Interview: Nadia Struiwigh on gear, creativity, and carving out a career in electronic music
We recently caught up with the Dutch musician, composer, and DJ at Machina Bristronica — read on for her advice to aspiring artists.
If you’ve been following electronic music or music technology over the past few years, Berlin-based musician, DJ, and live performer Nadia Struiwigh has likely become a familiar face. Known for her UK-inflected blends of jungle, bass music, ambient, techno, and just about every other strain of electronica, she’s released music on Central Processing Unit, Nous’klaer Audio, Dekmantel, Blueprint, and more and currently holds a residency at Berlin club Tresor.
Whether working in the studio or playing live, Nadia is also a big user of Novation gear, with Circuit Tracks, Bass Station II, and Peak regularly finding places in her ever-evolving setup. She’s also recently added the new Launch Control XL to the mix.
Back in September, we caught up with Nadia at Bristol’s Machina Bristronica to get her thoughts and advice on everything from live setups to career advice and overcoming creative blocks. Read on to see what we learned.
Keep your audience guessing
For Nadia, it’s important to keep live sets open and free flowing. “I always have multiple devices and, depending on what I feel with the audience, I can still morph in different directions,” she explains. “I don't want to have a live set that I'm stuck in what I'm doing. I just feel the audience and when they're more hyped, you know — starting with ambience ending with some drum and bass, some coolness, like people would not expect that.”
“I think for me, the best way is doing things that people will not expect. I think that's the best thing.”
A setup for every situation
Nadia, like many artists, regularly rotates gear in and out of her studio to keep things feeling fresh and inspiring. The same applies to live setups — she says of her set at Machina Bristronica, “This time I knew that I have a lot of layers, and I just want to have a very clean mix. And in Ableton I can really define with Equalisers very well where I am in the spectrum.”
“The Circuit Tracks I use mainly for full tracks, so I can alternate between different elements — I can alternate between my Korg or between Ableton. Then what I do is, because there are building effects in Circuit Tracks, I can still, amplify certain elements with rhythm, with delay or with the reverb.”
The second piece of Novation gear that’s regularly seen on stage with Nadia is her Bass Station II.
Still, the level of control offered by routing everything through a laptop proves essential for Nadia, who relies on Live for mixing and processing the other elements of her stage setup.
“I do use Bass Station live, because I love the arp and the rhythm that you can change on there. So, you get a groove directly, and I love that part. It's just very hands on, it's compact, and that's why it's nice to bring with me on stage.”
Follow your own path
When it comes to career paths, Nadia’s journey has been anything but typical. Aside from her credentials as an artist, composer, producer, and DJ, she’s also been down to demonstrate new gear and software and even finds time to offer mentoring to up-and-coming artists. Even her route to her current sound has been a long and winding one.
“I think I always had different chapters with different frequencies,” she explains. “It's so weird. Like, I started off with very high, frequency elements, and then later down the line, I started to go more into bass music. Then I was like, oh, my god, this is the perfect contrast. I mean, they work in that kind of way. It's been 16 years, but it's very fluid and very organic with different elements — from being a raver, to being a nerd, to being both. Yeah… It's been nice.”
“Is it possible to draw learnings from such a unique path?” we wonder. “Yes,” says Nadia.
“I mean, the biggest advice you really can have is stick to your own inner universe. You know, you hear from people do this, do that or try this, ‘this artist is doing that’, but that's their journey."
“You can't compare your voice with someone else's voice,” she continues. “That's not why we’re here. So, I feel like I had a lot of challenges with that, because I'm pretty sensitive and that's why I feel music so much.”
In the face of the modern music industry’s demands, this path is not an easy one, Nadia concedes, but she remains optimistic about the value of going your own way:
“Definitely create your own language. We already have techno, we already have rave music, we have ambient but create your own lane.”
Don’t force it
We couldn’t let an artist as seemingly prolific as Nadia leave without asking one more burning question — how does she stay inspired to create? Creative roadblocks, after all, have proved major hurdles to most, if not all, musicians at one time or another. And her advice came as something of a surprise.
“Somebody asked me this before, and I have a really weird one,” she says. “I don't have creative blocks, firstly. Because I think it's a negative perception we have about something that our body is just not feeling. We are not feeling making music, so why would we force ourselves to make music?"
“Instead, I'm feeling what I'm feeling and I'm like, hey, I actually just need relaxation, you know? Or I need friends or I need peace or whatever. Then mostly I'm just watching series, calling with a friend, just random stuff. Because I believe we create in space. If there is no space, there is almost no creation because we are too full or we feel the urge to do something else.”
And there you have it: Not feeling inspired to create? Don’t. Take a break, step away, and return refreshed for your next session.
Explore Nadia’s Novation gear
Inspired to put together your own hybrid setup? Take a closer look at the instruments and controllers featured in this article.
New release
Words by Sam Taylor
Photography by Emma Davies