Mukul Bhatt, called Emnems comes from the beautiful state of mountains, Uttarakhand who grew up in a closely-knit family that values education and hard work. As per him, his main strength is his ability to talk to himself and make sure that he doesn’t get distracted from his goals. Emnems is someone who likes to go out, meet like-minded people and interact with them to learn something new. He is a curious head who likes to find information on History and technology. He believes in the saying, “If you are the smartest one in the room then you are in the wrong room”.
Emnems talks to us about his initial phase of DJing where he had no intentions as such to pursue it exactly. He enjoys now, making people vibe to his kind of music, especially when people dance to his music. He desires to create music and share it with the world. For Emnems, making music is blending emotions influenced by weather, mood, personal life and other things. He wishes to express himself through music and it’s subjectivity makes it beautiful as it is open to different perspectives then. He loves electronic music just for the way he connects to it.
While talking about his initial phase of making music, he said that he didn’t perform any major gigs in Melbourne but was doing it for his friends there. It would be a weekend party where he would show up with his speakers and console to play his music and enjoy it thoroughly. This was the learning stage for Emnems where he built his confidence by playing his music in front of his people.
Emnems shared that Mid Journey is his baby project where his friend, Rashid is his partner. He mentioned that Rashid is great with finishing and arranging tracks and he is good with sound design and setting the vibe for the track. It was September 2023 when they realised that they needed to perform music on stage and came up with the name, Mid Journey taking inspiration from an AI company. It was very recent when they started working on live sets and envisioned Mid Journey as a live-performing project.
Emnem talked to us about his approach to producing music with Rashid where he mentioned that they sit together twice in a week in Rashi’s studio where they have all their instruments for creating music. They do their background research on what people like and what kind of music labels like; accordingly, the duo discuss, spend their time on tweaking beats, melodious and work on the grooves. Emnems likes taking things slow and steady, giving himself enough breaks and Rashid likes to sit for 6-8 hours of stretch and work on the music.
When we asked about the inspiration behind the track “Par-desi”, Emnems told us about the day the duo was hanging out in the neighbourhood for food and while walking he was mumbling the lyrics of the original song, Rashid got the idea for the track’s remix! He suggested a break/garage version of the song at that time to which Emnems didn’t pay much heed. As Rashid sent him the first draft of the song, he got hooked on it.
Talking further to the Oslava team, Emnems shared the feedback that he received great appreciation for Pulse Odyssey. He said that most of his listeners reached out to him about the freshness of the music and how it sounded completely new to them. They launched this EP with the label Grootin, founded by Abhiraj Singh whom he met at All About Music in Mumbai in 2023. Emnems shared that the tracks that he and Rashid would think would get them streams, didn’t perform well and the tracks that they didn’t expect much, would get the maximum number of streams. Overall, he got positive feedback on the EP and that motivated them to work harder and release more music.
Emnems talked to us about music’s role in free expression where he said that it helps in connecting with others. As per him, music has a unique ability that cannot be defined, it gives the creator and the listener, freedom to share and experience emotions. It is known for breaking barriers and cultural differences and bringing people together eventually forming a community of like-minded people. Be it the lyrics, melody or rhythm; music helps to connect on a deeper level, being a part of the essential part of human existence.
Talking about the challenges, Emnems expressed that he has struggled to find complete support from his family as they couldn’t believe in the fact that music can be pursued full-time and a life can be made from it. Though with his achievements and conquering significant milestones, they are gradually shifting to it and he has a belief that with time he will gain stronger support from them. Another challenge that he faces is his irregular sleep cycle where he is trying to work on it constantly and makes a goal of sleeping for 7-8 hours in a day.
In the long run, Emnems wishes to be recognised as a producer first and then a DJ. He has also started to make vlogs on his nightlife and event experiences, so he trying to focus on the content creation part along with music production. In terms of Mid Journey, the duo wants to meet the expectations of a live performing act with their music.
Emnems shared his insights on his musical preferences as a producer where he mentioned that he doesn’t want to be confined to one particular genre and be known for it. He likes to listen and work on melodious break music mostly and has recently gotten drawn towards high BPM and more energetic tracks. He likes this process of evolution of his and envisions to release his music under his name and would work on collaborations too.