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The Sewa Choki Interview

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*Shout out to my friend Arielle -- a Brooklyn-based writer, thinker, and DJ -- for this reflection on her past year in DJing. I am honored to be rocking with her b2b at the next Generator 1/25/26, Generator being the NY events series I've been throwing with [Laron](https://finals.blog/posts/The-Laron-Interview) for the past 8 or so months. We are going [strong](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9HjDvPWgAAOkTo?format=jpg&name=large) into the new year at CWW Radio Shop (1136 President) with a lineup consisting of Arielle and I, Laron, Quincy Davis, and SWAYA. It's free and all ages and starts at 8. Come through for the best music you never heard.* 

*-Andrew* 

--

**By Arielle Lana LeJarde**

In the beginning of 2023, this very blog's lord and savior (co-founder) Matson asked me to spin a DJ set. I said yes. The problem was, I'd never even touched decks in my life. After months of practicing, I spun my very first set at **stakes is low** (*ed. note that's what I was calling Finals events when we were at Erzulie*) and the [result](https://soundcloud.com/ariellenyc/big-ass-blends-for-finals-blog) was something I've always been proud of.

(*Ed. note: The set is fire, and first times are special.*)

That is, until I sent my friend the recording a couple of days ago and listened back to it myself. Unsurprisingly, I wasn't as good at mixing as I remembered. But what I lacked in technical ability, I made up for in gusto, fearlessness, and a genuine love for every track I played — a combined delusion that may just have come with the territory for someone who says yes to a DJ set when they've never DJed before.

(*Ed. note: I love this. Technical ability is great in DJing, but imhhhho should never stop anyone from doing it or else how would anyone ever begin? Also some of the most technically amazing DJs have no taste and no [nunchi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nunchi).*)

I'm not close to my 10,000 hours yet, but since that day almost three years ago now, I've already played nearly 50 DJ sets. And every time I get behind the decks, I learn something new.

I remember the first time I learned about mixing in key. It was before my first DJ set and a house producer friend named wev came to Pirate to give me a lesson. I didn't understand it, and it felt like too much information to take in, so I ignored it. Along the way, mixing in key started taking over my brain. All I cared about was mixing in key — and I lost the fun of finding unlikely tracks that would go together. There were times I even curated crates with tracks that I knew were boring just because they were in key. (Side note: the best advice I ever got was from DJ Noir who told me: No filler. If you don't love it, you don't like it.)

(*Ed. note: Mixing in key is great, and some of my favorite DJs like DJ Topspin are harmonic masters who were geniuses at it before you could change a song's key digitally. However, I personally think that caring about key is way more of an issue when it comes to making remixes and edits, which are meant to be replayed, than it is with DJing, which I fundamentally consider to be ephemeral. That said, I am extremely permissive of "bad" transitions, and care WAY more about the vibe, energy, and the strength and power of whatever song it is that the DJ is playing.*) 

One day, I [tweeted](https://x.com/ariellenyc/status/1778201508544413986?s=20) "mixing in key you will Crumble," and it sparked so much discourse that I was [interviewed](https://www.musicradar.com/news/harmonic-mixing) for an article about it. I told Harold Heath of MusicRadar that "trying to mix in key was stifling my creativity — in my opinion, it was making my blends boring and the set less dynamic. I was also having less fun and feeling boxed in."

(*Ed note: This is called insight and not everyone has it!*)

I still feel that way and I try as hard as possible not to care about harmonic mixing, but the truth is: it does sound better when you mix in key. Now that I've started to use three or four decks, it's even more noticeable when tracks are off-key. It's annoying, but people were kind of right to come for me. On the other hand, I do feel extra-accomplished every time I find a fire blend that "shouldn't" necessarily go together.

(*Ed note: Arielle told me she mixed in key all 2025. What a fkn feat! I could never.*)

With all that being said, I still feel like a baby DJ with a lot to learn. But my hopes are to become so good that I'm able to mix off-key and it still sounds good somehow. There has to be a way.

(*Ed. note: With her writing, DJing, and events-throwing, Arielle has always found a way and that's what I respect most about her. No cosigns or permission from whatever establishment needed. Rock on.*)

A Year of Mixing in Key

I did a lot of stuff in 2025 that I really wanted to do in 2024, or maybe the ideas of what I wanted to accomplish started brewing then. Either way as this year winds down, I can firmly say I ended up on the positive side of my middle aged psychosocial developmental goal of generativity vs stagnation. Shout out me, shout out Finals, shout out this years’s contributors kimdollars1, Nick Viagas, Atoosa Moinzadeh, CB Rucker, Tyler Burston, and Jaiyn, and shout out our interview subjects and coconspirators at the live events. 

