#32 Deeper Into Outer Space | DJ Haram

Explore the visceral, genre-melting sonic warfare of US artist DJ Haram and her debut album, ‘Beyond Myself’, a soundtrack to our disintegrating reality…

Drawing on disparate influences from Middle Eastern pop LPs to a love for the dissonance of Sonic Youth, noise and frenetic Jersey club, DJ Haram’s debut album ‘Beyond Myself’ obliterates any genres or styles that get in its way.

Which is why it’s one of the most exhilarating listens of 2025 - you won’t hear anything like it this year and follows projects alongside Moor Mother as 700 Bliss, as a beatmaker for billy woods’ Backwoodz collective and building her reputation as a world-class selector, hosting the Lot Radio’s popular Monday Night Raw show.

Body-rattling rhythms are at the heart of this wicked record as well as anger at the state of things - and we managed to get Haram to answer a few questions ahead of her current UK tour with billy woods.

Read more on how she made the Hyperdub released ‘Beyond Myself’, how Philadelphia influenced her and coruscating thoughts on the state of the club scene…

How important was moving to Philadelphia was to your creativity - how did this shape you? What was the scene like?

A friend of mine used to liken Philly to “the womb”. One must have a cavern as satiating Philadelphia can be to incubate, grow, become oneself; but one also must break TF out and let life take you where it will.

Philadelphia is an incredible city with incredible people and a rich, rich cultural and political history. It was such privilege to be there, I moved there because new friends invited me to live in a squat. At the time, I was just outgrowing what we can call a queer runaway phase. I have to say, this move was life saving in that way. Before that I was doing dangerous shit like sleeping on the subway and in parks in NYC. There were several “scenes” I guess, like the extremely white and male punk scene and this weird crypto-fascist harsh noise scene. I was part of this queer and anarchist scene, where we was effortlessly multi-genre and intersectional - like Moor Mother’s iconic show series called ‘Rockers’, house parties we threw to pay for peoples bail funds (and squat repairs lol), and regular programming at a couple different anarchist spaces like a infoshop/community kitchen/events space called LAVA (I was the events coordinator here for a couple years), another one called A-Space, and the Wooden Shoe book store.

I’m interested to hear how ‘Beside Myself’ came together? What was the creative process like behind this? How did you piece together your collaborators too?

The process was very scattered and depressed at the beginning. I was working on it before October 7th. I had a rough break up and some other hard life stuff going on, I was badly struggling emotionally and really, really poor. Like, so poor that I was $2 short for the $2.75 subway ride to the studio. Then came October 7th and the ongoing genocide in Palestine. I couldn’t fathom how to make an album I wanted to make or share. I guess I kind of bought myself some time by releasing the two-track ‘Handplay’ EP.

I don’t know, it was a lot of searching and screaming and protesting and crying and reading and writing and listening to the same couple chords on loop for four hours time blocks and screaming more. I felt so profoundly isolated which is part of why the title is ‘Beside Myself’, like at the time I felt - who can I rely on?

“When I finally dragged myself to the studio enough that I had some working ideas going, it helped so much spiritually and materially to get a bunch of likeminded collaborators to help me tie a bow on the project.”

KKR, Gaza, Ukraine, US politics… everything feels like it’s on the brink - how does this backdrop of turmoil factor into your music making?

I was born in 1992. During the Gulf War. To immigrant parents, and refugee grandparents. We were born, we live, and we very well may die on the brink. The current exacerbation of Zio-American authoritarianism, this tech-billionaire dystopia is really fucked up; sometimes I feel like wow, the people are breaking out of the comfort of “the simulation” and sometimes I feel like, damn, I have never in my life felt more dehumanized by “visibility”. I just wish everyone would fuck off out the so called “Muslim world” and diaspora.

It’s crazy making, but my role in history will always be to tell the truth, to agitate, to be critical, and to build bridges between communities in resistance of a common enemy - the global ruling class.

How has the show on The Lot fed into your own music-making and creative approaches?

My show, Monday Night Raw (MNR), has been such a great space to have. I used to have a radio show on RINSE FM called “Rage Radio.” I did proper DJ sets and had guests as well. But as my artistic practice has grown more towards being a producer and performing artist than a DJ, I wanted MNR to be a environment that I engaged with from that angle. Even tho I call myself an “anti format DJ” with a no rules approach to my sets, I’m not even doing that on the lot most of the time. I play demos of beats I’m working on, random stuff I’ve been listening to, and especially since the format is A/V, I find a lot of importance and FUN in bringing in producers, singers, rappers, musicians to do live sets.

Club culture seems to be at a strange point at the moment, certainly here in the UK where the post-Covid rebound seems to be halting - we often talk quite gloomily about club closures - from your experiences as a DJ, what is your take on this? Do you think the clubbing landscape is worse off now than when you started out?

Yes, I think it’s worse off. The other day I saw a news article about how that Zionist club in berlin, about:blank, is probably closing soon and I smiled. They said its because of gentrification. But also they’re on some weird shit over there, that anti-deutsch movement. They probably consider the sizable but relatively new population of Palestinians and Syrians to be gentrifiers. Lol. The intersectional analysis cannot intersect properly in a country where denial makes the fabric’s fibers.

The wealth hierarchy is getting more severe - you know, rich getting richer, poor getting poorer - I guess that applies to working class nazis and their ruling counterparts as well (in Germany but the US as well, of course). We’re all getting paid less for the same gigs; there are less options for professional resources like agents, managers, labels; in NYC DIY/community spaces and artist collectives feel relatively non existent. At the same time, nightlife and the culture (music, fashion, our spaces) is becoming incredibly popular and mainstream. We have the KKR-owned Boiler Room throwing raves under bridges. People protest and online harass the participants but they still sell out before they even drop a line up. Shit, Tyler the Creator just had a show under the bridge for his recent dance music album, one that he opened up by saying something like “drop all that woke shit and just dance mother fucker”. Like, Wtf? This was some punk shit we did, dodging cops and spending that sweat for temporary autonomous space.

I watched hip hop music rise and fall as an overexploited mainstream pop obsession, it only took a couple years. (The underground rap scene is lit right now, I love being in this conversation).

This ketamine euphoria horny nova fest Fyre fest forget your troubles and buy 7 $20 cocktails trend will pass, and it will try to dull every blade in our possession but we cannot let them. I believe that we will win.

Find out more | https://linktr.ee/djharam

Haram is currently on tour across the UK and Europe - dates here:

For more on club, rave culture and hidden stories, you can order a copy of my book, ‘Out of Space: How UK Cities Shaped Rave Culture’ via the Velocity Press website now.