»It’s really hard for me to pin myself down on one thing,« says Josi Miller. If someone asks her to identify a common thread in her work, she’ll tell them she’s »out«. And rightfully so: the Leipzig-born artist brings, to say the least, a diverse set of skills to the table. In addition to her nineteen-year DJ career, which has seen her support the likes of Trettmann and Frauenarzt, she’s also produced a prolific amount of lo-fi hip-hop during the pandemic. Since 2021, she’s been involved in the experimental electronic project Import Export, and for the past eight years she’s been co-hosting the podcast Homegirls with Helen Fares, discussing »society, politics, music and emotions«. She also runs DJ workshops for FLINTA* and is currently researching a documentary project on punk in the GDR. On 13 June 2024, she drew from this rich repertoire to deliver a two-hour DJ set at the HHV store.
Start from scratch
In May of this year, Miller and co-producer Stefan Heinrich released the EP »Meds« on Import Export, which they stormed Barcelona’s Primavera festival with in the aftermath. As a duo, they create danceable electro-pop with a touch of melancholy. The fact that all of Miller’s influences flow into a sensory deprivation tank and merge into a pleasant, homogeneous mass is what makes her sound so unique (just like Import Export). No matter where Josi Miller performs, you will not only feel the »vibe« she creates as a DJ, you will become part of it.
I’ve burnt through a lot of needles.
Josi Miller
»Analogue brings you together«, says the musician, recalling the days when they would browse through record collections together. This is how she discovered her love of sampling and scratching, which she continues to live out in her DJ sets. »I come from a scratch era. I’ve burnt through a lot of needles«, jokes Miller, who sees her love of vinyl as both a curse and a blessing—just like her relationship with Berlin, where she has lived for many years: »It’s hard to find honest friendships«, she admits in conversation, »but I love it for spontaneous music-making«.
