PHOTOGRAPHY VIKA PETLAKH @stillvika
INTERVIEW + MAKEUP JOHANNA NOMIEY @johannanomiey USING @submissionbeauty
Hi Joplyn! How do you introduce yourself to the world?
I’m Joplyn, a singer/songwriter, producer, live performer, DJ and artist from Berlin!
In what way did your childhood influence your current life?
I grew up in a Berlin household where music was always playing, which influenced me in so many ways. It was also an Asian household – so at age 5 I was forced to learn how to play the piano, something I am now very happy they enforced on me. As a child I was also always singing and writing poetry, so at some point, I combined all these interests and started making music. Growing up in Berlin, you start going out very young and I was influenced by electronic music from an early age. It’s such a part of the culture – you hear a kick drum out of every corner of the city.
Could you think back and share your first – or an early memory of – beauty?
I was a little bit of a nerd growing up and learned about the golden ratio and the Fibonacci sequence very young. It’s basically the mathematical formula of beauty, which occurs in nature. Tornadoes, shells… structures in nature that we perceive as aesthetic all follow this formula. I got super into that and it’s something that still inspires a lot of what I do. I try not to adhere to it too much and think inside a box, but I stay aware that it is such an intrinsic core of nature. I think that’s beautiful.
How did you end up doing what you do now? Tell us about your path
I was writing piano ballads and was incredibly inspired by the XX, Gaga and Sade who were very big in my household growing up (my dad has a huge crush on Sade). I was turning my poetry into very abstract songs, before knowing much about the technical part of it – song structure, music theory and such. At around the age 11-12, I started going out and immersing myself in the nightlife in Berlin and through that soon discovered that I could make electronic music of my own on my laptop, not just ballads at the piano.
Some years later, during the Covid lockdown, I finally had time to make an album and I think that opened a lot of doors for me. People started learning about my music and it kinda took off from there. To be honest, I feel like I closed my eyes for a second and now I’m playing at Coachella ! I’ve been playing ever since, 4 years now, and while I love being on stage I love nothing more than a nice studio day / week / month, focusing on the creation. It feels like a good yin and yang balance of the two at the moment.
Describe to us what a typical day in your life is like – is there such a thing as a normal day?
There’s not even a 24-hour rhythm in my life. I don’t have a regular sleep schedule; sometimes I’ll pass out at 8pm and other times I don’t get to bed until 8am and then sleep the whole day. Tour life actually has much more of a routine, I brush my teeth and do last-minute packing and travel to the next place, while I’m still working on songs I’ll be playing that night. That’s the beauty of dance music, it’s so immediate. You get to make something during the day and get to test it out that night on a live audience and I love that process. When I arrive at the next location I take a disco nap and then there’s usually an artist dinner with the other performers and promoters which is always a really nice way to connect. After I play my show I normally stay out way too long ! A home day usually starts with a kombucha, and leads to songwriting and recording wherever my makeshift studio is – currently it’s in the corner of my rental house. On days at home I always try to capture little moments of creativity
Is there one place in the world right now that is home more than anywhere else?
Up until now it has remained Berlin and I also feel like that is where I am musically going towards. I spent the winter in LA, trying to infiltrate the scene a bit and I can’t wait to be back in my hometown… I love throwing myself into the cold water though, going to a new place, seeing how I react and seeing what type of music I make as a result. In this case it resulted in a whole album!
What do you enjoy most about the life you have created for yourself ?
The connections on the dancefloor are still the moments I do this for. For me it’s about having an impact on other people, whether that be in a club or talking about creating music in general. I’ve done a lot of workshops on music making, especially to get more women into music production and demystify the creative process behind it. Both after the workshops and post playing a set, people always come up to me and tell me how they’ve been inspired. These are the moments that show me the bigger picture. Bringing my music to people all over the world is obviously such a privilege and I am super grateful for that.
What comes first – performing your own music or DJing?
Definitely performing my own music.
When you are performing, are you yourself or are you playing a character?
I’m an amplified version of myself. My tour manager always jokes with me though, because at this point I’m almost more comfortable on stage than I am on the couch. Music is a universal language like no other. I think to some extent, when you speak another language than your mother tongue you become a slightly altered version of yourself. For me, as cliché as it may sound, when I speak in music I feel the most myself.
