Anika Nilles a former Hit Like A Girl contestant and Runner-up winner in 2014 has been awarded the DRUM! Magazine 2015 Drummies! Award for Best Up-And-Coming Drummer.
Anika is well known for a series of terrifically produced YouTube videos, most of which feature her playing her own compositions, either with a band or playing along to sequenced tracks. Her style as a drummer is powerful, with an excellent technical command of the instrument. In 2014, she was the Runner-up in the Over 18 competition, one of three winners with Riesha Fayson (US, overall winner), and Fernanda Fuentes (Chile, First runner-up). Read about the accomplishments of past contestants.
Hit Like A Girl Did you know you had won the award?
AnikaI saw that a voting was going on. My guys from Mapex and Meinl company told me that I’m on #1 a few days ago. There were such great drummers nominated in this category. I’ve never thought that this would happen to me.
Hit Like A Girl YouTube has driven your popularity. What’s been your goal with the Youtube channel?
Anika The biggest goal is to share my music and playing with the people. All of my new songs will continue to be released on my YouTube channel in the future. But there will be different categories coming up on the channel this year, including a Live Drums playlist. Also there will be some special videos coming up.
Hit Like A Girl Are you most focused now on drumming or writing and producing?
Anikia Most of the time I’m focused on drumming. I’ve already started to write new songs for an upcoming album, which will be produced this year. This will take more time for writing and producing this year as usual.
Hit Like A Girl Did the Hit Like A Girl contest have a positive impact?
Anika I think the contest is a good way for female drummers to present their skills and musicality. The promotion around the contest creates a seriousness, which is very important for the audience. It’s also a good sign that much more big sponsors like Vic Firth or Mapex support it. The contest looks like it’s growing and getting more serious year by year.
It’s not that easy as a female drummer to get recognized and to get serious attention. It’s important for all the female drummers out there to have such a great opportunity to present themselves.
I’m not sure how positive or big the impact was in my case, because when the voting was still going on, I released my song “Alter Ego” on my youtube channel. Lots of things happened during this time. But for sure some very interesting interviews came up because of the contest and surely that was a positive impact.
Hit Like A Girl What would you say to other women and younger girls who are thinking about getting more involved in drumming?
Anika would say, stop thinking about it! Do it! Start today and have as much fun as possible! There is no obstacles on your way!