HAAi returns to the dancefloor with “I Wanna Feel Like Someone,” a new collaboration with British poet and musician James Massiah. The track offers another preview of the London-based, Australian-born producer, songwriter and DJ’s forthcoming album, DIGITiSE, arriving October 9 via Mute.
Created from memories accumulated across years of DJ sets, “I Wanna Feel Like Someone” places HAAi’s club influences firmly at the center. Heavy bass, immersive frequencies and propulsive motorik rhythms drive the production, while Massiah’s spoken vocals create a moment of space within its dense, textural soundscape. “It’s a nod to so much of the music I play and have played, and was a really fun track to make for the dancefloor,” HAAi explains.
Massiah, who previously appeared on HAAi’s 2025 album HUMANiSE, welcomed the opportunity to continue their creative relationship. “Love working with HAAi, always grateful when an artist I respect finds a new way to present my voice,” he says. For HAAi, his contribution serves as an important anchor, allowing the production to breathe amid its peak-time intensity.
The single captures the central philosophy behind DIGITiSE: an album created on the dancefloor as much as for it. Written between HAAi’s marathon performances, tested inside clubs and shaped by the reactions of the people in those rooms, the record reflects the expansive musical journey of one of her all-night sets. HAAi describes the project as HUMANiSE’s “bigger, ravey sibling,” explaining that “DIGITiSE holds the hand of HUMANiSE and walks it to the club.”
While HUMANiSE pushed HAAi beyond the DJ booth and into the foreground as a singer and songwriter, placing her voice and vulnerability at the heart of the record, DIGITiSE carries that emotional core back into a communal club setting. The project was initially conceived as an extension of its predecessor, but the new material quickly developed its own identity and became a standalone album.
That connection remains audible throughout the record. The closing moments of HUMANiSE fade out with a choir, which returns at the beginning of DIGITiSE, creating a seamless transition between the two projects before sending listeners back toward the dancefloor. Previous single “Ignition,” featuring Echonomist, documented HAAi’s experience growing up queer in a small town and ultimately finding freedom and belonging through music. “I Wanna Feel Like Someone” shifts the focus toward the euphoric, peak-time memories created after that freedom was found.
Community remains central to both albums. In an increasingly digital and isolated world, HAAi views the dancefloor as one of the rare spaces where people can still gather across identities and backgrounds to experience physical connection, freedom and collective release. As a queer artist, her commitment to diverse and inclusive spaces continues to inform both the music and the environments in which it is performed.
That spirit also extends through the album’s collaborators, including Echonomist, Skybreak, Pat Alvarez, ILA, Kaiden Ford and Medellín children’s choir Cantoalegre. Skybreak and Cantoalegre appear on “Talking Walls,” another track shaped by sounds and influences HAAi discovered through years of DJing. Its emotional use of choir creates an additional bridge to HUMANiSE, with HAAi describing it as “one to hug your mates to at the festival.” The album’s visual identity, led by Martin Falck—known for his work with Fever Ray, The Knife and Icona Pop—introduces a playful, camp counterpoint to the more dystopian world surrounding its predecessor.
Following a packed European summer that included WorldPride Amsterdam, Sziget and Maiden Voyage in London, HAAi will bring the DIGITiSE experience to North America this October. She is scheduled to perform at III Points Miami on October 17 before continuing at the festival’s official Satellite afterparty at The Ground at Club Space. The following day, she will take over Refuge in New York City for a 10-hour album celebration, performing from 4 PM until 2 AM.
The extended Refuge set is particularly fitting for an album designed to move across multiple genres, tempos and emotional spaces. After previously delivering an eight-hour performance at Public Records, HAAi decided to add another two hours, giving herself even more room to explore her collection and gradually shape the energy of the room.
“Playing long sets is how I came up as a DJ, so 10 hours really feels like my comfort zone,” she says. “I can’t wait to get stuck in.”
