reflect on how much life-changing music has been condemned to someone’s computer, never to see the light of day, purely due to unreasonable self-criticism. I get it though, it’s easy to start, but really hard to finish music.
For me, I sort of try and at least get a basic structure and get everything down really quickly while the music still feels fresh and inspiring to me. When you spend heaps of time on it, it ends up not being fresh anymore and you lose objectivity. Then you go, ‘oh this sucks’, leave it on your hard drive for 2 or 3 years, only to return to it with fresh ears and think ‘oh that’s right, this was really cool’. All of this is a lesser-known musical constraint, but for me, learning to navigate this has been such a big part of growing up as an artist. Given that in this era you have to grow up in public, it’s been super exposign, but the support from my colleagues has been super encouraging.
Coming to terms with this though inspired the approach for my first EP, ‘As time passes’, as well as my current one ‘Saffron’. It was a realisation that creativity can be super transient, and that sometimes you gotta capture it quickly. Work through it while you’re at the height of that creative process, because once you get over the hump and the creativity starts to drip away, it is really difficult to finish it off. I judge the work instinctively: if it makes me move and i feel there is energy in it, then other people are going to feel the energy too. Done.
Press shot captured by Rafet Grima.
I was talking to my friend the other day, about the act of whether you sort of stop creating and you focus on living your life, and you have a period after that where you create something based off the experiences that you’ve formed - or do you experience life and then create at the same time.
So in relation to you and the way you go about creating music - Which do you do?
I am the latter for sure. As I am experiencing things I am creating at the same time. The beauty of being a producer is that when I travel, I take my laptop everywhere. I’ll sit at a park and create if I’m feeling it. But honestly, even when I am not feeling creative, I always try to create regardless. I think discipline in creativity is really important - you have to treat your artistic practice like other things in your life, and give it the respect it deserves. We are not always in a position in our lives whereby things are 100% positive, so learning to work into a flow state while also experiencing the oscillations of life has been important for my creative output.
As somebody who is from my background and has the experiences I have, drawing upon adversity is a pretty solid part of my work. I feel like I've had to build a lot of personal character in moments of adversity, so I take that attitude into my musical practice. Sometimes I feel like I don't want to create, but I open the laptop and tinker anyway, and often it produces results that I likely wouldn’t have made otherwise.
I feel similar in regard to writing, there was this book, I can't remember the name of - but it was about all these different artists of all mediums & it mentioned this writer who had a habit of writing whatever was in their brain, first thing in the morning. There is beauty in understanding that that is still as beautiful as something that you're really, really proud of - and the importance of exercising that creative muscle.
How does the exploration of yourself & your culture translate into your music?
I am culturally hybrid, and I'm proud of that.
I’m proud of who I am, I’m proud of every part of me. I was ashamed of a lot of aspects of who I was for a long time, but i’m not anymore, and that's why the elements that exist in my music, exist. Because I am expressing who I am, in a language that people can understand. And a language that doesn't feel inherently taxing or political.
Purely by being who i am though, I have a politicised existence, as a lot of south asians do. But the fact that people can listen to a Tabla layered over an electronic beat and dance to it, even if they don't fully comprehend or understand what that is, shows that we can connect. And for me it comes from cultural hospitality and sharing. I never want to gate-keep my own culture - I want people to celebrate and take part in my culture. I know not everybody feels that way, because people obviously don't want to appropriate, but by playing music for people and having people dance to it is such a universal way to share culture.
That is all my agenda is - is to share my culture. I can only speak for myself, and this is the articulation of my experience. Other people have different articulations and stories, and that is what is so beautiful about it: if we all share together, you get this beautiful picture.
How do you feel about Saffron?
I’m proud of saffron. Being the second volume of my ‘Curvework’ series, I really like the evolution from the first EP to the second EP. Hopefully by the third or fourth in the series, I think people are going to really start understanding what it is.
In this EP I wrote a song called ‘Jalil’. It combines both South East and South West Asian instrumentation, but leans heavily on the latter, using darabuka and a microtonal wind line. It’s characteristic of Arab music, but Pakistan has such a strong fraternal connection with the Arab world due to shared spiritual elements, so I wanted to express that by combining elements from both cultures. It’s crazy though, people have been really connecting with it, and it feels really special. Same with the title track. I’m super grateful for it all.
Stay up to date with Iti on Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Instagram, Facebook & on his website.
Stay up to date with Pocketmoth on Soundcloud, Bandcamp, instagram, Facebook and their website
Stream Saffron on Soundcloud & Spotify. Purchase it on Bandcamp.
Article by Nickila De Silva (@nickila__)
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