HAAi is a producer striving to stay “on the edge of being uncomfortable”From playing guitar and singing in shoegaze indie bands to DJing techno-melters at festivals around the world, the London-based artist HAAi, real name Teneil Throssell, has been on an eclectic musical adventure. Ultimately, it’s been defined by a restless refusal to be restricted.
“One of my favourite things about artists is those who have breadth,” she says. “It’s something I admire. I’m really excited by those who can work across different genres, sounds and styles.”
In a rare moment of downtime between tours, HAAi is talking about the artistic approach she’s adopted and been inspired by on her album Digitise, released on 9 October and arriving a year after the boundary-pushing Humanise.
DIGITiSE by HAAi
This latest release introduces new collaborators — Echonomist and Skybreak plus Cantoalegre, a children’s choir from Medellin, Colombia — as well as artists she’s previously worked with: Pat Alvarez, ILA, James Messiah and Kaiden Ford.
Initially, the album was supposed to feature a glut of remixes to extend the world of Humanise, but it’s evolved into something much bigger. Alongside her live gigs and DJing, the intricate production levels on its ten tracks demonstrate how she’s evolved into a 360-degree artist capable of turning her creativity to embrace any sound. It’s an approach producers and friends like Daniel Avery have adopted on their latest music too.
“If Dan had made ten more Drone Logic [his breakthrough 2013 track] style songs, as seminal as it is, he would have been criticised. I think it’s really healthy to go beyond what people expect,” HAAi says.
“Not everyone will be happy or on board with this constant change. But being on the edge of being uncomfortable is what is most fulfilling about working as a musician and artist; it’s all about challenging yourself.”
Image: Lamia Karic
Digitise is billed as a “ravier sibling to its predecessor”, a ten-track album directly inspired by HAAi’s relentless globe-trotting as a DJ. It’s a direct contrast to Humanise. It explored what it’s like to be a person in a digital world increasingly ruled by AI and algorithms. With key tracks including Voices (with Jon Hopkins) and New Euphoria, it followed the 2022 debut Baby, We’re Ascending and showcased HAAi’s ability to blend songs with warm instrumentation.. Digitise is a sonic world inspired by the clubs and the communities she’s been DJing to and sharing her music with over the past 12 months.
“The whole thing started as a remix album that I was calling RE-Humanise, which is why the opening track has the same name,” she says. “But then as time went by, I was going beyond remixes to make more original music; I was sampling and resampling sounds from the originals and coming up with these new tunes.”
“I realised I wasn’t fully ready to let go of Humanise. The album is such an important record for me and my audience. I’ve had such wonderful messages about what it means to people. Digitise deliberately sits much more in the club world while straddling my DJing and production too. In some ways, I wanted it to feel like a version of one of my longer DJ sets.”
HAAi’s experiences as a DJ have taken her all over the world, with summer 2026 seeing her play gigs everywhere from North Shields to Hi Ibiza and Love International in Croatia. We saw her play at Convenanza Festival in Carcassonne in 2025, a festival dedicated to celebrating Andrew Weatherall — a direct inspiration for her and many other artists within electronic music and beyond.
“Andy Weatherall was a huge part of my beginnings in DJing. I’m still very influenced by him and his legacy, and getting to play the festival was huge for me,” she says. “The demographic and sounds are so varied at that event, and what they have created there is so special. We need more parties like it, where everyone feels comfortable and welcomed showing up and dancing.”
Image: Lamia Karic
HAAi’s production methods have varied throughout different releases within her discography. For Digitise, most of its music was constructed on a laptop while she was on tour and flying between gigs.
“It’s how I tend to write dance music as I’m usually in transit and need something to play at a festival or play at a club that night,” she explains. “It means you’re writing with intention for a track to be functional. This record in particular was made more in the box, then I’ve broken it down so it can be played with hardware.”
HAAi’s go-to plugins include Devious Machines’ Infiltrator and Duck. When playing live, she incorporates a MIDI controller, keyboard and Novation’s Launch Control.
“Infiltrator has this overdrive, but there are some more granular and spectral effects too, and I use it on almost every track,” HAAi says. “I recently started using a Novation Peak that has been easy to get into a flow with too.”
“One of my other bits of kit is my Roland Space Echo which is something I’ve used since being in shoegaze bands. Essentially, it’s a tape delay but you can create different interesting tones if you play around with it for long enough. I bought mine from eBay from a studio in Japan and it hadn’t erased the loops of a session that it had used on so you have these ghosts of sounds in the background. I live for these kinds of glitches.”
A stint at Devon Analogue studio in North Devon, UK, with her musical director Luca Perry also shifted HAAi’s mindset when it came to the workflow of the studio they share.
“We updated it to follow how Devon Analogue is set up, even though they have so much more kit than we do,” she states. “We just wanted to make it easier to work on music and make sure more pieces of gear are rigged up and ready to go.”
There are various highlights for HAAi among the tracks and the cast of characters who have joined her on Digitise. Talking Walls features the work of US producer Skybreak, whom she came across via an Instagram reel and his sub-bass killer track, Anxiety. 
“His music is this insane, energetic mix of bass and dubstep; he’s super young and wildly talented,” HAAi says. “I was playing his track a lot, then asked him if he’d be up for collaborating. He’s one of these super talented kids who just work in their own unique way; he uses FL Studio on a laptop and is so fast. We connected in America, and he works at a speed that I’d never experienced before.”
DIGITiSE by HAAi
Talking Walls also saw HAAi working with the Cantoalegre Colombian children’s choir. She had been playing in the country, met up with the principal of the local school and they agreed to a day of recording.
“It was such a fulfilling day of music-making for me,” she says. “When you have lyrics with a certain amount of meaning sung by kids, it takes everything up another few notches. I’ve had some insane experiences there. I love Colombia so much.”
“I feel really excited about this song as I’ve been playing it out. It straddles so many different things—it’s quite bassy, dubstep with a choral emotional section. It really stretched a lot of my production knowledge, and I learned a lot from Skybreak in terms of processing too.”
The threads from Humanise are not only felt in the personnel on the album, but in the sonics too. The last track of Humanise fades out with the choir, picking up again on the opening track of Digitise and taking the listener straight to the club.
“The title track Digitise is another standout for me. I’m really proud of the production collaboration with Pat Alvarez,” HAAi says. “It’s rare for me to have something in my mind for it to sound, then for that to be close to the end result. I’ve worked with Pat so much, and we’re such a good match in the studio collaboratively, that was super exciting to make.”
What’s so inspiring about HAAi is the different sides to her musical personality. The way these ostensibly contrasting sounds interact has opened up bold and innovative pathways for her to explore.
“Back when I was in bands, everything felt more tribal. There were guitar kids, and there were club kids, but Weatherall really bridged that gap for me,” she says. “As time has gone by, I have definitely cast the net wider sonically. When you work in different genres, the style of production and how you approach it is so different; a lot of it was about expanding my taste and my skills too.”
HAAi is a believer in embracing different sounds and styles, then embossing your music with as much of yourself as possible. For those looking to follow in her footsteps, she advises taking your time to work out your own sonic identity.
“For anyone emerging, it’s important to remember to try and avoid feeling any sense of urgency to put anything out,” she says. “Sitting on music and working out your sound is a wise move, especially in an age where we’re all made to feel this real sense of urgency. I broke through as an artist in my early thirties, and I think it’s important to sit and develop your skills and sound as much as you can.”
Digitise was released by Mute on 9 October 2026.
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