Alina Valentina has never been interested in musical boundaries. Based in The Hague, the producer, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist has built a sound that draws from acid, electro, synth wave, EBM, and industrial influences while remaining distinctly her own.
Photo credit: Alina Valentina – Official
Across a growing catalogue of solo releases, collaborations, and production work, she has developed a reputation for crafting music that is both fiercely individual and built for the dancefloor.
Her latest project, ‘NPC Dream’, arrives via Schrödinger’s Box as an eight-track exploration of shifting tempos, dystopian atmospheres, vocoder-laden narratives, and relentless machine funk. Built from sketches developed over several years, the album reflects both her fascination with video game culture and deeper existential questions inspired by Albert Camus’ ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’.
In this conversation, Alina discusses her musical upbringing, the road from synthwave to electro, the making of ‘NPC Dream’, collaborating with Filmmaker, and why live performance continues to matter in an increasingly digital world.
EG: Hi, and thanks for your time. First of all, can you introduce yourself, tell us where you are right now, and what kind of day you’re having? Been anywhere already or going anywhere interesting later?
Alina Valentina: Hi there! I’m Alina Valentina from The Hague, the Netherlands, where I am having my day off at home. I spent the morning walking my dogs, playing squash with a friend, and running some boring errands. Later today, I will attend the shooting of the first episode of a DIY game show for which I will help with the editing and sound design.
EG: Give us a quick précis of what you’ve released to date for the uninitiated.
Alina Valentina: With the help of grants from Sena, I self-released 2 synthwave albums on vinyl: ‘Works & Days’ (2021) and ‘Life is like a fairytale’ (2022). I got a 7” single released in collaboration with Whatevr Magazine and Lo Fidelity Music (2023). I also did some remixes and vocals for a variety of artists, self-released an EP with Sonic Sunset (2021), produced 2 albums for Ernesto Carlos, and have been active with KPAV and Piouxsie in the past.
EG: Tell us a bit about your formative musical experiences. Early musical memories from siblings, parents, schoolmates, first instruments, embarrassing bands…
Alina Valentina: With parents who are passionate music listeners, I grew up with music around me all the time. Their musical tastes range from new wave, post-punk, and experimental to jazz, hip-hop, and beyond. At the age of 4, I developed an obsession with classical music and started playing violin. After a while, my violin teacher advised me to play in a children’s orchestra to develop my skills, but that made me decide to quit playing violin because I preferred to play solo.
Alongside my singing classes in theatre school, I started playing drums when I was 11. I added guitar a year later, and about 10 years after that, I started learning piano. The first band I played guitar in was called The Burka Barbies, which was a crust-punk band with song titles like ‘Who the F*ck Killed Osama Bin Laden’ or ‘Marry Me Chris Korda’. I quit the band at one point to focus on another band called Pseudonym, which was quite emo with a terrible singer. Terrible idea, never again.
EG: Tell us about your journey into the music you love and also the formative steps you took as a music maker.
Alina Valentina: Synth-heavy artists like DAF, Cabaret Voltaire, Fad Gadget, or Grauzone were always very present in our household. Hearing this music a lot made me grow a deep affection for synthesizers. Although I played multiple instruments from a young age, I never had a vision of how to actually implement those skills into anything. It also didn’t help that I was never crazy skilled in one specific instrument, but knew the basics of multiple.
An ex-boyfriend started producing music in 2008 with his best friend, who graduated in music composition and production. I tagged along with the studio visits and got an insight of what music production actually is. I instantly felt this was exactly what I was missing and wanted to learn myself. I applied for the same study that his friend did and got accepted in 2009.
Unfortunately, my creative progress was killed by capitalism after my graduation in 2013, because I had to work multiple shitty jobs, more than 40 hours a week, to pay my bills. It took some time to find the balance between making money and making music, but I’m grateful I found it.
“Working around the theme of video games, the title started as the simple idea of NPCs being stuck in their programmed loop while having dreams of their own”
EG: You’re about to drop your new album ‘NPC Dream’. Talk us through the story of the album. What came first, what came last, and how did it all take shape? Did you know it was an album when you started it, or did it take shape as one as you went along?
Alina Valentina: I was sitting on a couple of demos for a while already when I came in touch with Ian Hall from Schrödinger’s Box in 2024. He really liked my work and asked me to release a vinyl on his label, for which I would need 18 minutes of material on each side. I had more sketches and ideas, so I started working around what was already there.
It’s been a while, but if I remember correctly, the first tracks were ‘Air Slasher’, ‘Light Warrior’, and ‘Mine Cart Madness’. A while later, the remaining songs started taking shape as well. ‘Wishing Engine’ was a track I started solely with software synths as an experiment, in contrast to my usual process using analogue synths, which happened to fit the mood of the other tracks.
Some tracks didn’t have vocoders or vocals initially and were added at the very last moment.
EG: And what about the title ‘NPC Dream’? Where does that come from? You very kindly let us share the title track with our readers before the release. Tell us about the track itself, please.
Alina Valentina: Working around the theme of video games, the title started as the simple idea of NPCs being stuck in their programmed loop while having dreams of their own. And what could those dreams be about?
Digging deeper into ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’ by Albert Camus, the similarity between human beings and NPCs resonated with me. Mindlessly fulfilling meaningless tasks in a meaningless world. The track questions whether we should embrace this meaninglessness or keep dreaming. In the end, the song, like everything else, doesn’t mean anything at all.
EG: The album also features a remix by Filmmaker. How did that happen? South America seems to be throwing up lots of great stuff, especially electro, at the moment.
Alina Valentina: I have always been a big fan of Filmmaker’s dystopian sound. He visits Europe once in a while, and we share mutual friends. In 2024, I met him for the first time in real life when he attended a Piouxsie show I played in Rotterdam.
Around that period, I was finishing ‘NPC Dream’ and Ian Hall from Schrödinger’s Box gave me the freedom to choose an artist for a remix, so of course I had to ask Filmmaker!
“Mindlessly fulfilling meaningless tasks in a meaningless world. The track questions if we should embrace this meaninglessness or keep dreaming”
EG: What else is next for you in the short, medium, and long term? What are you hearing that’s inspiring you? Any more concerts, DJ, or release action we should know about?
Alina Valentina: To be very honest, I have no idea what is currently going on. Lately, I have been very busy travelling and playing shows with Invunche, the black metal band I play keys in. We’re on a short summer break, but we hit the road again this fall.
I’m excited to get back into electronic music this upcoming period. Right now, I have DJ Screw, Carla dal Forno, SALEM, and Tyrann on heavy rotation.
EG: Thank you for your time, Alina.
Alina Valentina: Thank you for having me.
Alina Valentina’s ‘NPC Dream’ is set for release on June 19th, 2026, via Schrödinger’s Box. Pre-save your copy here.
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