There’s no mistaking the unique monochromatic aesthetics of Sarah Sommers. The electronic producer stands out on any line-up with her hot pink princess dresses, pink nails, pink pumps, waist-long blond hair and sparkling tiara to boot. The techno she’s pumping into the crowd is created on synthesisers that are all, you guessed it, pink.
Sommers’ garish modular gear and vibrant approach to performing and producing are a breath of fresh air for Berlin’s techno scene and its reputation for all-black attire. Originally from London, she has played at some of the city’s top clubs, from KitKat to about:blank to Mensch Meier, and even at this year’s Superbooth trade show.
In 2024, Sommers also made the transition from DJ to producer. In January, she exploded onto the Berlin scene in a cloud of pink dust with her self-released debut album HeartCore. The record, a blend of old-school rave, breakbeats and good old-fashioned Berlin techno produced with her bold collection of pink synthesisers and drum machines, is a feat of modular wizardry that unites both ravers and tech geeks. (In April, a video of Sommers explaining how she customises her gear to make it bright pink went viral on TikTok.) In July, she released her single Lost in Berlin on the legendary Detroit Underground label.
With yet another EP, Exit Planet Pink, out this month, we caught up with the DJ and producer to find out more about her pink persona and the ways in which she continues to challenge the scene’s status quo. With all the hype, might the self-described “bimbo princess” soon join Berlin’s techno royalty?
Sarah, let’s address the elephant in the room. What’s up with the atypical pink princess dresses?
I started when I was like four or five or something. It’s always been something that I’ve loved but also something that I’ve not always felt like I could express. Now I feel like living my life to the fullest. Berlin is interesting because I feel like there’s like lots of pockets of lots of different groups and cultures. There’s a lot of freedom of expression. But in some ways, I’ve also felt like an outlier because I’m not, like, wearing black or whatever. If I go to Berghain, a lot of people in the queue will be wearing black. But I’ll still wear pink and think, maybe I won’t get in, but I’ll try anyway because this is who I am, and people will accept me for who I am.
Is it safe to assume that all your things at home are pink, too, then?
About half my flat is pink. I love pink. I’ve always dreamt about it when I was younger. Now that I live by myself, I can do what I want. And so now I’ve got big pink rugs and a pink sofa and pink curtains and stuff like that.
With your love of colour and a style that is so different from the local electronic music scene, I’m wondering how you ended up here. Has it always been your plan to subvert the scene here?
I was born in London and grew up there until I was about 15, and then moved to Australia with my family. It was in Melbourne where I started getting into raves, and it just opened up my whole world. I never really felt like anywhere was 100% home. I had a bunch of friends in different places. When I was in London for, like, six years, Brexit happened, and I was thinking, okay, it’s now or never, so I moved [to Berlin] in 2018.
I feel like I’m pretty at home here, but at the same time, I feel like I sort of have no home. I’m very happy with how things are going with my music, and it makes a lot of sense as there’s a lovely network of live performers here. When I started playing in Berlin, I would play at Mensch Meier and the main floor was so amazing there. The dance floor was completely full and it was one of the first times where people were just really screaming.
Your style and personal branding are pretty much the antithesis of what the average Berlin producer looks like these days…
I was afraid of failure. I would wake up at night thinking, am I ever gonna release this album?
Yeah, I see what you mean. It’s really just a personal love for an aesthetic that I’ve always liked. I never really put it together with the music beforehand as they were two separate things in my life. And then I just thought, what if I bring them together? I didn’t set out to create this big thing that it’s turned into. It was more like, I had one or two instruments and I thought, wouldn’t it be cool if I made these pink? And then I just sort of started going on from that. I love colour. The early raves I went to were very colourful, and for me, part of that harks back to that. But part of that is also just for me and about being myself; it’s how I love wearing my princess dresses. I was going out raving like that here before I was really doing lots of music. And for me, it’s just like a nice excuse to be able to get away with it.
I was wondering if it was some sort of socio-political statement against the heteronormative, black-wearing status quo…
No, not really. It’s really just my thing. I do think it is important because people can judge things based on image. I’ve been underestimated quite a bit and ignored, and some people don’t take me seriously, so it’s nice to challenge those views. I had an interesting experience when I played at one club, and before my set, I was all in my outfit, wearing my tiara, and I went up to the bar just to ask for some water. And then the person at the bar just gave me weird looks, like, who is this bitch? And then I performed, and it went really well. People really liked it. And I came back to the bar afterwards, and they were really surprised and were really friendly.
Do you ever get comments that make you feel like you should fit it into a certain narrative?
I definitely get comments when I’m just walking down the street or on my bike, and people yell out “Barbie!”, stuff like that. And I just, like, wave back at them. But I don’t mind. Generally, it’s kind of funny, but I have no problem. I mean, I like Barbie, so it’s fine. I guess because I was already kind of doing all of this before the movie came out, but I guess, for some people that had seen the movie and then sort of seen me, I get it. The other day I was riding my bike in Neukölln, and a car was waiting at the lights. Then they started playing ‘Barbie Girl’ [by Aqua] and rolled down the windows as they went past.
You’ve been making music for a long time, so what’s held you back from releasing anything until 2024?
I’m a bit of a perfectionist. I was afraid of failure. I would wake up at night thinking, am I ever gonna release this album? Then somebody said to me, “The music you put out is like a snapshot of what you’re doing at the moment.” I realised it doesn’t have to be the pinnacle of everything. I tried to think that these are the tracks I made and have been playing live, and this is the concept I have and want to put out. I just need to be slightly less precious about it. I was so overjoyed when, at the start of this year, I actually did it. It literally brought me to tears when I got that vinyl in my hand.
I’m into so many different things. I was making breakbeat in the beginning, and then I had a phase making dubstep for a few years. And then I had a love of techno over the last six years or so. The record [HeartCore] is broadly under the umbrella of techno, but there are a lot of influences from the other genres. I like to meld and bring those things together, from drum and bass and dubstep and stuff like that. Maybe I’ll do something completely different for the next album, I don’t know. I want to feel free to explore whatever I feel like.
What’s next on the sparkly-pink agenda?
I would love to do a pink party. I know there have been a couple in Berlin. I actually went to one of them, but, yeah, I would love to do that at some point. Right now, though, I’m just focusing on music. I just had a release out on Detroit Underground, and I have a new EP out in September, Exit Planet Pink. The title is an homage to the first [The] Chemical Brothers album, which was one of my earliest introductions to electronic music. It’s energetic, uplifting, with a feeling of positive excitement and hope for things to come. I finally feel free to express myself which is why I’m pushing so hard to put out all this music that has been bottled up inside of me for so long.
- Exit Planet Pink is out on Doll Time Records now. Follow Sarah Sommers on Instagram.
