Roya happens to be one of my closest friends, and a ray of sun to all those that are lucky to cross her path.

We met long ago in Mykonos and have since been on many adventures together, including a memorable yoga class in Tulum, dressing up like Sesame Street characters in New York ( before Halloween) to playing like little kids in the snow recently in Baqueira -shortly before our world changed. Roya has an incredible ear for sound and music, her melodic house sets bring people together and make you want to dance and dance even more. She recently dj’d at a private event, and the energy in that room was just incredible (thank you Maria). Things were still uncertain about corona and travel restrictions, so Roya traveled to Marrakech for her brother’s birthday (despite the tiny risk of getting stuck there) but as the universe had intended, it was in fact meant to happen. Both are now living a musical adventure where they can develop their talents and spend time fully focused on creating an inspiring environment to make music.

Tell us about yourself Roya.

I’ve always loved music. As a child I would spend days making mixed tapes and would use all my brownie points to go to concerts. Madonna was always my favourite. I feel like I can create a timeline of my childhood memories with a best of Madonna album.

Fast forward to my 35th birthday and I was given a dj controller by some of my closest friends and this is how my love for creating music began. I started off djing out of the kitchen in my London  apartment. By the time I moved to New York, I had a little groove going and was djing at some clubs as well as doing a bunch of private events. Making people happy made me happy and that’s always been my mission with my music. I have now started producing my own tracks, which gives me a whole different kind of satisfaction.  Being able to express myself through production feels like it will be the gift that keeps on giving whilst also hopefully making a few people dance with me along the way. 

Greatest inspirations or influences?

• Seu Jorge is probably my my favourite singer. He has single handedly made me fall in love with Brazilian music.

• As a dj/performer HVOB is a vibe I really aspire to. I love the combo of the dj and the live instruments alongside vocals. Who knows, that might end up being my bro and I at some point.

• My brother MH is an extremely talented artist, and he inspires me to practice, dedicate and achieve on a daily basis. 

Special places in the world where you feel you can be the most creative?

Where we are right now in Marrakech.

We’ve been confined (my brother and I)  in a hotel for music lovers in Morocco.  I must say we are feeling extremely grateful for this opportunity and are using it to grow as artists, be creative and hopefully share our music and love with others that are stuck at home and have run out of Netflix shows.

This has been and continues to be an incredible journey for me. One that keeps pushing me out of my shell and encourages me to be brave and try new things as an artist. Singing is a side of me that I am exploring on this journey which is completely new.

Tell us more about how you happen to be in a quarantine community made up of so many talented creatives?

We arrived here on the 16th March and haven’t left the hotel since. The first day we arrived there were 20 guests, most of whom had some artistic flavour about them. Everyone was given the choice to use the hotel as a refuge given that the government was going into military lockdown the next day. Twelve of us stayed and today, one month later, we are nine remaining. 

We have been busy creating music, sharing skill sets, and building a family all at once. This has possibly been one of the most special experiences to date in my life and I have lived a very colourful life so far that’s for sure! We are very excited to collaborate on new projects together and we have lots of interesting things coming up, so stay tuned.

What is your greatest passion?

Sharing love and happiness.

Follow Roya and hear her first production Dust ( you will want to listen with headphones on).