Musician and Curator Hazina Francia, professionally known as Tadleeh has a talent for creating very personal and emotive musical work. She loves to use a variety of techniques to intricately produce music which goes hand in hand with her personal identity and aesthetic. Tadleeh who was born in India talks to us about her creative journey from being adopted as a child by an Italian family to working as a Music Producer and Curator of culture and art events in Milan. She has also created a personal mixtape for Coeval that includes some of her favourite tracks from other artists and a selection of her own.

Your ethnicity is Indian and you are based in Milan. Can you tell us a bit more about your journey of becoming a well established musician and DJ in Milan?

I was born in India in 1985, and was adopted by an Italian family when I was almost two years old, so my first steps here in Italy date back to 1987. I grew up in a small town on the Adriatic side – not so far from Milan actually. I moved to Milan for work in 2014, and originally I worked for communication agencies in advertising and the digital area as an Art Director. I love communication matters but after a couple of experiences I realised that it wasn’t for me. I came to understand that way wasn’t my path, because of the long time spent in agencies I wasn’t able to dedicate my time to music production. So I changed my approach. Basically now I do both music production and curation of culture and art events. At the moment I’ve come back to my hometown for a while but my intention is to return to Milan as soon as possible because that is the only way for me to progress through these kind of jobs. There are more places and events I am interested in, as well as more people within the artistic underground area to meet. Not to mention my friends who live in Milan, that I can’t wait to hang out with again.

As a musician you come under the name “Tadleeh”, where did this name originate from and what made you decide to call yourself this?

Tadleeh means ‘disorder’ or ‘chaos’ from the Arabic language. Paradoxically I chose it in the exact time in which I decided to tidy my ideas, my projects and my life as well. Tadleeh comes from an Arabian text about Love, the text is composed in eleven stages, starting from the birth of this feeling until it’s conclusion. Tadleeh is the second-last.

The atmosphere and emotions that surround your music demonstrate your cultural heritages – what influenced you to create such personal tracks?

I think the experience is the main act behind any artistic project, behind any tracks, any movie, performance and so on. Any piece of art is actually a part of you. My personal steps influenced my first EP ‘Ego Will Collapse’, especially the last two years have been really determinate in my life. My work is charged of moods and different developments due to a lot of matters within my life, starting from the decision to close my old music project and build a new one.

Your music is made up by a mixture of different techniques – what do you use to create such a range of experimental sounds?

I like mapping my style arrangement from one point to another. I gather a lot thought behind my tracks. I always love a lot of techniques and I really appreciate soundtrack composers. In fact, you can hear something of that specific kind of music composition in my work. Besides this I love researching sounds, sampling it and working with different plug-ins or VST. I would describe my music as dreamlike, dilated and primitive.

How did you come up with the concept and vision-surroundings that you put off on this last project for Coeval Magazine?

Basically what I created for Coeval is a personal mixtape of tracks that I previously loved and some original tracks by me, as I decided against recording a simple audio mix. The starting point is the new ‘Tadleeh’ silk artwork I’ve printed in the past few days. Then the “Ego Will Collapse” EP original artwork designed by Pietro Agostoni in June 2019 for the Yegorka release. Due to the impossibility in moving during this period, I’ve made my house in my hometown where I currently live into a workspace. I have a fixed camera during the sunset hours with a disused field in the background and my music selection playing in the meantime.

Does your own aesthetics, the one that runs throughout your music and artwork influence your visual communication and graphic persona? Do you create it yourself?

I really care about aesthetic matters; I am pretty fussy I admit. It’s important to be able to create a personal ‘skin’ to bring together with your work, independently from your job area. Developing an identity is a precious goal. I asked Pietro Agostoni to design the ‘Ego Will Collapse’ EP artwork, and I think his work fits completely with my idea. From the first time he created work for me, I loved the way he designed my name ‘Tadleeh’ with a lot of micro drawings inside the main one. Amazing really! I’ve recently printed Pietro’s digital artwork on a silk fabric which is more than one metre long. This is the first printed text, but we would really like to make something together in the future using different printing techniques and materials. I love to experiment as much as I can, and I think his work fits perfectly for it.

Community and culture are the key points to safe isolation now. What are your artistic surroundings and what actions do you think are mandatory for a cohesive society?

I don’t feel part of any collective in particular. I feel part of a larger network in the underground scene rather than a smaller collective, because I’ve always worked by myself. It’s really hard finding people you can totally trust in adulthood. These kind of relationships are only possible if you’re already part of something from a tender age, I think it’s harder otherwise. I mean, I pay attention a lot to what’s going on around me and I can confirm that the families that are still alive today are the same as the ones that were born during my teenage years. Anything similar has never happened to me, I always moved through different approaches. I must admit that I miss the close and intimate feeling sometimes, but nevertheless I love being surrounded by people and artists that are similar to me, with the same interests, goals and backgrounds, not only though social media but in real life. Maybe it will be possible one day, who knows? I have met a lot of artists that I respect and I love it when we meet each other in the same event or festival. During my life I have created my own network of people that move with me. My work really makes me feel part of something.

Is there any musician or creative in particular that have inspired your work as an artist and as part of a collective?

I consider myself part of the Haunter family from the very first time, and I can call it home for sure, but not a collective. Daniele Guerrini who is the HR Co-Founder has been a dear friend of mine for a very long time now. Together we built a lot of really important relationships in Milan that helped me a lot. Thanks to my career as a musician and Sine Confine platform curator I have had the opportunity to build a lot of connections throughout the whole of Europe which has been really important to me, as an individual, a professional figure and as an artist. Nowadays I feel part of the Yegorka family due to my latest release, but I don’t want to stop here. I mean sharing is the key I guess. I constantly get in touch with a lot of artists and friends who are also part of the underground scene even if their work expresses a different mood to mine or if they live in a different town. I think that talking to them, sharing music and making collaborative work are fundamental values in order to start growing up.