Lieks: Louder On Her Own Terms

With an unmistakable personality, a growing presence in the industrial techno scene and an instinct for pushing the energy further, LIEKS is building a career on her own terms. From recording videos in her bedroom to commanding dancefloors across the world, the Dutch DJ is learning how to navigate expectations, growing audiences and the pressures of an industry where attention can disappear as quickly as it arrives.

Before the festival appearances, the packed dancefloors and the growing recognition within the global hard techno circuit, LIEKS was simply a young woman filming herself in her bedroom. There was no elaborate production or carefully constructed artistic persona. She made mistakes, laughed at herself and shared her enthusiasm for music with whoever happened to be watching. Looking back, she recognises much of the same personality in the artist she has become.

“I think I was already very much myself back then, without even thinking about it. That slightly crazy girl standing in front of the camera in her bedroom, making mistakes and just having fun, is still who I am. I think that’s why I’ve always stayed very approachable. People can easily walk up to me, and I genuinely enjoy connecting with my community.”

That openness has followed her into an increasingly demanding touring schedule. With appearances at events including Verknipt, Rotterdam Rave, Tegendraads, Propaganda and Organik, LIEKS has become a recognisable name amongst fans of hard, industrial techno. Her productions have also attracted support from artists including Nico Moreno, Vieze Asbak, Onlynumbers, Azyr, Rebekah, Jowi and Jazzy, while her music has accumulated more than 1.2 million streams.

For LIEKS, the excitement surrounding those milestones is closely connected to the people showing up to hear her play.

“I still bring that energy to my shows, with a big smile, fun and an energy of 1000+. I want people to feel that, and I want to stay myself and approachable, no matter how big LIEKS gets.”

Her rise has come with certain expectations about what she should play and how she should present herself. Early in her career, LIEKS frequently found herself assigned opening slots, sometimes with the impression that her sound needed to be restrained. She was developing an identity around hard, industrial techno, yet the opportunities she received did not always allow her to express it fully.

A closing set at Complex became an important moment in that process.

“I often felt people expected me to play softer. I regularly got early time slots, which sometimes made me feel like I had to hold myself back. When I got the closing spot at Complex, it was a real moment of realisation for me. I finally felt I could show myself completely, and I no longer had to think about what others expected of me.”

The experience gave her greater confidence in the direction she wanted to pursue. It also reinforced something she had been learning about the importance of trusting her instincts.

“That’s when I realised I need to listen much more to my own feeling and instinct and simply do what I want. I don’t have to change myself to belong.”

Her appearance has occasionally created another set of assumptions. LIEKS embraces a distinctly feminine image, something that some audiences might not immediately associate with the industrial intensity of her sets. She enjoys that element of surprise, particularly when someone encounters her music for the first time.

“I actually love breaking that expectation. I want to create a kind of shock factor. When someone goes home after seeing me, I want them to still remember LIEKS. I think the contrast between my feminine image and the hard, industrial music helps with exactly that.”

She sees no reason to compromise either side of her identity.

“I love breaking stereotypes and showing that a feminine look and very hard music can go together perfectly well. You don’t have to look a certain way to be allowed to make or play a certain kind of music.”

Behind the relentless energy of a LIEKS performance is a DJ who takes preparation seriously. Her sets may be loud, fast and physically demanding, but she pays close attention to their progression, particularly the relationship between tension, release and the moments that allow a dancefloor to recover before the next peak.

As her experience has grown, so has her understanding of how to maintain that intensity without exhausting it.

“Above all, I’ve learned that a DJ set tells a story. You have to learn to distribute your energy well across a set. It might be funny to hear that from someone who plays industrial, because my energy is naturally often very high, but I think it’s important to create peaks and valleys too.”

“You need tension, and moments where you let the energy feel different for a while, so you can come back harder afterwards.”

Although spontaneity remains part of her performances, LIEKS continues to prepare her sets and has developed a personal system of cue points to organise her selections. It is a practice she has maintained even as her confidence behind the decks has increased.

“Funnily enough, I still often prepare my sets, because I value building a good, coherent set so much. I’ve learned to work with cue points and have since developed my own system, which I still use every day.”

Her attention to the technical side of DJing is particularly relevant in a scene where visibility and online engagement can sometimes dominate conversations about an artist’s success.

LIEKS understands the value of social media. After all, her earliest connection with an audience developed through a camera in her bedroom. Today, those platforms allow her to share her personality, document her career and introduce her music to people who might eventually find themselves at one of her shows. Still, she is conscious of their limitations.

“Social media is a way for me to show myself to the world, including my personality, my career, my life and, of course, my music. But just as being a DJ is about much more than standing behind the decks, you can’t throw everything onto social media as an artist.”

“You can’t build only on what you do online or how many views something gets. So many other factors shape who you are as an artist, and in the long run music is perhaps the most important one. For me, social media is mainly a way to bring that out and connect with the ravers.”

For an emerging artist, the relationship between visibility and longevity can be difficult to navigate. New releases, bookings, streams and online engagement all contribute to the perception of momentum, while the constant movement of the electronic music industry makes it difficult to know how long that attention will last.

LIEKS is unusually open about the pressure she feels.

“If I said that likes, streams and attention don’t matter to me at all, I’d be lying through my teeth. It’s simply a tough world, and you really have to learn to deal with numbers and the ups and downs that come with them. I think staying relevant might be one of the scariest things about being an artist. You never know exactly how long the attention will last.”

It is a concern she has learned to use as motivation.

“At the same time, it keeps me sharp. I’ll do everything I can to keep developing myself and putting myself out there. The motivation is there.”

Perhaps the most rewarding part of that growing visibility is the opportunity to meet the people who have followed her journey online. The transition from digital interaction to a conversation at a show remains something she finds genuinely exciting.

“It’s such a special feeling. I genuinely love having a chat with everyone, whether someone has followed me for a long time or is seeing me for the first time. I appreciate everyone who comes up to me and takes the time to say something.”

“Sometimes I still can’t quite believe that people first followed me only through a screen and then came to find me in real life at a show. That makes it very special. I really want to keep that connection with the people who support my music.”

Looking ahead, LIEKS sees considerable room for artistic development. More releases, new stages and the continued evolution of her sound are immediate priorities, alongside ambitions to expand her identity beyond performances and music production.

She is also conscious of the example she could set for other women interested in entering the electronic music industry.

“I think there’s still so much more to discover about what LIEKS can become, and that’s what excites me. I want to keep growing as an artist, developing my sound and challenging myself musically. In the long run, I hope not only to play at more places and release more of my own music, but also to inspire others along the way.”

Her ambitions extend to developing LIEKS as a brand, including the possibility of creating her own merchandise. For now, she remains focused on the opportunities ahead and the freedom to explore them at her own pace.

“I’d love to inspire other women and show them that we can do this too, and that we can carve out our own place in this scene without having to change who we are. I’d also love to build LIEKS into something bigger as a brand, including creating and releasing my own merch. For me, it’s all about continuing to explore, pushing myself and seeing how far I can take this, without ever losing the fun and the person behind LIEKS.”