Meet Maya Milana | DJ

We had the good fortune of connecting with Maya Milana and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Maya, what inspires you?
Music!!!!

Music is by far the most influential part of my life. The thing about music is, it inspires different people in different ways, for me sound frequencies touch my soul in a way that goes beyond what one could describe with language. It’s the purest form of self expression higher than language, since language defines people and culture. Music transcends culture. It is the means by which one can create common grounds and understanding.

I am a very complex being with an in depth understanding of life…music is the one thing that on a simple scale makes sense to me!!!

Music is what inspires me and why I decided to become a DJ.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Where do I even begin.

Life has taken on so many forms for me since stepping into adulthood. When I a senior in college I waited to late to sign up for my journalism courses, so I convinced my parents to let me add PR(public relations) as my minor. That semester I started a PR internship with a MUSIC pr company and life from then on took a turn towards being more intentional.

That internship became my first career job and from there I sought out to build my knowledge and experience working in and around the music industry particularly with music artists. A year after graduating I moved to Los Angeles and continued my pursuit with working in and around music pulling away from music pr for a little bit to pursue working in other areas of the PR field…eventually making my way back to music but with a focal point in artist management. I had by this point 5/6 years into my career decided to take my knowledge and experience and apply it to working with artist directly. Getting into artist management. After coming to a slow standstill with my artist management endeavors I came to the realization I wanted to extend my love for music in a more expressive way vs behind the scenes….once the realization was made, the opportunity presented its self with an opportunity to attend one of the best DJ schools in the world: The Beat Junkies Institute of Sound taught by the world renown Beat Junkies Crew. I then entered into the lowest time period of my life but also the most transformative time period. I was nearing my late twenties with a new found life interest and the process was a beautifully complicated love story. For the next 3 years I would would hone my craft at this DJ school, learning to scratch on vinyl, mix, and blend records. During this 3 year period which included the pandemic I was definitely put through a number of life challenges that made me realize just how much I was willing to sacrifice for my new found passion also to finish what I started.

Not only was I able to utilize my PR skills to start branding myself as a DJ while I was in the school but I learned just how determined I was to achieve my goal and smoothly implement this new skill into my life and make a living from it. I put my intentions out into the universe and surprisingly the challenges I faced during the process turned out to be the re-workings I needed to realign my life to allow me to do just this. Fast forward to now I have just completed my first full year of being a full-time DJ after spending a 3 year period in training.

My brand, my identity and my business are all currently aligned with what I am passionate about and I am full of gratitude towards the life paths that have lead to me be able to learn share what I love with eh world in different capacities. DJing represents a way for me to share the sound frequencies that trigger happiness and joy. I love to introduce people to new sounds and music that makes them dance.

In addition to this new found journey life took me on with DJing I still dabble with artist management and also currently mange a west coast rap Artist who is very talented and musically inclined!

The biggest lesson I learned during this process was to surrender to trusting the process. I couldn’t have imagined how more intentional life could have turned out for me!!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
As an eclectic open minded creative person there is a number of things that spark my interest in the city of Los Angeles. If and when I am not djing, I love to go to concerts, and listen to live music. I also love art and nature just as much as music.

Museums…there are a vast amount of art museums in different locations that feed my artistic taste…Moca(museum of contemporary art) the Broad and Lacma.

Hiking…Los Angeles has the beach and mountains in the same place…I personally prefer mountainous views over the beach. Hiking is single handedly my favorite peace of mind activity particularly at Griffith Park. Nature also has healing capabilities and any time I am under stress I release that energy into nature and it reciprocates healing peaceful energy in return.

Food…I love Ethiopian food and find myself in the Little Ethiopia area munching on injera often. Also Thai food and Indian food would be on the list as well!!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
The Beat Junkies Institute of Sound

Website: https://weirdowithsoul.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/weirdowithsoul/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WeirdoWithSoul

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/weirdowithsoul/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1he-xrEfofx7BLHN-s-O9g/videos

Image Credits
@pleas.no.photoss