Share with us a moment where you felt you had “really made it”
Probably this moment right now!!
What was your most recent performance like ?
It was less than an hour ago here at Coachella, haha! It was beautiful and uplifting. I rarely get so in the moment that I forget I am performing but this happened just now. Seeing my music resonate with people, especially the new stuff I’ve just created in LA, was really beautiful.
What keeps you grounded while you are on the road?
I think it’s honestly moments like these, where I get to sit in quiet and dive into what just happened. It’s about investing time into relationships that mean a lot to me, my family, friends and loved ones and not only being around people who are involved in the tour or gigs. I call it an investment because it really is that, it takes time and effort to make space for those moments when everything around you is so hectic.
We’ve touched on this a bit already – where is home and why?
Berlin will always be home for me, that’s where my family. Musically, Berlin is home for me as well.
What does sustainability mean to you ?
It means a lot to me. Seeing where the world is heading, it should mean a lot to all of us. I understand that it can sound a little hypocritical as someone who has to travel as much as I do, but that is why I try to keep sustainability at the forefront of everything else I do in life. I try to eat less meat, talk about living sustainably as much as I can, using plastic-free glitter in the desert – wink wink 😉
Could you share with us what your community looks like?
It’s a very colorful mix, a little neurodivergent most of them. Boys and girls and everything in between, who inspire me and are there for me. They are my rock.
What is femininity, what does it mean to you – and how about masculinity?
I strongly believe we all have both in us. For me, the feminine aura/chakra/energy – whatever you want to call it – is very nurturing, warm and very giving. When I think of the masculine, I think of how we are all so influenced by traditional gender roles that have been pushed on us since we were born, because I see the masculine as more dominant, powerful and stronger ? I believe this is the yin and yang at play again, because all genders have both of these energies inside of them, it’s just about which you are tapping into at the moment. I feel that I channel more of the masculine energy when I am on stage because the music I make is very hard and driving. But when you mix the two, that is where the magic happens, breaking one extreme with the other extreme. In most of my sets, I do super soft almost transcendent choral moments and that’s where I let my soft side show. I love seeing how that works together and knowing when to pull from which extreme.
You work in a mostly male-dominated industry. Can you talk a little about that and how you are trying to change it from the inside?
The numbers are quite sad. Spotify came out with statistics about the industry and I believe something like 2% of all music producers are women, across all genres, and about 20% of front-facing musicians are women.
It’s not the case here at Coachella, but most of my nights, on stage and at dinner I am the only girl. I get mistaken for the DJ’s girlfriend, men are mansplaining how to use a mixer during my soundcheck… In so many moments, I don’t feel very welcome – or I am welcome but for different reasons… I do get a lot of attention in my job, so I am trying to turn it into something positive by shining a light on all of this. It’s such a man’s world and I don’t think a lot of the men are even conscious of it, so I always try to join forces with bigger music platforms to try and educate them about this issue. And at the end of the day, representation is everything, so maybe just by existing in this space, a young girl seeing me on stage, I will have made a difference. I’m also part of a super rapidly growing whatsapp community of women in music, and it’s such a powerful space of support. The community consists of everyone from new artists to the executive level of the industry, all there to reach out and be there for each other in the chat when we need it. We even have meet-ups in real life and it’s just the most beautiful thing.
How and where do you find moments of happiness?
It’s gonna sound cliché, but it’s in the studio, on stage – and with my kombucha. Also, when I took a few weeks off in January, I remembered how much the sun makes me very very happy. I’m simple, almost like a plant; I need something to drink, water – or kombucha preferably – and the sunlight, and I’m good to go!
How would you like to be remembered?
I wanna be remembered for being kind, for pushing the boundaries a little and inspiring others. I hope I have opened up a door for people like me who you don’t often see in the dance music space – it’s such a male dominated space.
What are you most looking forward to in the near future?
Finishing my album – life has kept me so busy and I need to do that ! – and going back to Berlin after being away for so long. Touring, sharing my new music with people over the summer
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