Nadja Lind Interview

Special Feature

Nadja Lind is one of the most dynamic and diverse musicians we’ve had the pleasure to interview. She’s one-half of the electronic music duo Klartraum, co-founder of Lucidflow, and its many sublabels, and composer of the Frequency Farmacy In-Time series of binaural, meditative music.

However, it is her response to severe PTSD from a unmentionable, harrowing incident that showcases her tenacity, fortitude and determination to not allow this experience define her life. Not willing to live her life as a victim, Lind pushed through her agonizing pain to embark on a journey of discovery that lead to profound insights on the mind / body connection, as well as new music explorations she never would have imagined.

Even with all her musical accomplishments to date, Nadja Lind is an inspiration to anyone who has suffered debilitating trauma in their lives. The following is our extensive interview with Nadja Lind from her studio in Berlin, Germany.

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FutureMusic: What was your first musical memory?

Nadja Lind: That was probably my mom singing. Such a sweet memory — thanks for bringing it back!

FutureMusic: It seems you started to DJ and then quickly moved into production with your production partner Helmut Ebritsch. Was this the first time you started making music, or did you grow up playing an instrument with training?

Nadja Lind: I grew up singing all the time. As a child, playing Christmas songs to my family on a tiny electronic synthesizer for kids and singing in choirs, as well as learning how to read notes by playing the flute. Later, I started playing acoustic guitar in an Advanced Music Secondary School.

I started producing music on my own shortly after I began mixing vinyl. And later when I met Helmut. Wait, before people automatically assume otherwise, I’d like to clarify that Helmut and I have never been a couple – we simply share the same interests in music and other topics, such as quantum consciousness, fractals, psychology, computers and meditation. We also happen to create and perform fabulous live music and run a label together.

My first official booking was on New Year’s Eve 2003. A few months before that, I bought my first set of Technics turntables and a mixer, and I started building my first record collection, which took quite some time. I connected with friends who shared my passion for music and DJing, and on weekends we’d get together and play our records for each other. I became completely hooked on deep tech house artists like Terry Lee Brown Junior and hypnotic techno from producers like Maetrik and D. Diggler. That love for the sound sparked a deep curiosity in me. I just had to figure out how to create the magical music I loved so much. So, I dove into trying out some DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations) like Cubase and Fruity Loops and eventually buying Reason 2 by Propellerheads along with tutorial books. Yes, actual books — no video tutorials back then, especially with a 56k modem!

A friend of mine, Hannes (from AKA AKA), encouraged me to share my tracks on “Pulsar,” an online platform for electronic music producers where we exchanged feedback and ideas. That’s where I met Helmut. His productions always stood out and so I thought to ask him for some technical advice. Back then, I didn’t live in Berlin, but I still made long trips twice a month from my hometown at the time. So I started working on music with Helmut. Shortly after, we finished our first EP and needed a name for our project, as we had already been signed by Andre Kronert to his label, Night Drive Music. That’s how we came up with the project name Klartraum, which translates to “lucid dream.”

It’s incredible to look back and see not only the progress of the people I’ve met along the way but also my own. We began our journey as Klartraum, performing live as a duo at incredible events like Chaos Computer Camp, Tacheles, and Maria in Berlin. From there, we took our sound global, playing at iconic venues and festivals such as Burning Man in the USA, fabric in London, and destinations across India and Australia.

Every time I teamed up with artists e.g. G-man, Rene Breitbarth, John Spring (Italo Johnson), Paul Loraine, Jam El Mar (Jam & Spoon), Omar Salgado, Brendon Moeller, Deep Spelle, Helly Larson (R.I.P.), Holger (AKA AKA) and of course my hero D. Diggler, to create music together I had a new learning experience. It’s always wonderful to learn about other artist’s workflow, gear, monitoring, favorite DAWs, effects and filters, the way they listen, see and organize things and what inspires them.

