Octo Octa: The Love Energy of the Mother Beat is the Sacred Rave
In the winter of 2018, pioneering rave and house DJ Eris Drew wrote, “I had fallen in love.”
So began the foundation of a relationship of two mythological forces, a partnership between two of the most powerful, LGBTQ electronic musicians and DJs of our generation. A love story of Grecian proportions, Drew met Octo Octa at the historic night club in Chicago, Smartbar, where Octo Octa, whose real name is Maya, had been performing a set in 2017.
The two bonded over a shared reverence of music, its incredible ability to heal, and the all-consuming spell of ecstatic movement. They discussed the freedom of movement, the perceived stigmas surrounding the nature of dancing—“dancing isn’t a publicly sanctioned activity,” after all, Maya said—is all imbibed, in Drew’s words, with the prophetic “shamanism of rave culture.”
The connection between the two women was magnetic. Both women experienced the liberation of coming out as transgender, and both have also experienced the vitriol thrown at LGBTQ people, especially those who are trans, by a world that aims to control and dictate how bodies are allowed to navigate through it. But most importantly, both women have experienced the magic of dance, the freedom of unbridled movement, and the strongest force of all—love.
And these healing experiences are reflected in the music that both artists have put out, solo and collaborative, in recent years. “As we exchanged energy, I visualized a feeling-toned, self-transforming, tunneling singularity behind my eyes,” Maya said. “It appeared like a spiraling, mandala-like geometry. A gate. Previously, it had only materialized under the influence of psychedelics or during my most ecstatic DJ sets. I was shaken.”
“After our time together, I would see my love in mirrors, send her messages through the singularity, and feel her in moments when I needed her,” Drew said. “I was alone a lot. I poured my feelings into Fluids of Emotion,” her newest release. The three-track EP, released on February 10 on the psychedelic Detroit label Interdimensional Transmissions, serves as Drew’s first-ever solo release.
Fluids of Emotion masterfully channels the psychedelic energies of rave and love, reflecting on the power of transition and of fully becoming into the body you were always meant to have. “I hadn’t written a dance track in years, but during a series of life-changing events in 2017, I would rush home from my sets, turn on my MPC 2000 XL, and sample records,” Drew said.
Related article: The Queer History of House Music
Citing the power of “threshold doses of mushrooms every day or so over a two-week period” and immersing herself in nature as elements crucial to the creation of this record, Fluids of Emotion serves as a summation of psychic reflections within herself. Challenged by her label-runners to create a record that encompassed the scope of Drew’s transfiguration over recent years, she rose to the occasion to create the sonic representation of her everlasting journey.
Maya has also jubilantly celebrated her newfound joy. A prolific musician for the better part of the last decade, Maya released her fifth, full-length album, Resonant Body, last September on the label Drew and Maya have started together, T4T LUV NRG. Describing Resonant Body as “the happiest record I’ve ever made,” Maya sounded over the phone as though she had finally reached a moment of nirvana in her own transfiguration.
“Music is autobiographical for me,” she continued. A vehicle to articulate the expressions that fail to be captured by words alone, the full-length release of pumping house anthems, expertly chopped breaks and hi-hats, timeless raving chords—and even vocal samples that sound euphoric in their delivery and placement—all come to fruition in a record that depicts the resonance coursing through Maya’s body with almost uncanny accuracy.
Listening to, “Move Your Body” makes me feel a sense of freedom that immediately draws me closer to Maya, as if she’s standing in the same room. A meditative contemplation washes over with “Deep Connections,” and “Ecstatic Beat,” commands frenzied tremors to overcome me, as if my body ignores my mind and instead opts to respond solely to the sounds coming out of the record player. Having been a rabid fan of Maya’s for years, Resonant Body marks a new era for the immeasurably talented artist, a timeless record that eagerly dives into the chaos of endless spiritual expansion, an unknown abyss of super-charged emotion and sweet release.
Related article: T4T Creates a Space for Trans Bodies
Both artists have made their queer identities a non-negotiation by donating proceeds from various releases to The Sylvia Rivera Law Project, embarking on an international tour named after their label, and hosting dance parties that center around creating a healing space for queer bodies to exist. The pair have most recently released a guide on DJing titled “Octo Octa & Eris Drew’s Hot n Ready DJ Tips,” available for free on the T4T LUV NRG website.
Like shining a light down a hall of mirrors, the creativity and love shared together bounces back and forth in an endless cycle of inspiration, of power and growth. There is no end in sight for the Motherbeat—the ancient and divine feminine energy emanating from ecstatic rhythms of dance music. “A pulsing 3D language, she is the whispering, geometric wind, the voice of the Mother,” Drew said. Just like the Motherbeat, the boundless passion that Drew and Maya share for each other isn’t going anywhere, either.
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Photos By Ceci Orsano-Leopizzi
