The bass selecta, rave promoter and curator shares her 10 tips on how to move to a new city and build a strong reputation fast - based on her own successful move from London to Copenhagen.

Kenyan born, UK raised and Denmark based DJ N.E.GIRL (Esther Wanyama) has established a highly respected name for herself in Copenhagen and London’s underground scenes.

As a DJ, Esther’s played Keep Hush London alongside Nookie, Dwarde and Mixtress. In Copenhagen, she collaborated with top Danish artists like RDG, Smokey, and Pernille Krog Mogensen who Esther has dubbed as Denmark’s Mary Ann Hobbs. N.E.GIRL’s played the top Danish electronic music festivals: Bas Under Buen and Strøm - the latter where her promo mix was picked up by Pitchfork Mag. She’s also recently been invited to Berlin to play a banging set at the renowned HÖR radio station, and previously had a residency on stations MMH Radio and Sub.FM.

Read this next: N.E.GIRL's Strøm mix featured in Pitchfork

N.E.GIRL describes her sound as ‘dark, techno-infused bass driven stuff’. She loves her more soulful stuff too - or ‘wet basslines’ as she called them which made me laugh - as well as more ‘160 fun Footwork flavours which blend nicely into jungle’. Since moving to Copenhagen she’s got even more inspired by Techno and some of the more Trancey, Hardstyle sounds. The last time I saw her in Copenhagen she played alongside LCY, Pearson Sound and Smokey. As a foreigner the club night felt so ‘Berlin’! ‘I've almost felt like I've been given permission to go a bit deeper into that fast Techno style’, she said.

Esther isn’t just a selecta, she’s a community builder too. She runs popping club nights in London where she’s booked 140 icons Sicaria Sound for her club night Born from Dub, and is part of Co-Select, a collective advocating balanced representation in music. In Copenhagen, she now promotes two regular events. The first is Afro-Swing, dedicated to modern Afro- Caribbean influenced genres from global underground club scenes; booking legends like Champion, Chimpo and Mantra. The other is Jasho Club with Malika Mahmoud: exploring club genres like Ballroom, Baile Funk, GQOM, Afrobeats, Jersey club, Jungle and everything in between - hosted in safe LGBTQ+ spaces. Oh and if that wasn’t enough, she also volunteers at Musik Loppen, one of Denmark’s oldest Rock and Alternative music venues in Christiania.

Cllick here to buy tickets for Esther’s June 2022 Copenhagen event with Chimpo, Mantra and more

N.E.GIRL is also a talented graphic designer and video editor, and I’m proud to say she worked with me on DJ Stretch’s major 25 Years of AKO documentary. She produced and edited it, featuring Goldie, Marc Mac, Mantra and Double O [Rupture]. Plus it aired on DJMag and Mixmag!

Read these next: DJMag and Mixmag write-ups on our 25 Years of AKO Beatz Documentary

On top of ALL that, she’s also one of my besties, so I can 100% confirm Esther is humble, loyal, curious, kind, hard working, proactive, ultra stylish and has a wicked dry sense of humour. Which, combined with her technical skills and deep knowledge of underground music makes for a pretty lethal combo right?!

I’ve always admired Esther and wanted to celebrate her story about how she’s made such a strong name for herself so quickly in two major cities. So not only does this feature aim to celebrate her success so far, it’s here to inspire any of you who are artists looking to relocate and build a music following in a new location. And as an added bonus, she’s also shared a list of her Copenhagen influences at the bottom, so anyone looking to explore the Copenhagen rave scene can check out her shoutouts below. But first up let’s jump into her learnings on how she got her relocation right!

DJ N.E.Girl’s 10 ways to successfully relocate to a new city as an artist

When moving to a new location, be mindful of the scale and pace. It will impact how your music scene operates!

“When I moved here, I was definitely on my own little pace,” Esther said. “I was always a bit impatient. I had to realise, ‘Okay, you don't really know anyone yet and the Danish way of life’. You’ll have to allow things to happen when they happen. Geographically Copenhagen is 100 times smaller than London so it’s a different pace of life here.”

