If dance songs by DJ Topic aren’t on your playlist yet, you’re surely missing something. DJ Topic is a producer, and musician from Germany. He shot to fame with his track Home and ever since he has been bringing out killer tracks that are on constant replay.
Topic’s tour to India isn’t his first, but the DJ is excited to once again visit Indian shores. “My booking agency came to me and asked if I’d like to play in India once again? And I said, hell yeah, let's go,” says Topic ahead of his performance at Alta Stella in Andheri last week.
Topic, who shortened his name from Tobias Topic, has performed in Goa, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad in 2021 and in 2023. “I see India and any city I visit here as one of the busiest cities around the world, with a lot of traffic, crowded with a lot of people, but parties are always great energy. Indian people like to party hard.”
Born in Solingen, Germany, in 1992, Topic is originally of Croatian descent. “My mother is German, so most of my life I grew up in Germany, while my father is Croatian,” says the 33 year old.
Deejaying came naturally to Topic. He began producing music at age 14 using a digital audio workstation, guided by a teacher and assisted by other YouTube musicians. While he initially wanted to be a producer and did it for a few years, it was much later that he decided to become a DJ while working on his laptop.
Relying a lot on technology to make his music, Topic says the real test for his success in making music came from YouTube. “I had many friends. They were pretty big on YouTube, Youtubers back then. They helped me in the beginning to promote my music. I produced music for them and so because of their audience, we went in the iTunes charts in Germany. So it was a big help in the beginning. Even when I started making music almost 20 years ago, I started on a laptop. I never had a mixing console, audio or analog gear. It was always a laptop.”
Using software Logic Studio, Topic says that he creates music wherever he feels like it. There is no particular place or time to do it. “Everything in songwriting and production is very spontaneous and you can’t plan anything. It's just like, you go in the room, in the studio and just try to have a good time, have fun and hope to make a good song,” says Topic who admits that he plays on CDJs and has not actually used turntables. “That’s very old school,” he laughs.
Beginning with German rap songs, Topic moved over to dance oriented pieces and released his first song Light It Up in 2011. One listen to Light It Up and you can see his immense talent and the electro feel of the song that just gets into you. “It was like an EDM song that featured Jona Selle. My family liked it although no one really knew what I was doing as no one in my family did music,” says Topic who lives with his parents, an elder brother and a younger sister in Germany.
His first release, Light It Up gained over a million views online and his debut album, ‘Miles’ a year later charted in Germany and Austria. His breakthrough hit Home in 2016 sealed his success. The song featuring Nico Santos was a major hit, achieving double-platinum status in Germany and Australia and reaching number 11 spot on the Australian charts. “I try to not be inspired by anything, because if you do that, then you copy different songs, although I have been inspired by hip-hop music that inspired me and artists like Dr. Dre, Timbaland, 50 Cent, Eminem, Swedish House Mafia, Avicii and a few others. I just try to have a good time and do music that I love and that I feel in the moment. So on ‘Home’ and ‘Breaking Me’ I have tried to make music that I listen to myself. These are songs just made for dancing or played at the club.”
His other single Breaking Me released in 2019, a collaboration with Swedish singer A7S, launched him into global stardom, reaching the top 10 in numerous countries, including the UK, Canada, and Australia, and amassing nearly a billion streams on Spotify. “On Breaking Up, I focused more on the melody and the music production. The lyrics are not so personal, they're just a general story I thought about. It talks about the suffering and pain in a negative relationship. When you give everything of yourself, you kind of feel you're breaking inside.”
On all his songs Topic has collaborated with artists like John Martin, ATB, A7S and many others. “I think collaboration is very important. I rely very much on singers because I cannot sing. I can only produce music. So I always need to collaborate with different people on a song to create something. And when it comes to choosing singers, I just choose the song that I feel that I like the most. Then I also try to play the songs first on shows and just see the response and play what I like and take it from there,” says the DJ who was part of the ‘Top 100 DJs 2022’ from Brit monthly DJ Mag.
What about collaborations with any Indian artists? “Nothing is planned, but I would love to dive into it more and maybe do some stuff in India.”
Topic also has other chart-topping hits like Your Love (9PM) (a collaboration with ATB and A7S), My Heart Goes (La Di Da) with Becky Hill, Chain My Heart with Bebe Rexha and Kernkraft 400 (A Better Day). “I never believed it. You cannot plan it, especially these days, with TikTok and social media, it's just so random,” shares Topic.
Topic says that anyone who wants to enter into the Deejaying scene needs to just focus on just getting as much music out as they can.
For the moment, Topic has no immediate plans for 2026, but all he’s interested in is to “make great music and tour the world,” he signs off.
