Max HeyraudSarah Sommers moves to the beat of her own drum, and that drum is a custom-designed, bright pink modular rig.
You can’t miss Sarah Sommers, best known for her striking all-pink aesthetic. It’s more than just a visual—it reflects her vibrant personality and bold artistic vision, one that actively challenges social norms. In the traditionally male-dominated world of live performance, Sarah stands out, not only because her instruments are clad in unapologetic pink, but because she embraces a feminine and colourful energy in a culture that can often be devoid of it.
Women have long been part of the electronic music scene as artists, innovators, and performers—and their presence continues to grow more visible and recognised today. While lineups have become more gender-balanced, areas like music production and especially live performance still remain heavily male-dominated. Sommers, almost unintentionally, is pushing back against that.
She says, “it wasn’t originally my intention to challenge anything,” but also, “I think also taking these machines, which are often made to more traditional male-coded aesthetics and giving them a powerful feminine aesthetic has also resonated with a lot of people.”
Originally from Australia and now based in Berlin, though it seems she arrived via a dazzling rocket ship from the depths of planet pink, Sommers has become one of the most captivating live acts in the city. Drawing inspiration from dubstep to warehouse-style techno, her sound falls under the broad banner of rave. But even within that, she breaks the mould: raw, unfiltered live jams, no compression, long-form storytelling tracks. Her love for the album format shines through.
Now preparing to release her second album, Sommers is set to debut on Ellen Allien’s legendary BPitch Recordings with VIVID, a tribute to the graphic, sensory memories of her formative years in rave culture. It’s a body of work that mirrors her identity as an artist: bold, loud, bright, and free.
What first drew you to performing live?
It happened fairly quickly when I attended my first raves in Melbourne; there were often live acts, and I became very interested in the sounds that these mysterious machines were producing. It was another world, and the sonic possibilities seemed fantastical and futuristic.
Tell us about your custom pink hardware collection. How have you designed them this way?
So, this was my number one question for a while, and I made a video about how I do it, which I then posted on Instagram. It went viral. I wasn’t expecting that. I was just trying to answer the questions. So I have several different methods for pinkifying my gear. Some methods require disassembly and respraying the housing, knobs, buttons, etc, or replacing parts with bought or 3D printed pieces. Some of them I create sticky vinyl overlays with my design on top, printed and then cut with my cutting machine. I’ve also been into electronics for a while, and built a couple of machines myself. I’ve been experimenting with screen printing, and I’m keen to get into laser etching as well as 3D printing. Each new piece of gear that finds its way into the setup, I like to try something new. Some manufacturers have been very sweet and made me a couple of pink panels for some of my modular modules.
Staying on pink, is there any deeper meaning behind your pink aesthetic, or is it as simple as you like pink?
So I think there are a few things. I have long loved the colour, but not always felt I could express it as openly as I wanted. I think for me, there are strong themes about expressing yourself as you are without compromise. I think because I felt like I had to compromise myself for so long when I was younger, there’s a sort of extreme explosion of freedom of expression aspect to it. Though I understand there are a lot of social constructs at play, I think also taking these machines, which are often made to more traditional male-coded aesthetics and giving them a powerful feminine aesthetic has also resonated with a lot of people. Ultimately, I just love colour in general, and I just thought it was a beautiful idea. I feel euphoric when I’ve finished a new pink design on a machine. I’m also happy to see more manufacturers embracing more colourful designs in newer equipment, but my message would also be that pink is for anyone regardless of gender, it’s a beautiful, vibrant, positive and exciting colour.
It’s in stark contrast to the mostly clad in all black culture in Berlin; is there an element of going against the social norms in how you present yourself?
So it wasn’t originally my intention to challenge anything. It was just about doing what I loved and being true to my self-expression and not feeling pressured into conforming to a particular way of being, aesthetically, musically and as a person. But indirectly, I guess it does challenge some things which have become norms. What I think some don’t realise is that when the rave scene began in the 90s, it was very colourful and free, and people were excited about freedom of expression. It was an underground movement and a counterculture where you didn’t have to dress a certain way to fit in. You could be as simple or as extravagant as you wished. And that’s the kind of freedom I feel like I stand for. I have no problem with black, and it might be my second favourite colour, but I don’t think it’s good for people to feel pressured to look a certain way to be accepted if that’s not how they feel.
