Amelie Lens: labour of love

Pregnant with her second daughter and still DJing to the world’s biggest dancefloors, Amelie Lens is at the peak of her powers, and is determined to change how the industry views women and motherhood in the process.

Aqui, em sua entrevista mais aberta até agora, a estrela belga do techno senta-se com Olivia Stock, da DJ Mag, para discutir ser mãe na música eletrônica, o sexismo na indústria e como ela encontrou a confiança para fazer as coisas à sua maneira.

Para que eu possa fazer a tradução, por favor envie o texto completo do artigo.

São 20h no Magazine Open—Air, e o último raio de luz do dia desliza abaixo da silhueta de Londres, lançando as grandes estruturas industriais do local em formas escuras sobre a multidão.

Hard, driving techno explode do sistema de som enquanto Amelie Lens e Sara Landry trocam faixas em um headline b2b; grandes kicks e bass pesado movimentam 8. 000 corpos.

Na cabine de DJ, porém, as coisas soam um pouco diferentes. O casal está mixando com os fones de ouvido, enquanto os monitores estão em volume baixo. Lens está grávida de seis meses.

É uma das várias maneiras pelas quais a artista belga de techno teve que adaptar sua vida profissional durante a gravidez, a maioria das quais são invisíveis a partir da pista de dança.

Ao longo dos últimos 12 anos, Lens tornou‑se uma das artistas mais reconhecíveis no techno global, passando da cena de clubes locais para os maiores palcos do mundo sem nunca realmente diminuir o ritmo.

Desde a última capa da DJ Mag, o ritmo não diminuiu: ela continua viajando entre continentes, ampliando sua renomada gravadora e marca de eventos EXHALE, e acaba de lançar seu tão aguardado álbum de estreia, “AURA”.

A gravidez não parou nada; apenas significou fazer alguns ajustes ao longo do caminho.

Lens já esteve aqui antes. Quando estava grávida da primeira filha Kiki em 2023, ela fez turnês até dois meses antes da data prevista de parto. “Eu acho que às vezes você sente que tem que escolher um ou outro.”.

The decision to keep working was the easy part, Lens says. The harder part has been navigating an industry that isn’t designed even remotely with pregnancy or parenthood in mind.

Com tão poucos exemplos de gravidez de alto perfil na cena techno, ela se viu tendo que “realmente educar muita gente” ao longo do caminho. “Isso é louco porque é tão normal.”.

A lot of the education has been practical. Lens knew early on that she was pregnant this time around, and immediately went through her touring calendar with her team, moving shows and adjusting everything from flight schedules and set times to sound levels.

But getting basic accommodations taken seriously on the road has been an uphill battle — whether it’s fighting for a set-time change to get enough sleep, trying to get venues to respect her contractually required DJ booth height so she isn’t forced to hunch over with her belly, or walking into dressing rooms filled with people smoking and having nowhere to sit before her set.

They’re basic things, but they highlight how little the scene is set up to accommodate pregnancy. “I don’t know if there are many jobs that are totally flexible around these things, but I think ours would be the very last one because there are not even children allowed,” Lens continues.

For Lens, that care can be as straightforward as a venue remembering to swap out her usual rider for the pregnancy version, with “coconut water, cashew nuts, bananas” instead of “vodka and champagne”.

Those small gestures carry a little more weight now that Lens is pregnant with her second daughter. And while she has become much more confident navigating pregnancy alongside her career, the road to motherhood was far from straightforward.

In 2021, Lens decided to freeze her eggs, knowing she wanted children but worried that her busy life would keep pushing them further into the future. She started the process, getting a “little fridge box with all the needles” ready to take on tour with her, but before leaving she decided it was too much to juggle and chose to postpone.

Then, weeks later, she started feeling unwell on the road. She was losing weight, having to cancel shows — something she almost never does. While a bad case of tonsillitis was partly to blame, when she eventually called the fertility clinic back to reschedule the freezing of her eggs, a nurse suggested she take a pregnancy test.

