Coles' Home Brand

When other DJ/producers constantly namecheck you in interviews, you really are hot – and in 2012 it was all about Maya Jane Coles. Now the queen of the UK's deep house underground is bound for Australian shores – at last. Coles is aware of the buzz surrounding her tour, but isn't taking it for granted. "Well, I've never been to Australia before, so it's all quite new and exciting for me, too," she says. "Maybe some previews of tracks from the new album will pop up."

Indeed, the Londoner will "finally" be unveiling her debut 'artist' album in 2013 – but more on that later.

Coles, her heritage British and Japanese, grew up around music. She toyed with instruments, and practised songwriting, but began producing hip hop in her bedroom at 15. The budding DJ segued into drum 'n' bass – and dubstep – prior to embracing house. In 2008 Coles, who composes, produces, engineers, mixes and occasionally sings on her own tracks, premiered with Sick Panda on London's Dogmatik Records. She's since aired music on labels as varied as Hypercolour, Ralph Lawson's house 20:20 Vision, and Anja Schneider's techno Mobilee. However, Coles' breakthrough came with the title-track from 2010's What They Say EP on the French imprint Real Tone. 

Along the way Coles conceived the promising live "dub electronica" outfit She Is Danger with vocalist Lena Cullen. It was under this guise that she remixed Massive Attack's Girl I Love You, showcased on a deluxe edition of Heligoland. Alas, little has been heard of SID lately. "The project is on a hiatus as Lena and I both focus on our solo careers," Coles says. She does have another vehicle – the dubstep Nocturnal Sunshine.

In the past two years Coles has hosted a BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix. She's played tastemaker events like Glastonbury, Movement: Detroit's Electronic Music Festival, and Sónar, in addition to guesting at the hippest venues in Berlin and Ibiza. Coles has won successive awards as both a producer and DJ. This year she ranked at number ten on Resident Advisor's DJ Poll. She's actually on Rolling Stone's radar. The DJ has landed several magazine covers. 

The enigmatic Coles, who's proffered an EP aptly entitled Don't Put Me In Your Box, is typically touted as a deep houser, but she's tricky to categorise, being a true creature of the murky post-dubstep era. "I'm glad I come across in that way! I guess it's because even when I was young I had so much music floating about around me – from electronic through to classical to punk to jazz... I listen to The xx, Grimes and Warpaint as much as I listen to the latest house or techno mix. To me, it's just about good music." Stop experimenting and an artist will "stagnate", she notes.

In 2012 Coles consolidated her global fanbase. She presented a slinky volume in !K7's feted DJ-Kicks series (distributed by Fuse here), encompassing her tech-house groove Not Listening and Nocturnal Sunshine's future garage Meant To Be. DJ Mag listed it in its Compilations Of The Year at number six. "The critics and my fans have all seemingly been really positive, and the mix is up for some awards. I just approached it with an open mind and, without trying to sound clichéd, I wanted to take listeners on a little journey – and I hope that's what I ended up achieving, to some degree at least. I also saw it as an opportunity to include tracks by some more underground artists who I felt deserved more recognition."

Coles is producing other artists, having overseen a cover of Carly Simon's Why by UK electro types Alpines. Then she's remixing pop tunes like Florence + The Machine's Spectrum (Say My Name). Coles recast Lost & Found for folky soulstress Lianne la Havas, also headed our way over summer, yet never received feedback. "All official remixes always have to be approved, so I guess she likes it. We've never actually met in real life, so I can't say, but I hope the fact that it was used as part of the release means it was appreciated as much as I enjoyed working on it."

In December Coles launched a boutique label, I/AM/ME, with the song-oriented EP Easier To Hide. Her ambitions for I/AM/ME are modest – she has no immediate plans to become an A&R. "At the moment it's purely a platform I created for the sake of putting out my own music but, that said, you never know what the future brings." The EP is decked out with her original artwork. On top of everything else, Coles, her image that of a West London Lisbeth Salander, is a visual artist – and she wants to pursue her interest in art, photography and fashion down the line. "It's not something I really push that hard at the moment as I simply just don't have the time. [But] I do really enjoy all aspects of design. I've always loved drawing and painting and just being creative in general. My Dad used to do the artwork for bands like Killing Joke, so maybe it's just in my blood! Hopefully in the future I'll have a bit more time to focus a little more on the art side of things."

Coles had intended to put out an album in 2012, but her schedule intervened. "The album is due out in March 2013, and I'm really happy with it. It's not really an album for the clubs – more pre- or post-club, I would say. It pulls on a lot of my different influences and has some – hopefully – interesting guest features on it." Among those vocalists are French electro icon Miss Kittin and Kim Ann Foxman (of Hercules & Love Affair). The Easier... EP is a teaser. Coles has reportedly fielded major label deals, but won't say if she has one. At any rate, she'll possibly reference her favourite (indie) releases of 2012 on the LP. "I've been listening to a lot of spacey, dubby stuff recently. Albums I've enjoyed especially this year are [those from] Peaking Lights, Grimes and Gang Colours."

Today female DJs are attracting unprecedented mainstream media attention, Nervo trading on their modelling backgrounds. But, while Coles belongs to a fresh wave of cred proponents, together with Nina Kraviz, she's disinclined to discuss gender – even when the sorry dearth of women in DJ Mag's Top 100 is raised. Regardless, in a recent interview with the UK's Sun, Coles, who's had music out on Heidi's Jackathon Jams, stressed the importance of female solidarity in the biz. ("There's no backstabbing or bitchiness among the girls, but it's a different story with the boys!," she asserted.) If Coles could change one thing, it'd be something more mundane. "I would love that someone invented a teleportation device so that I could really get to see and enjoy the places I visit and the people I meet. Globalisation is a great thing, but it can also mean more than a day's travel on some trips!"

Does Coles have a prediction for underground electronic music in 2013? "That's a tough one as underground electronic music covers so much in scope," she ponders. "[But] I think the audience seems to be really growing as people search for something a bit more intelligent than the typical mainroom EDM sound."

Maya Jane Coles plays:

Monday 31 December - Summadayze, Adelaide
Tuesday 1 January - Summadayze, Melbourne
Tuesday 1 January - Field Day, Sydney
Saturday 5 January - Summafieldayze, Gold Coast
Sunday 6 January - Summadayze, Perth