In a city where electronic music is woven into the architecture, Anja Schneider has long stood as one of Berlin’s most adaptable and quietly defining figures: a DJ, producer, broadcaster, label founder, scene connector, and relentless cultivator of ideas. Her impact has never hinged on myth-making or a single era-defining moment; instead, it has grown from a career built on intuition, curiosity, and a refusal to stand still. Across more than two decades, Schneider has influenced how Berlin listens, how it communicates, and how it continues to evolve within a global culture that rarely slows down.
Photo Credit: Anja Schneider – Official
Her relationship with electronic music began long before Berlin’s clubbing might was broadcast to the world. “The first time I listened to electronic music was actually in my early teenage years, around twelve or thirteen, when I discovered Kraftwerk,” she recalls. The album ‘Computerwelt’ became a small revolution. Its mechanical elegance, the precision in its patterns, the strange intimacy beneath its minimalism — she played it every day, letting its textures rearrange her understanding of what music could be. Alongside Kraftwerk, Schneider found an emotional counterbalance in the dark romanticism of Depeche Mode and The Cure, influences that would remain part of her internal compass long after she entered the DJ booth.
Those early impulses grew into something more concrete as Berlin hit its stride in the early 2000s. Schneider, armed with instinct and an ear tuned to what was coming next, found herself in rare alignment with the moment. “I was incredibly lucky to be perfectly in sync with the trend and had a very strong instinct for discovering talent and new music,” she says. The minimal wave was cresting, and she was one of the artists positioned directly in its current. The timing wasn’t planned; it was the result of a sensibility sharpened by years of listening, observing, and understanding how sound could move people before they even recognized a shift in the air.
Her breakthrough came early, accelerated by collaborative energy and a deep connection to dance music’s roots. The 2005 release of ‘Rancho Relaxo’, her track with Sebo K, marked a turning point. It was a distilled expression of Chicago and Detroit lineage reframed through Berlin’s emerging minimal lens. “We truly hit the nail on the head with that track,” she says. It was contemporary yet timeless, sleek yet grounded. It helped launch both artists and signaled a rising voice in Berlin’s club circuit.
The next leap arrived with the founding of Mobilee in 2007, a label that quickly became synonymous with the era’s sleek, hypnotic aesthetic. Schneider surrounded herself with artists whose trajectories were just beginning to unfold — Pan-Pot, Rodriguez Jr., Sebo K — guiding talent with an eye for longevity rather than trend cycles. “Those were the years when our work was truly celebrated,” she reflects. Mobilee wasn’t just a label; it was a cultural engine, shaping the sound of an era while showcasing Berlin’s increasing influence on the global stage.
But while the clubs were one arena, Schneider’s most lasting contributions were also being transmitted through the airwaves. A central figure at RBB’s Fritz and later Radio Eins, she became a fixture in German broadcasting. Anja was a voice that introduced countless listeners to electronic music for the first time. Twenty years on the radio built a bridge between underground culture and the general public, something few artists have accomplished with such endurance. Her talent for contextualizing music, not just playing it, turned her into one of Germany’s most recognizable and trusted broadcasters.
The significance of this work was formally acknowledged in 2021, when the Berlin Music Commission awarded her the Honour Prize for her “outstanding impact on the music scene,” particularly for her efforts supporting artists and cultural institutions during the lockdown years. Yet even in receiving that recognition, Schneider was already moving toward her next transformation.
That same year, she launched Berlin Beats, a nationally broadcast, daily drive-time show in an unusually ambitious undertaking for someone already juggling touring, production, and label responsibilities. To maintain the standards she demanded, she built her own studio in Berlin, ensuring that her voice, selection, and presentation retained the precision that had defined her career since its earliest days.
And still, that wasn’t enough. After Mobilee evolved into a full company, its growth brought pressures that began to encroach on her creative instincts. Schneider felt the need for autonomy again: a place to take risks, test ideas, and return to the core impulse that had driven her since her early years. In 2017, she founded Sous Music, a small, agile label designed to break away from the industry’s expectations. “I wanted to boost my creativity again and take a few more risks,” she says. Sous became her laboratory — a space for experimentation, introspection, and personal evolution.
Today, the label functions almost exclusively as a platform for her own productions, allowing her to explore different sonic directions without the weight of commercial strategy. It’s Schneider at her most unfiltered.
Her approach to DJing reflects this same balance of instinct and emotion. For her, the heart of a set lies not in technical perfection but in connection. “A great DJ set isn’t necessarily defined by technical skills alone, but much more by the selection of music and the ability to read a room,” she explains. The ability to adapt, to take risks, to honor the arc of a night. These are the elements she values most. Even as modern touring often demands shorter sets and tighter transitions between DJs, she still seeks the long-form narrative, the slow burn that reveals the full spectrum of her sound. “There’s always that signature Schneider sound — the one that makes your hips move — somewhere between techno and house, sometimes hypnotic and sometimes dreamy.”
For all her accomplishments, Schneider is candid about the internal battles that come with longevity. “The biggest challenge is always to keep developing your sound and not give up,” she says. Her instinct to say yes — to projects, collaborations, opportunities — has pushed her into corners that test her limits. But within those corners is where she thrives. “I still have the same passion I had 30 years ago.”
And now, as she steps into what may be the most ambitious phase of her career, Anja is preparing for a year that promises reinvention on a new scale. “2026 is shaping up to be a really big year for me,” she says, outlining plans that include new collaborations, new tracks, and an expansion of her Club Room: Backstage interview series, where she highlights the personalities she has encountered across two decades on the road.
At the center of these upcoming projects is a monumental undertaking: an electronic interpretation of Wagner’s ‘Rheingold’, created with Berlin photographer Sven Marquardt for the Salzburger Easter Festival. “It’s a project that challenges me and makes me incredibly happy,” she says. It merges music, performance, and visual art. A convergence that encapsulates everything Schneider has been building toward.
Alongside this, she will continue her globally syndicated Club Room radio show, her daily Berlin Beats broadcast, and a full touring schedule that keeps her moving between clubs, cities, and scenes. It is the workload of several careers, yet for Anja, it simply mirrors the way she has always operated. In constant motion, curious, responsive to change, and driven by instinct.
In a modern landscape that too often rewards formula and predictability, Anja Schneider remains committed to evolution. She is not a figure defined by nostalgia or by what she once shaped; she is defined by what she continues to pursue. A lifetime in music has not dulled her edges. It has sharpened them.
For the teenager who once looped ‘Computerwelt’ on repeat in her bedroom, the trajectory is both poetic and inevitable. Anja Schneider has spent her life amplifying sound, shaping narratives, and creating pathways for others. And now, as she prepares for her next chapter, she moves with the same curiosity that first set everything in motion.
Follow Anja Schneider: Spotify | Instagram | YouTube | Clubroom Backstage