When I started out, I was trying out tons of software and constantly tinkering with my computers. At some point, I made a fresh start, switched to Mac, and stuck to the software I really loved. That was a huge step forward because I could really focus on the tools I had instead of getting lost in too many options. The most important thing, though, was training my ears, getting a great pair of monitors, and really getting to know how they sound.

I’ve created so many tracks and remixes that I can’t keep track. For our interview, I just had a quick look on Beatport and was really surprised I couldn’t remember some of them. Funny enough, this was exactly what I wished for back in my early production days. What a weird one.

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FutureMusic: What led you to Dub Techno?

Nadja Lind: Dub Techno is such a stripped-back, yet powerful experience. These rhythms pierce right through my soul. I got hooked instantly when I first heard Rhythm & Sound. I mean, who wouldn’t?

Dub Techno really emerged in the early ’90s, with pioneers like Basic Channel, Maurizio (M Series), and of course, Rhythm & Sound shaping its signature aesthetic. They took the deep, spatial atmospheres of dub reggae and merged them with the hypnotic repetition of techno, creating something minimal yet incredibly immersive.

At that time, Berlin was still feeling the cultural shift after the Wall came down, and the Techno scene was wide open for experimentation. Dub Techno thrived in this space, partly because of the newfound freedom and an obsession with sound design that extended beyond just club functionality. It was about texture, space and the depth of sonic exploration. The way Basic Channel and their affiliates mastered analog gear, tape delay, and reverb gave the genre an organic, breathing quality that set it apart from traditional Techno.

Fast forward to today: Dub Techno remains a niche but deeply respected subgenre. Digital production tools have made it easier to create those deep atmospheres, but true mastery still comes from understanding space and restraint — the best Dub Techno producers know when not to add elements. And of course, we have one of the true masters of Dub, Alex Krüger aka Dub Taylor / Tigerskin, who played a significant role in shaping this particular era.

I truly believe that Dub Techo will always be a revelation for those who have the ability to listen. It’s not about instant gratification, it’s about the journey, the slow burn, the unfolding of soundscapes over time. That’s what makes it timeless. It will never be a mainstream phenomenon, but that’s its strength: it remains an underground art form, a kind of secret doorway to an immersive sonic world.

FutureMusic: What’s the future of Dub Techno?

Nadja Lind: Where it’s heading next is an open question. I think Artificial Intelligence might play a role in shaping new evolutions of Dub Techno, perhaps pushing sound design into new dimensions while keeping its core aesthetics intact. But no matter what happens, the essence of Dub Techno — deep, hypnotic, and transcendental, will always resonate with those who are tuned in.

FutureMusic: Which brings us to Lucidflow, what was the impetus for launching your own label?

Nadja Lind: When Helmut and I decided to found a label in 2009, it was because we wanted our music to be released quickly and without having to go through the slow process of asking, waiting, having to make possible changes to fit the label and so on. We loved creating a lot of music and we wanted to release it right away.

The next step was to be able to release music from other wonderful artists and also remixes for Klartraum, my solo stuff or Helmut’s own projects. As the possibilities expanded, the attention of Lucidflow and ourselves as artists also grew. It was really fantastic to get the chance to work with Silicone Soul, Funk D’Void and Sterac / Steve Rachmad or one of my heroes Terry Lee Brown Junior from Plastic City and even to work with Soma Records.

Through constant fab music and high quality sound, a regular release schedule, vinyl releases for some years and the right promo service, we managed to build a certain position for Lucidflow in the music scene. I had the chance to meet great personalities such as the godfather of Techno Juan Atkins and G-Man aka LFO who came by in my studio in Berlin, and many others such as Saytek, Tigerskin, Dr. Walker, Justin Berkovi and many others.

FutureMusic: In the volatile music label landscape, how has Lucidflow been able to continue to move forward?

