There’s something about INJI that hits like a confetti cannon mid-existential crisis — bright, glittering, full of pop precision, but grounded in an artist who knows exactly how she got here (even if she stumbled into it by accident).
We caught up backstage at a DC venue where the green room felt less like a DIY mop closet and more like a boutique hotel — cupcakes, tacos, showers that didn’t make you question your life choices. “This feels like heaven,” she tells me, her voice both airy and assertive. “Last year I played the club next door, opening for Disco Lines. This is a glow-up.”
The glow-up feels like an appropriate metaphor for INJI’s entire musical trajectory — a leap from jazz recitals and conservatory-level classical piano to fizzy, hyper-fun dance tracks that feel like a group chat come to life. If Charli XCX is a bold Bordeaux, INJI is straight-up Prosecco with Pop Rocks. A bubbly burst of energy you didn’t know you needed — and suddenly can’t stop replaying.
But don’t get it twisted — this isn’t just candy-coated chaos. Her foundation is solid: ten years of classical piano training, jazz vocals, and the kind of music theory chops that make even her danciest tracks feel tightly composed. “I was in conservatory training from 8 to 18,” she tells me. “But I wasn’t good enough to go pro — and honestly, I didn’t want to. That world is so intense. Practicing all day. Competing constantly. Everyone else would get ‘fourth place’ as a participation trophy — and that was always me.”
Post-piano, she pivoted to jazz singing, dipping her toes into performance at college frat party recitals with her jazz combo band. “That was my entry into ‘real fun’ music,” she laughs. But EDM? Total accident.
A sick drummer, a substitute beat-maker, and a campus crush who rapped led her down a new path. “I liked clubbing and I liked the beat this guy gave me. It was called ‘House Beat 120.’ That was literally the file name,” she grins. “I wanted an excuse to talk to this rapper I liked, so I asked him to teach me how to write a song. We ended up making this track together — and that was the first INJI song.”
Yes, she got the guy. Yes, they’re still making music together. No, she never expected any of this to work. “If I had tried to make music ‘on purpose,’ it probably would’ve been boring R&B,” she admits. “But instead, I landed in this weird, joyful space where I rap over dance beats and get to giggle with the internet.”
There’s a refreshing lack of ego in how she talks about all of it — but don’t mistake that for passivity. INJI is incredibly intentional about how she shows up in the dance music space, especially as a woman. “EDM is tricky for women because you’re often sidelined as the ‘vocalist’ while someone else — usually a man — is credited as the producer and main artist,” she says. “I’ve been very deliberate about establishing that INJI is the project. I’m not just a featured voice. This is mine.”
She’s also letting her roots show more: layering in jazz, funk, and vocal-forward tracks on her latest work. “This is the first time I’m really singing on the project,” she says. “And I want people to hear that and feel something — but still want to dance.”
The result? Music that makes you laugh, feel hot, and text your ex a meme (but like, in a self-aware way). Her songs feel like a group of friends hyping you up in the bathroom mirror. There’s joy, there’s sass, there’s self-assured fun — and she’s a fan of artists doing the same. “I love Chappell Roan. I love that these playful, wild, feminine projects are finally getting huge,” she says. “I don’t think we had that kind of music even a year ago.”
The current pop landscape is shifting from breakup ballads to “bad bitch anthems” — music that’s not afraid to be unserious, to be funny, to be fiercely female without needing to bleed for it. “I love Lizzo, even before her big blow-up,” she says. “Sometimes you just want to giggle and dance and be happy.”
That’s the magic of INJI — she makes music that lets you do exactly that.
photos/ Tori Spadaro
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ON TOUR
Jun 1- Mighty Hoopla, London, United Kingdom
Jul 12- Lollapalooza, Berlin, Germany
Jul 18- Lollapalooza Paris, Paris, France
Jul 20- Capitol Hill Block Party, Seattle, Washington, United States
Aug 1- Hinterland Music Festival, Saint Charles, IA, United States
Aug 3- Osheaga Music and Arts Festival, Montreal, Canada
Aug 8- Outside Lands Festival 2025, San Francisco, CA, United States