New York producer Nire describes her new video for as “eco-feminist” and a “surreal telenova/spiritual reality show”. Directed by multimedia artist and filmmaker Maya Margolina, the video inserts crabs, cockroaches, toads, and snakes into her apartment for a bizarre televised competition. “I see the world and the universe as one organism,” Nire explains, “My spirituality is deeply linked to nature. We’ve become so separate from it and its creatures as we are increasingly boxed in by various types of ‘plastic’. I wanted to insert these bugs and sea creatures into this reality TV show world as a micro-protest, where potentially liberating acts are reduced to capitalist competition, where winning is the ultimate/the God.”

Nire has released a handful of EPs, mixtapes and albums of club music over the past few years. Outside of her solo music, she’s worked with fellow New York artist serpentwithfeet and supported other female and non-binary producers through her participation with worldwide electronic music collective Sister, with “Birdsong” seeing her team up with vocalist Bunny Michael (a “Nature Slut Telepathic Goddess from the Future channeling the Ghosts of my Ancestor”, as she describes herself on Facebook).

Bunny explains that the lyrics were written in a “psychedelic trance of total devotion” to a former lover. “I was so transformed by my sexual desires for her that I had a vision,” she says, “In that vision I was a shaman. A shaman who used sexual energy to get what she wanted. So I wrote the lyrics from this sexual shamanic perspective. As an artist and writer I try to conjure all my expressions from visions and dreams. I trust that my subconscious will lead me to a far more interesting path than any idea my mind comes up with first.”

Video director adds Maya Margolina that the clip is an “obvious riff” on reality TV, but also “wellness culture, on spirituality being a checkmark on the productivity charts”. “We’re making fun of ourselves since we’re also deeply entrenched in the wellness mandate and our curated solipsistic realities,” she says, “But there’s also something sweet about it – like we all want to meditate our way back to being children or find some connection back to each other. The more technologically advanced we get the more we miss nature, the less we know what to even do with it. Also, we just wanted to have fun and play with bugs – Nire let the crab pinch her for a really long time and it was so cute.”

We spoke to Nire to get an insight into her world.

So, tell us about yourself.

Nire: I’m an interdisciplinary artist from Queens, NY, currently working mainly in music and video. I started producing music ten years ago. My work explores release and transformation, mysticism and spirituality, power constructs/systems of oppression and social justice, the environment and its connection to feminism, plant medicine, surrealism, sci-fi and post-humanism, and the fundamental influence technology has on us.

What sort of music do you make and play?

Nire: Art is where I bask in and celebrate mystery. It’s also always been a coping mechanism, channeling trauma/discord, disappointment and fear into something beautiful and celebratory. I play a lot of music from my peers, local producers, singers, rappers and voices from around the globe. I’ve always been drawn to people on the fringe of society, those who aren’t afraid to protest the status quo, who are able to see outside of the advertising onslaught and asinine power structures, even if it costs them certain comforts or normalcy. Not all of my music is ‘dance’ music, but dance is very significant to me – it’s when I feel the most free. At the club and other social situations, dance is a group catharsis, spiritual happening, community celebration, a praise of ourselves and each other.

What was your route into music?

Nire: I grew up dancing, making music, acting and doing visual arts. I narrowed in on the latter when I was applying to college. I went to a school that had departments in all of the visual and performing arts where I made friends with people producing music and fell in love with it. I then decided I didn’t want to work in the art world via the path I was on anymore. It was more than, but still is, very euro-centric and classist. I like the accessibility and immediacy of music, everyone can hear it, anywhere they want, not just at an elitist institution.

“I’ve always been drawn to people on the fringe of society, those who aren’t afraid to protest the status quo, who are able to see outside of the advertising onslaught and asinine power structures, even if it costs them certain comforts or normalcy” — Nire

You released your album Radika last year. How do you feel about it looking back on it?

Nire: It started years ago, when I was working with friends who happened to be women, and then started to form itself into an album. Most of the women had never had the opportunity to work with a woman producer either. It was such a huge learning experience since it was so DIY. I mixed most of the album, co-directed and edited some of the videos (with help from YouTube tutorials and great friends), made artwork for a lot of releases and then was frequently in charge of getting it out into the world. It forced me out of my comfort zone by having to ask people for help, make myself vulnerable to rejection and surrender control – which, paradoxically, has been really empowering.

Who, or what, is exciting you about music right now – and what needs to change?

Nire: Technology has democratized music-making in a lot of ways and has made it more accessible to people that it previously wasn’t as readily available to, allowing underrepresented voices to be more heard. I love that within the realm of electronic music, people are constantly pushing, bending and creating new genres. There are exciting things going on in NY right now at the intersection of music and the art world. Unfortunately the music industry on the major label side is super capitalist – it can be very vapid and fueled largely by profit, trying to distill artists to something more consumable. Problems in the music industry mimic problems in America at large. We need systematic, fundamental changes to heal and empower in meaningful ways.