Nadja Lind: We have always been true to what we love and never followed any hype. Lucidflow’s music is timeless Hypnotic Techno, Dub Techno and Deep House, which I never ever get bored of. There’s a certain deepness, soul and sound quality in order to be released on my labels. We founded some more labels for a wider range of electronic music such as Sofa Sessions, Supergroove Records and im-moral.

Almost all music has been mastered by Helmut. He’s an experienced mastering engineer who has fattened the music for many other big labels and the sound quality is consistently fantastic. Another reason is, our workflow is highly automated in the background in order to be efficient and flexible with our tight release schedule. We have been releasing fresh vibes on a weekly basis for years. We currently have over 300 releases — albums, vinyls and compilations.

FutureMusic: What was the first time that someone said you couldn’t do something musically, but you achieved it anyway?

Nadja Lind: The only person who I remember telling me I couldn’t do something was myself, and time and time again, I proved myself wrong by doing it anyway. For example, many times, stage fright made me want to run away instead of entering a club or a large venue and stepping in front of an audience. My hands would tremble as I placed the needle on the first vinyl of my set for the night. Mixing vinyl was an entirely hands-on experience, incomparable to the convenience of today’s tools, where you can loop, beat sync, and visually see and browse tracks and playlists. It was a completely different world. I loved it passionately and became quite skilled at it. The process had a calming, almost meditative effect on me.

Also hunting for records, testing them at home, and later hearing them come alive on a massive club sound system was an unparalleled experience — priceless! And it felt even more magical when I was able to play my own records.

Another challenge I thought I wouldn’t be able to handle was transitioning to CDs in 2004 when I was booked for several weeks in Delhi, India.I spent a fortune on extra baggage because of the weight of my vinyl collection, only to find that when I arrived at the first club, I had to connect the record players myself. The standard setup was CD players. So, I learned it on the spot.

FutureMusic: Talk to FutureMusic about your current production/live rig – From your photos, I see it’s a pretty minimal setup, but there’s a lot of sound!

Nadja Lind: I don’t actually have a recent photo of myself in the studio, so I sent you pictures taken from the latest live performance near Basel Switzerland in November 2024. The setup is minimal because I always adapt my rig to the event. I have used several pieces of analog gear from Moog, Korg, Akai, Allen & Heath and Behringer over the years. I also use software, like the fantastic synths from Spectrasonics, U-He, Audio Realism Bass Line among others. I love if my ideas are easily translatable into sound and flexible e.g. I also often did some sketches of tracks during flights or in hotel rooms after or before gigs and I sometimes love creating music in bed as well. My favorite filters and effects are from Native Instruments Guitar Rig, FabFilter and Sir3 Reverb. I use Push a lot and I love Roli Seaboard Blocks because of its distinctive sound. And of course, the Sonic Core Scope Xite mastering Unit and Soundcraft Si Impact digital mixer including its effects.

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FutureMusic: When did you start getting into yoga and alternative medical practices, and how has that influenced you musically?

Nadja Lind: How much time do we have? I could talk about this all day. (laughs)

I have suffered from PTSD which manifested in severe depression, addictions, insomnia, hyper-vigilance, excruciating pain and flashback trauma loops, since I was a teenager. So over the years I became my own expert in how trauma affects the nervous system. My breakthrough began when I created my own binaural ambient “trauma hacking” Frequency Farmacy compositions!

Meditation or even sleep had been out of the question for my state of being and these frequencies guided my overstimulated brainwaves into coherent brainwaves and restoration. For the first time I felt safe within my body and had a sense of relaxation. I have always worked out at the gym every day – lifting weights and doing all kinds of exercise classes to release stress. And one day my best friend Jule in Berlin introduced me to Yoga. It resonated with me and I’ve been practicing Yoga for many years. In 2017, I embarked on a very transformative journey with Sadhguru’s Inner Engineering, including the Shambhavi Mahamudra Kriya. Basically a 30-minute bio-hacking breath practice that I’ve been sticking to every single day since.

