Have you ever heard the term, “it takes a village to raise a child?”

Well the same can be said for a successful DJ, especially in today’s scene. Somna is a prime example of what you can accomplish with the right people are around you. Building an inner circle that pushes your talent forward, Somna is making his name known in a very competitive field.  ‘The feels’ is what you are getting with him. When you think of the next generation of uplifting powerhouses, he is definitely in that group. He had a fantastic 2019 and 2020 is looking to be just as, if not stronger. And as the trance scene continues to break into new markets, Somna is ready to deliver.

Welcome and thank you for sitting with me today. Although this is not your first Dreamstate, this is your first Dreamstate SoCal. How has the experience been so far? How do you feel your set went?

It’s been absolutely amazing!  I had my own little trailer and everything and I felt like a rock star haha! But seriously, I will definitely remember this show forever. Not only was it the largest gig I’ve played as Somna, but it also gave me a chance to debut some of my album tracks that I’ve been working on for ages. I even got to meet a whole bunch of supporters after my set and that really made it all that much more special.

I really enjoyed my set, so I think it went well and I hope everyone else enjoyed it! I’ve got the full live set and video up on my YouTube page (@somnamusic) as well as soundcloud now!

Your latest track ‘Stars Collide‘ with Jennifer Rene, which will be out on Magik Muzik, is absolute fire. What would you say is your biggest inspiration for producing?

I’m super excited for the release of ‘Stars Collide’. It was one of the IDs I debuted at Dreamstate and also the first single from my upcoming album. It was also special reuniting for the 5th time with Jennifer Rene. She’s wonderful and I really enjoy working with her. It’s tough to point my finger at exactly what inspires me for production but I’m constantly inspired by other genres of music and the techniques and things they do. It makes me want to improve, experiment and keep my productions fresh.

Your radio show Reanimate Music is a great showcase of both your music and others. How long do you prepare each show? What is the process you go through for selecting music to play? How has the show helped you spread your music?

Usually it takes about an hour to go through promos, an hour to record and prepare the show and then an hour of sitting on the computer doing the live track listing over twitter when it airs. I don’t have a specific process for selecting music, I just go through tracks and promos and if I like it, I’ll try to fit it in! I do try to fit in some AVA releases to promote my label though.

Speaking of the radio show, I’ve got a big announcement for the show! As of February ‘Reanimate Music’ will air twice a month. On the 1st and 3rd Wednesday at 18:00 CET (Noon USA EST) on di.fm (in the DJ mixes channel)! I’m excited for it to reach new audiences!

You are always quick to thank Team Somna, who consist of some of the closes people in your inner circle. How important is it for your inner circle to be trusted? Do you think an inner circle can either help or hurt an artist?

Team Somna are the real MVP’s. I’ve spent many years trying to do everything myself and being able to trust and let go has been difficult for me but I am so blessed to have the amazing people in my team helping me out. I absolutely trust each of them and they’ve helped me achieve so much in such a short time.

In a recent interview you mentioned that trance is really grabbing the attention of clubbers. Can you please elaborate on what you mean by this? What do you think are some of challenges the trance scene has in getting attendance? And how do we overcome this?

There seems to be more and more trance festivals popping up which is fantastic and even my friends who don’t listen to trance normally, have really enjoyed themselves when they’ve gone to trance events here locally! Even in Canada where trance has never been an extremely popular genre, has had its very own Dreamstate and U4RIA Festival which is so awesome to see. Also at the moment, there’s a lot of talk about “melodic techno” on socials and great to see melodies and trance influences seeping into other genres!

As far as overcoming challenges, we are still not quite as commercially acceptable as other forms of dance music but I think one way we can capture new audiences is by making sure as music producers that we keep growing the sound and keeping things interesting. I love classic trance as much as everyone else but I think pushing fresh sounds and innovation will help introduce more people to our scene where we can then remind them of our wonderfully rich history.

It is no secret your music is all about the feels and you turned fans into blubbering messes on the dance floor. Have you ever gotten emotional DJing from the music you are playing? What tracks give you the feels?

Blubbering messes haha! There are definitely songs that make me fall deep into the feels and get emotional. ‘I Don’t Deserve You’ from Paul Van Dyk and Plumb is probably the one song with the biggest feels for me. The vocals are just perfection and get me every time 🙂

Finally, if you could only live by one motto, what would it be?

Be true to yourself. I think it’s so easy as a music producer to chase trends and I know I’ve been guilty of doing that as a budding producer but I’ve found that writing music that speaks to you personally as an artist will bring more enjoyment than chasing what’s popular at the moment.