Ma Sha, Right Here, Right Now
New York can bait you in some unexpected ways. For Ma Sha, it was while learning breakdancing in Moscow as a teenager. From there, just one trip to the city convinced her that she would make it her home. Fast forward to 2022, only seven years later, and she’s at the center of a New York rave revival with Kindergarten, her party, radio show and label. As she releases her new video with her band Ma Sha Ru, we FaceTimed between New York and Kyiv in Ukraine, before she heads back to the city.
Ma Sha by Karla Del Orbe
NOUVEAU YORK: Let’s start with a Nouveau York tradition: I’ve asked you to pick five records that embody NYC to your heart. The oldest one you picked is the electro-hip hop classic, released in 1982 by Afrika Bambaataa and the soul Sonic force, “Planet Rock”. Tell us about it.
MA SHA: This record is showing how I got connected to the New York scene. Back in Russia, when I was a teenager, I was breakdancing. All the music that we were dancing to were these amazing electro and breakbeat tracks. This specific track was played on pretty much every battle that we attended. That record was the highlight of my teenage years and that’s how I was imagining the New York scene at the time. I'm very grateful to my breakdancing teachers for providing such an amazing music knowledge to me.
NY: When was it? The mid 2000’s? You moved to New York seven years ago, right?
M: Yeah, seven years ago. I was breakdancing all the time before I went to NYC in 2014.
NY: Your second New York selection is a 1990 house record, released on Nu Groove, produced by Peter Daou. It’s Metro, “Turnstyle Turbulance”. This is your only house pick. Why this one?
M: In my early months in New York, I moved in with my friend Zanzie who had a DJ setup. That's where I started DJing. He had two turntables and a mixer. I decided that I want to start playing records as well. One night we went to a house party where I was talking to one of the guys and I mentioned that I’m planning to start collecting music and DJing… and he just told me: “Here's a box of records. This is for you. Just take it all”. So I went home carrying a huge box of records, maybe eighty-ninety records inside a box. That was quite a challenge [laughs], but I told myself: this is a sign I need to start DJing! I was pulling up the records one by one, until I pulled out “Turnstyle Turbulance”. Oh my god, this was just amazing. This record kick started my DJing practice in New York.
NY: Great story and a great record to start your DJ career. Then we jump from 1990 straight to the late 2010’s with the next 3 New York records that you selected. I feel it’s like nothing happened between 1990 and 2018 (Laughs).
M: If you ask me which decade is the best in terms of music for New York for me, I would say it is right now! More than half of the records that I selected are from current times. The first one is from Doctor Jeep. He was the first bass producer from New York who I discovered when I came to the US. Next record is by Octo Octa, who was one of the first electronic musicians that I've seen in New York and who I got deeply inspired by. Last time I saw Octo Octa and Eris Drew at a Sustain Release festival, they were the best representation of the good energy in the current New York music scene. They simply embody love. That was the best representation for me of the good energy in the current New York music scene. The last record I selected, “Vitamin Party” by Despina, was released on my label Kindergarten. I'm really proud of all the Kindergarten family. Everyone is so talented and unique. This record presents a very colorful, very joyful club and bass music produced by New York artists.
Ma Sha with the Kindergarten crew (photo by Karla Del Orbe)
“That's the feeling I had when I just arrived in New York, that’s the feeling that inspires me so much: everybody's just moving so quickly in all different directions and you jump in this flow, you follow it.”
NY: You're in Kyiv, in Ukraine, as we speak. You had stayed in Berlin for a while. You were raised in Moscow. You spent four months in Minsk in Belarus last year. Those cities are all exciting, especially for their underground electronic scene. Why do you want to come back to New York? Why don’t you settle in Berlin for example, like all New York DJs do? [Laughs] I'm exaggerating a little bit but why does New York seem so important to you?
M: I always come back. I like comparing New York to that one scene from the cartoon “Finding Nemo”. While looking for his son, Marlin suddenly notices a group of turtles swimming in one direction. Very quick. Marlin jumps on one of the turtles and he’s like “Oh, my God, where are you guys going? Well, I guess I better swim quickly as well”. That is the feeling I had when I just arrived in New York. That's the feeling that inspires me so much: everybody's moving so quickly in all different directions and you jump in this flow, you follow it. This kind of crazy energy that doesn't really let you get stuck is what drives me crazy about New York. People are so dedicated here. Of course, the lifestyle where people need to work multiple jobs as the city is so expensive and they don’t have much time to focus on creative things can be very hard. However, even though the New York way of life is hardcore sometimes, it’s very similar to Moscow, where you’re kind of thrown in the pool with so many various difficulties and the only thing to do is to keep going. That energy is very similar between New York and Moscow, so maybe I was ready for it. New York just resonated very well with the way I was raised in Moscow.
NY: That makes sense, Moscow prepared you for New York. But you were not meant to move here in New York seven years ago. You were supposed to study in Paris. How did you end up in NYC?
M: Yes, I was supposed to go study in Paris, as I went to a French specialized school in Moscow. Then, during my last year of high school, I decided to go to New York to take English classes and that’s when all my plans changed completely [laughs].
NY: Did you know anyone in New York?
M: No, I knew nobody. I just went by myself and I loved it a lot. Again, it was very similar to Moscow, but so many things were far ahead. “Wow, this is amazing. I'm moving here.” I told myself. After a few months, I applied for college, and I moved here.
