VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: DJ Nostalgix On Creating New Music & Struggling As A Female Artist

In her new uInterview, EDM DJ Nostalgix spoke about the origins of her unique name and the struggles she has experienced being a female artist in a male-dominated industry.

Nostalgix explained to Erik Meers, founder of uInterview, about her process of preparing for a set like the one she performed at the music festival Electric Zoo. “For me, I think it takes a lot of time and preparing because my sets are just so high energy so I like to have a good amount of my own music playing, ID’s I’m playing,” she described. 

She spoke about how she may incorporate music that her friends have created or her own edits, which she spends “hours just making mashups for every set.” 

Nostalgix typically improvises throughout her performance rather than creating a set plan beforehand. “I feel like there are certain things that I like to have within my sets, but usually I’ll be up there and be like actually, ‘I feel like this will be fun,’ so I think it really just depends on the set,” she said.

She has recently been focusing on creating new music, some of which she debuted at Electric Zoo on Labor Day in New York City. She shared that she has “been spending basic all of my free time in between my shows in the studio working non-stop on a lot of new music.” Nostalgix continued to describe this experience as “exciting” for her as she feels “it’s the best music I’ve been making in my life.” 

This new music focuses on “the evolution of Nostalgixs” and “who you know Nostalgixs to be but evolved by a thousand levels.” 

She explained that the origin of her name came to her while she was in college in her dorm room. She described it as “just one of those moments where I was like huh, Nostalgix?” This was before she began her career as a DJ, but the moment she thought of it she knew it was going to be her name. Today, she feels that she has “really grown into that name” and perfectly describes who she is. 

Nostalgix also spoke about her struggles in creating an image for herself when she first started DJing. She spoke about how “being a female artist in the music industry just, it makes you stronger.” She continued to explain how her experiences taught her “to stand up for yourself and know how to say no to any bullshit by anybody.”

At the beginning of her career, Nostalgix was not treated as a serious artist. She recalled one moment when a security guard would not allow her on stage because he did not believe that she was the performer. “I’d be showing up to go play my set at my show and the security guard would be like, ‘No you can’t get on stage,’ I’m like, ‘Hey I’m performing today,'” she recalled. “And they’re like, ‘No you can’t.’” 

Another instance was when she brought her male videographer and people thought that he was the artist. Although she did struggle with this at first, she did explain that it is easier for her today since “as you do grow and more people know you, that part gets a lot easier.” She has learned, “how to stand up for yourself, stand up for the people around you and just navigate all of this.”