The first thing that’s different is that I am making music that needs to be approved or accepted by someone else. So it’s been a long-time I’ve been thinking about what I would want to hear. When I started making music 20 years ago, I always had the dream of making video game music but never had the chance. While the song is upbeat, it’s also very much a tunnelling track meant to draw you in and sustain a mood. I very much use Tetris as a meditative tool to get through stressful times, so I wanted to write something that you could sink into a meditative state with. “I couldn’t be happier to be making a song for my favourite game of all time. “I rarely take on commercial work and pass on almost everything so it was such a surprise and an honour to make a song for the game I play more than anything. “I’ve been playing and collecting video games my entire life, with Tetris being a serious cornerstone in my playing diet,” she says. Octo Octa composed an exclusive track for Tetris Beat and told me just how honoured she was to be a part of her favourite game ever. My life is more difficult than it was when it comes to travelling and safety, but I’m also a happy, normal person now.” I got to find a community I had needed my whole life while also opening myself up to abhorrent online criticism. Everything went how it does with coming out, some people didn’t talk to me again, other people became extremely close friends. Friends and clubs in NYC knew I was trans before I came out publicly, but I had to finally tell everyone who I was so I could tour and have people already know who I was. “I came out in the middle of touring and releasing records. RELATED: High Guardian Spice Interview: Raye Rodriguez On Creating A Queer Crunchyroll Original “At the time, I didn’t quite understand the significance of using two gendered prefixes which now, in retrospect, feels appropriate,” Octo Octa tells me. Her name is “a truncated version of an old AIM screen name” they used in their late teens (OctopusOctagon) - fittingly, they’re now making songs for the rhythmic Tetris Beat. Maya Bouldry-Morrison - better known as Octo Octa - is a trans DJ from Chicago who has been making waves in the New York music scene while championing for better queer inclusion and representation. So it was important for me to live my life versus having a sustainable or successful ‘career’.”
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“I never approached producing or DJing as a career it was just the art I made to express myself. “It was difficult and scary because I had no idea what it was going to mean for me,” DJ, artist, and Tetris Beat guest musician Octo Octa says.