Sumia: Creating Her Own Language

Berlin marks a new chapter for SUMIA. With a widening musical vocabulary, fresh creative projects and a growing international presence, she is building an artistic identity defined by freedom rather than formula.

SUMIA is moving to Berlin with an Artist Visa, ambition and music. What she doesn’t have, naturally, is an apartment. Everyone warned her, but she didn’t believe them.

For all the mythology surrounding Berlin as a destination for electronic artists, this less romantic introduction feels appropriate. SUMIA isn’t seeking reinvention or asking the city to define her. After years of music, touring and independent work, she is arriving with an established identity and the intention to give it more room to expand.

The move also carries personal weight. Half-Turkish and half-Slovak, SUMIA takes pride in having built an international career despite receiving less support at home than she had hoped for.

“As a half-Turkish, half-Slovak woman and a DJ, I’ve often felt that I didn’t receive as much support from my own country as I would have hoped for. So being able to build an international career despite that has been something I’m genuinely very proud of. Moving to Germany on an Artist Visa, especially to a place with such a deep history and influence in techno, makes me feel like what I’ve been doing is truly being seen and recognised.”

Berlin also offers practical advantages. Promoters are closer, artists pass through constantly and collaborations no longer require flights or months of planning. SUMIA looks forward to meeting people who approach music and art with similar intensity while expanding the network around her career.

“Of course, I still haven’t found an apartment, apparently that’s harder than everything else. Everyone warned me, but I didn’t believe them!”

Hard techno has been fundamental to her development, but she refuses to let it become a boundary. Hard dance, trance, bounce and, more recently, house are not attempts at reinvention; they are expressions of an identity never meant to fit within one genre.

“I don’t see SUMIA as something that can be defined by one genre. SUMIA is a combination of everything I’ve experienced, everything I’ve loved, the places I’ve been, the people I’ve met and the things that have influenced me along the way. If I discover something I love, it naturally becomes part of SUMIA. That’s why I don’t want to limit myself to one sound.”

It is an increasingly relevant position in a scene preoccupied with classification. Genres help audiences find music and promoters communicate a night’s sound, but they can become instructions for artists. Once a style starts working, the incentive to repeat it is obvious.

“I’ve been deeply influenced by hard techno, hard dance, trance, bounce and more recently house, and I want to be able to explore all of that. I think limiting myself to one genre would also mean limiting myself as a musician. SUMIA is constantly evolving because I am constantly evolving. Whatever I’m feeling, seeing and experiencing, that’s what I want to give back to people through my music.”

That philosophy is evident in the studio, where new tempos, melodies, grooves and textures are entering her productions without the expectation that every SUMIA record must follow a predetermined formula.

“At the moment, I’m really focused on producing more and allowing myself to explore without thinking too much about where it’s supposed to take me. I’ve been experimenting with different tempos, melodies, grooves and textures, and I’m letting whatever inspires me become part of the music. I think I’m at a point where I don’t want to create from a formula anymore. I want to create from what I’m actually feeling and experiencing in that moment.”

Recognition creates a familiar tension: the qualities that build an audience can become the ones that audience expects forever. For SUMIA, developing a strong identity doesn’t mean reproducing the same result.

“There are definitely sounds coming that people might not expect from me, but that’s exactly what I want. I want SUMIA to keep changing as I do, rather than trying to keep her in one place.”

There is perhaps no clearer example than The Boogie Sisters, her project with her sister Melissa Dust. The project emerged naturally from their shared life and contrasting musical instincts, which together produced something neither would make alone.

“The Boogie Sisters started very naturally. We’re sisters, we live together and we’ve always been a huge part of each other’s lives, so creating something together felt very organic. Even though Melissa Dust and I have quite different musical tastes, we realised that when we combine and blend those influences, we can create something completely different from what we would make individually.”

The Boogie Sisters became a space for that collision, centred on house and tech house and kept distinct from their individual DJ careers. Meanwhile, SUMIA’s solo productions have moved towards hard house and Euro trance. On paper, those worlds might look increasingly disconnected. For her, moving between them has had the opposite effect.

“At the same time, a lot of my recent solo productions have been moving towards hard house and Euro trance, so switching between these different sides of music actually feels very natural to me. Rather than confusing me, working across both projects gives me even more inspiration and creative freedom.”

Through Volx Community & Records and her work with KissnBite Records, SUMIA has experienced independent electronic music beyond the release schedule. Records matter, but so does the infrastructure around them: events, compilations, opportunities for artists and communities built around more than another Friday release.

These projects have also shown SUMIA how a music platform can support causes beyond music itself.

“For me, this is one of the most meaningful parts of being part of a music community, being able to use the platform we have to create opportunities for other artists while also giving something back. I’ve learned that you don’t always have to wait for someone to open a door for you; sometimes you can build your own and invite other people in.”

It is the clearest expression of her idea of independence: not isolation or rejection of larger systems, but the agency to build missing infrastructure and invite others in.

“Stronger Together really changed the way I see my role within the music community. It made me realise that what we create as artists doesn’t have to end when the music stops. Through the different Stronger Together projects, we were able to use music as a way of supporting people affected by the earthquake in Turkey, planting trees and helping stray animals. Seeing artists and listeners come together and contribute to something outside themselves was incredibly meaningful to me.”

She now wants to deepen that work, turning communities formed around music into tangible action beyond the dancefloor. International touring taught SUMIA that a clear identity behind the decks does not require a fixed script. Tracks land differently from room to room, shaped by each crowd’s history, references and taste.

“Every country and every crowd has taught me something different. Travelling internationally made me realise how different each audience can be, not only in terms of energy but also musical taste. Not every track speaks to every crowd. I used to prepare a playlist of around 60–70 tracks and choose from that during the set. Now I’ve moved much more towards making decisions completely in the moment.”

A playlist no longer dictates the destination of a SUMIA set. She knows the world she wants to create, but the crowd shapes how she gets there.

“I prefer to feel the crowd, read their energy and decide where to take the set as it’s happening, rather than following a predetermined plan. I still have an idea of the direction I want to go, but I leave myself completely open to the unexpected. For me, that freedom is a huge part of being a DJ.”

The same principle runs through almost everything SUMIA is doing: freedom is not the absence of direction, but the confidence to move without a formula.

In the booth, she responds to the room without losing the set’s character. In the studio, she moves between tempos and genres without demanding consistency from one record to the next. The Boogie Sisters gives another side of her musical personality its own space, while Volx and Stronger Together allow her to build the structures she wants around the music.

Berlin offers a larger environment in which all of this can develop. New collaborators, rooms and influences await, but SUMIA is not a blank canvas for the city to define. The project’s principles are clear; only their future forms remain open.

“I honestly feel like I’m only at the beginning of discovering what SUMIA can be. There are so many different sides of me that I haven’t expressed through music yet. I want to explore different genres, tempos, melodies, vocals and production techniques without worrying about whether they fit into what people already know me for. I want to produce more, collaborate with more artists and keep challenging myself creatively. I don’t want to create boundaries around SUMIA before I even discover what’s possible.”

Evolution does not have to mean searching for an identity. It can come from knowing what matters, and what can remain fluid. Genre, tempo, geography and expectations can all change. There is one part she considers non-negotiable.

“The one thing I never want to change is the honesty behind it. SUMIA is a reflection of who I am, what I experience and what I love. As long as I stay true to that, I’m happy for everything else to evolve.”

Berlin is the next chapter, but it isn’t where SUMIA goes to find her direction. She’s bringing it with her.