Some artists build a brand around their music. KATTANA has built an entire world. The Montreal artist has quickly carved out a space of her own by blending bass music, drum & bass, trap, and cinematic storytelling into something that feels bigger than a typical DJ project. At the center of it all is the “Cursed Traveler,” a character navigating an ever-expanding universe of mythology, emotion, loss, and self-discovery that KATTANA brings to life through her music, artwork, and visuals.
Fresh off a standout hometown performance at ÎLESONIQ, where she shared an emotional moment on stage with her father in front of a packed Montreal crowd, we caught up with KATTANA to talk about building her fictional universe, the personal experiences that inspired it, and why every set is designed to take fans on a journey.
The Interview
(Please note, the bolded text represents a question, while the paragraph(s) are KATTANA’s responses to them)
You just came off the ÎLESONIQ stage. What’s the feeling you’re walking away with right now? Was there a moment during the set that you’ll be thinking about long after this weekend is over?
Honestly, I think I’m still processing it. I’ve played a lot of shows away from home recently, especially in the U.S., but coming back to Montreal and seeing that many people show up for me felt completely different. But the moment I’ll remember forever was bringing my dad on stage for the first time. He was actually a DJ when he was younger, but he never had the chance to experience a crowd like that. Being able to bring him up there, tell him I love him, and share that moment with him was incredibly emotional.
And in a way, I felt like I was bringing my mom up there with us too. She passed away when I was younger, but she’s such a huge part of why I became an artist and why I kept going. Standing there with my dad, knowing he was proud of me, while carrying her with me… that’s something I’ll never forget.
Your sets move through dubstep, drum & bass, trap, and bass house, but they still feel very intentional rather than just a collection of tracks. How do you approach building that journey for a festival crowd?
I really think of my sets as a journey. I’m not necessarily trying to stay inside one genre, I’m thinking about energy and emotion. I love contrast. I want moments that are extremely heavy, but I also want moments where you can breathe, moments that are cinematic, moments that make you dance, and then moments where everything completely explodes again. And I spend a ridiculous amount of time practicing my sets because I want every transition and every change of energy to have a purpose. I want people to feel like they went somewhere with me for an hour instead of just hearing a collection of songs I like.
When people discover KATTANA today, they’re stepping into a much bigger story than just a DJ set. What was the first piece of that story that came to you?
It actually started with the character. I knew I didn’t want KATTANA to only be me as a DJ. I wanted to create a fictional universe where I could take things I’ve experienced and emotions I’ve felt in real life and transform them into something completely different.
That’s where the Cursed Traveler started to take shape. From there, the world around her slowly grew: the places, the mythology, the characters, the rules of the universe. And now every time I create something, I feel like I’m discovering another piece of that world myself.
A lot of artists create lore as an extension of their music. For you, it almost feels like the music is one chapter inside a larger story. Is that a fair way to look at KATTANA?
Absolutely. KATTANA is a fictional universe first. The music is one way of entering it, but so are the visuals, the artwork, the videos, the characters and eventually the entire story. I love the idea that someone can just come to a KATTANA set and enjoy the music without knowing anything else. But if they’re curious and start looking deeper, there’s this whole world underneath it. I want it to feel like you’re slowly discovering something that’s much bigger than what you initially saw.
The Cursed Traveler seems to be searching for something. Without giving away future chapters, what do you think that character is chasing that resonates with you personally?
I think she’s searching for meaning. She’s carrying things from her past that she can’t change, and she’s constantly moving forward while trying to understand what all of it means and what she’s supposed to do with it. That resonates with me a lot. I’ve experienced things in my life that changed me permanently, especially losing my mom when I was young. You don’t necessarily “get over” certain things. You learn how to carry them.
I think the Cursed Traveler represents that idea in a way. She’s not trying to erase what happened to her. She’s trying to understand how to turn it into something meaningful. And I think that’s what I’ve done with art my entire life.
Your project has a very cinematic feel. When you’re creating a new release, are you thinking more like a musician, a storyteller, or a graphic designer?
Honestly, all three at the same time, which can make my brain a pretty chaotic place. Sometimes I’ll be producing a song and immediately see an image or a scene in my head. Other times I’ll draw something and suddenly understand what that part of the story should sound like. I don’t really separate music, storytelling and visual art anymore. They’re different tools I use to express the same universe. So I’m not necessarily thinking, “I’m making a song.” I’m thinking, “What does this moment in the world of KATTANA feel like?”
The visual identity behind KATTANA feels just as intentional as the music itself. What role does creating the artwork play in helping you tell the story of this world?
It’s extremely important because I’m a visual artist too, so sometimes I can explain something through an image that I couldn’t explain through music alone. I create a lot of the artwork myself, and I hide details and pieces of the story inside it. Sometimes something that seems insignificant might actually connect to something much later. I want people to be able to look at the artwork, hear the music, watch the visuals and slowly start connecting things together. It’s almost like leaving little pieces of a puzzle everywhere.
If today’s ÎLESONIQ set became a chapter in the KATTANA story, what would that chapter be called?
HOME! Because that’s really what this set felt like. I’ve dreamed for years about taking this project outside of Quebec and eventually around the world, and I’m finally starting to experience that. But there’s something incredibly powerful about coming back and realizing that while I’ve been chasing this dream everywhere else, there’s this community here that has been growing with me. And having my dad, my boyfriend and my friends standing beside me on that stage made that feeling even stronger. So yeah… I think that chapter would just be called Home.
You’ve taken fans through the KATTANA universe all day. What’s one thing that would surprise people about the person behind the project?
Probably how normal and nerdy I actually am! On stage and inside the KATTANA universe, everything is dark, cinematic, dramatic and intense… and then I go home and I’m just someone who can spend hours obsessing over completely random things, making art, learning something new, or going down some ridiculous rabbit hole because I suddenly need to understand how something works. KATTANA is where I put a lot of the intensity that I carry inside me!
Whether you’re discovering KATTANA through her music, her artwork, or the ever-expanding mythology behind the project, there’s always another layer waiting to be uncovered. After a powerful hometown performance at ÎLESONIQ, one thing is certain: the world of KATTANA is only getting bigger, and we’re eager to see where the Cursed Traveler goes next.
