“The more confusing I am as an artist, the better”: Or:la on music and mythology“My interest in production was born out of necessity,” says Northern Irish producer Or:la. “I needed to make the idea I heard in my head and was constantly chasing that feeling of catharsis and contentment when you finish something creative that you’re happy with.”

READ MORE: Ninajirachi: “People love to ask artists how they’d describe their sound… I just want to surprise myself”

As a DJ, label head and electronic artist, Or:la has long been on one-to-watch lists but is now firmly in the scene’s spotlight with her debut album, Trusting Theta, via Fabric Originals.
Eclectic and spiralling in sound, drawing on a genre-pushing palette ranging from breakbeat to tribal house, there are wide ambitions in its tracks. Or:la draws on Irish and ancient Greek mythology, delves into queer identities, moments of sapphic love, and calls out female injustices.
“It’s easy to get caught up in the idea that you need to have a strong ‘sound’ as a producer or DJ,” Or: la says of her production approach and restless creative striving.
“I’ve learned to accept that a signature ‘sound’ doesn’t necessarily have to be succinct and linear to come across as authentically cohesive. And just like the human spectrum of emotion, the music I make and play can be playful, sassy, moody, introspective or chaotic at times.”
Image: Kasia Kim Zacharko
Foundations
Or:la’s love of electronic music came from a collage of influences. She picked up a copy of Mood II Swing’s Do It Your Way with Barbara Ann Teer’s vocals in Berlin; social media platform Bebo allowed her to experiment with sound and image while she moved to university from Ireland in 2012, a period she remembers as being particularly potent for club music; and Sasha’s Involver CDs released via Global Underground all sent creative sparks shooting through her too.
“Sasha’s mixes led me to become fascinated with the idea that tracks can sometimes sound better together and juxtaposed between one another than alone,” she remembers. “Mixes like this that made disparate sounds feel cohesive were interesting and exciting.”
Or:la’s first club experiences were at under-18 nights, initially by way of a fake ID during her teenage years. Despite what she describes as Ireland’s “backwards licensing laws” she experienced some of the greats do their thing.
“Celtronic were regularly bringing people like DJ Hell and Andrew Wetherall to my hometown and I’d always be in the front row,” she says. “Promoters like Celtronic and Twitch in Belfast were really pushing the boat out and thinking outside the box to nurture a tiny scene.”
Image: Kasia Kim Zacharko
Production ambitions
Or:la’s own music production dalliances came via mashups and edits at a time when house music was less bothered by pristine sounds, and more by creative energies.
“Around 2010 I downloaded a free version of Virtual DJ and made a few mashups including a version of Nina Kraviz’s Pain In The Ass together with a friend’s drum track,” she says.
This gave her the confidence to experiment more, particularly with Ableton. One of the productions, a bumping take on Beyoncé’s Me Myself And I, was released back in 2022.
“My early interest in producing music coincided with the lo-fi house movement, which demonstrated that you could experiment with and celebrate certain imperfections within your tracks,” Or:la states. “It felt unpretentious and super freeing and I got obsessed with this free plug-in called CamelCrusher which opened a whole gateway into the world of distortion.”
Image: Kasia Kim Zacharko
Trusting Theta
Trusting Theta came into focus during the pandemic and is the result of years of hard work and dancefloor dedication. Before this, Or:la set up her Cead label and released via Scuba’s Hot Flush too, a connection that came via a Facebook message.
“I was feeling cheeky and sent Scuba a demo,” she remembers. “He replied the next day asking to hear more. I was organising these raves around Liverpool and he came to the city to see what they were all about. I must’ve done an okay job because after that we did a b2b UK tour and he released two of my EPs!”
After her initial releases, a pile of unheard tracks and ideas started to build up with the latest official release, 2017’s Farewell 24. Rather than keeping the music under lock and key, Or:la opted to rip the band-aid off and let it loose in the public domain.
“I just thought ‘fuck it, I need to stop being so precious,’” she says. “In recent years I realised that my best ideas come when my brain is in a deep wandering state, or when my brain is in a Theta or default mode state – falling asleep or just waking. So I relinquished a lot of control after this and waited for this internal inspiration.”
The hypnotic, sometimes slippery electronic productions on the record are pitched over themes exploring the Medusa myth from ancient Greece, and ideas of female rage and the male gaze. Thoughts surrounding identity and the impermanence of the internet were also swirling around her mind, too.

