Carlita: sweet symphony

When a child has their heart set on something, they won’t take no for an answer. We can all recall a time when an expensive toy or a lovable stray caught our gaze, and feelings of longing were overcome by determination. The only thing standing between us and true happiness were the gatekeepers in the primary bedroom. Next came the hard work: Wear them down. Beg if necessary. Get that puppy. 

Parents often insist that they have better judgment — and in most cases, they’re right. They know the shiny plaything will lose its luster, and despite well-intentioned promises, they’re certain to scrub a soiled carpet (or five.) Lucky for her mom and dad, Carla Frayman’s youthful fixation wasn’t the kind to dissipate quickly or leave behind unsightly stains. Her obsession took hold at a music conservatory, back when she was just eight years old. “I was pretty small — I’m still looking very small,” the Turkish-Italian DJ and producer known as Carlita tells DJ Mag when we speak via video call. “[My instructors] looked at me and asked, ‘What instrument do you want to play?’ They told me to choose the violin, but I said, ‘No, I want to play the cello.’ They were like, ‘You’re too small, you can’t carry it.’” But she refused to give in to their hesitation.

And so began the hunt for a model that could accommodate her tiny frame. After settling on one that was still a tad too large, Frayman made do, lugging the cumbersome case back and forth to lessons without complaints. There was no second thought, for that cello represented more than just a pastime — it was one of the few choices she’d made all by herself. “I was playing piano when I was three — I don’t even know if I wanted to play piano. It was not my decision,” she explains of the musical trajectory bestowed upon her. “My parents kind of chose my path until a certain point, when I decided to be a DJ.”

It’s a familiar story — guardians foster creativity, and then act surprised when it blooms into something different. Plenty of kids pivot under pressure, choosing a profession that prioritizes logic over passion, but not Frayman. Despite being slight in stature, she knew she was capable of achieving big things. Take for example the hefty task that’s on her plate at the time of our chat: A forthcoming debut LP, due out later this fall. “It was supposed to be my off-day, actually, but of course, now there is this interview and the shoot, and so I’m not taking time off in London. I am finishing this album,” she attests, presumably in the same resolute tone that scored her that first set of strings some two decades ago.

Downtime is a rare luxury for Frayman, who splits her life between Tribeca, where she shares an apartment with friends, and the UK, where she resides alongside her sister. But even these homes are more akin to crash pads, really — fans would quicker find her doling out soulful house and techno sets on stages in Ibiza, across Burning Man’s sprawling (see also: muddy) playa, or at European festivals like Torino’s Kappa Futur where she played solo as well as alongside her Astra Club collaborator and dear friend, DJ Tennis, earlier this summer.

The ambitious musician also curates a roving party series dubbed Senza Fine at unexpected venues across the globe. The Italian phrase translates to “without end” in English, and the signature events are designed to deliver a multi-sensory experience to attendees whose interests run the gamut of fashion, food, music, and art. She’s a busy tastemaker, in every sense. When Frayman’s microphone goes on the fritz during our call, she replaces the hallmark bucket hat on her head with a pair of oversized studio headphones, bolstering the image of an artist on a mission. “No, no, I want to do this, and go back to making music,” she says after we offer a moment to recalibrate. That razor-sharp focus has been the propelling force behind her every action, for just about as long as she can remember.

Frayman spent the bulk of her childhood in Istanbul, where she experienced art from around the world. “I grew up with Brazilian CDs everywhere in the house,” she explains of the South American sounds that floated through the air. “My mother is Italian, but she was so in love with Brazil’s culture that she actually spent a lot of time there. She learned to speak Portuguese and play their instruments. And she collected vinyl there from the time she was 18.”

Frayman’s father is from Turkey, so she basked in the local flavors, too, learning about the country’s rich history through the lens of his family. Both parents studied in the United States, and they had decided long before that their children would do the same. “My mom is very into music, so if it was just up to her, probably I would have always been this,” she says of the livelihood she’s predominantly built on her own terms. “But my dad is more realistic. With musicians, there is a reputation that it’s hard to have the income that is going to be stable for your life, but of course it’s not always true — it depends on the musician, it depends on how well you do, and also it depends on how business- minded you are.” Frayman proves to be the exception of which she speaks.

In line with parental wishes, she enrolled at Northeastern University in Boston, a year earlier than most of her peers and basically sight unseen. “New York seemed a little too big, and in my imagination, I thought that Boston was like a small version of New York — I know now, it’s not,” she says with a chuckle. “But for college, now I don’t see another place better than Boston, because you meet so many amazing international people and also it’s a perfect city. Everybody’s close. It’s super walkable. I really enjoyed it.” Plus, it put her in close proximity to students from the Berklee College of Music, where she made friends with shared interests.

