Aldanya has built a strong reputation in the London underground scene for her energetic and impactful techno sets. She deploys her full potential on harder Industrial Techno sets, and she consistently casts sounds that will hit the right spot at the right time, blending seamlessly grooves, hammering kicks, punchy baselines, uplifting riffs and mesmerising vocals.
If you are fortunate enough to have danced to her meteoric sets, her performances speak for themselves and are the best testimony.
If you haven’t yet, then you must indulge yourself in one of her live acts.
She owes her distinctive and infectious energy to her Greek roots, and her firm discipline to fatherland Switzerland. It is when she moved to London that she pursued her passion for electronic music and crafted her identity as a versatile – though powerful and devoted – Techno DJ & Producer.
Under her command, the dancefloor spells into a transcending experience. She has dominated the dancefloors of iconic London clubs such as Fabric, The Steelyard, Werkhaus – and has stormed the underground raving scene through residencies for the likes of Eclectic Zoo, Platform8 and Northern Impact events.
She sets herself apart by selectively curating music and sounds that resonate with her and fit the moment. Staying true to herself, she doesn’t follow trends but rather constantly renews and refines herself as an artist.
In 2021 she released her first official track “Big Rip” on Fluctuat records’ RAVE 4 WOMEN, featuring other talented female producers for a special VA release in support of a charity.
Check Out Aldanya – Big Rip (Original Mix)
As a true visionary, Aldanya quickly adapted to the new landscape the pandemic brought and has fully capitalised on online streaming, building a worldwide community of ravers on Twitch — where she hosts regular shows, occasionally featuring guest DJs to promote talent.
She is taking this one step further with an upcoming online shop project dedicated to ravers around the globe.
Keep an eye out for her upcoming events, projects and releases.
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Aldanya
What draws you to and what made you begin a career specifically in Techno?
It was natural for me to be drawn to Techno, because for me this is the genre that expresses liberation and freedom the most.
Growing up, I was exposed to a variety of music, from classical to rock, but as a young teenager I started being attracted to electronic music and kept looking for new sounds. I was on a mission to discover the multiple facets of electronic music, which carried on as an adult.
Discovering techno only came at a later stage but this was a true revelation. I would say that once you discover techno properly (by this I mean in the most appropriate setting), chances are you will stick to it. It grows on you.
It is addictive and liberating. It was such a big WOW, that when I started my career as a DJ, I wanted to share my passion for music and for techno, and give to the audience the best performance to create memorable dancing experiences.
I feel techno is the best playfield for me where I can explore and express different traits of my personality. There is always something that fits the moment or the mood.
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Check Aldanya Playing for Minimal Force at Werkhaus
What is your favourite part of being an artist? Playing live? Creating music? Parties?
First of all, I think it is a huge privilege to be an artist and to serve the people through music. I see this as a duty because I am responsible for everyone to have a good time and dance – for me djing is a selfless act of giving.
I love everything about being an artist. It allows me to explore new paths and bring something new on each of my sets. I like to look for artists and labels that are “under the radar” but that resonate with me, and playing them out is a way to express myself too.
Creating music is obviously another facet I enjoy as I can work on ideas and be creative, but this is a longer process, it takes time to fine tune, I’m a perfectionist.
Another part of my role as an artist is to educate. There are many ways I do this and I adapt my approach to the audience. For example, if I have a mixed audience – that is, not everyone is into pure techno – then I will adapt my set to first hook the neophyte and then gradually feed them punchier techno.
This technique has proven many times to be extremely effective and I can proudly say I’ve converted many people to techno. This is in fact one of the best feedback I receive, when people surprise themselves by enjoying techno during my sets and coming back for it. When I hear this, I feel “mission accomplished”.
Another part I love about being an artist is to connect people by uniting the crowd to the same frequency, so to speak. When the crowd is connected to one another, living the moment fully and letting themselves go of any worry and enjoying pure bliss – this is what makes me love what I do – creating lifetime memories through music.
This leads me to parties – they are the reason I do what I do. For me parties (in my own definition) should be a safe space for self-expression through art, music and performance, and should be liberating and ecstatic.
In short, a good party should be a life experience, a spiritual experience, a place where you can liberate yourself, forget about the material world and connect with your higher self.
Dancing is a form of meditation, so really, good parties are much more than that – for some they are raves, for others they are events or festivals. In the end it doesn’t matter how we name them, what matters is the feeling the crowd is left with when experiencing such an act, and what they will remember from it.
Aldanya
What is it about DJing, compared to music production, that makes it attractive to you?
I think each track that was ever created, has a best or most appropriate moment to be heard, to really be enjoyed fully and how it is meant to be heard.
Many times I heard DJs play excellent tracks, bangers, well produced etc. but it was not an appropriate moment (or not the right crowd) and they missed an opportunity to deploy the full impact that the tracks were meant to have.
DJing is not about playing the best tracks ever produced, or the tracks that the DJ or the crowd likes, it’s about bringing the best and most suitable tracks for this moment and build a story that the crowd can feel and dance to.
When you produce a track, you produce a portion of what can be a long told story during a gig. As a DJ, I love to tell stories and create musical journeys.
When I play at gigs, I curate what I feel are the tracks most suitable for the moment and setting, and this can change quickly within an hour of DJing depending on the crowd.
I am a giver, and I can do this best when I am Djing at live gigs.
Another shortclip from Aldanya at Minimal Force
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How do you handle your mistakes when you perform? Did you ever have any troubles managing them?
First of all, I try to avoid mistakes, that’s why I am obsessed with anticipation and planning, because this would put me out of my comfort zone.
However, the reality is that not everything is under control at all times and unexpected things can happen anytime. Some are within my control (such as beatmatching), while others are less controllable (such as a speaker blowing off).