Tudo o que faço, penso, ‘Tudo bem, mas o que ela pensaria de mim fazendo ou dizendo isso? Estou fazendo ela se orgulhar? Sou a pessoa que quero ser?’ Isso realmente mudou muito a minha vida.

In the months that followed, she became increasingly interested in her health and nutrition, stopped drinking caffeine and, around a year later, became pregnant with Kiki.

Durante sua primeira gravidez, Lens se interessou cada vez mais pela meditação, usando-a para desacelerar e permanecer conectada consigo mesma enquanto, de outra forma, avançava em plena velocidade.

She approached the birth with the same intention, planning a natural, unmedicated labour with dim lights, meditation music and as little outside interference as possible.

She and her partner, fellow techno artist Sam Deliaert (aka Farrago), even made a 30-minute meditative soundscape for Kiki, later released on vinyl as a birth card.

Agora com dois anos e meio, Kiki já tem uma compreensão impressionante do que a mãe dela faz para ganhar a vida. “Eu digo a ela, ‘Mamãe vai trabalhar agora’, e ela responde, ‘DJ!’” Lens ri.

She knows what airports and planes mean, having been on plenty herself, watches Lens’ tour videos while she’s away, and spends time with her in the studio when she’s home.

Algumas faixas de ‘AURA’ parecerão familiares para quem acompanhou a música de Lens nos últimos dez anos: techno imponente, de alto impacto, construído para sistemas massivos.

Others reach into the deeper, more melodic territories she’s increasingly explored away from the biggest stages. In recent years, Lens has returned more often to smaller rooms, particularly in Berlin, where nights at RSO have given her space to reconnect with the underground club culture she came from.

Here, she can play slower, deeper, stranger techno, but because the capacity is so small and there are no cameras, only a few people have seen this side of her.

Lead single ‘falling into acid dreams’ coils around warped, squelching synths, tapping into the more psychedelic side of Lens’ sound, while heavy festival-weapon ‘our frequency’ has been a fixture of her recent sets at Tomorrowland and Awakenings.

drift away' se desenvolve a partir de um groove techno minimalista até algo mais eufórico, enquanto 'run', com a cantora belga Angèle, se desenrola em torno de vocais arrebatadores e um núcleo emocional mais suave e íntimo.

That duality came into focus a couple of weeks after our chat, around the album’s release. Lens built a miniature club from scratch inside an arts centre in Antwerp, inviting 250 fans to hear ‘AURA’ played in full for free.

Foi um sinal de suas raízes underground, antes de um show muito diferente na cidade natal no dia seguinte, quando ela tocou para uma plateia de 14. 000 pessoas fora do Museu Royal de Belas Artes da cidade (KMSKA).

A colaboração mencionada com Angèle faz parte de uma mudança mais ampla para Lens, que tem se tornado gradualmente mais confortável em trazer outras pessoas para o seu processo criativo.

But I think I’ve realised over the past couple of years that it’s totally fine and great to collaborate. On [2024 track] ‘Falling For You’, the vocal idea came from someone else, I didn’t write it fully, and there are a few other examples on the album.

That feeling of having something to prove is something Lens knows well. From Belgium’s club circuit to the biggest stages in techno, she has spent much of her rise navigating the particular scrutiny that comes with being a woman in electronic music.

That scrutiny can quickly turn into something more sinister when a new artist starts to make a name for herself. “It’s great that there are so many more of us now, but I can also still see that every time someone new is coming up, she gets all the hate,” Lens continues.

E então o próximo surge, e ela recebe todo o ódio novamente. É simplesmente repugnante.

The hostility she describes online is only one part of a much bigger problem. In recent months, a wave of allegations of sexual harassment, assault and abuse of power has emerged across the European techno scene, with women coming forward about experiences both inside and outside the workplace.

