Baalti, made up of Mihir Chauhan and Jaiveer Singh, is the Bay’s most internationally beloved producer-DJ duo. Alongside global favorites like BAMBII, Introspekt, and DJ HEARTSTRING, Baalti made Mixmag’s list of The Top 25 Breakthrough DJs of the Year 2023, top-tier recognition of the fact that the duo has up-leveled their production skills while also branching out tourwise, playing shows in club music meccas across New York, London, Berlin, and Amsterdam in addition to their regular stops at home in SF and India.
Crafting a deliciously electronic concoction they call “masala,” Baalti lovingly taps into Bollywood and South Asian sounds to produce a uniquely addictive blend of forward-thinking deep house, breaks, and electro. Proud to say that, with plenty of new music and tours planned for the year, Baalti will be co-headlining a hometown show alongside Bored Lord for White Crate’s next party at Mothership this Saturday, February 17. Read on for a brief interview, and to hear Baalti’s thoughts on the Bay Area underground.
What do you love about making music and living in the Bay Area?
Baalti: The Bay Area’s cool because there’s lots of sick crews here holding it down and pushing the scene. It’s a really supportive community for sure, really good environment for anyone trying to grow their craft.
I miss the vibe of the Bay Area parties sometimes, where it feels a lot more unconstrained and unrestricted by genre. And people are down to really show up and support local DJs and parties.
Are there any up and coming local artists that you’re excited about? Any local artists that inspire you?
Yeah for sure, Marshall (Farsight) has been putting out some really cool stuff recently, and also Lyn (fallen matter) who just had a really sick club moniker release. Also feeling inspired by Hagop Tchaparian right now, who lives in the Bay Area and has a really sick sampling aesthetic.
What do you see for yourselves in the coming months, years? Any new releases coming up that you can share?
Hopefully we’re touring a lot more in the future and building up our live set to be more flexible and have more visual components. We also want to do more collabs and remixes with other artists.
In terms of new releases — our last one was a remix pack for our EP Better Together. We’re also in the process of mixing down and then figuring out how/when to release a bunch of new stuff, so stay tuned for those later this year.
Do you have any predictions for the local music scene?
This is more of a hope than prediction, but I’d love to see the Bay Area be more solidly on the map for production and maybe some distinct sonic identities in dance music. And it’s really exciting because there’s so many amazing producers putting out music from here already.
Read our review of Baalti’s latest release, Better Together →
See Baalti perform with Bored Lord and ronny ronny ronny next Saturday, December 17 at Mothership →
