BERLINCIAGAY #15 – Etiennette

1. How have you been and what have you been up to lately?

I’m good! I’ve just come out of a pretty intense festival summer filled with music, DJing and workshops, so I’m definitely ready for autumn and some quieter, cozier times. At the same time, I’ve been diving deeper into my work as a coach around Sober Curiosity and conscious consumption, creating more spaces where nightlife, mental health and personal development can meet. It feels like different parts of my life that used to exist separately are slowly coming together.

2. How did you get into music?

I grew up surrounded by music — my father was a music teacher, and I was already recording my own mixtapes on cassette as a kid. Later, I was often the music nerd in the background, sharing tracks, giving feedback and supporting friends and partners who were DJs or producers. My first professional steps into the scene were through the festival industry in Mannheim, but always on the marketing side. At some point I realised that curating music had been part of me forever, so in 2018 I finally started DJing myself. Vinyl came into my journey much later, and working at Elevate Records played a big part in shaping my relationship with digging and collecting records.

3. We share a love for minimal. What are your influences within the genre?

What I love about minimal is that it can do so much with so little. I’m especially drawn to its deeper, dubby and hypnotic side — music that leaves space while still having groove and movement. I’ve always loved digging through older records as much as discovering new music, and my influences reach far beyond one genre: from deep house and dub techno to breaks and more experimental sounds. I think that genre-fluidity has always shaped the way I play. For me, it’s less about fitting a definition of minimal and more about subtle progression, atmosphere and storytelling.

4. You’re also on a sober journey. How has that journey been so far?

I stopped drinking alcohol three years ago, and it remains one of the most meaningful decisions I’ve ever made. Giving myself the chance to experience sobriety for an extended period completely changed the way I relate to myself, my emotions and nightlife.

Over time, my perspective has become less dogmatic and more curious. Today, I’m much more interested in awareness and freedom of choice than labels — which is why Sober Curiosity resonates so much with me. The journey has also deeply shaped my work as a coach in this field. For me, it’s about much more than consuming or not consuming; it’s about everything we discover about ourselves along the way.

5. At the heart of BERLINCIAGAY are friendships, connection and creating space for people to come together. How do you navigate that, and what does it mean to you?

Creating spaces for real connection is actually at the heart of a lot of what I do — both as a DJ and in my work as a coach. I want people to feel able to talk honestly about things like substance use, mental health or simply where they are in life, without shame or judgement.

I’ve also experienced how important community can be when questioning your own habits. Seeing friends around me become curious and explore their own relationship with substances has been really meaningful. I think change becomes much easier when we stop treating it as something we have to figure out alone. Creating spaces and communities where people can connect, share experiences and explore these questions without judgement has become a really important part of my work.