FEATURE: Spotlight: Ninajirachi — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

Ninajirachi

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I will end with…

a review of I Love My Computer. It is the remarkable debut album from Ninajirachi. The Australian producer has released an album that instantly sits alongside the best of this year. It is a loving and authentic tribute to EDM of the 2010s. I want to start out with this biography and background of Ninajirachi. An artist that you really need to follow:

“Contained in Ninajirachi’s music is all the beauty, mystery, and danger of the natural world. The 22-year-old Australian producer, songwriter and DJ makes bristling electronic club and pop music that’s glassy, uncanny, and totally enthralling; like stalactites or spiderwebs, each of her songs is spectacular to behold. A restless innovator, she’s spent her teenage summers making adored, festival-ready pop from the avant-garde fringes, becoming an in-demand producer and a trailblazer within Australian electronic music. With each release, including 2021’s project with Kota Banks, True North (The Atlantic’s 8th best album of 2021), Ninajirachi’s vision stays true, with each release a new microcosm of organic fantasy to step into. Between remixing Princess Nokia, Deadmau5 & The Neptunes, releasing on Nina Las Vegas’ NLV Records and RL Grime’s Sable Valley, Ninajirachi has performed at VIVID, Dark Mofo, Listen Out, Splendour, Groovin’ The Moo and Falls Festival, and toured with Mallrat, Charli XCX, What So Not and Cashmere Cat. Throughout the pandemic, Ninajirachi streamed with Club Quarantine, Nocturne, Insomniac, Brownies & Lemonade and Sable Valley. Known for her work on electronic music’s cutting edge, Ninajirachi works with iconic brands like Ableton and the Sydney Opera House, the former of whom commissioned her to create the official demo project for Ableton Live 11 and the latter of whom had her perform at the Joan Sutherland Theatre as part of their Liminal series”.

I will come to some more recent features. However, before I move forward, I actually want to go back to 2023 an interview with METAL. That is when Ninajirachi released the 4x4 E.P. It is a remarkable work. Even if she has been releasing music for a while now, 2025 is really the breakthrough year for Ninajirachi:

“Comparing your 2022 mixtape, Second Nature, to your upcoming EP 4x4, there is a definitive shift from a deconstructed and breathier sound to something a lot punchier. Though both speak to me as club music, would you listen to them in different contexts?

For sure. Club music totally constitutes both releases, but most of the Second Nature songs are not very functional for DJing. I think this is because Australia was in lockdown for a lot longer than other places on Earth and when I wasn't touring, making functional dance music wasn't a priority. But, dance floor functionality aside, I don't think they sound crazy different. For example when I made Undo U (before I had made the rest of the EP), my first thought was omg this would have been an amazing Second Nature song, because it's a little more syncopated than the rest of 4x4 (which is also why I made the 4x4 version of it (laughs)).

In this new EP, 4x4, I felt the beats to be very much that – 4 by 4. Does the name have anything to do with this thumpier time signature?

I am so glad you asked this because it was very intentional! Second Nature is 100% an electronic dance release, but there are literally no four to the floor songs on it. This wasn't a conscious decision and I didn't realise it until months after it came out. Most of my bigger releases have been four to the floor, like Blumiere EP, Water Gun / Stingray, Secretive! with Kota Banks, even Dracodraco kind of. So it's weird that I unconsciously moved away from it completely. After I had that realisation and made 1x1 with Ravenna, I thought it would be funny if 1x1 was track 1 on an EP called 4x4, made up of 4x 4x4 songs.

There’s a sound reminiscent of early 2010s, glitchy, online-era of music to this EP that really strikes a nostalgic chord with me. How did the concept for 4x4 emerge and what kind of sound were you trying to emulate with it?

Omg it's so cool that you think that because that's totally where my head has been. Some of my favourite albums as a child were Born This Way by Gaga and Animal by Kesha, I also loved Black Eyed Peas, and the pipeline from there was discovering EDM as a 12 year old. So I've been pulling more and more inspiration from that era of music because I'm much closer to becoming the producer I wanted to be when I first heard it. Even though my taste changed throughout high school and I grew more into left-field electronic music, I was an EDM kid in those formative years and that will never change I fear. Like nothing else makes me feel like a supersaw from 2012.

Tell me a little bit about the electronic music scene in Australia, and where you see yourself in it?

Australia has an amazing and diverse local underground scene but the mainstream is always a bit behind in my opinion. To be fair, there aren't that many people in Australia, so there's not much room for huge niche scenes like I've seen in the US and EU. I think I'm pretty lucky to make relatively left-field music and still pretty consistently be played on triple j and get mainstream festival bookings and stuff like that, I am really grateful for it”.

Let’s move to an interview from Rolling Stone Australia from earlier this year. This year has been a very busy one for Ninajirachi. Her music has reached new people and is getting more exposure. Although there are no upcoming U.K. shows, there are some Australian and American dates coming up for Ninajirachi. If you do get the chance to see her perform then you really need to:

“25-year-old Nina Wilson, aka DJ and producer Ninajirachi, creates the kind of epic, intricate, and universal EDM that takes you from creating music in your bedroom on the Central Coast of NSW to playing festivals the world over, including Lollapalooza, EDC Las Vegas and Laneway, where she was the 2025 interstitial DJ.

