In the first couple of months of this year alone, Mha Iri has gigged in London, Poland, India, Canada and the US, and at a ski-themed festival in the Netherlands. Yet she remains a largely unknown quantity in Scotland, having swapped her native Edinburgh in her early 20s for sunny Melbourne where a chance presenting gig at a local radio station led her down the rabbit hole to the world of psytrance production.

‘When I was first learning, I was totally consumed by it,’ she says. ‘I’ve got a very obsessive mind so if I’m interested in something I’ll learn every single aspect of it and I can do that quite quickly. I didn’t have a back-up so that made me really focus on it.’ Mha Iri was already well schooled in big beats thanks to a techno-loving older brother, her dad’s pirate CD collection, and her own teenage experiences of the illegal rave scene around central Scotland which really fired her passion for techno and drum’n’bass.

She moved back to Scotland during the pandemic to find a somewhat fragmented scene, one in which the profile she had built for herself in Australia counted for nothing. ‘When I realised I wasn’t in demand, it was an ego check for me on where I was in the global scene, which was nowhere,’ she insists. ‘But it still felt like the right change at the right time.’ Mha Iri has re-immersed herself in production, and released ‘Your Heart’ during covid as a call for empathy.

In a nod to her roots as a reggae singer/songwriter, tracks often feature her own effects-laden vocals. ‘I do have a diverse palette. When I play a set, I might start at 135bpm and end on 160. I enjoy exploring and going through a bunch of different genres. When I first started producing, I was more melodic; now I try to use less channels but make the most out of each element. I try to keep it as simple as possible but still have loads of movement with little percussive hits.’

Speaking of elements, she’s channelled her love of nature into a series of themed EPs for her new label PIAS Electronique, each accompanied by suitably elemental visuals. First off the block was the feminine feel of an earth-themed Leader Of The Pack EP. New track ‘Elements Of Dance’ kicks off the fire-themed follow-up (‘all hot tracks,’ she promises) with ‘water’ to follow in summertime (when an aquatic photo shoot will be more inviting) and ‘air’ closer to the end of the year.

‘There doesn’t seem to be much demand for hard techno in Scotland at the moment,’ she admits. ‘But it’s always changing: the bpm goes up, the bpm comes down. I just write what I want if it’s in style or not. Eventually it will because it’s a constant circle so for me it’s about staying true to my sound.’

Fire is released by PIAS Electronique on Friday 11 April.