DSKRDIA introduces listeners to her hard techno style on her debut guest mix for Paradigm Shift!
Puerto Rican artist DSKRDIA is holding it down for the hard techno scene in Florida. With minimal exposure to dance music when she was young, her story builds from the ground up.
Growing up in Puerto Rico, her access to the genre was limited as Dance Dance Revolution and friends who enjoyed Tiësto were her main point of entry. She eventually moved to mainland United States, where she met her husband, who essentially grew up on dance music. They frequently listened to Tomorrowland sets, and DSKRDIA enjoyed the mixes featuring hardstyle tracks. Her exposure to dance music grew — although it was dominated by house and techno, which wasn’t her thing.
One day, DSKRDIA saw Charlotte de Witte at a festival and loved the harder aspects of her performance. From there, she fell deeper into the hard techno rabbit hole, eventually landing on Sara Landry’s DEF Boiler Room set from 2021. She enjoyed it, but still wasn’t sure that she could handle the sounds for long time periods. Yet DSKRDIA craved higher energy and heavier beats as she began producing and DJing. Before she knew it, she had found a home in hard techno with harder and faster sounds dominating her music library.
Today, DSKRDIA is a key player in the Florida hard techno scene. She shares her passion for hard music with dedicated crowds all over the state, using her place in the scene to help elevate hard music and urge others to join the movement. To DSKRDIA, participation is essential above all else.
My general advice for anyone going into a career in the scene is to leave the ego at the door and make yourself visible and useful. Don’t believe that people are going to simply know who you are if you don’t put yourself out there. Closed mouths don’t get fed! So show support, help build your local scene, and don’t be afraid to put yourself out there.
DSKRDIA
DSKRDIA also advises other women looking to break into the industry to stay focused on their goals and not be afraid to put themselves out there despite the negativity and suspicions of women ghost producing or earning bookings based on their looks.
To showcase what DSKRDIA is all about, she stopped by to spin up a banging guest mix for her debut in our Paradigm Shift series! For nearly one hour, she takes listeners on a high-octane journey across hard techno that is all gas and no brakes. Featuring artists such as C:ØDE, CUTDWN, Cadzow, and more, this mix is sure to give you the jolt of energy you need to blast through your week and make it to another weekend of raving!
Hard techno is definitely growing in popularity. I know some people are opposed to the scene not being ‘undergound,’ but my love for the music and genre makes me wish more people could hear and enjoy it. The more the scene grows, the more opportunities there are for artists to put their creative expressions into the world. I hope that the scene continues to grow!
DSKRDIA
Get to know DKSRDIA by streaming her debut guest mix for Paradigm Shift on SoundCloud right now! Make sure to snag tickets to Breakaway Tampa as she is set to bring the hard techno madness to the festival this year.
