Artist of the Month: Mochakk

The Brazilian phenomenon reflects on the unrelenting life and expansive potential of becoming a global superstar DJ, teases his dreamy funk-sampling Ninja Tune debut 'From The Stars,' and reveals what makes up the bulk of his USB.

Ana Yglesias
14 min •
Jan 16, 2025
Mochakk Beatportal

Two years ago, we sat down with Mochakk to look back at his momentous first year on the international DJ circuit for Beatportal Introducing. Now, the talented 25-year-old Brazilian house-and-beyond DJ and producer is our first Artist of the Month of 2025 after wrapping up another big year of hot tunes and sold-out gigs — clearly, he's here to stay.

While Mochakk's fame and in-demand schedule have caused major shifts in his daily life, his experience DJing and producing from a young age in the musical melting pot of Brazil meant he was prepared to take his viral fame and build upon it. His unstoppable drive, insatiable musical knowledge, a selective release of diverse, undeniably hot tunes, and his energetic DJ sets don't hurt either.

"Everything happened very fast, it's a lot of adaptation on your whole life. Of course, everything has been amazing. These past two years, I've gotten to know so many places and so many incredible people, and to play so many incredible gigs. Before that, you're still a 'bedroom' professional, there's no crazy names talking to you about what you do. When that happens, it's very gratifying," Mochakk tells us over video chat from a hotel in Florianopolis on the southern coast of Brazil, where he had a show a few hours later.

The artist born Pedro Maia in Sorocaba, Brazil in 1999, paces around his hotel room during our chat, a testament to the fact he never stops moving. It's summer in Brazil, the time of year he relishes getting to play his massive home country, and the rare month or so he gets to sleep in his own bed in São Paulo during the week. "It's revitalizing for my health and sleep, and musically, it's really nice because I can bring back home all of the music that I've been listening to and playing everywhere in the world," he reflects.

"I try to go early to the gigs I play to get a good overview of what the sound is like in different places, and being able to bring those references back and inject them into our scene here in Brazil, is not only revitalizing, it's very interesting and fun seeing what works… Seeing people react to these new sounds is really cool and really inspiring creatively."

After closing out a banner year where he sold out all nine Mochakk Calling parties from Miami to, he'll launch the 2025 season in Buenos Aires on February 8. (And there’s a lot to look forward to; at least nine more dates will be announced). The party series is completely envisioned by Mochakk and his creative team, a talented, gutsy crew of Brazilians who also happen to be his best friends. They launched the party at The Shrine in Los Angeles in September 2023, and showcased its full production at the shipyard rave space the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York last June. Mochakk Calling features phone-themed décor, track IDs and flier artwork, and plays with the industrial aesthetic of Sao Paulo which Mochakk has always been drawn to in his visual design. He chooses his openers and after party special guests, and many of the events are open-air, giving the energy of a summer festival. Soon, that will be a reality with the debut of a two-day Mochakk Calling Festival in Malta in July.

Check out Mochakk's 'Artist of the Month' chart on Beatport
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In late-February, he'll make his debut on Ninja Tune with a star-bound EP. From the Stars is a shimmery, groovy house bop sampling The RAH Band's 1983 space disco gem "Messages From The Stars." A certified music nerd, Maia loves '70s and '80s music, often paying homage to some of his favorites with samples that bring the best elements of the original to the dance floor.

"The intro section [of "Messages From The Stars"] has a very upwards motion; it builds up and up and up, and then it blows when the bass comes in with that big synth. Listening to that, I was like, 'This is so genius by the RAH Band, I have to be able to play this breakdown and build up in my sets.' But the original is way slower and the beat sounds like an '80s beat, so it won't have coherence with the other tracks I'm playing during the set," he explains enthusiastically.

"The idea is to be able to play that breakdown and build up that almost feel like a house track and make it actually be a house track. The bassline from the original reminded me a bit of a 303 synth sound, which is the basis of acid house. So I tried mixing elements from acid house with that funk and soul feel from the RAH Band, and added a little bit of my twist to it."

