"It's still a dirty word": Ninajirachi on Australia's EDM aversion

Ninajirachi has, since her debut now all the way back in 2017, become one of the world’s foremost pop / EDM icons. Her recent time in the United States, carving her way through the country’s extensive EDM circuit at the likes of Red Rocks, EDC Las Vegas and so many more, has opened her up to an extensive list of musical opportunities often not found at home.

One of those is a quickly infamous collaboration ‘Angel Music’ with NYC-based duo MGNA Crrrta. The single is an ode to the heyday of electro-pop, with a grit, drive and bounce that perfectly blends the attitudes of both artists from very different corners of the world.

To celebrate the release, and that of ‘girl EDM (disc 1)’, a ‘greatest hits’ style re-release of previous EPs ‘4x4’ and ‘girl EDM’, we sat down with Ninajirachi.

What’s the story behind the name ‘Angel Music’?

For a while the song was called Heaven because of the lyric “girls like us come straight from heaven”, but we changed it to Angel Music because it sounded more unique and direct while keeping to the theme.

‘Angel Music’ draws on some really traditional EDM & dubstep sounds. What was the collaborative process working with MGNA Crrrta like?

I really love trad EDM sounds and I feel so connected to MGNA Crrrta because they are about that too. In January and February this year they supported me on tour in North America and in NYC I visited their place and we made some music. Angel Music was the first idea we made and I played the v1 at EDC a few months later. On the YouTube stream of my set you can hear the original version, how it sounded on the day we started it. We added the vocals and finished the prod remotely over FaceTime when I was back in Australia, it was very international.

Can you give us some insight into what the experience was of creating the tracks?

In late 2022 I was in America and made 1x1 with Ravenna Golden. Before that I hadn’t made any trad 4x4 dance music in ages, so I decided to make a project called 4x4 that would be four 4x4 songs, with track 1 called 1x1. Then girl EDM because there were so many demos from 4x4 that were just as good and needed to come out.

How did you come to meet and collaborate with MGNA Crrrta?

I visited NYC in mid 2023 and my friend Biblemami had just moved there, we were hanging out and she told me about her NYC friends and fav music in NYC. She said I would love MGNA Crrrta and she was so right. I came back to NYC in September 2023 to play a show with DJ_Dave and that’s when we all met for the first time irl. We became friends and booked the tour together a few months later.

What was the decision behind doing a sort of ‘greatest hits’ combining both girl EDM & 4x4?

The only reason they were released six months apart was coz I’m impatient but also coz of the 4x4 concept, for that release I just tracklisted whichever four songs were finished first. But spiritually both releases feel like one big album because I made almost all the music around the same time, like early-mid 2023. With Angel Music coming out it felt like a nice excuse to tie it all up with one ribbon. I hope that I can make girl EDM an anthology series and release more discs in the future.

It feels like you’ve been overseas more recently than you’ve been in Australia, predominantly in the US. What’s life on the road been like & how has it influenced your music?

I love travelling and I’m so grateful I get to do it. I never went on holidays when I was younger, I’ve never really travelled for fun actually, so I am seeing all of these places for the first time. It's insanely awesome to play shows in places I have never been and meet people there who know my songs. Everyone says that, like waa dude it's so crazy, but it really is. I really love touring America, the kind of music I make isn't so niche there because there are just so many people. I'm always excited to go back.

There is a quote from a really big rock band somewhere, I’m struggling to find it or even remember who said it, but it was something about how they wanted to play arenas, so they made music with boomy drums that would sound really epic in an arena. In America, I have seen a place for the music I love to exist and it’s very bombastic, so my music has started to feel more like that.

You’ve become a real figurehead for EDM internationally. What are your thoughts on where EDM is in Australia?

It’s kinda a dirty word to many people here but those people just lack vision imo… Anyone who turns their nose up at EDM in 2024, who only likes it ‘ironically’ or whatever is just stuck in a cage. Nobody likes 'Clarity' by Zedd ‘ironically’. Deep down they yearn for a time when music made them feel that good.

-

What do you hope for the future of EDM & ‘girl dance’ in Australia?

I was like 10 years old during peak EDM and only really got to experience it on Youtube, so it would be awesome if festivals like Stereosonic and all that started happening again but in a futuristic way. It can be corny as hell but the best parts of it are amazing. Girl EDM is just the way I describe my music atm but some people have really connected with it which is cool. There is a yearly event called Dark Crystal that I started with VIVID in 2022 and the people coming to those shows already get it. A few months ago I had Doss tour Australia for the first time with Cherry Chola, 1NN3R53LF, Gregor McMurray and Twinlite, it was awesome. The year before it was Donatachi, Ravenna Golden, Sidney Phillips, Lil Ket, Sus1er, Scan and others. It’s small but it’s grown every year and I hope it keeps growing. I hope more people come around to these sounds and genre combinations in Australia.

We’re seeing the line between dance & pop blur more now than ever before. Why do you think it’s happening now, of all times?

I am no culture expert but maybe because my generation is coming of age and influencing culture for the first time and we grew up hearing dance pop on the radio and at the shops, so it’s very normal, it’s like the baseline from which we experiment. Also mainstream music was kinda moody for a while so maybe people just got tired of that and want to have fun now.

-

‘girl EDM (disc 1)’ is out now via all streaming services. Find Ninajirachi on Instagram.

Jack Colquhoun is the Managing Editor for Mixmag ANZ, find him on Instagram.