Babes of Bass Interview #7: Mantra Sounds

The third interview at Lightning in a Bottle, and seventh in our Babes of Bass series, is with Mantra Sounds. Mantra is a Philly-based DJ, producer, and vocalist known for her dark and edgy lyricism combined with experimental bass sounds. She has paved her own way within the scene being one of the first femme artists to rap and write lyrics for their own songs. 

Baby Kush: How would you describe your sound?

Mantra: Definitely experimental, free form. My voice particularly gives me its own sound, I guess you could say. 🗣

Baby Kush: When did you realize you wanted to be a DJ?

Mantra: One of my earliest memories as a kid, my mom asked me what my favorite instrument was and I described to her a turntable. 🎧

Baby Kush: How would you say your sound has changed from when you started until now?

Mantra: When I first started making music I wanted to make stuff like Charlesthefirst and Clozee. Once I actually started to find my sound, it went a completely different route. 🖤⛓

Baby Kush: What is your advice to aspiring, young, femme DJs and producers?

Mantra: Unapologetic expression. A lot of the time you don’t really get comfortable putting yourself out there until like later on, so just keep pushing yourself until you get that comfortability. ✊😌

Baby Kush: What is your most memorable fan interaction?

Mantra: This girl came up to me, she met me and she was so excited, so happy and I was like ‘oh my god!’ and then she started saying the lyrics to my outro track on the 7 Deadly Sins album. It’s not like a song that’s like rhymes and stuff like a rap song, its just spoken word poetry and she just lined it all up. 🤯🎤

Baby Kush: What is your dream b2b set?

Mantra: Veil, C.Park, Kurei. There’s four decks so there’s four of us.😤

Baby Kush: What do you want your legacy to be?

Mantra: I’m known for my lyrics, I write all of them. I always wrote poetry as a kid, I feel like my sound is my voice at this point. If I had to choose between being a DJ, producer, or a vocalist, I’d be a vocalist every time. 🎙🫡

Check out the video interview on Instagram here.