Ninajirachi was never a club kid – her rise to EDM stardom made her one

For many of Ninajirachi’s adolescent years, clubbing wasn’t appealing. Turning 18 in the thick of Sydney’s prohibitive nightlife lockout laws where carousers were restricted from entering clubs past 1:30AM, and the ensuing pandemic, put that on hold. But it was the perfect storm to spend that time making music that, even if not informed by the dancefloor, will definitely make you want to be on one.

"All of my club music listening was at home or on the bus, so it wasn't until I started playing shows that I understood the context for which they were made," says the now-26-year-old producer after we connect over a video call. She’s set her backdrop to a photo of three pigeons perching ethereally behind her, matching the otherworldly vision she’s blanketed herself with over the years. "By the time I was over 18 and living in Sydney, I just didn't want to go out," she says. "I wanted to be at home making music."

Ninajirachi, born Nina Wilson, grew up a techie – the online world dominated her life. "When I was allowed on YouTube and had less filtered internet access, I got into electronic music because it was found in places less obvious than the radio," she says. "I started using SoundCloud, and that was the first time I was exposed to a lot of music all at once and the culture around it. But I was never posting at first, just observing."

Enter her music obsessive period: A once self-professed "pop kid" (thanks to Brisbane duo The Veronicas) now lurking in the depths of internet EDM music, Nina turned her hand to production. Her early music learnings were on GarageBand: "I was trying to make EDM, but I was in primary school at the time and didn't understand why there was a build-up and a drop in every song, so I figured I had to do it too," she laughs. "I just wanted to get closer to the feeling I had when I heard my favourite artist's music, and understand what I was hearing."

From observer to participant, Nina got stuck into the muddled chaos of SoundCloud: Uploading music fast, abundantly, and anonymously. When one track eventually turned heads, the alias she’d used to upload it was a "silly" mash-up of her real name and her favourite Pokémon, Jirachi. "I was changing my name every time I uploaded new music, and that was the one I had when people started paying attention to a track, so I kept it," she smiles.

Head to her SoundCloud today and you’ll find over 100 tracks dating back almost a decade, many fans still returning to some of those fledgling production efforts today. "Still loving this song," one user comments under her breakout 2017 track ‘Pure Luck’, which flaunts over 770,000 streams. "Aw I miss this," another reflects.

As the mid-’20s hit, the electronic world experienced a new wave of maximalist music leaning back into the EDM scene of a decade prior. It brought a refreshed take on the sound with screeching drops and ludicrous basslines, but with well-manufactured production and mastering – think horsegiirL, Frost Children, underscores – all of whom Nina has collaborated with in the years since her initial breakout.

In 2024, Nina hit another swell in her career with the release of her sophomore EP ‘girl EDM’ on Melbourne imprint NLV Records, a glitchy throwback to 2010s EDM with elements of trance, hyperpop and noughties club weaved in. It’s the style of music she said she was "born to make", while the record itself was titled after her own perceived sound. "Maybe it's a collective consciousness thing that a bunch of other artists around the world started revisiting their childhood favourites at the same time, because I’ve seen a rise in EDM again now," she says. "It was very fortunate for me that its rise in popularity coincided with this release, but I could never have known that when I was making this music."

Nina continued making music in abundance, using just her trusty laptop as her only instrument. "All of my muscle memory is here now with the trackpad," she grins. "I’ve never learned to use gear like synthesisers or MIDI machines, it was just always laptop music". Calling it her "first language", Nina explains that she’d never had the urge to purchase "professional" music gear – it just wasn’t necessary. And that gave her the idea for the name, and theme, of her debut album, the one that would shoot her to international success.

When ‘I Love My Computer’ was released in the summer of 2025, it arrived amidst the ongoing EDM upswing. "I had a feeling that the music was really good, but you can never really know," she says in retrospect. "The singles had gone down well and people were excited, so I knew there were more people listening than before. But to be honest, I'm so glad that I was releasing music for 10 years before people started paying attention."

Like the previously acclaimed EP that came before it, ‘I Love My Computer’ was met with praise for its elaborate production techniques where sawtooth synths and sugary vocals are layered and chopped with both precision and disarray. It uses her own vocals, something she’d previously been hesitant to do for fear of "cringe" when hearing her own voice back. "I can now use my voice like an instrument for songwriting and not feel embarrassed about it," she acknowledges. "I remember when I first started collaborating with people, I wouldn't sing even if I had the ideas because I figured that I just couldn’t sing. But I manipulate my voice so much because of that insecurity – it’s something I want to get past."

The 12-track record was an ode to exactly what its title suggests, with Nina declaring on its release: "I've spent more time with my computer than any one person”" Thematically, it explores internet culture and adolescence, with one "guiding North Star" theme. "It’s all computer music," she says. "It felt kind of devotional, but it didn't feel like a love album. Everything's got something to do with my computer in some way or another, and then I started thinking about what the square root of my practice is". Once the artwork was envisioned – an overhead shot of Nina laying amongst heaps of computers and keyboards – the rest came naturally. "The first half of the songs came easily," she says. "It still took hundreds of manual hours, but I knew what I had to do."

The reception was huge, and opened up doors and brought a whole new fanbase to Nina. "It’s been awesome," she says, still reaping the rewards of the record as she calls in from Los Angeles, where she’s preparing for her Coachella debut. "The cool stories that I get from people about how they found one of my songs, or what that music means to them, or seeing people become friends with each other through shows is special," she says sincerely.

Today, she’s still touring the globe, counting her recently completed debut UK and European tour as a big achievement and a way to test out new tunes on stage. She calls her shows "discography marathons" of sorts, a way to "fit in as many songs as possible". Her Coachella gig was also a major milestone, performing on the festival’s Sonora stage and debuting what fans believe to be new collaborative music with Porter Robinson, though she won’t confirm what she has in store just yet.

What she does confirm, however, is that new music is in the works. While it’s unclear what form it’ll take or if there are any major collaborations (she does admit her obsession with PinkPantheress who she appeared with on stage at Coachella, a "dream" collab partner), we know there’s more to come. "I've been very happy with the music I've been making recently. It's a relief, because after that time away, if you go back and make music with this new context where there are more people listening or following you because they liked a track, it’s scary," she says. "But I feel really good."

Gemma Ross is Mixmag’s Associate Digital Editor, follow her on Instagram