Like "From The Stars," the B-side "Maria" also has sparkly and dreamy elements, yet is led by a punchy kick and celebrates a "mesmerizing, intergalactic beauty" while channeling the exuberance of love or a crush. "It's completely bananas to release on Ninja. It's one of those stamp-of-approval moments. It's such a respected label for years where so many great albums and singles were released from artists I've listened to for years. It feels unreal," "The Line" producer says. "I really enjoyed that they chose two very different tracks for that EP."

Pre-order/purchase Mochakk's 'From The Stars' EP on Beatport
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Mochakk is selective with his releases, dropping a couple of quality originals and a few big remixes a year. 2024's saw some of his finest, most ambitious work yet, the excellent two-part Locomotiva Ibiza 2099 EP, released by one of his biggest champions, CircoLoco. Hitting our ears this past summer, it was a well-worth-the-wait follow-up to the Loletta Holloway-sampling "Jealous," his August 2023 CircoLoco Records debut.

"The title track was 100 percent inspired by Circoloco and DC-10," Mochakk asserts with a smile, citing a grainy video from 2013 of a guy blaring a hand-cranked siren from the terrace decks as a direct muse. "I try to time it [in my set] when it is still kind of moody, still kind of a dark atmosphere; there's this fine line between scary and sexy sounds. I don't know how to describe that vibe, but that's the moment of the set where I'm going to put it in, which is very different from 'Da Fonk,' for example, which is a more uplifting and happier track. It has to be still kind of moody for me to play 'Locomotiva Ibiza 2099' and DC-10 is like that 24/7. It's always a little bit dark, scary and sexy, and that's why the track is what it is," he explains with a chuckle.

After years of cutting his teeth in the large, diverse Brazilian scene, Mochakk's three years on the international touring DJ circuit have been a rocket ship journey filled with firsts and major achievements that he doesn't take for granted.

"There was a stigma about the way I came up because I blew up on social media and afterwards I started basically penetrating all of these spaces that people try to reach for years sometimes. So that raises a lot of eyebrows, like, Is this for real? But after two years of playing in DC-10 almost every Monday during the summer, playing Time Warp Germany and Coachella, all of these big festivals and clubs, and releasing on very important labels and getting really good feedback from that, it's a big stamp of approval for myself as well. And seeing idols of mine respecting my stuff and even playing my stuff out [is huge as well]," he reveals.

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Circoloco has championed Mochakk from the early days of his rise. Only a year after popping his Ibiza cherry with his DC-10 debut in 2022 at just 22, he earned a famed CircoLoco residency, spending many summer Mondays on the DC-10 decks, as well as making the rounds with the brand's global parties. "That's another big full circle; when I met Antonio [Carbonaro] the first time, I told him, 'I was born the same year as Circoloco!" Maia says with a smile.

While Maia sure seems to have a lot of fun behind the decks, he treats his presence in these hallowed venues and job as a DJ and producer with a sense of duty.

"With more of these opportunities coming at me, if I'm working and genuinely studying and learning more every day about my work, then I know I'm going to be as prepared as possible for all of these things to come, and that's the only thing that's going to sustain me. If it wasn't for social media, I probably wouldn't be in these spaces. But if I was thrown into that space and I wasn't prepared, it wouldn't have lasted a year, I would've just disappeared because I sucked. And when you see that you don't suck, it's a very nice moment for yourself," he says with a chuckle.

While he's hit many DJ bucket list items and remains focused on moving his production and overall artistic offering forward—as well as those of other producers he admires—the 25-year-old doesn't see himself as ready to be a mentor yet.

"I'm too young and I still have too much stuff to learn in order to be a mentor. There is still a lot of stuff that I have to go through in order to be able to give advice. I'm always getting advice from people that are more experienced in the scene. I'm not in the position to be a mentor yet, but I'm always trying to help in the ways that I can."