Through these connections, she carved out time for creative projects (she played in a handful of bands, strumming instruments like guitar and bass, for example), all while pursuing a marketing degree, along with two minors — one in computer science, the other in music Industry. This combination enabled her to put her obvious talents to good use, while also putting her parents’ minds at ease. “Their dream was more for me to go corporate — some of my family worked in Unilever, my aunt worked for Coca-Cola,” Frayman shares of the expectations that swirled around her future. “I think they wanted me to be on that way, because a musician’s life is not always the best.”

She diligently plugged away at coursework and became acquainted with the New England city’s modest nightlife scene. BIJOU stands out among her favorite discoveries — the small-capacity club is still thriving inside a historic theater, specializing in the sounds of deep house and techno. For fun, Frayman began building her own playlists at home, aiming to tell sonic stories like those told by the DJs she watched on stage every weekend. But she couldn’t achieve the same impact with only a barebones controller and a limited knowledge of how to use it.

During sophomore year, she befriended the nightspot’s owner, who also happened to be Turkish and more than happy to help. “He said, ‘Come here one lunchtime,” she says, “‘I’m going to teach you in this club. Bring your computer.’ He first downloaded Rekordbox. The second thing he gave me — I still keep this USB — was a super small Pioneer USB,” she recalls of that eye-opening afternoon and his generous gifts. “He gave me some tracks, he put me on the decks and he taught me how to mix everything. That was my first experience in the club, and I totally loved it.”

Now, the DJ-in-training had a new goal: Acquire some quality gear. Knowing a dead end awaited at her father’s and (probably) mother’s discretion, Frayman took matters into her own hands, hatching a plan like only a broke teenager could. “I decided to Airbnb my apartment, and I stayed over at a friend’s house in New York,” she explains, flashing back to the eight-hour round-trip Megabus rides that sandwiched every short-term rental. “It was out of control, like, it was not the coolest move to say, ‘Hey, can I stay three nights at yours while I run mine as a whole Airbnb business?’”

She found out quickly that her off-the-cuff venture wasn’t exactly street-legal either. “I got caught — I forgot one detail, which was I wrote the exact address in the app, and of course the landlord’s checking to see who’s putting their apartment on Airbnb or not,” she says, shaking her head at her naïveté. “They wanted to open a lawsuit and everything, and then my parents knew because they had to leave the deposit.” It was an honest mistake, so she met with her landlord and apologized profusely. He dropped his threat of legal action (but gladly kept her first month’s rent) when Frayman explained she’d only launched the listing as a means to fund her musical aspirations.

“I also hustled a lot, as you can see, when you’re staying in people’s apartments going to New York from Boston every week,” she giggles, throwing her arms out to emphasize the absurdity of the lengths she’d gone to get her hands on musical equipment. “But then I was able to say, ‘Hey, I got what I want, I have the decks, the mixer, the whole system — everything I need to be a DJ!’” When the Airbnb doors shuttered, another opened for Frayman. She practiced with her shiny new setup and became one of BIJOU’s residents soon after.

Though promoted from the dancefloor to the stage, she hadn’t yet considered performing as a full-time career. “I always thought of this as a hobby that I love, but a hobby that takes up a lot of time,” she explains. So she kept cracking on at school and collecting highly transferable skills. “I’m happy I did [my minors] because now I’m super fast at computers. And then in my music industry classes, actually, it was pretty good luck. I didn’t like the copyright class so much — I found it very boring, in my opinion — but what I loved was the recording class” she says, describing the assignments that taught her how to properly position microphones, organize the room for sessions, and utilize software programs like ProTools. Most importantly, she learned how to work with fellow artists in a professional setting.

Frayman ditched the long bus rides and relocated to New York after college, where she racked up internships with companies like the Brooklyn-based imprint and party curator Bespoke Musik, as well as The Fader and Cornerstone Agency, in an effort to determine where she fit in the space. She eventually accepted a full-time position as the music director and booker for Gospel, a vegetarian supper club and live performance venue in SoHo. “I still have an amazing relationship with them, and I DJed for them a lot,” she shares of her experience. “But to be honest, I didn’t like what I was doing, because there was also ego going on. I remember some artists were saying, ‘Oh my name should be bigger than the other name,’ or ‘Oh, I deserve more money.’ They were attacking me very hard.” Exhausted with bad attitudes and a nightshift schedule that never let up, she left the job when it made sense financially.