A triple j Unearthed High finalist in 2016 and 2017, she’s been releasing music officially since the age of 18, leading to her being signed to Nina Las Vegas’s label, NLV records.

Ninajirachi cites her primary influences as “nature, fantasy, science fiction, ideas of occult and magic,” which makes a whole lot of sense when you hear her music: each song is a fantastical world unto itself, like a hyperpop soundtrack to the world’s most deranged video game.

New single “All I Am” keeps the producer’s winning streak unbroken, a banger sure to keep crowds jumping in 2025 and beyond. —James Jennings

Read an exclusive interview with Ninajirachi below. Check out the full Future of Music 2025 list here.

Rolling Stone AU/NZ: How was 2024 for you? What were your biggest achievements and favourite moments?

Ninajirachi: Selling out my first show in America, touring there with MGNA Crrrta, having “Wayside” in Fortnite, supporting ISOxo on tour, playing on the main stage at EDC and spending the weekend with my friends in Vegas, releasing girl EDM, Caroline Polachek liking “Ninacamina”, playing in China and Japan for the first time, meeting wonderful people who listen to my music in so many cities, being with friends and family in every other moment… I am so grateful.

What’s coming up for you in 2025 and beyond? Any big shows, notable releases?

In February I opened for Porter Robinson on his tour and then did the Laneway Festival tour, now I’m in America touring with umru. I look up to these people so much and it’s a trip to be around them. My new song is out and I’m so happy. I’m going to release a lot this year – some of my best music ever methinks”.

Before getting to a review for I Love My Computer, this recent interview from NME shone a light on Ninajirachi. An artist I am new to but am really drawn to. Her music does remind me of the past, though it also very personal and future-looking. A remarkable record from one of the most talented young artists around. If you have not heard her music then do make sure that you go and follow her:

“It’s funny – our relationship with technology has changed so much that I don’t know if “I love my computer” is a statement that you’d find many people making now. When I first saw the title, I felt like there was a purity to that declaration that I don’t know is super common nowadays in 2025.

“Definitely. And it’s not all good – the song ‘Infohazard’ is about being scarred for life after seeing yucky stuff on social media out of nowhere. Sometimes you’re just scrolling and you’re like, ‘Oh god, I didn’t ask to see that, and now I can’t forget about it.’ But yeah, I was just thinking: what is my music about? Well, it’s all computer music. In every interview people ask ‘what gear do you use?’ And I’m like, nothing. I just use my laptop.

“I was like, wow, I really rely on it so much. I spend more time looking at it than I spend looking at any other person in my life. I wouldn’t have this career if it wasn’t for computer music, and no one taught me how to do it. I used my computer to learn how to use my computer. I realised I really love it and I’m so grateful to be alive in 2025 when that can be my life.”

“I’m really happy where I am now, so it’s not so much nostalgia in the sense of ‘I want to go back to that time when that was so much better’”

You mentioned ‘All I Am’, the first single. It felt to me like a throwback to this particular era of 2010s ‘throw your hands in the air’ kind of EDM. Were there any specific references or energy that you were trying to capture with that song?

“I didn’t go into that session thinking ‘I’m going to make the first single for my album’. It was just a jam at Ben Lee’s house in LA. I had just started touring America, and he was generously welcoming me into his circle and introducing me to other musicians. So he’d invited a bunch of his friends to his house, and we all had a jam. I was recording everything and producing it.

“I had been diving back into a lot of old Australian dance music, like Miami Horror, Pnau and Empire of the Sun, and other dance music from that time like Adrian Lux and Ladyhawke. That was just before I was a teenager, still in primary school and didn’t have access to blogs and stuff to learn about it at the time. I was getting really into that. In the session with Ben, maybe we had a break and a little microdose, and everyone was relaxed. I started looping and adding synths, and maybe subconsciously the Pnau influence from the weeks leading up leaked through.”

The sense I got from the record was there’s a fair bit of nostalgia on it. There’s a lot of reminiscing on ‘iPod Touch’ and ‘Sing Good’. You’re telling your life story and looking back. Does this feel like a nostalgic record to you?

“I feel like it’s more about looking back at what has led me to where I am now. I’m really happy where I am now, so it’s not so much nostalgia in the sense of ‘I want to go back to that time when that was so much better.’ It’s more a look at my life and my circumstances. I’m not from a white collar family or a family that has any artists or musicians in it. I’m from a small town and I’m a girl producer – there were just all of these little things that I was like, ‘This maybe shouldn’t have worked, but I’m really happy to be here and have people care about what I do’.”

Do you worry about ‘girl EDM’ being misread in a similar way? [‘girl EDM’ is the title of a 2024 Ninajirachi EP, and the URL of her website.]

