has always been drawn to sounds that resonate. A true creature of the world, she’d lived in multiple countries before even leaving her teens, and as a result her ear developed a taste for the universal qualities of bass.

Currently based in Goa, India, she’s part of a booming, rapidly growing scene of producers smashing together 140 sounds and bass weight with other influences, generating a new era of dubstep in the process.

Playing key festivals like Outlook, Boomtown, and We Out Here this summer, she’s driven her message across the globe. Holding down a residency on Worldwide FM, Pia is also one of the founders of BASS WAV.

Recently rocking the house at London’s STEREO for CLASH, Pia played a dynamic set of 140 that merged a diasporic spectrum of influences. hitting down with CLASH the following day, she reflected on her journey so far, and the current wave of energy within dubstep.

You’ve spent a lot of time in Goa – what is the club scene there like? What were some of your first entry points into that culture?

I actually didn’t grow up in Goa. I grew up between India (Delhi), Tanzania, and the States. I first moved to Goa in around 2018, when I started working in production with Goa Sunsplash, one of Asia’s biggest reggae festivals.

Reggae music was always a really big thing for me because, growing up in Tanzania between the ages of 13 and 19, reggae was huge. We were going to clubs when we were 14 years old, and it was always reggae and Afrobeats music. I think that’s when I really started falling in love with the kind of sound I’m in to now. I play around with a lot of raga and percussion influenced based, which stems from my childhood love for Indian and African dance music.

Before moving to Goa, I was an alternative education teacher in Delhi and was really into the music scene there. There was a really budding music scene at places called TLR (The Living Room), which was really buzzing around 2013- 2017. It was this tiny venue that also ran as a cake and tea room – very cute. And one of the only places for alternative sound in Delhi. We used to go there all the time and around that time India’s reggae/dub scene was emerging in the country through the Reggae Rajah’s (who started Goa Sunsplash) so I got more into the sound through going to their shows.

In Goa, the alternative music scene was always present, but it was traditionally leaning more towards psytrance, until around the COVID period. Then a lot of people from cities like Delhi and Bombay started moving to Goa and opening up spaces that were initially quite DIY, where we could experiment with more underground sounds.

There was a place called Moyo, where we started putting on left-field shows, around 2021-22, and it gradually became a bit of a hub for alternative, underground sounds in Goa. The scene was small then and the few alternative artists that were around in Covid started coming together for nights at a handful of places. Then when things started opening up, the scene started booming. Since then Goa has become a central point for bass music and now we have artists like Madam X, Sully and Killa P coming through on a regular basis.

You’ve spent time in India, the United States, and Tanzania, did those international experiences help form your creative outlook?

Absolutely. My time living in Tanzania, India and the States has shaped my cultural outlook. I also lived in Australia as a baby and have spent time in many different countries. All of these places have definitely influenced both my visual aesthetic and my sound.

I moved almost every three years growing up, which made me pretty adaptable, but also a little bit of an introvert. I can be awkward at times! But it also made my inner world really rich. I’m able to find connections across cultures, which really helps when it comes to sound.

I especially lean towards percussion because I think drums and a heavy bassline are what can bring different cultures and sounds together in a mix.

When did you become more focussed on bass culture? What drew you to dubstep and related sounds?

I got really into dubstep through Sicaria Sound back in 2019. At the time, I was part of a collective called Coven Code, an all-femme DJ and artist collective that we started in Delhi in 2018. Through that network of women, we were constantly introducing each other to different women and femme artists in the industry.

A friend mentioned Sicaria Sound to me, so I checked them out and fell in love with everything they were doing. I really related to how they were making such an impact in a very male-dominated space, playing hard, heavy music that women weren’t necessarily expected to play. Big up Mia Koden and Lou Nour. I think they’ve made a real impact in the dubstep scene, alongside artists like Darwin and Madam X, who have also helped pave the way for femme artists across the world.Your Boiler Room set was a real moment for you! How much prep did you put in? Did you feel under pressure? What was that moment like?

I was really excited about my Boiler Room back in 2024. It was a huge moment for me because I felt like I was finally able to properly showcase my sound, bringing together South Asian producers, UK bass, and music from across Africa and South America. It was like multiple parts of my life coming together quite beautifully.

I was super fucking nervous. And I have a lot of ADHD so I wanted to do 1000 things during the set. Even though I had been working on the show for over a month, I hadn’t completely finished the set list by the time of soundcheck, so I was finishing the set while my boyfriend at the time was driving me to the show. I was rushing to get it all together right before jumping on stage, it was a whirlwind, but I think the adrenaline really helped bring the show together quite well in the end.

The best thing about that set, though, was that my brother secretly snuck my dad onto the stage. He was wearing the same T-shirt as me, which was designed for BASS WAV by my friends, Ritika Singh and Muzzafar Hussain. I turned around while I was playing, and it was all caught on camera. There was my 70-year-old Sardar Sikh father, with this massive smile on his face, dancing on the Boiler Room stage! That was such an incredible moment. I’ll never forget it.