“I calculate everything I do, and weirdly, I was making more money as a DJ and I had more time to myself, so I was like, ‘I’m 21, I have a college degree, it is more important for me to focus on music. If I fail, then in the worst case, I tried,’” she says, waxing back to that transitional period. “Well, I never stopped DJing and I haven't stopped producing music since then.” Pieces fell into place. Carlita began to appear on more line-ups in New York and beyond, notably in far-flung locations like Mykonos — and en route to those locations, such as through the British Airways in-flight playlist, the perfect fit for early cuts that possess a true transportive effect. Ethereal strings and far-away rhythms lend her late 2010s productions an otherworldly aura, and much like Frayman’s own upbringing, they pull from a diverse range of global influences. Her 2018 EP ‘Luz Del Sol’, which she produced with Lemurian for the Cosmic Awakenings label, delves into warbling, primordial realms — the kinds of left-field beats entangled in ancient strings that send thoughts careening toward overgrown jungles and secluded beaches untouched by time.

Though such journeying chords still shine through in Carlita’s sets, these days, her originals are a bit more club-oriented — songs that send swirling notes of mellifluous house sailing upon waves of nostalgia. But she hasn’t lost touch with those psychedelic origins — mystical melodies await when Frayman teams up with Italian producer Manfredi Romano, aka DJ Tennis, as Astra Club. “The way this happened — everybody thinks this is crazy, because we’re from two different worlds,” Frayman shares of how the project with DJ Tennis came to be. “My life, my everything, is so different from his life, but somehow we became so connected, ever since the day when I met him.”

By today’s standards, the two met in a surprisingly organic manner. There were no label execs or public social media exchanges manufacturing the bond. They found one another through a mutual friend. Their meetup was just one of many fortuitous things that Frayman experienced during Covid times, the first being when she became unexpectedly stranded in Tulum for six months when her Italian passport made it impossible to return home. “To be honest, it was the best time of my life,” she explains in a careful tone, acknowledging that the period posed challenges for many. “I wasn’t thinking so much about gigs, but I was really working on spirituality. I loved it — meditating every day, doing yoga, looking deep inside. I was never able to find that routine before.”

When international flights resumed and borders reopened in the latter half of 2020, she moved to Lisbon, where she would eventually encounter Romano. For months prior, Frayman hit his inbox with demos, hoping to sign a track to his Life and Death imprint, but the reply never came — that is, until she spoke with Robin Scott (a co-founder of the now-defunct Brooklyn nightspot, Output) at a house party. During the casual conversation, he mentioned Romano was also living in the Portuguese capital at the time, and offered to link them up.

Frayman finally received the response she’ll never forget. “He asked if I was here in Lisbon, and then he just said, ‘Do you want to have lunch with me?’, and I thought, ‘oh my God! I’m so excited! DJ Tennis just asked me to lunch!’” she exclaims, laughing at her star-struck reaction. The rising producer and the established label head hit it off, and by the time the bill came, Frayman asked Romano to come along for her birthday celebration in Comporta, Portugal two days later. When he showed up in an Uber, it was clear he’d only just realised the remote location was more than an hour away by car. Thankfully, the night would prove to be well worth the trek.

“We went to the forest, where my friends had set up a party — it was insane, very magical,” Frayman regales of the unique setting where she clocked another year around the sun. “I started playing, and three songs after, Manfredi came to me and said, ‘Do you want to do a back-to-back with me?’ and I said, ‘Of course, I would love that!’ Well, that back-to-back lasted 12 hours until the generator finished in the middle of the forest, and since then, we never left each other.”

On another Lisbon-set occasion, Romano attended a group dinner with Frayman’s friends and sought to learn more about her aspirations. “He asked me, ‘What do you want to do to be better in your career?’ and I said, ‘I want to produce better music — I’m not there yet as a producer,’” she recalls of the meaningful discussion that led to months of one-on-one studio sessions. It was an ideal time to exchange ideas, as bookings were still few and far between due to social distancing rules.

In time, Carlita finally secured the big release on DJ Tennis’s Life and Death imprint she’d been waiting for, with the arrival of the ‘Bon Trip’ EP. The title track is a spiraling, slow-burn of a tune inspired by the spaced-out grooves of Norwegian producers like Todd Terje and Lindstrøm. Conceived during the pandemic, it serves as a manifestation of positive energy, capturing the jubilation that followed Frayman’s long-awaited return to touring and blissful dancefloors. It radiates with the joy of 2022 – her busiest year yet (the ‘Bon Trip’, if you will.) The EP, which also features a trippy stunner called ‘Run Run Run’ featuring Duddha (and exceptional remixes from Krystal Klear and Red Axes to boot) helped catapult her name and diverse production style to new levels.