In your DJ career path, I firmly believe mistakes are an absolute necessity to learn and grow. As you grow, you will make less and less mistakes, but they can still happen, and that’s OK too – even the greatest do..
If I make any mistake live, I will try to take it on the fun side and smile or laugh, but also have self control as much as possible because I need to get myself together.
If it’s really out of my remit, I will reach out to the sound engineer. It’s important to always have a sound engineer on hand, because they can really make a difference with making sure the acoustic is optimum.
One thing I would say, is be kind to yourself and others. I used to think the golden standard of being a good dj was beatmatching perfection, then realised there is much much more to define a good dj – even the greatest happen to make mistakes.
So I am now much more understanding and appreciative when I hear others make small mistakes, because it shows authenticity – it is easy to avoid beatmatching mistakes for example by using DAW or laptops – but each of us has its own preference when it comes to set-up, and I respect everyone’s personal flavour. Mine might change over time.
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Aldanya
Can you describe your own development as an artist?
There is so much music that has inspired me, and still does. I have so many ideas and projects I want to work on, I need to force myself to stick to one thing. For this reason I have several open projects and my goal is to finalise some of them, and get them released. Everything inspires me, even events in the world. With production I want to deliver a message, and give people hope and strength to move forward in life.
If I can be honest, I have a very busy schedule because I work full time, and my day job is mobilising my mind 100% so that leaves me little time for creativity. My brain is exhausted and it takes time to put myself in a creativity-ready mode. Adding to this I never took courses to actually learn how to produce – I’m more self taught – most of what I know comes from online research and applying concepts I learned when I was training as a classical pianist.
In order to level-up and keep learning while producing, together with my partner, we invested in some hardware like the Arturia keyboard, Roland drum-machine and Behringer synth. He is the one pushing me to keep going, and that has a significant impact in my development as an artist.
Aldanya at Werkhaus | Playing for Minimal Force
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What can we anticipate from you within the next year? What projects are you currently working on? Any releases planned?
I am hoping to release more tracks that I am currently working on.
My first release was part of a VA on Fluctuat record, and that was for me a big challenge but also an opportunity to reach my first goal as a producer, by releasing on a label I love.
I am very grateful to have been given this opportunity. Now I want to keep growing and renewing myself as an artist and producer.
Aldanya
How did the pandemic affect your plans? Do you believe the music industry will ever recover?
The pandemic has disrupted my plans – like for most of us, but I am resilient. It allowed me to rethink my strategy, and I focused on being creative and diversifying myself. When you want to grow as an artist, but you cannot play at events because they are on hold during the pandemic, then who will notice you and how? As reluctant as I was about streaming, I gave it a go and explored all the platforms that exist and learned how to extract the best value from it. I built a worldwide community of ravers on Twitch, and worked my way through to even get a revenue from it. Not enough to pay all my bills, but it definitely helps.
It allowed me to invest in more music and more equipment for djing and for producing.
Streaming taught me a lot! There are people out there ready to listen to music at any time of the day, any day of the week. I also received so much feedback that I kept going. People were telling me how much this helped them get through the pandemic and in all honesty, it helped me too. So this is very gratifying. Not only did I keep going as an artist, sharing the love for music online, but I also increased my reach massively all around the world!
I am hopeful the industry can recover but a part of me is realistic and I don’t think the world will return entirely to what we had before, which is absolute freedom. We witnessed a big shift in behaviour and lived a big part of history. We need to learn now how to make the most with the current situation, stay creative and find ways around upcoming challenges.
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If you could change anything about the electronic music industry, what would it be?
I would remove the aspect of social media. Although a lot of positives result from the internet and social media, there is another side of the sword that I feel has affected negatively the music industry.
Today, if you have good PR, you get booked. I found myself in this situation where the perception I had of several DJs on instagram was in total disconnect with what was actually delivered in a live setting and the performance itself was a disappointment.
I think this is very sad because there are many artists out there that stand out, but play for small crowds – if at all – and they deserve more recognition.
There are producers who are very talented who don’t get noticed enough, and that’s why in my music selection process, I look for lesser known artists and labels to bring something fresh to my live gigs and give some exposure.
So in short, I wish we could go back to the times where DJing was truly appreciated as a form of art, where the quality of the music, dancing and being in the moment mattered most.
What are your favourite venues you go to get the best Techno music?
Today in London, Werkhaus is a little gem of a venue for the best quality of techno – the acoustic is just mind-blowing – but I am also referring to Sundays when the event is hosted by Minimal Force (these guys really level up and bring quality techno to the scene).
Otherwise Fold has really made an impact for larger techno events.
Outside of London, I must say my absolute favourites are Sysyphos and Berghain in Berlin. If I was living there, these would be my techno refuges.
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What advice would you give for someone wanting to follow in your footsteps?
I would say don’t follow my footsteps. If you want to start a career as DJ or producer, explore and create your own path. Don’t be a copy of someone else.
You can look up to other artists and be inspired to progress and grow, but in the end we are unique individuals, with different past, different experiences and we should develop ourselves around our own personalities.
There is no straight way to succeed, and success is always relative to what you define as success. There is no fast track or best way to do things.
Explore, be open to the different ways each dj does it for him/her self, find what works for you and take feedback with a pinch of salt, always, because just like art, music is subjective.
Stay true to yourself, surround yourself with people who share the same values, and embrace who you are. Support others the way you would like to be supported.
Life is too short to waste our time on futile things. Spread love, passion, and make the world around you better, everyday.
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Underground Talent Team
Thank you for accepting our invitation Aldanya for the Behind the Scene Interview! Best of luck to you and your music.
Find Out More About Aldanya:
And Always Remember…
Have Fun & Be Creative!