You’ve had a huge summer this year, with some big festival sets – can you talk us through some highlights?

Yes, this was a major summer for me. It marked the end of a really big year of touring. I think I’ve been to nine different countries since last October, and the summer was a core part of that.

A few highlights were playing at a skateboarding festival in Malta, where I got to meet a really underground crew and see how the local scene has developed. Malta is also just a beautiful country.

Then I got to play on the Denaube River in Budapest with my friend . did a crowdfunding campaign and brought us over from India to play at a free street rave which was amazing!

Playing at in Croatia, was another massive highlight. We played on the Source Stage, which is Outlook’s new downtempo stage. I was there with three of my best friends from India, who are also incredible DJs, and we did a takeover on the Angel Audio stage. It was such a pleasure to play on a soundsystem built and run by other femmes. We were part of the takeover, curated by Aarti, an Indian curator based in Berlin who runs South Asian forward nights. Some of the best sets I caught on the Source Stage were , from , , and Sambinga’s downtempo hip-hop set, which was jokes!

I also played at Boomtown, with the All Colours Crew, which was sick. Shoutout to Ekula and the Botanica Zoo crew for bringing it all together. I had such an amazing time playing there and even got to catch Coki’s surprise sets that night on the Botanica stage. It was such a fun weekend of shows, and I got to see some of the best sets of my year, including Mala and Hamdi going B2B.

Playing on the radio stage at was also a huge highlight. That show was particularly special to me because it was part of a research project I did exploring the sounds coming out of skateboarding and surfing communities around the world. I got to showcase music and selections by friends of mine who aren’t necessarily part of the music industry, but who are deeply connected to the skateboarding and surfing communities that I’ve built relationships with globally. That was really fun, and it felt like a great way to bring my worlds together.

I then rounded off the summer with two weeks in Morocco. A femme collective called Sound Sisters brought me over, and I got to run a workshop at Les Étoiles, a community centre in the middle of the Medina in Marrakech, where I met tons of local artists, DJs, and dancers. After the workshop, we put on a party under the stars in the ancient city centre of Marrakesh, which was amazing. And then I later played a secret set at the Moga Festival in Essouria, which was inside this giant pink brain-cloud kind of thing. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to round off tour season!

It’s been a big year for dubstep, with a new generation coming through. Why do you think the sound resonates in the way it does?

I think dubstep is growing in popularity because of how universal and versatile the sound can be. 140 BPM is such a flexible tempo that people can keep things bass-centric while still weaving in their own cultural influences and accents.

For example, we’re seeing a lot of Indian dubstep coming through, Arabic and Shaabi-influenced bass music popping up, and even elements of gqom coming into the mix, with its own relationship to bass music from South Africa. As a dubstep DJ, you can intertwine all of these different genres into one set and still sit comfortably around 140 BPM. I think that’s one reason why the sound is so interesting and gives it such a broad reach around the world.

I also think dub music has a particular frequency to it. The weight of the bass is something you don’t just hear, but actually feel in your body. It brings out an almost primal instinct to dance and move, reaching a kind of ancestral place within us.

I think that’s because so many cultures around the world have a deep-rooted relationship with drums and bass in their traditional music. It’s something that’s deeply ingrained in how we experience rhythm, movement and celebration, no matter where you’re from.

I also think there’s a rise in soundsystem culture, with smaller collectives building their own soundsystems around the world. As nightlife becomes more expensive and venues start shutting down, people are increasingly taking events and the idea of celebration into their own hands. They want more control over how they curate, where they play and how they choose to do it. I do believe there’s a certain push back to capitalist / commercial nights that’s budding underground, and I think true underground dubstep is starting to provide a soundtrack for that.

The growth of soundsystems around the world is also introducing new communities to bass music and dub culture, and bringing the historical context of music as a form of activism, to communities who may not have necessarily been exposed to such ideas before.

We love your Worldwide residency, you clearly love curating each episode. What attracted you to the station? And how do you go about constructing your shows?

For my Worldwide FM shows, it has always been about bigging-up artists and collectives from countries that don’t necessarily get much attention. I think I developed a particularly strong motivation for this because, whenever I toured and played in EU/UK and included South Asian producers music in my sets, the artists I was playing alongside were often shocked that this sound was coming out of Asia.

For me, I know how amazing the artists in India are, as well as artists from around the world who are making incredible electronic music, so I really wanted to shed light on the variety of sounds and the thriving scenes that exist globally, beyond a Western-centric gaze.

I would usually structure each show around a country I’d recently toured in, or an artist-friend I knew from that place who was doing exciting things. I’d curate the show alongside them, showcasing local productions while talking about the nights, venues and collectives making moves in their local scene. I wanted to demonstrate just how thriving and these scenes are, even though they share common ground through rave culture. I wanted to show that while a lot of underground scenes draw on inspiration from the West, every country has takes those influences and makes them their own, developing something entirely unique to their own local culture and identity.

Bass Wav is really exciting – what led to you forming it? Where do you want to take it?

