Mia Moretti is a name that has become synonymous with fluid creativity and a lust for life across a vast array of disciplines, and whether she is performing, remixing, traveling, designing, or writing, she is nothing short of prolific in her eclectic output. “I think it all comes less from the desire to do many different things, and more from the lack of desire to do one thing,” she explains to me from her pad in Los Angeles, where she has recently relocated from her long-time base of New York. “My childhood didn't have a ton of structure and was a little looser than most. I think, because of that, I move very freely and easily across things – I don't work well when something is scheduled or pre-planned. I just trust what feels right,” she continues, breaking out the infectious grin that inspired the song “International Smile” by her long-time compadre and collaborator Katy Perry. “It hasn't really set me up for any kind of 10-year plan, or anything,” she laughs. “But it does bring me a lot of joy every day, and I'd rather have joy in one day than, than work on something in the hope it might bring me joy in the future.”
Moretti’s capacity for joy is more than evident in her explosive DJ sets, which harness the power of collective energy to take the audience to euphoric heights, but her penchant for paying honour to the moment is perhaps nowhere more apparent than in her passion for travel, which has been well documented in Pillows & Plates – a collection of road trips she has taken with her friend Liza Voloshin to the likes of Cuba, Moscow, Weimar and more, all of which are shared across the web, one smartphone-shot film at a time. “There is always something to learn,” she says, when I ask her where her love of the open road stems from. “It opens your mind every time you go to a new place. There is a piece of my heart that's saved for every new place I visit. I feel a massive opening up and an excitement when I arrive in any new city,” she continues. “That’s really the biggest luxury for me – arriving in a new place and experiencing something that I'm not expecting. I also feel it's in my bones to travel. All my ancestors have left a place and arrived somewhere new at one point of their lives. I feel them, and their journeys, when I travel.
Moretti is a culinary enthusiast and food is the star of her recent Low Touch Economy books, featuring homespun recipes alongside poems on the nature of love and freedom. It has always played a massive role in her life, being brought up in an Italian family where the ritual of eating was at the core of everyday life. “My mother loved food and all my early memories are of someone being in the kitchen cooking,” she says. “The whole family was always involved; every single occasion revolved around food.” It’s abundantly clear when Moretti talks about her family that she values her ancestral connections deeply. Her grandfather remaining her greatest inspiration to this day. “He's such a grateful person, and really is so appreciative of every moment,” she says. “He’s seen so much in life, but when I asked him 'What was the best year of your life?’ he said, ‘this one.’ I think you must have to have that kind of gratitude for every single day to live that long.” An appreciation of the fact that all we truly have is now, and a desire to celebrate that truth is seemingly at the core of Moretti’s being. “I really don't have very grand dreams,” she says, as we draw our enlightening conversation to a close. “I'm just very grateful to have the life that I have. I have a lot of love around me. I mean, luxury is a very simple thing to me: it is freedom. As small as being able to check into a place, to check out again the next day. Travel is a very beautiful thing. A great gift.”
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