After his recent South East Asia tour, “something shifted in my brain - maybe pursuing music as a full time career is viable,” says techno producer Hasvat Informant (Mike Blyth).

Blyth’s string of releases on labels like Denmark’s Amniote Editions and Paris’s Mama Told Ya have earned him invitations to play in Europe and Asia, as well as Australian institutions like Pitch Festival and Subclub.

Blyth has now been to Europe twice in the last three years to perform, where he hit venues like the storied Berghain and Watergate, and has recently returned from a debut South East Asia tour with the help of Music Australia’s International Performance and Touring Fund. Blyth says the funding “just enabled me to not be out of pocket when presenting myself in these scenes abroad”.

Where I'm at with my music and the scene that I'm in, at some stage if you want to play bigger gigs you have to play slightly more commercial music. [But] I was able to play these venues and this festival that are very much aligned with my sound and style.

Blyth started out as a teenager producing Flume-inspired trap and future bass. When he started going clubbing, he’d bounce from the club to the after-party to the after-after-party, absorbing different sounds, until at one event “something switched, and I was like, ‘Oh, okay, now I'm just looking for this more contemporary, hypnotic [sound]’.

“I was just producing for fun,” Blyth says. “I hadn't DJ’d much. I spent a long time just listening, four or five years partying before releasing anything, before I played any sets. I'm really fortunate for this.”

As a wheelchair user, access has always been of high importance to Blyth. Indeed, having conversations around venue access helped give him the nudge to start performing. 

“As a punter, I was always attending a Melbourne event series called Bunker. The guy running Bunker, Adrian, would always help ensure I could get into the club, as well as provide extra access information at new venues. I'd bump into Adrian in the club and have a chat every time. One time after seeing I’d released some music, he prompted me ‘When are you going to get up on the decks?’ At the time, I said, ‘No, I just want to be a producer…’

 ^{Hasvat Informant live at Organik Festival, Taipei}

Playing Taipei and Seoul introduced Blyth to a whole South East Asian techno scene he hadn’t known existed. 

“I'd never been to Asia before and I didn't realise how progressive and forward-thinking Taipei is. The club and festival there had super diverse bookings, very queer crowd – really passionate and enthusiastic crowd. They knew how to party, but really safely. No one's stumbling around and making a mess. They're partying hard and late, but with sensibility and stamina… I love that sort of crowd. 

“I spoke to the crew that were running the festival [Organik] and asked them, ‘What's the crowd like? Do you think I should play a little bit more fun and proggy music?’ They replied, "no, we booked you for your thing, just do your thing." The set was really well received, which was really nice.

“There were a lot of other promoters at Organik Festival from regions like Ho Chi Minh, Manila, Hong Kong and Tokyo. We all hung out partying and in the green room - naturally conversations arose, ‘hey Mike, next time you're in Asia, let us know. We'll book you’. Jordy (my manager) and I made genuine friendships with these people. We’re thinking now that we'll go to Asia two or three times a year.”

Blyth recently played his first curated, epic all-nighter set at 170 Russell, where the sound system “was insane. So happy with how that was received. That was probably my highlight gig in the city. The booth monitoring sounded so good and the crowd was so immersed - no phones were used, and people were really switched on, looking after each other.

^{Hasvat Informant live at 170 Russell}

“In preparation for the 7 hour set, I spoke to some overseas artist friends, like my label boss, Mama Snake and another friend, D.Dan. I asked, ‘Guys, how do I do this [all night]? Give me some tips.’ They said to me, ‘You've played warm-up sets, you've played closing sets, you've played peak-time sets. Bridge them all together but break up the night into each of those segments’.”

Blyth has also performed at CRIP RAVE THEORY, the club night founded by 2024 Creative Australia Early Career National Arts and Disability Award recipient Riana Head-Toussaint.

Amongst a musically diverse lineup, Blyth says, “I was encouraged by Ri, ‘Hey, do your thing. 

Don't feel like you need to play super clubby, R&B or anything. Other people have done that on this night. You get to be a different flavour.

“That was great. Ri is a great friend, she's so switched on. I love how she approaches everything she does with deep intersectionality. We want to do some more stuff down here [in Naarm]. We've been speaking about, at some stage, we'll go back-to-back together when the right event comes up.”

For the second half of 2025, Blyth will play some more gigs in Europe and release his first LP on Amniote Editions. 

“The album that I recently finished was a big job, I've never done a body of work of that scale before. I’m having a bit of a breather, but I'm keen to get back into the studio and write really soon. 

“I've got a bunch of other European labels that have said, ‘When you're ready, we'll do an EP’. Now I just need to write the music. I’m thankful that I'm in the position now where I have the connections that I can write some music, put it forward to some label friends, and they’ll take it."

Hasvat Informant: Instagram | Soundcloud

The Music Australia Export Development Fund is a matched funding initiative designed to provide financial support to a diverse range of Australian artists at distinct phases of their international careers. Funding rounds occur four times a year.