‘Would they revoke my passport for how non-patriotic I am to Australia. Dublin’s more my home’

D ublin was my home for 13 years, so coming back to work here from London is always nice. I stay with friends, go to Clement & Pekoe for coffee, sit on South William Street and know I’m going to bump into different people I know. Then it’s going to Grogan’s and having a pint, and then to Fidelity or Mother if it’s the weekend.

I’ve been attending Mother for years, and I’m DJing at the Mother Pride Block Party opening on Friday, June 26th. I’m supporting Peaches and Scissor Sisters, which is so exciting. Pride is one of my favourite parties to DJ, and I feel honoured I’m being trusted to do this slot. I’m buzzed for it.

I feel very Irish. My dad is from Belfast , my mum is Malaysian-Indian. My parents owned an Irish pub in Alice Springs in Australia and everyone that worked there was Irish, so culturally I’ve always been more Irish-leaning than anything else. I moved to Dublin from Alice Springs in Australia when I was 20.

I was bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, excited to live in a city for the first time in my life. My town in Australia didn’t have public transport, so I was psyched to see a double decker bus. I had always wanted to live in London , but my parents were like: “You’re going to have a heart attack if you move to London, it’s such a big city, why don’t you try Dublin first?”

In Dublin I moved into a terraced gaff in Smithfield Square with people who were all part of the creative space. I was a musician at the time – my plan was singing and playing guitar. I used to play open mic nights, in Bruxelles, The International, in Workman’s. But I didn’t enjoy performing. Even though I’m quite confident, probably more confident now, l loved music but I didn’t like going on stage necessarily. When you’re singing your own songs it feels so vulnerable and personal. I couldn’t get past my nervousness, I used to get really shy and anxious.

[  Amano De Londra Miura: Being Japanese-Irish is possibly the least interesting thing about me Opens in new window  ]

So radio to me sounded like the dream. I could be on my own in the studio, playing songs, telling people these are the songs they should be listening to. That was the ideal thing for someone who is an extroverted introvert. That’s why I went into radio, at 2XM and then 2FM, doing the new music show. When I fell into DJing, it was very different from what it is now: now there’s more performance, you have to be confident, but then you could just be in a corner.

When social media came into the mix, I was like, yeah I’m going to do that as well because it’s important not to have all your eggs in one basket. It can be such a fickle world, especially radio.

A big driving force in my career and life generally is that I’ve never wanted to have regrets. I don’t want to look back and be like, “God, I wish I had done that.” When I started to say to people [about leaving 2FM for London], they were like: “You’re insane, why would you give up a job like that?” I thought about it for a year. I started going to London more and networking. Once I started getting booked to DJ there, I thought, okay, there’s a place for me.

DJ Tara Kumar at BBC Radio 1

When I made the decision to leave 2FM, it wasn’t easy at all. When I walked out, I was like: “What the f**k have I done? That’s crazy.” But I wanted to see what London had to offer me, and I loved the vibrancy of London, and the multiculturalism drew me as well. I just wanted to give it a go. I moved in with two girls I knew from Dublin. And now I’m living with two boys I know from Dublin, from years ago. So there’s a sense of home. I wear a necklace every day with a Claddagh that my friends got me.

If you’re Irish, people want to see you, they want to meet you. Having an Irish passport feels like a creative passport to this city, and I’m very grateful for that. I DJ at events and festivals and do cover presenting on BBC Radio 1, which is great.

I’m going to Australia to do a few talks at a festival there in a couple of months, which is exciting. I went to get my Australian passport renewed recently, which hasn’t been renewed in five years, only because I’m going to do this job. In the embassy, I felt like: “Gosh, this is so weird. I’ve not lived there for 15 years, I wonder if they’re going to revoke my passport for how non-patriotic I am to Australia.” Dublin feels more my home.

In conversation with Nadine O’Regan.

Scissor Sisters, Peaches, Tara Kumar and more will perform at the Mother Pride Opening Party at the National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks, on Friday, June 26th. See dublinpride.ie