Algumas das alegações levaram à remoção de artistas de cartazes de festivais e clubes, enquanto outros continuam sendo contratados. Enquanto isso, a METOODJS, organização independente que apoia vítimas de violência sexual na música eletrônica, teria recebido centenas de depoimentos de pessoas de toda a cena.

Lens believes promoters have a responsibility to act on what they know. A booking is a decision, she argues, and it doesn’t require the kind of evidence that would be “needed in a courtroom”.

Se várias mulheres que não se conhecem apresentarem relatos semelhantes, então talvez você deva se perguntar: “Posso ainda oferecer um bastidor seguro para os outros artistas, para a plateia, para as mulheres que trabalham lá, se eu contratar essa pessoa?”.

The problem with that demand for proof, she says, is that these things rarely happen where anyone else can see them. “There were no cameras around me, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.”.

For her, that is where male artists and colleagues have a role to play, too. “It’s not about all men, of course, it’s about these certain men. And if others in the scene are not helping us, we cannot fight it alone.” That means speaking up when they see something happening, rather than leaving women to police the behaviour themselves.

Dizendo: “Ei, aquela garota está intoxicada, deixe-a em paz” — esses tipos de comentários. É tão, tão importante defender-nos, ela enfatiza.

The importance of having people who look out for you is something Lens knows well herself. Her team, in particular, has become more like a family, working alongside her on everything from her own music and touring to EXHALE, her revered label and events platform.

Ao contrário de muitos artistas em seu nível, ela não faz parte de uma grande estrutura de gestão, mas conta com um pequeno grupo de pessoas que trabalham de perto com ela e se tornaram amigos confiáveis ao longo do caminho.

At home, that support comes from her husband, Sam. Having been together since they were 18, when he witnessed her decide to become a DJ while watching Maya Jane Coles at Sónar, he understands the demands of her career inside and out.

E então há a avó dela, conhecida como Mémé, que ajudou a criar a Lens depois que a mãe dela morreu quando ela era jovem. Ela permaneceu uma das pessoas mais importantes na vida da Lens desde então, e agora, com 87 anos, ainda acompanha de perto sua carreira, lembra-a de ser grata por tudo que tem e não hesita em oferecer uma opinião sobre sua música, roupas ou trabalho.

Earlier this year, Lens finally found a way to give something back. She bought Mémé an apartment in the same small town where she had grown up, just five streets from her own home.

That confidence has carried into the studio. “For many years, there was some music I wanted to put out, but I was like, ‘Oh no, people are not gonna expect this from me.

This doesn’t sound very Amelie’. But who is deciding what is me? I know who I am better than anyone.” Motherhood has also streamlined her creative process. “When I’m actually in the studio now, my focus is on such a high level because it’s my dedicated time working before I get back to mum stuff.”.

O sucesso que antes parecia avassalador agora parece menos algo que ela precisa gerenciar e mais algo que pode finalmente desfrutar em seus próprios termos. Ela tem uma família que antes temia que sua carreira tornasse impossível, um álbum que reúne uma década de evolução musical e uma segunda filha a caminho.

There is still plenty she wants to achieve in music — but increasingly, it seems, she wants to do it in a way that leaves room for the rest of her life.

Part of finding that balance will mean changing the pace of her career. Lens wants to spend less time touring and more time working towards bigger moments — albums, EPs and headline shows — leaving more space for her family in between.

Os shows AURA são uma forma pela qual ela percebe esse futuro tomando forma. Em vez de simplesmente integrar o novo disco em seus sets, Lens criou um formato ao vivo em torno dele, transformando as ideias em algo que os fãs podem experimentar de forma tangível.

Lens has learned that keeping her career moving doesn’t have to mean keeping everything else waiting. Three years ago, she was asking herself whether it was possible to continue growing as an artist and have a family.

Amelie Lens headlines DJ Mag Presents' party Amsterdam’s Skatecafé this week as part of ADE 2026. Find out more here.