**Use film photos in blog posts**

Atoosa came through on Goya Gumbani and Theravada stories this year, and the homie CB did too shooting his first photo mission of 1Alkebulan. The film-on-blog aesthetic is something I love, and have done prior on Finals with Enumclaw and JWords stories, where I gave them disposables. I think it looks cool, emphasizes the “moment in time,” and creates a future nostalgic impact with some analog flavor in an otherwise digital realm.

**Buy SAS shoes**

San Antonio Shoemakers, which I believe manufacture in New Orleans, make Medicare diabetes type shoes that I can’t get enough of. They’re like American Mephistos. Sort of. This year I bought the first Body Of Work collab (grails), the Ambassador, the Amigo, and the Journey velcro. I even bought an SAS hat. All used, mind you. 

**Buy fitteds**

Bought a navy Braves fitted, the first fitted in about 20 years, and then bought Cardinals and Orioles 80s deadstock ones. Forgot how hot they are. Good winter hats. 

**Not-write (more in editor role these days)**

Like half Finals stories were written by someone else this year, while I guided things, connected dots, crossed Ts and dotted Is. I find less and less reason to inflict my taste and opinion as I get older, and more opportunities to pass the mic. This is developing naturally, and sometimes, makes it so when I do write, I enjoy it more. 

**Make music**

Dropped a solo EP with Tomu DJ producing and a grip of edits on the Finals bandcamp, plus three collab beats with Laron. 

**Start a new night with Laron**

What started as “Let The Music Play” morphed into “Generator” as I teamed up with Laron for lineups that draw from our existing and expanding worlds, while giving us a cozy record store back room to DJ in. It’s all real organic and we’ve had legends like kimdollars1, Elise, Tomu DJ, MIKE, and Niontay perform, and the next one 12/14 has Jaiyn and Tony Seltzer. It’s free for the culture and so far, so fun. 

**Wear Eighteen East more as a shirt brand than pants brand** 

This is something I noticed. I sold like four pairs of 18 East pants this year and bought a couple shirts. One of the two brands I buy new besides shoes and hats.

**Continue wearing Earth\Studies pants**

They keep getting better. Best pants since Errolson did ACG.

**Watching music videos on my bigass TV**

I love me some YouTube. A lot of artists in NY like Shawny Binladen seem to only drop there, or drop there first, so there’s always something to watch. This years music video of the year was a two way tie between the NTS Oklou ice skating live EP, and MIKE’s Tiny Desk. Speaking of, 2026 goals: interview Savannah Harris. 
 


Trends of my year, things I did heavy 

qylyp

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The Nondi_ Interview

nick

The 1010benja Interview

LIRR

rosstwotwo

souyaaaaa

Tony Adamopoulos

nickayres

heylookitsjuke

a major contender for having the best catalog of beats in 2025. great read

AKIRA

made me hungrier honestly…. hope this is here forever 

k33g

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*Photos by Atoosa Moinzadeh*

After years of knowing him through my headphones as someone in the New York rap underground who killed guest verses, I first encountered Theravada IRL this summer, real name Xenophon (he pronounces it Zen-a-fin) at one of my Generator events with Laron. He was facing joints outside, and then inside, I remember he was like solemnly nodding his head and absorbing Laron’s set.

I also remember they were both outside at another point, smoking 100 joints and having a semi confidential conversation on the sidewalk on President Street about upcoming Earl Sweatshirt music. Xen under his breath mentioned to me he was involved, and that a serious project was on its way. I remember thinking damn I gotta tap in with the solo music and production and DJing…it was the Earl cosign that made me think this was a heavy artist I had been sleeping on. 

![IMG_7383.jpeg](https://finals.blog/api/uploads/IMG_7383_db96bfa505.jpeg)

And I was, but I’ve been fixing that. Recently we all found out he produced about half of Earl’s Live Laugh Love (shout out Chastity Belt), which is Earl as a relatively young dad alternately puffing his chest and letting lullabies creep into his technical, clever raps, with lyrics melting into Theravada’s samples. Theravada’s “[Tourmaline](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q_nwxIIUVAw)” is the standout, the single, with a slo mo video by Devlin Claro Resetar, the best to do it since Kahlil Joseph. (Shout out Laron too, who isn’t on the album but produced the SoundCloud-only warning shot which preceded it.)

