NAYAN is embarking on an exciting career as a dubstep artist. He spun up an exclusive mix for us, including tracks from his new EP, PRAVAAH.
NAYAN feels strongly about the rave scene. It renewed his sense of ambition and gave him the tight-knit community he always hoped to find. And as a dubstep artist, he wants nothing more than to create something that gives other people the same sort of experience he’s been fortunate enough to have.
“At the end of the day, I’m doing this for the community, for the people,” NAYAN (whose full name is Nayan Patel) told EDM Identity over video chat. “It’s the thing that drives me beyond my own will to create the music.”
It thus comes as no surprise that his new EP goes by the title PRAVAAH. This Sanskrit word means “flow” or “current,” like the stream of inspiration connecting Patel to both the artists he admires and the growing fan base he’s starting to build. But the title also plays on a connotation carried by its English translation, as the four-track effort resulted from him finally achieving a state of creative drift. Each song incorporates samples of instruments like the tabla, sitar, or bansuri to pay homage to NAYAN’s Indian heritage.
“Everything that’s happened so far has led me to this EP. It marks me finding my sound,” said Patel. “It wasn’t until I put these four tracks together that I really felt like I found a sound that was naturally flowing rather than me forcing it out of me. They just wrote themselves.”
In conjunction with his EP release, Patel teamed up with EDM Identity on an exclusive mix that includes all four tracks as well as countless other releases and works in progress. Among them are “Low Feel,” one of his earliest wins, and his popular MIG-EL collab, “FOGGY HEAT.”
Cue up NAYAN’s exclusive mix as you read on to get a glimpse into his past, present, and future. Afterward, make sure to stream PRAVAAH across platforms and catch NAYAN when he opens for Subtronics at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on October 24!
Stream EDMID Guest Mix 480 || NAYAN on SoundCloud:
Nayan Patel was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, and he didn’t set his sights on electronic music until later in his life. Like any kid, he had interests ranging from sports to video games to music, but the latter started to occupy more of his attention with every passing year.
Songs by hip-hop artists like Flatbush Zombies, Kid Cudi, and A$AP Rocky could be found on a young Patel’s daily playlists. In high school, he was introduced to dance music when a friend showed him Tiësto’s 2012 mix compilation, Club Life, Vol. 2 – Miami.
As with a lot of young people who become deeply immersed in music, Patel initially had a hard time staying focused in school. He couldn’t see himself sitting at a desk 40 hours a week, so he had designs on becoming a doctor — but his hopes were dashed when he flunked out of pre-med.
Patel had always been good with computers, though. He switched his major to tech and started to flourish. The field ended up being a vastly better fit, and a company offered him an internship to live and work in the Bay Area for three months.
The internship turned into a job offer, and living near San Francisco exposed him to things he never could have imagined. He met his wife at work, and she introduced him to music festivals, starting with the 2019 edition of Audiotistic.
Patel immediately fell in love with the scene. “I got to dance, and it was awesome because I’d never been one to dance, but everyone else was doing it,” he said. “And people would come up and introduce themselves to me, ask how I was doing. That doesn’t happen in other scenes.”
From that point on, Patel was hooked. Over the next few years, he frequented raves at the Bill Graham, Public Works, Monarch, and the Midway, catching headliners like Liquid Stranger, DROELOE, Taska Black, and What So Not.
Patel said: “I decided that I needed to find out what I was super into. All the subgenres — there’s levels to it. Like there’s bass music, but then within that, there’s experimental bass music, 140, deep dubstep, all that stuff.”
Sound system culture also started to catch Patel’s interest, as San Francisco is one of its most active hotspots in the US. “In India, every time there’s a wedding or gathering, the block is hopping,” he said. “I haven’t been to Jamaica, but I’ve learned about how the culture originated there, and I’ve always felt a connection to it.”
A turning point came when Nayan Patel attended EDC Las Vegas in 2022. As anyone does at a massive with multiple stages, he and his wife bounced from stage to stage — but no set hooked him quite like that of Philadelphia heavy bass figurehead Subtronics.
“We caught so many different artists, but the one who really caught my eye was Subtronics,” Patel said. “It was right after the Kx5 debut, and then Subtronics came on, and I’d never felt energy like that in my entire life.”
As Subtronics played a VIP remix of his track “Gassed Up” with Zeds Dead, the entire crowd was electric and Patel’s jaw was on the floor. Suddenly, he realized that he was meant to do this. He never wanted to spend all of his time sitting at a desk, anyways. So over the following year, he’d started obsessively researching how to make music.
“In Subtronics’ tutorials, I noticed he was always working on something,” Patel recalled. “I thought, ‘I have the work ethic, I know how to sit myself down and just work on something. If these guys can do it, I can definitely do it. I said F it, I’m just gonna sit down and try.”
Starting in January 2023, Patel spent all of his time after he finished work each day tinkering around in Ableton. He played his first official DJ gig one year later, and then he kept pushing on, absorbing as much information as he could about music theory, sound design, and even production of genres outside dance music.
Patel’s first release to gain significant traction was his late 2024 flip of Schoolboy Q’s “Floating,” which pointed to the UK-influenced style of dubstep that would become his calling card. Then, in early 2025, he dropped an original single titled “Tooning,” which demonstrated that his previous success was no fluke.
And as PRAVAAH sees him come into his own as a producer, it only makes sense that a milestone performance will directly follow its release. On October 24, NAYAN accompanies INZO, EAZYBAKED, and Know Good on the supporting lineup for Subtronics’ show at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. It’s one of the places where Patel fell in love with EDM, and the show is headlined by one of his biggest inspirations. Only this time, he’s joining him on stage.
“People be throwing around the words ‘full circle moment,’ but in all honesty, it’s one of the most amazing feelings in the world,” said Patel. “I so badly wanted to make something of this when I started, and the fact that I get to open for somebody who I’ve continuously looked to for inspiration at a time when I get to play about 50% my own music — it’s surreal. It makes me feel like I’m doing the right thing, because something is working.”
Even with everything going on in his budding music career, Nayan Patel keeps on reminding himself that he’s doing this for the broader EDM community. That’s how he remains in a state of flow, after all.
Patel said: “I always ask myself, how can I keep adding to the community? People are choosing to spend their free time with friends and family coming to see me. I need to make sure I’m doing this for them, and that’s how I approach every set. Whether there’s two people in the crowd or 100 people, 500 people, whatever, the goal is to give them the best possible time that I can.”
Don’t forget to stream or download PRAVAAH by NAYAN across platforms, and make sure to arrive at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium early to catch his set opening for Subtronics on October 24!
Follow NAYAN:
X | Instagram | SoundCloud | Spotify | TikTok