Today, Romano is more than just her Astra Club counterpart and mentor — he also plays a critical role on Carlita’s creative team. “I said, ‘You’re helping me a lot already and pushing me to get gigs. Why don’t you be my manager?’ He said, ‘Okay, I’ll do it.’ Just immediately,” she shares (the last time he’d served in a similar role was for Tale Of Us years ago.) “But this guy did everything. He was an agent. He’s a DJ. He’s not like a normal manager — he’s a unicorn,” Frayman says with palpable admiration in her voice.

Carlita is doing what she can to return the favour, in part through her aforementioned party series, Senza Fine. “It’s Manfredi’s dream to have a perfume brand, and obviously he made a lot of my dreams come true, and so we decided to do a project with the senses — all the senses we touch, like colours, music, smell, everything!” she tells of the concept, which is known to pair diverse lineups with eye-popping art, delicious bites, runway fashion, and bespoke fragrances. Last month, Senza Fine and Teksupport hosted the fourth edition in Brooklyn during New York Fall Fashion Week, with names like emerging powerhouse DESIREE, disco-pop icon, SG Lewis, and Israeli techno artist, Mita Gami, in tow. Carlita also performs, with DJ Tennis joining the roster more often than not.

Her inspiration for the series first struck during a visit to the Louvre, and so the Mona Lisa persists as a symbol of the upscale gatherings. “It was very funny. I was playing in New York on the 4th of July, and one of my friends came with the whole painting,” she says of one memorable Mona cameo. At Miami Music Week this past March, she and DJ Tennis collaborated with W Hotels for a showcase of music and culinary delights, and soon, Carlita and co. will bring the bash to Milan, with a focus on hot tunes and even hotter looks. “I’m colorblind, so I should not even be into fashion. But I really love it. I have so much interest in art, and I think art and fashion and music are super connected to each other — they’re just like a circle,” she says, making the shape with her fingers.

While the soirees are hugely popular and typically sell out fast, Frayman insists that at its core, Senza Fine’s purpose is rooted in bringing her team’s tight-knit group even closer together. “We sell around 1,000 to 1,500 tickets pretty easily, but I don’t want to be called to be bigger right now, because even this sometimes feels not so intimate,” Frayman explains, noting one way she preserves the vibe regardless. “We always have one very small room for maybe 100 people, and whenever I finish playing now, I’m going to this room — I always say it is for our super close community.”

At Senza Fine engagements, it’s not unusual to catch Carlita laying down the tunes that make her an after-dark sensation: Cuts like the soulful ‘Fell In Luv’ with Calussa, which is awash with a blend of classic synths, ’90s-era vocal treatments, and gentle drums that are having their revival right now. Her 2022 progressive melter ‘The Way You Say’ and its sister cut ‘Fly By’ are another pair of evocative creations that hark back to a time before Frayman came of age. “It’s very funny, because I’m touching on this kind of genre right now — I don’t know why, but I love it so much,” she says of the hazy grooves that move her. Her forthcoming single ‘Cash For Love’ on CircoLoco Records continues the trend. “That’s also a very nostalgic feeling,” she says of the highly atmospheric production.

But her debut album (the one she’s itching to get back to as we speak) represents more than just a collection of stand-alone, club-ready compositions. Instead, the LP aims to build a sonic narrative with the musical education she’s been building since her formative years. “I play professionally — like at a good level — guitar, bass guitar, cello, piano, drums... I love drums. I can play most instruments, I feel, because I studied music theory for years,” she adds modestly, describing her aptitude in a way that suggests her ability to turn any noise into pure melodic gold is second nature. To sum up the energy she hopes to deliver throughout the long-player, she chooses a powerful word.

“I feel like it’s timeless — this is what I’m trying to do through timeless songs, to tell a story. It’s not super dancey or like typical electronic music, it’s a bit pop-ish, a bit just for listening,” she explains of the project that listeners will be able to hear in full soon. That said, they’ve likely already heard one of the album’s unreleased gems if they’ve attended a Carlita set in the past few years. “There’s this one called ‘Time’,” she says, revealing a title that reflects her expressed intention. “I think it’s my favourite, and I play this song so much because, in a sense, it’s like the perfect ending.” We have to agree — it’s the kind of beautiful selection that can bring a tear to your eye with its wistful progression and singalong-worthy lyrics. It’s the closer that makes you wish the night didn’t have to end, but leaves you deeply satisfied nonetheless. “It’s very emotional,” she continues, “really, with all the tracks I’m trying to be a bit emotional. It’s pretty special for me.”

Frayman is still donning the big headphones as we wrap up our chat, and we’re certain as soon as the call disconnects, she’ll be back in her files. She’ll tinker with the instrumental samples she’s recorded all herself, to complete a body of work that embodies the choices and sacrifices and lessons that have shaped the artist she is today. What started as childhood intuition became the springboard for a legacy — one that’s all but certain to stand the test of time.