Steller enters 2026 with a release cycle that says a lot about where she is heading as an artist. Her new EP, Shifting The Lens, arrives February 20 as an independent four-track project built around introspection, perception, and personal transformation, and it arrives alongside a headline tour that pushes that vision into rooms across North America.
The project follows a strong 2025 that included her Here & Now EP, a Dubstep Don cover feature, a 20-plus date headline run, festival appearances at EDC Las Vegas, Forbidden Kingdom, and Beyond Wonderland, plus a mental health partnership with To Write Love On Her Arms that gave extra weight to the themes running through her music.
That context matters because the interview makes clear that Steller is thinking about DJing from the inside out. Her answers return again and again to intention, gratitude, routine, and the need to protect the music from being swallowed by visibility culture. She speaks about shaping sets with care, finding unreleased or overlooked tracks that can shift a room, and staying focused on connection over virality.
That mindset lines up closely with Shifting The Lens, a project built around emotional storytelling and self-reflection at a time when a lot of bass music still moves in the opposite direction.
Interview With Steller
How do you personally define success in DJing at this stage?
Success in DJ-ing (to me) is curating an intentional set with a bunch of music and remixes I’ve made and seeing the crowd react positively to it. That will always be so rewarding for me. I love when it resonates and being able to connect with fans in that way.
What keeps your attention anchored in the music itself?
The music is the whole point! I think it is natural to have attention split up among other things like content or prompting your work, traveling, etc. But if the music isn’t the main focus, then we have lost the plot. To keep myself grounded in that, I just have a solid gratitude practice and believe that without the music itself I would not have any of this.
When the surrounding noise increases, how do you return to the fundamentals?
This is something I struggle with occasionally.
I tend to let my anxieties overpower my brain when surrounding noise increases, but meditating and keeping a good routine and production schedule help me stay focused on what is important.
Have you observed shifts in how artists balance visibility and musicianship?
Yes, definitely. I see plenty of artists getting too caught up in the content game (which is obviously important too), but as I said before, when that happens, I feel like people lose sight of what actually matters, like the music and connecting with a community.
I think some artists are so focused on how they can go viral that it almost has the opposite effect because then they are not creating from a genuine, authentic place. And to me that matters more than just doing something gimmicky to go viral.
What still excites you about digging, programming, and shaping a set?
Digging for new music is so fun to me; I get super excited when I find a banger that not a lot of people have heard before. It really fires me up! I will spend hours going through playlists and digging.
Shaping a set is super essential because I feel like that is my way of communicating with the crowd, so I have to be really intentional with my song selection and vibe curation. I want to take them on a journey with the music, and hopefully they will leave the set feeling uplifted or even having had some kind of cathartic experience. I want the crowd to be able to feel present and let go for our time together.
If you could preserve one core value within DJ culture, what would it be?
Stay true to why you started in the first place. It is all about the music, not trends or virality. DJ culture is all about connection while losing yourself in the music and on the dance floor. That is what it is all about! I hope we can get back to that.
The post Steller on Connection Over Trends Ahead of Shifting The Lens appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.