By traditional standards, Hatiras has achieved critical success early on in his career. But success can be defined differently depending on the person who is seeking it. The bottom line is that if you measure success by the length of a person’s career and their staying power during that time, Hatiras fits the mold perfectly. That said, he still admits that “everyone defines ‘success’ differently,” and that philosophy has kept him motivated throughout his lengthy career as a result.
“One thing I’ve done over the years is remain persistent and active. Although I’ve had many career highlights, I’ve never actually dwelled on any of them too much. Instead, I’ll set short and long-term and just do something, no matter how small, everyday to keep moving forward. In order to remain sane in the ever-changing music industry it’s important to stay level-headed and not let the highs or lows affect you too much. Just keep moving forward.”
Moving forward does not mean forgetting where you have come from or the great things you have already achieved. It’s about taking those things with you into a future that you create through hard work, perseverance, and dedication to your passions. Things change so quickly in the music industry that one must change with it, but in such a way that you don’t lose who you are as an artist. Hatiras has been able to strike that balance well, while also achieving goals he sets for himself both long and short term.
Every artist has their own process and ideas of how to do that, and for Hatiras, that means maintaining a very clean and organized studio. Too much clutter can be distracting and you’ll often find Hatiras in the studio with a vacuum cleaner in hand clearing out debris before he goes on a creation binge. “A clean studio equals a clear brain for me.”
Using that clear-headedness from his clean studio, Hatiras prepares for sets first by creating various playlists in Rekordbox that he dips in and out of during his live sets.
“I know certain songs go very well together and I usually go into a set knowing a few songs I’d like to play or test out. Other than this basic framework to work with, I completely improvise knowing that I always have over 1000 tunes to choose from in a set and can go in any direction based on the crowd response and overall room vibe.”
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