Raised on the sounds of radio pop, hip-hop and traditional Kurdish music, Dera took his first steps towards becoming a music producer as a child with a basic music program on a Nintendo 3DS handheld game console. From there, he discovered house, jungle/drum and bass and EDM on Youtube before ditching the 3DS for Cubasis and Garageband on iPad and later, a laptop loaded with Logic Audio. In recent years, Dera has taken home production trophies at two of New Zealand’s most prestigious award shows, the Aotearoa Music Awards and the Pacific Music Awards, and opened for Pi’erre Bourne and 070 Shake, setting the stage for the next phase of his musical career. As he graduates from producer to solo artist, Dera draws strength from the risks his family took in Kurdistan, pouring the fierce energy they’ve instilled in him into his music. After all, his parents didn’t walk through the desert for him to only come this far. The son of a freedom fighter who served with the legendary Kurdish Peshmerga, Dera is an award-winning Auckland-based beatmaker, producer and DJ. Since 2018, he has worked closely with a tight-knit circle of stylish new-generation New Zealand hip-hop and RnB acts, including being the in-house producer & engineer for Church & AP and deadforest. In the process, he’s become a go-to guy for hard-hitting club instrumentals that blend jiggy rap aesthetics, house and jungle/dnb with the icy synths & futuristic melodies, and the thunderous basslines of grime and bass music.