Last March, the California-bred artist known as Eera, also known as a founding member of the influential New York crew Surf Gang, also known as a producer who has laced tracks for everyone from Bladee to Babyxsosa, Rich The Kid to Black Kray, also known as an artist in his own right—did a DJ set as part of Nina Night at the New York club Nowadays. Eera’s session for Nina highlights the same tracklist that he played at the club. It’s a washy melding of rave, rap, ambient, techno, and club; it makes sonic connections, and it makes us excited about the future of both the producer and the wider community from which he incubated. Give it a listen and read an interview with the artist below.

Tell us about the mix you cooked up. 

Eera: This mix is the tracklist for the set I played at Nowadays on 14 March, 2024. Has a few songs I worked on, music from some friends and other tracks I’ve found on SoundCloud over a the years digging through the search/related tracks algorithms. 

Does the process of digging for music inspire you as a producer? 

I think that I’ve drawn a lot of inspiration from really random tracks that I’ve found over the years via spending hours and hours just looking through tracks that are shown to me through SoundCloud and YouTube algorithms, search function and related tracks, like I mentioned before. I’ve sampled, interpolated, and been inspired by tracks that have been virtually unheard. Like, sub-100 plays. I think the ability to use the random/unpredictable nature of computer behavior to find tracks you would otherwise never hear is something modern music enjoyers are lucky to have.

How was your set at Nina night at Nowadays? 

It was really cool. Shoutout to Purelink, Chuquimamani-Condori, Special Guest DJ, and DJ Healthy—they all played really sick sets. The crowd was great also. I really like that venue. The plants add a lot to the atmosphere. 

What have you been working on recently? Do you have any projects or collaborations coming up that you are excited about? 

I’ve spent a lot of time over the last year trying to find a balance between making music I like to listen to and making music that can be enjoyed in live settings, so it's been a lot of thinking about the sonic direction I want to take my music in. Been working a lot with my friend DJH, we have a bunch of stuff coming up. Working on some new things with my friend Olswel and got other stuff with Lilac, Rapallo, and a lot more people. I tend to take my time between releases but I’m really excited for what's to come next.