GiGi FM: Shedding Skins and Shaping Sound in the Year of the Snake

GiGi FM is a French-Italian artist who’s been bending space, sound, and spirit for years. A professionally trained dancer, DJ/producer, and label head, she’s lit up iconic spots like Berghain, De School, and Primavera with sets that blur techno, ambient, bass, and breaks into full-body experiences. Through her label Sea~rène and NTS Radio show, she’s built a world that’s as intuitive as it is otherworldly — mixing poetry, astrology, and metaphysical vibes with a fearless approach to production and performance. Whether she’s collaborating with legends like Donato Dozzy or using motion sensors to shape sound, GiGi moves through music like it’s a second skin.

Now she’s back with Virgo Space Acid, a dazzling new EP that dives deep into transformation, healing, and cosmic rebirth. Written while recovering from a foot injury, the record captures the introspective energy of 2025’s Year of the Snake — shedding old layers and stepping into something bolder. Across four tracks, she pushes her voice, 909 drums, and acid synths to their emotional limit, creating ritual-ready club music that’s both raw and radiant. 

We caught up with GiGi FM as she dives into the inspiration behind Virgo Space Acid, how a tough start to the year sparked deep reflection, and why movement, astrology, and inner growth all play such a vital role in her artistic output.

Thanks for joining us, Giulia! How’s life treating you?

Hello, thanks for having me, it’s such a pleasure to take part in this conversation! Life has been full of feels this year ~ intense, revealing, and at times beautifully overwhelming. I'm so grateful that the sunnier days are returning, and more importantly, that I'm healing from my foot fracture. It’s been an unexpected start to the year that forced me to slow down, reflect, and recalibrate... but in many ways, I feel that it has put me on a path to feel stronger and more connected to my inner rhythms because of it. 

You channel much of your art through cosmic and astrological moods and vibrations. With this in mind, what kind of energy does 2025 (the Year of the Snake) represent for you?

The Year of the Snake feels like a shedding ~ of old layers, patterns, and illusions. It’s a powerful metaphor for transformation, which has been showing up in my life in very real ways. I came into the year thinking I understood its energy, maybe through my excitement I was expecting a smoother kind of flow... but the Snake has shown me that wisdom often comes through discomfort. There's an invitation this year to move with more intentionality, to embrace intuition, and to evolve gracefully even when it feels messy. It’s taught me a lot about patience, surrender, and trusting the timing of growth. 

To be honest, I have felt it very much in my productions, especially being alone at home not able to move much because of my fracture and really diving inwards into the depth of my psyche. Searching, understanding, accepting, and trying to channel it into words and sounds. On some days, it felt like time would bend and I would mind-travel through places I have been before or places I have yet to visit. Using my voice more for textures, pads, percussions, even into midi and of course field recordings I have been collecting over the years. I always feel Ableton is like my diary but it felt even more real this time, digging in places I never did. 

Speaking of astrology and snakes, your latest EP, Virgo Space Acid, is out now. Can you tell us a bit about this four-track journey?

Absolutely! Virgo Space Acid is an emotional and sonic exploration that weaves transformation, inner alignment, and cosmic playfulness. It’s a reflection of the duality I often feel ~ the grounded, detail-oriented Virgo part of me dancing with the more fluid, experimental side that longs to dissolve boundaries. Each track is like a different chapter in a metamorphic story, taking the listener through calibration, exploration, connection, and finally transcendence. I thought of it as ritual music for your inner and outer journeys and I hope listeners feel that too. 

When did you first start writing poetry, and how has that practice helped you in the studio?

Poetry has been with me since my teenage years ~ it started as a way to process emotions that felt too big or too abstract to explain. Over time, it became this internal compass, guiding me toward the unsaid and the unseen. In the studio, poetry helps me unlock textures and energies beyond logic. Sometimes I’ll write before making music, other times after ~ or I’ll find a line that becomes a whole sound world. It bridges the emotional and sonic realms for me. 

The EP cut “Floresta” was named in honor of the Floresta stage you played at Waking Life last year. That festival clearly had a lasting impact on your imaginative spirit. Can you tell us a bit more about the experience?

