Babes of Bass Interview #32: Shima

Julia - Bass n Babes: Hi, my name is Julia and I'm here with Bass n Babes at Electric Forest 2026 and we're here with another amazing artist. What is your artist name and how did you come up with it?

Shima: Hi, my name is Shima. Shima means island in Japanese and I've always resonated with tropical island culture and vibes. Other than that, my all-time favorite song in my life (I cry every time I listen to it), is called Shima Uta, and it's an Okinawan song, which is an island in the southern part of Japan. And yeah, I decided to name myself Shima after my love for islands, and my favorite song of all time.

Julia - Bass n Babes: Wow, that's so beautiful. I love learning about that. How would you describe your flavor of music?

Shima: That's a great question. I always have a hard time answering this because my music doesn't fit neatly into a nice genre box. So I'm very inconsistent in terms of BPM and genre. But one thing that I do have consistent within all of my music is I incorporate world music elements. So it's EDM, but I have a lot of organic sounds and instruments and samples. I am Japanese and that's my background. So a lot of Japanese instruments and sounds that I incorporate. Overall, I would call it like Experimental global world dance music.

Julia - Bass n Babes: That's the first I've heard about that, so that's amazing. That's very unique. When did you realize you wanted to be a DJ producer?

Shima: The first time I ever made a beat was I think sophomore year of high school. I just made a beat on GarageBand. I had no idea what I was doing. That was the first time that I realized I wanted to be a producer. And then DJing is something that kind of came afterwards pretty recently actually. I'd been producing for a long time, but I realized in order to present myself as an artist, as a producer, you need to DJ in order to perform your original music. So yeah, DJing I started recently.

Julia - Bass n Babes: Awesome. I love learning about your life. Next question is, what is one thing in the EDM scene you wish you could change?

Shima: Personally, I would love to hear more world music. There's so many different types of dance music other than your typical EDM, you know? There's like Baile Funk, you know, Brazilian music. There's Dancehall, there's Afrobeats, there's Kuduro, there's... so many different genres of dance music, so many different varieties of rhythms all over the world. A lot of them even go back hundreds of years. So I would love to see more variety in terms of more global sounds.

Shima: And that's what I'm trying to do as well.

Julia - Bass n Babes: I like that. There's a few artists I know that do that and it brings culture into the EDM scene. I agree there needs to be more of that. Okay, who are women who have inspired you on your artistic journey?

Shima: Yes, so I love this question because in high school, like I said, when I made my first beat ever and I started producing, at that time, there were really no... there's still not a lot, but at the time especially, there were no female DJ producers around at all. Truly the only ones that were known at the time were TokiMonsta and Grimes. And Toki Monsta is another fellow Asian female producer. She's somebody who I looked up to when I first started making beats. 

Shima: She was making, at the time, more experimental... She was with Flying Lotus and Brain Feeder. And then, fast forward to last year... I made my debut album. I'm shopping it around at different labels and she signed me to her. She reached out to me and signed me to her artist label, Young Art Records, and as I was able to release my first ever project under the woman who inspired me.

Julia - Bass n Babes: Wow, that's beautiful. That's amazing. Congratulations.

Shima: Thank you, yeah it was just such a full circle moment where I really made 14 year old me so proud. It was unreal.

Julia - Bass n Babes: I love that. Shout out TokiMonsta!

Julia - Bass n Babes: What is your advice to aspiring femme DJs and producers?

Shima: Get rid of the imposter syndrome. To this day, I've been producing for over 10 years now... I have every credential at this point you could imagine. I produce all of my own songs from scratch. I mix, master everything, you know, and still I have... Imposter syndrome to this day. So that's something that I say as someone who's still working on it myself but...you can do it don't ever feel like a fraud. Just please believe in yourself.

Shima: Don't be intimidated by these dudes out here!

Julia - Bass n Babes: Never! Women are awesome and we got it! The second to last question: What is the most memorable rave trinket you've ever received?

Shima: Okay, yesterday, no sorry, two days ago, when I played my Forest set, somebody threw something on stage, and I didn't see it until hours later when I came back onto the stage (Observatory Stage). But someone made a necklace with a little piece of... it was like a wooden disc. And it had my artist name in Japanese etched onto it. It was handmade... I don't know who gave it to me, but whoever you are, if you're seeing this, thank you so much.

Shima: I was tearing up when I saw it because it was just the most thoughtful, handmade... Yeah.

Julia - Bass n Babes: And then this is our final question: Bass or Babe? 

Shima: Both.

Julia - Bass n Babes: Most people say both.

Shima: Bass or babe? Yeah, I can't choose. That's like making me choose between, you know, your children. What about you?

Julia - Bass n Babes: I have to say both too? Maybe I want to lean towards bass, but then I want to lean towards babe.

Shima: Right!

Julia - Bass n Babes: Oh my God. I can't even choose either! I get the struggle.

Shima: They're both essential.

Julia - Bass n Babes: In this time and age? Very, very essential. Well, thank you so, so much for taking the time to interview with us. We had a wonderful time. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your Electric Forest.

Shima: Thank you. Thank you for having me. This was awesome.

Julia - Bass n Babes: Thanks for tuning into Bass n Babes. Have a wonderful day!