MUMBAI: “When you are in a room and have been given power to control every single person’s emotion in that room, that is surreal to me,” is what DJ Shiva Manvi, a Bangalore based DJ said while Radioandmusic interviewed him at Sunburn 2018. It was his first performance at Asia’s largest festival that recently completed its 2018 innings.

“It is probably the first time that I have performed at such a large scale music festival and to be given an opportunity to close a stage is like a really big milestone for me. It was really exciting associating with Sunburn and I just signed at Percept and it’s been like three months and we have put such great shows and it’s really cool for a company to bring down so many acts together and put it all in one place,” said Manvi.

To know more about Shiva Manvi we asked him a few questions in an exclusive interview.

Describe Sunburn in three words

Live Love Dance is what comes to my mind.

Describe yourself in three words

Impulsive, creative, visionary.

What motivates you?

When you are in a room and you have been given power to control every single person’s emotion in that room, that is surreal to me. Playing for like 50 people or 50,000 people, you are all in a room and you have been given the key to control every single person’s emotions through music.

What is that one thing that you are most afraid of?

It’s missing flights, I have almost missed a flight while I was coming way back at the festival, I was literally wearing bathroom slippers and running across the airport.

What is your largest strength?

It is my willpower. If I put my head onto creating something, I will not give up until I do it.

What challenges you?

Lack of sleep does challenge me, that is probably every DJ’s problem. In last four days, I literally wake up to four different cities. You have flights after flights, and have to spend around six hours in a particular city. People say sleep is for the weak and it really does make sense because we barely get some sleep.

How is the preparation before your performance?

Every DJ, according to me, prepares in a very different way, but I like to keep in an open format. I never really put together a playlist, but just know at the back of my mind that these are the songs that I would like to perform but I am more of an impulsive DJ and cater to the audience live.

What thoughts pop-up in your head before you perform?

For everyone, it works the other way but for me, I am really not scared on seeing a large crowd , but on seeing a small crowd, it makes me really nervous, which actually excites me. With a small crowd, I have the liberty to experiment something and I would spend the first fifteen minutes of my show in trying to figure out what each and every single person likes.

What are your upcoming projects?

Apart from majorly involving myself into Djing, I focus more on creating content, stages and experiences for people. I do produce but not as much as I do curate stages and designing stuff, which people would enjoy. I was also working on the New Year’s gig.”