You’ve a mini-album forthcoming on Ellen Alien’s BPitch Recordings, a landmark release. How are you feeling about it?
I’m incredibly excited and proud of it. I feel like it’s some of my best work so far, and I’m honoured that Ellen and the BPitch crew like what I’m doing and want to release my music. It’s a dream come true to be releasing on BPitch, which has been at the heart of the Berlin scene for so long. It has been my dream for a very long time to contribute to the vibrant electronic music culture of Berlin, which I visited many times over the years before finally moving here in 2018.
The album title is “VIVID,”. Is there any meaning behind it?
I’m glad you asked. Yes, there’s quite a bit of meaning to it for me. Often when I’m writing music, I get flashes of atmospheres or sounds and memories of dancefloors or raves I’ve been to over the years in different scenes. The tracks on VIVID have quite a lot of these vivid memories for me. From the huge warehouse raves of Shed 14 down at the docks in Melbourne, where I went to many of my first raves. To the feeling of the intense bass as I walked up the church stairs at Mass in Brixton to my first dubstep party in London. When I was standing on the dancefloor of Tresor in Berlin, soaking up a really interesting atmospheric rhythm and trying to mentally take it apart to understand how it worked. To that experience of dancing as the sun comes up and sharing smiles with strangers on the dancefloor. All of these experiences shaped and inspired me musically in different ways. Also, I feel like my music is quite vividly colourful and can be intense, like my track Bubbles. I love colour and intensity if it wasn’t already obvious haha. Finally, vivid also comes from the Latin vivere, which means “to live”, and the intensity with which I wrote and perform this music, as well as living out my dreams, makes me feel really alive. Also, the beautiful and vivid front cover artwork was painted by Berlin artist Miriam Mondshein, who uses synesthesia to create her art, and this is what she saw when listening to my music, and I think it’s beautiful. She told me my music honestly has a “pink sheen” to it, which I was very happy about.
This follows your 2024 album “HeartCore.” What draws you to the album format, especially in a time in electronic music where they’re becoming less common?
I like to tell a story. I like there to be a journey with the releases. Even within the tracks themselves, I like it to take you on a journey. The track Tresor, for example, is quite long, and I debated splitting it into 3 separate tracks. But then I felt like I enjoy the ride it takes you on, similar to my quite long track HeartCore on my debut album. I feel like these tracks kind of belong together because they tell these stories of these different vivid impressions.
Your track “Bubbles” is a highlight from “VIVID,” it’s certainly UK influenced, and the song’s structure is quite spasmodic in a way; it’s somewhat of a pivot from your other work. Is having a fresh approach and output important to you?
So it wasn’t an intentional pivot or anything. That’s interesting because I hear my UK influence more in some of my other tracks. To be honest, I don’t know where Bubbles came from. It began its life as a very old jam I had saved on one of my machines and had forgotten about. I then rediscovered it and brought it back to life and grew it into a much bigger triffid kind of beast, it’s a fun one to play. I feel like it doesn’t follow the rules, and I like that about it. I like to just follow where things take me when I write music; I mustn’t feel pressure to write or perform in a particular way. I don’t like rules or constraints; I like to create what I feel or hear in the moment. I feel like my sound is constantly evolving and growing, and I have a lot of ideas and like to be inspired by different things and try and experiment with things. Also, I think it’s important to take risks even if you think it’s too weird and people won’t like it; the main thing is I have to like it, and it touches me in some way.
Your music is very refreshing in the way that I don’t think it sounds overproduced; there’s a raw ’90s kind of feel to it, would you agree?
Thanks, yeah, I’d agree there’s a rawness to a lot of it, I think that comes down a bit to my approach of using the same hardware to write and perform my tracks and the choice of the hardware itself. I also don’t use a computer, and I don’t use compression. I prefer the natural dynamics, and I just love some good raw synth sounds, I guess. I do spend a long time balancing the levels and tweaking the sounds and feel, so even if it sounds raw, actually a lot of thought and work has gone into it. The tracks also get kind of refined each time I perform them, taking away or adding things each time. Often, the tracks continue to evolve even after I’ve recorded and released them, and so the versions I perform live are slightly different each time.
What other artists are exciting you right now?
I like Richard Easel, a live performer in Berlin. He needs to make more music.