Ma Sha DJing for her Kindergarten party (photo by Kamilo Bustamante)
“When I deejay, I play a song and I can see if you dance in the instant, this is the quickest energy exchange.”
NY: Was it difficult to be in New York by yourself, so young?
M: I think I adapted very quickly. Then, the turning point was when I started going out and meeting people in the music scene. That’s when I started feeling very comfortable. I decided that I was going to stay here and study university for four years. Then I got my artist visa.
NY: I read you came to study Performance Art. Was it useful?
M: Yes, it was extremely useful. I was studying Performance Studies at NYU as a part of the first generation of the program’s undergraduate degree. We focused a lot on curatorial practice. So while I was studying I did internships at museums like MoMA PS1, New Museum, The Kitchen gallery in Chelsea, Vice Creators Project… It was always about curating the work of artists and I loved it a lot. But in my experience, the process of curating and getting the energy back was quite long, because you know, when you work on the exhibition, or when you work on a performance, you spend months preparing for it and only then you get some feedback… On the contrary when I deejay, I play a song and I can see if you dance in the instant, this is the quickest energy exchange.
NY: In a way, New York gave you the best education for what you became.
M: Exactly. It was covering a lot of different things, as performance and gender, performance and technology, performance and politics. All the knowledge that I am using everyday, which is truly amazing.
Ma Sha Ru by Karla Del Orbe
“Breakdancing made me believe that New York is the place where all dreams come true, if you go there with your own style, stay true to yourself and you make it work.”
NY: Let’s go back in time, when you were still a teenager in Moscow. I would like to know more about the kind of fantasy you had about New York at that time.
M: There was just so much media coming from the US, watching all the music videos on MTV etc. As a kid, it was very fun. I do think breakdancing was the most influential though. Our teachers showed us all the battles that were happening in the US at the time. It was so impressive! But they also emphasized multiple times that whenever the Russian team was coming to perform in the US, they were bringing such a fresh style that was very unique and new for people across the ocean. These stories made me believe that New York is the place where all dreams come true, if you go there with your own style, stay true to yourself and you make it work. Breakdancing made me realize I could take part in the New York dream, it was not out of reach. It made me understand it’s all possible.
NY: And you did it. Let’s talk about your collective, Kindergarten. It started as a party in your own garden, became a radio show, you did parties in bigger venues like warehouses and Elsewhere in Brooklyn. And now it’s a label. It’s typically a New York project, isn’t it?
M: It started as a party in our backyard on Bedford Avenue, inviting all our New York friends at the time to play there. I started DJing shortly after as I wanted to be part of it and spin records for my friends. The party was so pure in its form because again, it was just a low-key backyard party with a New York community hanging out on a hammock, drinking beers and playing records. Later on, we decided to start a radio show because we wanted to get more people to hear the music our friends and us were playing. The next step was to start our own label, which feels extremely New York for me in terms of our sound. We are trying to stay joyful, colorful and very playful on our little club and bass Kinder planet.
Ma Sha by Karla Del Orbe
“What I call home is the place where I resonate with people on the things I value the most. New York is my home I always want to go back to.”
NY: Do you feel like a New York artist? A New Yorker?
M: For me, what I call home is the place where I resonate with people on the things I value the most. All the cities I’ve been to in the last few years, Kyiv, Berlin, Moscow, I have so much fun and joy when I’m there but New York is always my home I want to go back to, no matter how much time I spend there.
NY: Tomorrow, on December 10th, you’re releasing your first video, as Ma Sha Ru, your collaboration with Ru. Do you also consider it a New York thing? I read that Ru lives in Berlin. Did you two meet in New York?
M: I was studying abroad in Berlin around four years ago. That's where Ru and I met and we started making music together as Ma Sha Ru. Ru still lives in Berlin, while I live most of the time in New York, so in order to live and make beats together, we need to fly across the ocean. Recently, due to COVID travel restrictions, we got one more challenge. We always need to find a country where we both can fly to with two different nationalities, so that’s been quite difficult, but we make it work! One of these destinations last year was Kyiv, Ukraine – the place where we stayed for a while and we fell in love with the city. This Friday, our first music video is coming out which was shot in Ukraine. That’s very exciting. Shot out to our Kyiv family: Little Vanya, Olya, Barsuk and NY family, 3DKNG, Zanzie and Moscow family je_fous_le_camp for making it happen!
NY: When are you back in town? Are you still living in Brooklyn?
M: Planning on coming back to the US in January. I miss our cute little place in Ridgewood (a neighborhood in Queens, east of Brooklyn). We share it with two roommates and one of them is Despina, who is a part of the Kindergarten family. Ayesha and Drummy (Kindergarten crew as well) also live a few blocks away from us, so it’s nice to have our full fam’ in my favorite and best [laughs] New York neighborhood.
NY: Is Ridgewood really the best?
M: I can keep talking about how much I love Ridgewood, but I would just say that it’s been extremely inspirational to live next to so many wonderful artists. Also, this neighborhood is a perfect cocktail of amazing old Polish and Colombian cafes as well as new cute places like Porcelain, that make it so unique and so welcoming. Since I moved to Ridgewood, I like living in New York maybe 10% more? A true community feeling is just there, present all the time.
NY: Don’t tell anyone, keep it secret.
KINDERGARTEN
Bandcamp. SoundCloud.
MA SHA
SoundCloud. Instagram