“Yes, actually, I have worried about that. Some people have thrown that in, because it was all around the same time as that cultural movement or whatever you’d call it, but it’s so not that to me. It did start as a joke, but the joke was that me and four other girls were all playing an EDM show together, and there was one male in the green room, and that was my manager. We were like, ‘this is so funny and silly. We’re at the girl EDM show. Why aren’t there any boys here?’ We weren’t trying to make ourselves sound or look dumb. We were celebrating it. So yeah, I’m not trying to lump it with that kind of humour, but to anyone who’s interpreted it that way, no shade. That’s so fine. I’m not pressed. But yeah, different origins”.

I am going to end with a review of I Love My Computer from The Guardian. They laud this surprisingly moving album. One that is a salute to EDM music of the 2010s. As I said before, there is that air of nostalgia though this is very much the sound and work of Ninajirachi. Someone who we are going to hear a lot more from. A truly remarkable artist. Her latest album is tremendous and should be heard by everyone:

“In case the title of Ninajirachi’s debut album didn’t make it clear, the Australian producer spells out her love for all things electronica on its turbo third track: “I wanna fuck my computer / Cuz no one in the world knows me better.”

A glitched-out cacophony of bleeps, mechanical spirals and sirens, the track – titled, descriptively, Fuck My Computer – is a firework display of raw energy and excitement. That freneticism rarely lets up across I Love My Computer, an immensely fun and inventive dance album that doubles as a surprisingly touching coming-of-age story from one of Australia’s minted electronic exports.

After first gaining prominence as a Triple J Unearthed High finalist in 2016 and 2017, Ninajirachi – real name Nina Wilson – established herself at the forefront of Australia’s then burgeoning hyperpop community. But as the genre’s saccharine synths, irreverent samples and pitched-up vocals went increasingly mainstream post-2020, Wilson expanded her sound further. She released a cerebral 2022 mixtape, Second Nature, and played a series of slots at major US festivals including Lollapalooza and Las Vegas’s Electric Daisy Carnival.

The now 25-year-old producer has started identifying her genre as “girl EDM” – a tongue-in-cheek nod to the 2010s electronica she first fell in love with as a teenager online.

Across the album’s dozen tracks, Ninajirachi pays tribute to that nascent period. Repeatedly, music reaches out in a language only she can hear: on Fuck My Computer, “it says my name”. And CSIRAC, a throbbing track named after the first computer to play music (an Australian invention, incidentally), feels like a deranged, borderline inscrutable trip into Wilson’s laptop.

Across three minutes, the track jumps from chipmunk vocals to squelching acid-house breaks, metallic drones and pixelated breakbeats, as well as an eerie spoken-word bridge about following a sound. Which is exactly what the track is doing, racing through Wilson’s computer at breakneck speed and transcribing its bleeps and bloops.

But you don’t need to overthink I Love My Computer to grasp the sincere depth of feeling Wilson has for her tech. In iPod Touch, another album highlight, Wilson links her music player to a flood of teenage memories. “It sounds like high school, front gate, smoke in my face / It sounds like iPod Touch / yellow Pikachu case,” she sings, her sugar-rush delivery thrashed against a frantic beat.

Not to will another reboot into existence, but it’d make a great theme for a gen Z take on Puberty Blues. Here, images of archetypal Australian teenage rebellion (including wearing tiny Supré shorts) are just as nostalgic as memories of “me and my computer hanging out till late”, blasting a bass-boosted Porter Robinson song and trying out free music production software.

Even with its 2015-specific imagery, iPod Touch encapsulates something universal. It sounds like the giddiness of adolescent discovery, where a song or artwork can cut through the confusion and awaken something so personal that you have no choice but to make it your entire personality.

You might scoff at Wilson’s awakening through EDM – arguably the defining sound of the previous decade thanks to the likes of Calvin Harris, David Guetta and Diplo. But I Love My Computer proves how much juice the genre has, especially stripped of its noxious frat bro connotations. Wilson readily embraces steady builds, squelchy drops and a relentless BPM rarely below 120.

I Love My Computer isn’t all euphoria, either. Delete is a twinkling ode to embarrassing Instagram stories, while Battery Death is a burnout lament built over dystopic error-synths. And on eurotrance track Infohazard, Wilson recalls stumbling upon a photo of a decapitated man on her computer as a teen. Led by a piano, it’s one of the few times a non-digital instrument is easily identifiable on the album – offering a strange sense of warmth to the confused, confronting memory.

Indebted to electronic pioneer Sophie, Wilson has never been focused on real-life restrictions, more interested in what she can create than replicate. With her debut album, Ninajirachi charts a long-term (and fruitful) relationship with her computer. It’s very fun and surprisingly moving”.

I will finish there. There is a lot of excited talk around Ninajirachi. Even if I Love My Computer is seen as her debut album, Ninajirachi has released other projects and been involved in other albums (maybe we class previous work as mixapes). If we class I Love My Computer as a debut, it is definitely one of the best of this year. So important and confident, we are going to see Ninajirachi enjoy this long career. It is going to be really interesting to see where Ninajirachi…