As he remains focused on his growth, he's always thinking about bringing others along for the ride, especially fellow young Brazilian producers. One such method is strategically A&Ring their tracks during his sets.

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"I want to shine more light into the music of these people, especially as I have the opportunity to do this globally and to play in different countries. If I'm playing before someone big like Dixon, and I have music from a friend of mine that Dixon may like, I'm gonna play it at the end of the set. If that sparks a reaction in Dixon, we can have a little conversation. And these [big] acts can get to know these other [up-and-coming] artists' stuff organically and maybe that will convert to a support or a release on a label," he explains.

"I try to support who I think is ready," he reflects. "If we don't help each other grow in a scene, we're not gonna get all of the good stuff out. We're never gonna get all of the good stuff seen by everybody, of course, that's impossible, that's a utopia. But if we want to make it a better thing, we should always aim for the utopia, even though it's not reachable."

He names Sterium (and his label Bongo Records), singer and producer AnaLu, 19-year-old wunderkid Jame C, Bahía-based No Caps, and Panna from Belém (Northern Brazil) as a handful of the versatile, multi-talented Brazilian electronic artists he's stoked on.

“We're having a renaissance for the past few years. There's been a big boom of talent coming out of Brazil, and there's some really young producers; younger than me. I'm very young compared to the rest of the scene, but there are these 18, 19-year-old kids sending me stuff that I'm blown away by,” the "Estribeira" producer reveals.

“[Of] the demos and promos I get sent, the stuff that I actually end up downloading and being like, Oh, damn, I really have to play this, it will bang the dance floor, 90 percent of the time it's tracks from Brazilian producers."

He's also featured a sampling of this Brazilian talent on his own tracks, such as DJ/producer Artisian on "Estribeira" on the Locomotiva Ibiza 2099 EP, vocalist Fernanda Ouro on his Cercle Records track "NO8DO," and singer Joni on one of his biggest tunes — which he's likely played in most of his sets since 2022 — "Da Fonk" on Nervous Records.

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One of the wildest, most challenging parts of the ride has been the celebrity that comes with it. In the rare, treasured moments he gets to catch up with friends, and say, grab a beer at a bar in São Paulo, a barrage of selfie requests from fans await him. Following his love of music has given him the privilege to play the hottest, biggest clubs around the world, but it's also made his 20s anything-but-average, one spent constantly on the road. He reflects a sense of longing for Brazil and everyone and everything he left there, but he's keen to make the most of the global superstar DJ life he's stepped into.

"If you're not actually giving a lot of energy to it, you're not gonna get a result from it. If you're super comfortable, the change will not come. So I try to break my head and always be creative about how I can help this process in new ways that will be exciting for me and for [my] crowds," Maia says.

Somehow, Maia also found time to open a club in his hometown of Sorocaba this past September with two of his best friends Cesar Nardini and Matheus Gambera and creative team members Fernando Sanches and Carlos Sodré. They launched OBLIQO with the official Locomotiva Ibiza 2099 II EP release party, announcing the big news just two days prior. He's bummed he can only be there in person a couple times a year, but is stoked for what its existence will provide for the local electronic scene. It's particularly close to home, as it’s the location where Mochakk learned to DJ, and the only proper club in the area. When its closure was announced, he reached out to the owner to sign a new lease and create a new legacy for the space, remodeling it and outfitting it with a custom sound system by Brazilian company 4VIAS Professional Audio and custom lighting system by Sodré.

"For me, the important moments of my career are the moments where I feel I've successfully played a space that is very important for the culture, and [am doing] stuff that pays back the culture and what it gave me. So, having a club in my hometown and being able to book acts that I want to help, to have that be a platform for other people and not let the club scene die in my city; to do that with my friends is a big family accomplishment. It feels like you're building a house with your family for the first time. Those moments make [my DJ career] special," he shares, his enthusiasm palpable.

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Listen to Mochakk's 'Artist of the Month' chart below, or check it out on Beatport.

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