Fresh Kicks 214: RONI

The image of an 18-year-old RONI zooming around the streets of Paris on a motorbike to attend as many clubs as possible is quite badass. It’s one of many memories about her early experiences of dance music she shares with DJ Mag. However, the French-Malaysian DJ, producer and founder of Nehza Records actually started going to clubs much younger than that; she was just 12 when her mother took her to “places where you could go and dance all night long to amazing music”. That’s when “something changed” in RONI, and she hasn’t looked back since.

Still based in Paris, RONI is home after a stint in London, where she played fabric and joined Martha on BBC Radio 1. In her teens, the station helped shape her musical education; RONI would tune in to Gilles Peterson and Benji B, in addition to French station Radio FG. London itself introduced her to more musical subcultures, too. She remembers her first trip to the city at 14 with her mother, where she felt a “sense of culture and freedom”.

After this inaugural visit, RONI made regular trips to London, hopping on the Eurostar in the morning and returning in the evening with a batch of freshly dug records. “I would walk in the street and see a guy all pierced, like a punk with pink hair, talking normally to an old lady, and not see any judgement between them,” she says, comparing the sights of London to suburban Paris. “To me, it was really like a breath of fresh air. And I got so curious, and I realised that I had so much to discover.” 

Growing up, RONI was surrounded by a vibrant selection of music. Her father had an extensive collection of records spanning jazz, rock and Caribbean music, while her mother was a “true partier”. Today, RONI’s DJ sets and releases on labels like Borne Fruits, traverse, XXIII, and Garde-Robe Records have a similarly sprawling approach: rollicking bass, chunky breaks, speed dembow, hyperactive jungle, and groovy techno all crop up along the way, some of which she showcased in her raucous Boiler Room set last year.