Last year I got the opportunity to attend Mutek Montreal and interview Dasha Rush. I’ve been a huge fan of hers for several years now. She is the consummate artist, exploring a fascinating range of territories in her work with innovation and style. She performs live and DJs, and also does a live A/V performance. Her styles of composition range from dark dance floor techno to experimental electronica with spoken word. She heads up 2 successful record labels, Full Panda for the more rhythm oriented work, and Hunger to Create (on the same website) for things of a more of an experimental nature. Her touring schedule is relentless and this year she’s back at Mutek Montreal with 2 performances. In the interview we discuss her musical process and songwriting techniques, and the value of simplicity in creative work, as well as a bit about her personal experiences in the electronic music industry. We start out with some technical questions about her setup. Thanks for reading! Femmecult: When you began making music, did you get started with gear or software? Dasha Rush: Software. I mean there was a bit of gear but it was software and I didn’t have any of my own in the beginning, of course. It was from friends.. and people who were lending me things to try out, but yeah I started with Cakewalk and sampling things, usually with samples and then I used Fruity Loops for a while and then slowly developed try different things. I still partially use hardware, but mostly software. Femmecult: I’ve seen some videos of you working with modular synth. Dasha Rush: I’m not really into modular synth. I’ve tried and I have interest but it’s not like something that I do now. Now it’s developed...