Yes, Waking Life was a pivotal moment in my spiritual journey but in particular in my healing journey. Waking Life is more than a festival to me ~ it’s a portal. The festival felt like a womb in the forest, vibrating with intention, love, and mysticism. My set there felt like a deep communion, and I remember leaving that stage completely transformed. “Floresta” was born out of that magical energy of that space. After the first day, which was also the day of when I played, I stayed up in my room and started making this track, everyday going back to my room after raving I would add things to it. That experience lingered in my body and spirit, and “Floresta” became my way of crystallizing it ~ a tribute to the living, breathing magic that Waking Life inspires.

Tell us about the sound aesthetic, ethos, and logo design behind your Sea~rène imprint.

Sea~rène is a play on words ~ merging “sea” and “sirène,” the French word for mermaid. It’s also a nod to “serene,” which captures the feeling of introspection I want the label to evoke. The ~ in the middle acts like a wave, a soft connector between realms.

Sea~rène is where I let my artistic soul speak without boundaries ~ a home for any type of rituals, textures, poetry, and sonic realms. It’s all about inviting people into that same journey, where liminal spaces and connection coexist.

The logo is two mermaid tails framing a moon. It’s a portal. The mermaid has always been a core part of my identity. I see her as an intergalactic explorer, moving between the known and the unknown. The Mermaid archetype represents both the desire to go deeper and the fear of the unknown. They sit between the human world and the mysterious, guiding us into emotional and cosmic spaces.

As a professionally-trained dancer who uses movement to help inform your sound and self-expression, it must be an immense challenge having to take time to heal following your recent foot injury (we hope you get better ASAP). Has this period of limited mobility brought about any realizations or epiphanies about your creative process?

Thank you for the kind words. It’s been incredibly humbling. Movement has always been my way of understanding the world ~ it’s how I feel, express, and communicate, so losing that freedom really shook me. But in that stillness, I began to rediscover other layers of embodiment. I realized how much dance also lives in the imagination ~ even without motion, I could choreograph sound and shape energy from within. It reminded me of the power of multidimensional mind travel.

You recently filled up one of your sets at Berghain with 40 minutes of your own productions. What did that feel like, and will crafting sets made exclusively of your own music be something that you will continue to strive for?

That moment was huge for me. Playing my own productions at Berghain ~ a place I deeply respect and connect with, felt like an affirmation of everything I’ve been working toward. It was vulnerable and empowering all at once. I felt seen, not just as a DJ or as a composer but in the depth of myself. I definitely want to keep pushing that direction. Sharing my own music live creates a more intimate connection with the crowd ~ it’s like inviting them into my inner world. I am working on a live ambient set (which I presented to a small crowd at a friend's place in Berlin last year in December) which is full of my own music and live singing and poetry. In the club I’ll definitely love to create journeys and sets entirely of my own sound universe but it’s not a particular goal I have in mind, more like something I'm letting happen organically. Like at Horst Festival last week, where in the morning I spontaneously decided to record a few drum loops and vocals to add as layers onto the set in the afternoon ~ who knows perhaps something I’d start doing live while DJing at some point and explore more hybrid style sets. I am making so many different kinds of music and I just wanna take the time to be able to share it with everyone in the right moment and way. 

With the summer months approaching, what are you most looking forward to this summer, and what can we most look forward to from GiGi FM?

Walking again! Simple but with my injury I haven’t been able to do my daily walks and I miss it beyond this world. To be honest it feels like this summer's gonna be a rebirth. 

I’m looking forward to dancing again, reconnecting with people, and sharing sound in sacred spaces. I am so excited to present this multi-sensory performance for the solstice by a beautiful lake in Crato, a special hybrid piece called “Cycles” at the Nextone Festival in Milano and going b2b with legend DJ Nobu at XRDS Festival in Brussels! But to be honest I am excited for all the gigs and festivals this summer, doing things I truly connect with is so important to me and helps me to connect deeper with the present moment and people on the dance floor. I want this summer to be about transformation through joy, softness through strength, and expansion through sound.