My holistic approach to healing myself began after my disillusioned odyssey of many years trying to get any help from the allopathic system for my long term suffering from chronic back-pain and exhaustion due to PTSD. Additionally, my cousin was diagnosed with terminal cancer, which led me to absorb any information I could find to help her.

What I discovered was mind-blowing to say the least, and I had to question everything I thought I knew. You might be surprised to learn just how many mistaken ideas and errors still lie at the heart of the science we trust and rely on, even today! Science is defined as a systematic discipline that builds and organizes new knowledge through testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. However, much of modern science is biased, with outcomes often influenced by the interests of its funders, entrenched dogma, personal egos, or rigid administrative structures. This became particularly evident during the years 2019 to 2023 and has now been proven to be incorrect.

On my journey to self-healing, I first came across “Liebscher & Bracht,” who are very active on YouTube. I began by creating my own 22-minute stretching routine, accompanied by my own music — something I always do to make the process more fluid and enjoyable. I followed this routine diligently, both in the morning and evening, especially after workouts, to alleviate my lower back pain. Being a very disciplined person, I stuck to it no matter what. Remarkably, after just five months, I was able to stop taking the pain medication I had relied on for over ten years!

This incredible progress motivated me to dive deeper into their methods. I enrolled in their courses, where I learned how to instantly relieve pain, a truly remarkable technique. I also had the great privilege of speaking with Dr. Petra Bracht, a holistic orthomolecular physician with over 30 years of experience.

Since then, I have become proficient in healing my thyroid, supporting my nervous system, managing pain, and studying holistic health. This includes bio-psycho-social approaches, (micro)nutrients, vitamins, and a wealth of knowledge. Over time, I have developed a deeper and more holistic understanding of how the body functions within its environment, for which I am profoundly grateful.

While allopathic medicine is fantastic in surgery and emergency care, when it comes to chronic pain and diseases, conventional approaches often cause more harm than good. The primary focus tends to be on symptom suppression rather than identifying and addressing the root cause.

It’s vital to take charge of your own health and education. Blindly following medical advice without understanding its effects can worsen health, as many medical departments work in isolation, focusing only on specific symptoms rather than the whole person. While lab results may improve in one area, overall health can still decline. The body is an interconnected system, and well-being depends on maintaining balance and harmony, not just within the body but also with the environment. Ultimately, the only one capable of true healing is you.

FutureMusic: Stone’s concept of Voice Dialogue for “contacting, learning about, and working with the many selves that make up each of us” is a very interesting concept. Is there a musical self? Does everyone have one?

Nadja Lind: The “Voice Dialogue” is a very powerful technique to resolve inner or outer conflicts and get to know and understand yourself and others better. There’s definitely a Musical Self. I don’t know if everyone has one, as there are always exceptions to everything. However, one power of the Voice Dialogue is you can also talk to aspects of yourself and find out for yourself. I’m thrilled to announce another round of masterclasses with Klartraum (Helmut and me) and the incredible teacher Cordula Frei, one of the few direct students of Hal and Sidra Stone, pioneers of Voice Dialogue. Our ongoing monthly series, “Unlock Your Wide Potential with Klartraum,” is now listed on Parallax Media Network!

FutureMusic: What was your biggest setback career-wise and what did you learn from it?

Nadja Lind: The biggest setback I faced was due to PTSD health issues. Now I’ve learned that prioritizing my well-being is essential, with everything else coming second. I make sleep a priority and start my day by waking up early to walk in nature watching the sunrise. My daily routine includes meditation and breath work. Additionally, staying away from media and news as much as possible has been one of the healthiest decisions I’ve made many years ago. As well as quitting alcohol. This turned out to be the best choice of my life. Did you know that any amount of alcohol is toxic and increases the risk of numerous types of cancers including breast cancer in women and countless other diseases including depression?

FutureMusic: How did you get into binaural music and what inspired you to create the Frequency Farmacy? Great name by the way…

Nadja Lind: I also love “Frequency Farmacy!” In the end, it all comes down to frequencies.

