Anika Nilles

Nilles was born into a family with multiple drummers and started drumming at age six. When interviewed by South African Drummer, she mentioned having two uncles, one cousin and a father who are drummers. Her father "taught me the first grooves as he realised I was interested in drumming."^[5]

After school, Nilles had a career in social education, which she left to pursue drumming full-time. She earned a degree in popular music from the Popakademie Baden-Württemberg in Mannheim.^[3]

Nilles posted her first original compositions "Wild Boy" in 2013, followed by "Alter Ego" in 2014. These and other music videos usually contain a visual recording of her drumming alongside previously recorded music. In such videos, she has historically cooperated with producer and guitarist Joachim Schneiss. Afterward, Nilles began acquiring work and viral attention outside of her native Germany, including tours of Europe,^[6] the United States, and China in 2015.^[5]

In 2017, Nilles' debut album Pikalar was released; it consists of ten instrumental tracks. As promotion for the album, Nilles was the cover artist and interviewee for the June 2017 edition of Modern Drummer Magazine. In the interview, Nilles stated that she coined the word "pikalar", which is intended "to stand for things that happen in life that you can't describe".^[3]

Nilles embarked on a six-date United States clinic tour in October 2018; she performed at venues such as the Chicago Music Exchange, Sweetwater Sound in Fort Wayne, Indiana,^[7] and Salt City Drums in Salt Lake City, Utah.^[8] her second full-length album "For A Colorful Soul" (featuring her band Nevell) was released in 2020. It reached number three on the US-iTunes-Top40-Jazzcharts as well as number three in Germany.^[9] Nilles teaches at Nexus ICA (UK),^[10] at Drumeo (Canada) and at Popakademie Baden-Württemberg (GER). Since 2021, she has also been head of the drums department at Popakademie Baden-Württemberg.^[11]

Nilles joined Jeff Beck's live band for his US and European tour in 2022.^[12] In October 2025, Nilles was announced as the drummer for Rush's 2026 Fifty Something Tour.^[4]

Nilles has endorsed Meinl Cymbals,^[14] Tama Drums,^[2] and Evans Drumheads.^[15] Meinl released a custom 18" Artist Concept Model Deep Hats cymbals that was conceptualized by Nilles.^[16] She also uses Promark sticks, and formerly Mapex Drums.^[17]

Nilles tends to incorporate alternate note groupings, such as with quintuplets and sextuplets, over a ⁴
₄ backbeat.^[13]

Nilles currently lives in Mannheim, Germany.^[3]

• "Chary Life" (Sakurai Records, single, 2014)
• "Synergy" (Sakurai Records, single, 2015)
• Pikalar (Sakurai Records, full-length, 2017)
• For a Colorful Soul (Sakurai Records, full-length, 2020)
• "Florida" (Sakurai Records, single, 2021)
• Opuntia (Sakurai Records, EP, 29 April 2022)
• False Truth (Sakurai Records, full length, 2025)

• Bin Muhammad Moritoshi, Mamoru Iwasaki (2021). Eksplorasi Teknik Sinkopasi Drum Set dalam Sukat A Simetris pada Lagu Spunky Karya Anika Nilles. Institut Seni Indonesia Yogyakarta.
• Anika Nilles: Pad Book, Alfred Publishing, Los Angeles, 2020. ASIN 3947998171, ISBN 978-3947998173
• Wilting, Matthis (2020). Quintolische Grooves. Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg.
• An Analysis of the Drum Techniques of Anika Nilles - Focused on odd tuplet (2018). Popular Music Contents Society.
• Stadnicki, Daniel A. (2017). "Play like Jay: Pedagogies of drum kit performance after J Dilla". Journal of Popular Music Education. Vol. 1, No. 3. doi:10.1386/jpme.1.3.253_1.
• Lindroth, Niklas (2016). Skevt sväng. Att spela med kvintoler och septoler. Luleå tekniska universitet.