Mija (DJ)

Personal life

Giles was born in Phoenix, Arizona, where she was in a choir that toured France and Canada. She gave up singing as her family could not afford it, and she became a rave promoter aged 17; she was a fan of drum and bass and happy hardcore, including DJ Hixxy.

Career

As a promoter she booked Skrillex before he came to mainstream attention. She lived with several DJs when she was 18, and after briefly studying fashion she dropped out and started DJing full time in Phoenix in 2012 aged 19. Initially she played events such as weddings, and later the Sheraton Hotel and parties in Downtown Phoenix. She moved away from rave and played more disco house, collaborating with Eric Daily on Deux Yeux, a French house and nu-disco duo. She got the name "Mija" (Spanish for "my daughter") as a nickname from her then-boyfriend. Billboard listed her among "15 Female DJs You Need to Know Now" in October 2015.

Giles describes her musical style as "fk a genre", not liking to be categorised. Her manager is Jeffrey O'Neill of Blood Company and her agents are Paradigm Talent Agency. Giles feels that she has been the equal of her male peers and that the male domination of the EDM scene is slowly changing; she says "I don't think about it often -- only when asked in interviews".

In 2015 MIJA started Fk A Genre, a tour & promotion brand that programs diverse genres of music into a single show. "It (Fk A Genre) gave artists free range to do whatever they wanted to do, and not what their normal fan base expected."

In 2016 Giles launched Made By Mija, a fashion brand based out of Los Angeles, where she is the primary designer.

Breakthrough

In June 2014 she played at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Tennessee on the Burning Man art car Kalliope after being spotted at a local gig in Phoenix on her 22nd birthday the weekend before. She played the "sunrise set" at 6 a.m. and Skrillex, who had been driving around in a golf cart as the silent disco was closed, came across the stage and asked to play a back-to-back set with her, though Mija is not sure he recognised her from when she had booked him in Phoenix. The set received significant attention, but Giles was unaware their sets had been recorded until two weeks later. That August she played Burning Man and then in September of that year she played TomorrowWorld in Atlanta on the Black Butter Records stage after winning a mix contest. She began to learn production and organised a tour in Mexico. Encouraged by Skrillex, she moved to Downtown Los Angeles in October 2014.

Appearances

In March 2015 she played at Miami Music Week in Miami, then in April she played Coachella. That June she did a back-to-back set with Anna Lunoe in LA, before they performed in the Full Flex Express Tour around Canada over eight nights. In August she played at the Shambhala and HARD Summer music festivals, playing a remix of Major Lazer's Be Together. In September–October 2015, she did a sick af. World Tour, ending in Asia supporting Skrillex's tour. She was the only female performer on the lineup for the Road to Ultra in Singapore and the Philippines, closing the Philippines festival with Skrillex on stage. She announced her second world tour "sick af. V2" from February to May 2016 of the US, Canada, Mexico and Australia.

Releases

On Skrillex's label OWSLA, which she has described as being like a family, she released "Crank It" with Ghastly featuring Lil Jon, her first music video. She has also released a remix of Major Lazer's "Be Together", and is planning an EP release. In January 2016, she remixed "Come Running" by Darren Styles and "Middle" by DJ Snake. Giles remains an independent/unsigned artist. She has released collaborations on labels, OWSLA and Fools Gold.