Rooted in resilience, family support, and a profound emotional bond with her late mother, who remains one of her main sources of inspiration (her stage name is her second name, given to her by her mother, as they shared a similar name), Nikolina’s sound is both relentless and hypnotic. With standout all-night-long sets at Gotec, charity initiatives and a forthcoming single, she continues to establish herself as a powerful new force in contemporary techno.

You developed significantly in the rave scene in Berlin, first as an attendee and eventually as a DJ. What’s one very Berlin-specific behavior, energy, or ritual on the dancefloor that you don’t see anywhere else in the world?

One thing that feels very Berlin to me is the unspoken agreement on the dancefloor. It’s this mix of freedom and respect that I rarely see anywhere else in the world. The crowd isn’t waiting for a drop; they’re waiting for a journey. That energy is something I haven’t found anywhere else.

As a Berliner, you’ve seen the city change a lot over the years. How have the techno and club scenes evolved since you first discovered them, and are there still parts of the city that feel like the underground haven you fell in love with, or has the vibe shifted for you?

The scene has definitely shifted over the years, especially musically. After COVID, there was this huge hard techno boom; everything got faster, harder, more extreme. But in 2025, I feel it slowly circling back to its roots: more groove, more intimacy. What’s interesting is that the music itself almost isn’t the main focus anymore. For many people, especially tourists, Berlin is about the experience, the freedom, the attitude, and the feeling of stepping into a world that doesn’t exist anywhere else.

For me, it’s hard to make a direct comparison to the “old” Berlin because I actually came from a different corner of the scene. I was more involved in Goa and psychedelic parties before I entered the groovy techno universe. So I didn’t live through the classic 2010s Berlin techno era in the same way. But what I can say is that the energy keeps evolving. The city keeps reshaping itself, and even if the vibe is different now, some places still carry that underground soul, just in a new form.

You have an incredible amount of energy when performing, managing to uplift everyone attending or watching your sets. What’s going through your mind to maintain that energy for long periods? Are you in control, or do you surrender to the music and the crowd?

People often think my energy on stage comes from spontaneity, but for me it’s actually the opposite. I prepare my sets very intentionally because I want to tell a story with my music, a story that unfolds exactly the way I imagine it. When I perform, I’m not randomly choosing tracks based on the moment. I’ve already built a whole world, and I’m inviting the crowd into it.

When they trust the direction I’m taking them, that’s where the energy comes from. This approach gives me a different kind of freedom. In the end, they have two options: take it or leave it.

When performing live, do you ever intentionally test unfinished ideas in front of a crowd? What’s the most unexpected thing that’s come from doing that?

No, I’m too much of a perfectionist, and I stand behind every track I play 100%. What has surprised me, though, is how certain tracks I didn’t expect to stand out suddenly become the emotional peak for the crowd. Sometimes a moment I placed as a subtle transition turns into the part everyone screams for. Those reactions don’t change my selection process, but they do show me how people interpret the story in their own way.

Before you named it Schroove, can you describe the moment you realized you were drifting away from pure Schranz or hard techno? Was that shift conscious, or did your body instinctively lead you while mixing?