“These were just the zeitgeist of my mind at the time of writing, so that’s what naturally came up,” she states. “Then there was the lived experience of a queer person growing up in a place like Northern Ireland which inspired my decision to collaborate with SOAK on the opening track, Milky Way Of Glitter.”
The artwork for the record is a hybrid version of Or:la and Medusa, representing each’s metamorphosis and misinterpretation.
“Certain themes within myths have a durability over other versions and one of the popular stories about Medusa is that she would turn men into stone with her glare,” she explains. “I wanted to challenge this in my version of the artwork so I had a 3D body scan of myself digitally rendered to stone.”
The concepts surrounding identity are sonically represented in the tracks of the record too with what she describes as “subtle nods” to expression and queer subcultures.
“The whip noises sampled in Sea Slugs are reminiscent of the dramatic snare crashes in ballroom vogue tracks, or the title of the outro track Ode To Sister Boom Boom which I hoped would prompt listeners to research Sister Boom Boom.”

A mixture of software and hardware were utilised to make the concepts of the record become a reality, including U-He’s Diva which Or:la relied on to create texture and impactful moments in her productions.
“It has a nice range of percussive and effects presets which you can modify and modulate to your liking,” she says. “I also like using the Soundtoys’ Crystallizer for vocal FX and the Ratshack Reverb (the plugin is super cheap) for dub style delays.”
Elsewhere, the Microcosm Hologram pedal was combined with Ableton for external audio effects.
“This has been mostly for ambient leaning tracks like Goodnight Sister Boom Boom,” she explains. “The Vermona Mono Lancet comes in handy for bass and bleeps, you can hear that feature in Slay The Beast.”
The latter track features Eliza Rose while other collaborators include SOAK and Mary Lake. These sparring partners are among Or:la’s own social circle or music makers she had some connection with. By working with those she already knew, she’s ensured that the sound of these collaborations has been kept light and fun despite the weighty themes.
“With SOAK, we share many similarities having both grown up as queer musicians in Derry,” she says. “Mary (Lake) and I are good friends, and we were having a conversation once about how crazy it is that pepper defense spray is illegal to possess in the UK. So I was like ‘Let’s make our own’ and Mary suggested we record ourselves reading out the ‘recipe’ as vocals for a track. Slay The Beast also emerged from a conversation when myself and Eliza were laughing about creepy men in nightclubs and the male gaze.”
Houghton Festival. Image: Press
Studio process
Or:la is certainly a different kind of artist to the one who first appeared, having DJed at festivals and clubs all over the world since first breaking through. She attributes her experiences playing on big sound systems as having a defining influence on her approach to her music.
“After playing so many gigs you become more aware and familiar with lower frequencies and how these hit on a big system, so I guess my newer music is informed by that,” she says. “I’m making a lot more use of space in my tracks now and I’m using my own vocals and lyrics rather than just pulling samples from old R’n’B tracks. I’m also experimenting more with polyrhythms and less common time signatures.”
It’s often the variety of her production style that makes her sound stand out, where any boundaries between light and dark are often smudged and blurred. Refusing to be pinned to one style or take on electronic music is the only constant that unites her music. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Or:la is a firm believer in aspiring producers staying true to themselves.
Houghton Festival. Image: Press
“Try to be authentic and take more risks,” she advises. “If you’re scared to put yourself out there because that thing you’ve made isn’t like what others are making then that’s all the more reason to do it. Also try not to force things, if a track is meant to be, it will come intuitively and will almost make itself.”
“I’m also realising that being easily categorised and packaged into one box is an ideal capitalistic scenario, so the more confusing I am as an artist the better actually.”
With the album out, it’s the latest chapter in a creative life well-lived so far. It’s the cherry on top of what Or:la describes as one of her favourite summers to date with lifestyle changes, a dedication to focusing on the source and new sense of optimism for the future of electronic music’s community.
“Since moving away from London I’ve been simplifying my life, so I cut down on touring and only chose to play festivals I wanted to attend outside of just playing a set and leaving straight after,” she says.
“Houghton festival was a memorable one,” she continues. “I came away feeling buzzing that there’s still a scene in the UK which leaves you talking about the music well after the festival has finished.”
Trusting Theta is out now on Fabric Originals
The post “The more confusing I am as an artist, the better”: Or:la on music and mythology appeared first on MusicTech.