For years, day in and day out, I was caught in relentless trauma loops, unable to calm down, relax, or sleep without resorting to substances, including alcohol. It felt like being trapped in a perpetual nightmare with no way to wake up. One evening, while working a track listening to a layered ambience sound for many minutes, something shifted. I felt a sense of relief. It reminded me of what I read in Francine Shapiro’s book on EMDR, where she described how hemisphere activation helped her break the trauma cycle. Inspired by her findings, I began experimenting with binaural beats layered over my ambient compositions.

My aim was to create music that I genuinely love listening to, engaging enough to keep my mind intrigued by the unfolding sounds, yet soothing enough to maintain focus without breaking that delicate, dreamy brainwave state: Theta – my favorite state – the space between wakefulness and sleep like being under hypnosis, where the most profound rewiring can happen.

Over the years, I’ve explored countless ways to dive even deeper into nervous system hacking, experimenting with ASMR-style (auditory sensory meridian response) recordings that I captured during my travels and in everyday environments. These sounds hold special memories – like those from an unforgettable Safari trip to Massai Mara, where I was invited after performing an epic night in Nairobi, Kenya, or from a week spent by a jungle-like river during the Subsonic Festival in Australia. There’s also the trip to Kazantip Festival (former Ukraine), and so many more adventures that have inspired my sonic journey.

Since then, I’ve had a reliable tool to reset my nervous system. Whenever I feel exhausted, overwhelmed, or irritable, I put on my headphones and an eye mask and spend just 20 minutes listening to one of my “Turning In” ambien-tations and feel completely replenished and full of joy. It works like a switch! Just the other day, I received feedback from a very happy listener who had a similar experience. She was on the verge of collapse, but after just one session with “Turning In 23: Unveiling the Unseen,” she experienced instant relief and has felt progressively better each day. It’s incredibly rewarding! I know these frequencies can guide people out of depression and despair into joy and ecstasy, helping them reconnect with their inner strength and self-healing potential.

FutureMusic: What’s the most important thing that you’ve learned about yourself in your music journey?

Nadja Lind: Wow, that’s definitely not an easy question! Over the years, I’ve flipped my world upside down more times than I can count – sometimes weekly, even daily – constantly reshaping how I see myself, life, and everything in between. Nearly all of these shifts have happened through music or right alongside it. Music has been my compass, leading me to discover my passions, spark my creativity, and connect with my inner light. It’s helped me realize what truly matters, and what doesn’t. Along the way, I’ve found amazing friends, learned to let go, and dropped ego-driven ambitions that no longer served me. Through it all, I’ve learned to trust myself, set healthy boundaries, and stay curious, always questioning everything. Music has been my healer, helping me make peace with the past, forgive myself and others, stay fit, power through workouts, and guide me through countless hours of meditation and stretching.

FutureMusic: You’ve had such an incredible trajectory so far with so many branches, what’s next?

Nadja Lind: What I see, not just for myself, but for all of us as a species, is the need to overcome our disconnection, division and ignorance. It’s time for each of us, as individuals, to wake up, recognize our incredible potential. I believe we’ve fed Artificial Intelligence with so much knowledge that we now have the ability to access it on a higher level, propelling us into the next stage of evolution.

In today’s dopamine-depleting, highly addictive environment, as expert Dr. Anna Lembke explains, having a tool like my Frequency Farmacy binaural ambient music is extremely transformational. It offers a simple, fun, and essential way to restore balance and shift your state of mind in just minutes, helping you stay centered for the rest of the day.

In the meantime, I’ll keep doing a lot of Ho’oponopono and continue creating new music such as a beautiful dub techno release with the amazing Brickman. Some new Klartraum music like “Living Joy” And my psybient album “Amanita Muscaria” on Lucidflow’s Bandcamp account.

Nadja Lind’s collaboration with Brickman – “Take My Will” – will be out on February 7, 2025.