Breaking Boundaries with Sound and Story: An Interview with Adhitavo

In the sprawling, ever-changing landscape of New York City’s music scene, few artists navigate the intersection of performance, production, and storytelling with the same precision and emotional impact as Adhitavo. Known for blending electronic textures with classical modal structures, songwriting, and technology-based performance, Adhitavo moves seamlessly across these realms.

Based in New York, Adhitavo has built a diverse career that includes intimate live performances, cross-cultural collaborations, and immersive theatrical productions. From the lively atmosphere of Brooklyn Music Kitchen to the expansive soundscapes of the Masala Mixtape festival, to co-writing “Someone,” the title track of Pixie Labrador’s EP featured by Billboard Philippines, and creating genre-defying theater shows in Hell’s Kitchen with Danny Ritz, he is forging an artistic style that is uniquely his own.

“For me, every project is a different lens—whether I’m writing for another artist, building a live set that can evolve in real time, or working inside a theatrical framework,” he says. “The common thread is the narrative. I want the listener to know that it’s intentionally built with lyric choices, soundscapes, and technology that work together as a single unit.”

Masala Mixtape — A Cultural Crossroads in New York

At Masala Mixtape, Adhitavo took on a critical role in shaping one of the festival’s most dynamic sets, designing a performance built around Ableton Live’s modular capabilities, allowing for real-time changes in arrangement and tempo. The set featured live visuals in collaboration with Ellie Holliday, whose viral TikTok visual art has reached millions, and included a special duet with Australian electronic artist aloe.

“Festivals such as Masala Mixtape are more than mere performances,” he reflects. “They serve as cultural expressions. I tailored my set to adapt to the atmosphere—whether that means extending a groove, stripping it back to vocals, or adding live-synced visuals. That element of surprise keeps the music vibrant.” Dil Mil, a leading global South Asian dating app, sponsored that edition of Masala Mixtape. With editions across NYC and LA, the festival has previously invited some of the top South Asian artists from the US, UK, and Canada, including Grammy–nominated and American Music Award–winning artist Raja Kumari, and featured UK-based global R&B star Arjun.

The atmosphere was electric: packed rooms, flashing lights, and hard-hitting beats. Curated by Pankti Doshi and Ramya Baratam, who have organized acclaimed South Asian events in both cities, including sold-out Rang Rave Holi Parties, the festival has established itself as a key celebration of diasporic creativity. Adhitavo’s performance that night became a focal point of the evening, blending high-level technical mastery, visually immersive storytelling, and collaborative energy into a set that was as theatrical as it was musically compelling.

Someone — Songwriting Across Borders

In Southeast Asia’s indie-pop scene, ‘Someone’ stands out for its subtlety and emotional depth. Co-written by Adhitavo and recorded at Manhattan’s Power Station Studios, the track features Pixie Labrador’s expressive vocals with harmonies and guitar lines designed to enhance its emotional impact. Produced by JMKO and mastered by Nicolas Essig, it was released through Offshore Music and Sony Music Entertainment. It gained recognition from Billboard Philippines, which highlighted the EP’s “melancholy with a sense of earnestness” as “perhaps what is most universally resonant.”

The track premiered at a listening session at Sony Music Philippines’ headquarters and was performed live during the launch party at Sari Sari Bar in Makati City, celebrating modern Filipino artistry. It was later played in 7-Eleven stores across Vietnam, reaching everyday listeners far beyond the stage. The performance highlighted the song’s harmonic richness and emotional depth, emphasizing the strong connection between Pixie’s vocals and Adhitavo’s songwriting. By focusing on the harmonic structure and emotional journey, Adhitavo explains his role as “shaping the emotional architecture in a way that feels authentic to Pixie, carrying its honest feeling of longing.”

Science of Youth — A Theatrical Canvas

If ‘Someone’ was about sculpting an honest story, ‘Science of Youth’ was about constructing an entire world. Staged at the Annex Theatre in Hell’s Kitchen, the heart of Manhattan’s Theater District, this production, helmed by Danny Ritz, featured Adhitavo as a key member of the live ensemble. His contributions went beyond performance, shaping the show’s sonic identity through custom-built virtual instruments, layered guitar textures, and sound design that integrated seamlessly with the production’s visual and narrative elements.

“You’re not just playing music, you’re supporting movement, lighting, projection, dialogue. Everything is in conversation. We rehearsed for weeks in Brooklyn, with each sound carefully designed in Ableton; every delay effect was precisely time-mapped, and the guitars were treated with intricate effects that made them warp in unexpected ways. It was beautiful to bring it all together with an ensemble of singers with diverse vocal textures, alongside lighting and narration, into one unified performance.”

In this audio-visual showcase, his work integrated seamlessly with visual design and narrative flow, creating a performance where sound was as integral to the story as the script itself.

Sapne (Rayrick Remix) — performance at Brooklyn Music Kitchen that transcends language

One of Adhitavo’s most celebrated performances occurred at Brooklyn Music Kitchen, where he was a featured performer. There, he brought Sapne (Rayrick Remix) to life in a set that blended house beats, electropop, and Hindi lyrics. The venue’s intimate setup created a special bond between the artist and the audience.

“Performing Sapne live feels like bridging two worlds at once,” he explains. “I see people responding to the beat even if they don’t understand the words, and then others connecting deeply with the meaning. That duality is the point; it’s about making space for different forms of connection.”

The remix’s reception, a collaboration with electronic producer Rayrick, extended beyond the room, positioning Adhitavo within a growing global wave of South Asian electronic artists.

On Building Worlds
Across all these projects, whether on a festival stage, in a recording studio, or inside a theatre, Adhitavo’s artistry remains rooted in an almost cinematic approach to storytelling. His music thrives on contrasts: softness and intensity, precision and improvisation, solitude and collaboration.

“I think of my work as world-building,” he says. “It’s about constructing spaces, sometimes physical, sometimes emotional, where people can step in and feel something shift, even if just for a moment.”

“And in a city like New York, where every night offers a hundred competing invitations, that ability to capture a listener’s attention, to make them stay in the world you’ve created, might be the rarest art of all.”