And then Theravada put out his own album, [The Years We Have](https://its2000.bandcamp.com/album/the-years-we-have), which is on the same level and in the same ballpark, and which I see as a companion the same way Baby and Swag are companions, I guess making Earl Justin Bieber and Theravada Dijon?

That’s a bad metaphor maybe, but The Years We Have is the same vibe but chiller than LLL, self produced, starring a Queens Greek American playing basketball “in Maharishi sweats,” shooting at a rim that “looks mad small” and making shots. There is nothing haphazard about TYWH: it’s made of methodical stimulating loops and surgical cuts that display a real ear for how to “let the sample speak to me,” as Cash Cobain once told me, with low voiced raps that convey wit, folk wisdom, reflections on disability, flexing, double meanings, earnest directness…and lots more that I am still interpreting. At one point I thought Theravada was talking about SI meaning suicidal ideation, but he was rapping about Stone Island. Shows where my head’s at maybe. 

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Off meeting me at Generator, he invited me to the TYWH listening party at a secret weed den in Manhattan, with branded pre rolls. I took the train in and ended up sitting in an oval with YL, Starker, VIP Skylark, and Laron. We listened to the album in a daze. YL asked me what I was listening to lately and I couldn’t even think. Starker rolled a Dutch Master. Old school. People had crazy concentrates, were feeling each others shirt material (there was a fashion bro contingent, Xen works at Undefeated), and someone offered me mixed up codeine and soda (I declined). I randomly went home with a gifted Carti Preme tee, chalking up the convo, experience and the merch as part of being in Xen’s orbit in the city. Everyone’s high, streetwear falls out of the sky, everyone is an artist. 

A few days later Xen and I met up at CWW Radio Shop in Crown Heights, where Laron and I throw Generator, and the homie Atoosa snapped photos on film. We chatted in his dented Scion as he drove Atoosa to the train (generous), wearing Action Bronson wraparound shades and talking about how cool it is that DJ Red Alert still has a show on WBLS. Then we went back to my place and shot the shit for 90 minutes on my stoop before he went to a bbq in Bed Stuy. On my stoop I got to know Xen better, hearing about his parents’ immigration story (Greece, Philly, Queens), his assessment of where he grew up on Long Island (“I didn’t jack my high school”), and his experience going to Queens College as a star teaching student, whose videotaped practice classroom demonstration is currently part of the permanent archive of the program, because professors thought it was so good they wanted to show future students. 

![IMG_7378.jpeg](https://finals.blog/api/uploads/IMG_7378_8326d66ce4.jpeg)

I learned how he doesn’t make beat packs for rappers, except Roc Marci, how weird it felt when he and Earl Sweatshirt locked themselves out of the house in LA that one time, and how he produces on Virtual DJ (I love that). I learned he has lately been vibing with his DJ uncle over ’80s music, and he counts as a formative experience hearing “Ether” when it dropped with his cousin, whose “sleek” Celica he coveted. 
I think Xen smoked through the whole recorded convo. Playback reveals an enthusiastic conversationalist with a digressive thought process that may be baseline or may have been influenced by the weed, and the fact he did two interviews the day before. 

Now is his time. I think that’s why I wanted to connect for the photos and a dedicated chat at this point in his career, aside from hey here’s a new person in my life and I’m interested to know more. He seemed completely aware of his newly higher profile but what is he gonna do differently? 

![IMG_7382.jpeg](https://finals.blog/api/uploads/IMG_7382_d2642fc3b8.jpeg)

I think what he does may be trendy or bankable at times, and may at other times be marginal or under regarded. It’s a steady job, today, and he rocks stages internationally, but it’s not a scheme or even a strategic endeavor in any way other than to be respected by elders (“that’s special, they’re the inventors”) and to make 100% organic moves while creating an enduring catalog. He’s been in the game for a long time and he comes off uncompromised, focused on the music and not the clout, still making solo beat cassettes for fun (a new one surfaced this summer), while producing on major albums and continuing his own arc of basically timeless music. What else is there to do but roll another one and proceed? 



Getting To Know Theravada