170 BPM of Audible AuDHD: Meet 210mgs.
Australian artist 210mgs crafts music that pulses with the unfiltered energy of an AuDHD (Autism + ADHD) mind: chaotic, unpredictable, and deeply authentic.
Their latest track, Feel Real, is a 170 BPM whirlwind of manic grooves, distorted Hungarian choir samples, and layered vocals that mirror the relentless distraction of neurodivergent thought.
In a candid interview, 210mgs opens up about their creative process, the joy of hyperfocus, and the deliberate chaos that defines their work.
From dissecting the symbolism behind Feel Real’s tempo to celebrating the queer spaces they call home, their answers are as unapologetically vibrant as their music.
With more releases on the horizon, 210mgs is determined to amplify neurodivergent voices one chaotic, euphoric track at a time.
Read on for the full interview, where creativity, introspection, and a bowl of Milo cereal collide.
Happy: Firstly, what have you been up to today?
210mgs: I’ve been pooping a lot. Shout out vyvanse. I had a bowl of milo cereal as well. It was really yum and I finished it before the milk made the milo too soggy, but also with enough time for a bit of the milo flavour to seep into the milk. I was quite proud actually.
Happy: Tell us a little about where you’re from and what you love about it!
210mgs: I’m from Australia. The beaches are nice. I don’t really give too many fucks about “aussie culture” especially as a queer neurodivergent person. I feel like it just masquerades as bigotry a lot of the time with all the idioms and expressions. I’m also autistic and it confuses me.
I like the queer space we’ve carved out though. I live in the inner west and I really love it. It’s not where I’m from but it’s definitely where I choose to be now.
Happy: How does your AuDHD (Autism + ADHD) influence your creative process as a musician?
210mgs: Ugh it informs everything. AuDHD seems to manifest in my music regardless of intent. Sure, sometimes I make deliberate choices, a particularly scratchy sound or a feeling I’d like to emerge, but regardless of the type of song I set out to create, there’s a consistency of flavour I could only really describe as neurodivergent.
It’s my favourite thing about my creative process; I feel like a passenger often. I rarely feel like I could create something the same way twice, nor have I really wanted to.
A feverish four or five hours spent hyperfocused on an idea becomes a song and I come gasping for air, totally exhausted but I get to listen to this new piece of music that exists now.
Happy: What do you hope listeners, especially neurodivergent listeners, take away from your music?
210mgs: I want my neurodivergent listeners to recognise pieces of themselves in my sound. I want the songs I make to feel chaotic in a way that satisfies, but also feels familiar.
Comfort in chaos as a concept has shaped the way I move through the world, a mode of being I know so many people like me experience.
I love the way I am and I get giddy when I hear it come through in my music. I’ve put so much energy into understanding and loving the way I’m made.
I want people to hear my sound and feel seen, like they can celebrate themselves wherever they are in their life.
Happy: “Feel Real” explores the chaos of an AuDHD brain. How did you translate that into sound?
210mgs: My intentions for the vine of the song kind of came around towards the second half of production. I feel like my neurodivergence and the dopamine deficiencies that come along with it inform so much of what sounds good to me.
It’s a lot of little decisions as the song comes together like is this yum? Does it scratch the itch? Is it crunchy enough? As the layers stack, all these decisions turn into something that could only really have been made by a neurodivergent person.
I laugh sometimes at how much my music sounds like it was written by me.
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Happy: Lyrically, the song touches on masking. Can you elaborate on how you conveyed your truest self on this track?
210mgs: Obsessive self analysis and self correction has been a huge part of my neurodivergence. Developing a believable mask was all I really focused on until I was about 21.
Around that time, the accumulative toll of forcing myself to be someone everyone else wanted me to be started to literally make me sick. This was manifesting both physically and psychologically. I wrote the opening lines of the songs about this.
“Exploring my mind obsessively since I was like nine,
Compromise for total collapse at 25”
I don’t know why but 25 always felt like a doomsday age to me. I guess I could feel my capacity shrinking year on year so 25 made sense. I turn 25 in two weeks lol. So much has changed since I wrote this song.
I think it was around the time I was writing it that I had just started to consciously do away with masking. Trying to find the “Hugo” in all of it again. The next lines go:
“I’m 23 now, I guess I’m doing alright,
Keeping busy trying to be more of myself more of the time”
Happy: At 170 BPM, “Feel Real” has a frenetic energy. Why did you choose this tempo, and how does it reflect the song’s themes?
210mgs: I feel like this is the speed my mind goes. It never turns off. I can latch it onto something, give it something to chew on, and that feels incredible, but it’s only ever momentary relief. I’m so fatigued by my brain.
There’s no relief in the song either. The drums power on all the way through, there’s not really enough time to fully process what you’re listening to and before you know it the song is finished. You know? It’s like the information is all right there in front of you.
You control the volume, you can pause and play, read along with the lyrics, but there will still be elements of the song you only notice on a 10th or 15th listen. This is how my brain is.
The lyrics are all about masking and the pain caused by buildup of mistreatment by the world, but the sound, in my experience, is pure neurodivergent representation.
Happy: The Hungarian choir sample is such a unique texture. How did you discover it, and why did you manipulate it the way you did?
210mgs: Fuck it just sounds sick. In a really hectic way. The whole song is so synthetic and electronic, the vocals are pretty heavily processed then there’s this splash of raw sound. I did mess with the sample quite a bit.
The original sounds very different to what you hear in the song, but I just love the way it lends itself to the frantic feel of the whole thing.
Happy: Now that “Feel Real” is out, what’s next for 210mgs? Any upcoming projects or themes you’re excited to explore?
210mgs: Big yes. I have so many songs ready to release and I love them all. Feel real and a bunch of other unreleased songs are part of a big batch where I feel like I’ve finally found my sound.
Of course it will change and grow as I do, but I love what I’ve made in the last year. I’m so excited to release all of it.
Happy: Last question, what makes you happy?
210mgs: Good friends and manic skill progression. I’m a bit crippled by my extroversion. I can be by myself, it’s not a mental health issue, I just find it so incredibly boring. Life is so much more colourful when I can experience it with others, drink in their reactions and bounce off them.
I also find it impossible to do very much at all when I’m by myself. Other people give me so much motivation and energy. I’ve learnt to stop shaming myself and harness it instead. Sometimes I’ll ask a friend over so I can do my washing.
I’ll sit them on the couch and put a show on for them and I’ll potter around and get some things done. It works every time.