N.E.GIRL playing at Bas Under Buen, captured by Andersberg

2. Go raving to experience the music you love! Not to network - go to make friends.

“I was careful to be respectful of the scene. I didn’t want to look like I was going to come and take over, but rather just be very collaborative and open to trying new things. When I first moved here I went to Bolsjefabrikken aka Candy Factory almost religiously. They had a wicked sound system and community. “The Dubstep scene is really small here, so you get to know people a lot more intimately which is really nice”.

3. No bookings? No problem! Go to open deck nights to show off your skills

“In my early days of coming here, Ruben [RDG]’s label Circle Vision had an open deck night. I walked over to my now good friend Malthe (AKA Roger) and I said, ‘I can play Dubstep’. He said jump on and I remember RDG coming in like 10 minutes near the end of my set. I only found out recently it's because Mathe called RDG, ‘Yo there's some girl killing it you need to come in” so he cycled over from his house. I came off the decks and people come up to me like, ‘who the fuck are you? Where did you come from?!”

***Listen to this next:*** *N.E.GIRL’s STROM mix*

4. Don't be shy to put yourself in front of the right people and ask for gigs

“I was just unashamed about asking. There wasn’t really much pride in it. I’d speak to people who said they weren't getting booked but didn't want to ask for gigs. Some of the consistent things I did in the early days was to introduce myself and express how eager I was to play.”

5. Volunteer somewhere outside your usual scene to understand what your new location is about

“In the early days of moving here I applied to volunteer for Loppen. It’s one of Denmark’s oldest venues and specialising in rock and alternative music. It’s in Christiania, a self governing community where they have their own values and code of conduct. To volunteer you have to go through this process where you present yourself. That was scary because it's a very Danish music venue! I was like ‘Hey I'm Esther, I love underground music. I wanna learn. Wassup!’ I got to see a different side to Danish culture that wasn't just rave and bass. I've been here for 4 years now. As well as doing front of house stuff I've run my own events, helped with PR, bookings and marketing. It wasn’t that I wanted to pursue rock. But if you move somewhere, go see what the city’s about.”

6. Get on the radio and utilise the content

“People need and want to access you. The music industry is very digital, so if you wanna get more gigs than that’s what you have to do. Luckily I’m also trying to pursue digital content creation so it’s been more motivating for me to do it for my DJing stuff too. So whenever I did a mix I would record it and create these promo snippets. Then when I had a radio show I would do that consistently. Little soundbites that I knew would be cool to use as promotion. That really helped!”

Collage by N.E.GIRL for her interview with passiveaggressive.dk: “I created a collage which initially was supposed to resemble a club night poster but evolved into an expression of insecurity, as opposed to a self-aggrandising piece. It’s supposed to portray isolation and community which can both be felt in a crowd of people — depending on the context. Also, the conflicting feeling of playing (DJing) a style of music admired in one place (country) and sometimes undermined in another. I think I’ll call it Self-Centered”.

7. It’s ok to experiment: don’t feel like you need to stick to one sound.

“I wasn’t initially sure of what the etiquette was. I was like, ‘I've come here as a Dubstep DJ so does that mean I’m only playing Dubstep? When I knew I also played so many other things. So allow yourself to grow musically or personally. And if that means your sound changes, that’s fine too.”

8. You don't have to take all gigs

“There's some unpaid gigs I did in the past for exposure. When I think about the shitty experience I had, or the time I put aside to organise a set, it just wasn't worth it. Saying no doesn't close opportunities. Sometimes it might be better in the long run”.

9. Consider learning the language from the get-go

“Depending on how long you plan to stay, I would recommend learning the language. It helps you to break down some barriers. Recognise that there's certain customs that might be completely different. If I understood the language, a lot more of these customs might make sense. Also, there's a lot of funding I've tried to apply for. While everyone speaks English the official legal stuff is all in Danish and it makes it difficult to navigate the system”.

10. get involved in the native scenes

“Explore styles you wouldn't listen to. If there’s something that's more native to the place you're staying, check it out. It allows you to get a better perspective of how everyone thinks. Go in with pure curiosity. Go to random events. Not with the intention to get gigs just with the intention to see what's going on. From there you'll figure out!”