I started BASS WAV back in 2023, after a trip to Cairo. I met some really cool femmes who were putting on underground events, and I got to play with them on the Nile. Shout out to , Yas.meen Selectress, and the whole crew!

What really struck me in that moment was how the things we were experiencing in India, particularly around sexism and gatekeeping in the music industry, were different but also similar to what they were facing in Cairo. At the time, there also wasn’t much funding or support available for independent artists in either country, and that got me thinking about how we could support each other by applying for international grants. It became this thought of, if we’re not getting the support we need within our own countries, what happens if collectives link up internationally and start creating those opportunities for each other?

BASS WAV also grew out of the fact that a lot of international artists were coming through India, but Goa didn’t yet have a particularly thriving bass music scene, especially around the pandemic. As I mentioned earlier, things started picking up around 2022–2023. I wanted to help host these artists when they came through, but not just by putting on events. I wanted to create opportunities for skill-sharing through workshops and talks by the touring artists. Whenever artists like Mia Koden or the Deep Tempo came through from the UK, or Supa Mana from France. I wanted to open up that platform and make it accessible to people in Goa as well. That’s still a core part of what I do with BASS WAV.

The workshops I run are called ‘Beyond the Booth’ through my collective Bass Wav. The goal is to bring the roots of soundsystem culture, which have always been grounded in revolution and activism, back into the conversations we’re having about nightlife today. I want to introduce DJs, especially those who are just starting out, to the importance of the music they choose to play and where it comes from, the nights they curate, and dancefloor safety. It’s about encouraging people to have a sense of purpose in what they do within the industry, beyond simply selling tickets and generating alcohol sales.

When I do these workshops I always link up with a local collective, so that once I leave, the resident crew can take the projects forward. We just did a workshop in Morocco last month. Past iterations have also happened in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and the UK.

Another big motivation for was to champion bass music artists in India. We were often told that there weren’t enough womxn making/ playing bass music in the country to fill a lineup. I wanted to show that this simply wasn’t true. I could put together multiple full lineups of incredibly talented femme artists. They absolutely exist; we just need to give them the platform and opportunity to shine. And it’s not just about supporting artists in India. It’s also about creating connections internationally and bringing artists from around the world into these spaces to build a global network. That’s something I’m really excited to develop further over the coming months. We’ve got some really exciting things in the works!

It was a pleasure hosting you at a London event, do you feel at home in the city? Who are some UK artists and DJs that inspire you?

Yes, I absolutely love London. It’s one of my favourite cities in the world. I always feel so inspired when I’m there.

Playing at the Clash event was super fun, and I loved getting to experience the variety of venues across the city. I think one of the things I love most about London is just how thriving its underground scene is. You can roll up to a small club with 50 to 100 people, and it’s absolutely jam-packed, whether it’s a heavy dubstep night or an old-school soundsystem session.

I got to see some amazing acts while I was there, too. I was in London for Notting Hill Carnival, which was really exciting, and I got to go to the System night. V.I.V.E.K is one of the artists I find really inspiring in the UK, because he finds a way of integrating South Asian sounds in his heavy dub productions and finds a way to use his soundsystem to build community.

We’re currently building India’s first FLINTA soundsystem, and collaborating with other artists and friends across the world to make this happen. Vivek has been a real inspiration and guide for that project.

Another huge inspiration is , who was the first woman to play at Notting Hill Carnival in the 1980s. She’s particularly inspiring to me because she sees soundsystem culture as a tool for healing and resistance. She speaks about dub music and the vibrations coming from a soundsystem as a form of meditation and bodily healing, which really resonates with me and aligns with how I think about music.

Other UK-based artists who inspire me are , , and because they are both sick DJs and producers. I’m particularly into Yushh’s sound right now. This year I want to focus a lot more on production so I am taking inspiration from the journeys of amazing producers like them.

What’s next for you? How do you intend to see out 2026?

I’m really excited about what’s coming up for the end of 2026 and the whole of 2027.

I’m closing out 2026 with a few more international shows. I’ll be playing in London at Fox & Firkin on November 13th, and then heading to Manchester to play at XLR with Ghostsof Garage on Nov 14th. After that, I’m back in India for Base Camp, India’s biggest bass music festival, run by Krunk. There are some sick artists coming through, including and and I get to play alongside them on November 27th.

Then I’m heading to Dubai for my last international show of the year, playing at Sole DXB with the Bass-mati crew.

Looking ahead to 2027, my friend Annida and I are putting together a festival on the beach in Goa. It’s going to celebrate FLINTA artists from India and around the world linked to bass music.

The idea is to have two days of workshops, covering everything from breakdancing tp soundsystem building, from music production to MCing. We want to make these skills accessible to people who might not have had the opportunity to learn them before, while also putting on two full days of really sick music. The lineup is looking great so far, and we’re bringing in Linett Kamala to headline. She’ll also be doing talks around soundsystem culture as a tool for healing and the history of dub. It’s going to be really fun.

A little later in the year, we’ll also be building our own soundsystem, which we’re hoping to take on tour across India, and eventually also Asia, as 2027 unfolds. 2027 is definitely looking really exciting!

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