DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ: Meet the enigmatic producer that’s just having fun making dance musicMistaken for Aphex Twin and Taylor Swift, the excitement around critic and cult favourite DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ has remained at boiling point since the pandemic. While the enigmatic producer’s identity remains a mystery — according to her bio, “a cat named Salem is uploading music from an old colonial Dutch house somewhere in 1996” — there is no denying her tireless work rate of releasing a dozen albums since 2017. Like the rest of the dance world, we’re certainly under her spell.

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Now, fresh from the release of her brilliant new album Hex, she talks to MusicTech about anonymity, nostalgia, genre, hours-long releases, sample culture and the resurgence of physical formats.
Tell us about yourself: who are you, where are you from and how old are you? How did you land on the name DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ?
Sabrina Spellman (and my familiar, Salem Thee Cat), from The Other Realm and I’m younger than 20, older than 12. The name was because I needed something that looked dumber on a club flyer than DJ Boring or DJ Seinfeld… I think it’s a winner.
Have you always wanted to remain elusive as an artist?
Being elusive means the music comes first. Anonymous DJs always show their faces when they have their moment of fame, but it ain’t gonna be me. I have no desire to be known for anything other than the music and keeping elusive is probably the best way of doing that.

You’ve said that your music is inspired by “how the comfortable familiarity of nostalgia can tap into the imagination” — can you tell us more?
I’m always nostalgic, it’s my coping mechanism. Without it, what are we? Just people moving around a world with no solid ground beneath. We need some warm, cosy, positive connection between the present/future and the past to have any hope of moving forward with some level of comfort and familiarity. That’s what allows us to be human.
Your music weaves between disco, synth funk, and Y2K pop – are you striving for any genres in particular?
I don’t think of my music as being any one particular genre. Maybe pop is the most reliable label but there are obviously other elements of my songs that aren’t really associated with pop either. I might call it intelligent dance music(IDM)/braindance if I were being pretentious, but that would have the unintended effect of highlighting IDM for the hack genre name it is. My songs don’t sound like IDM, so they can’t be IDM) and, much like progressive rock, it’s just a genre name to make the listener feel better about themselves. I am hugely influenced and inspired by AFX, SquareP, Aute, Plug, VSnares, Heorge/Stein and the gang. It’s often called house because it has a four-to-the-floor beat, but is it really house? I just like lots of music that happens to travel over lots of genres and I kinda roll everything I like about music into my songs.
You’ve released about a dozen albums since 2017, including last year’s Destiny which was 41 songs long. That’s an incredible work rate — what’s the secret?
I work every day on something. Either new songs, mixing old songs, making mixes… it’s just a seven-day-a-week thing for me. Plus, I don’t have anyone else to rely on (just Salem and I, as always) so if I need something done, I just do it. No waiting, no fuss.

A lot of artists in other genres get criticised for releasing albums that are too long…
I originally had a two-hour album because the record label that played with my emotions kept me waiting while I just cranked out more songs over the year. By the end, I had two albums’ worth, decided to forget about the label and release it myself. I was too tired to split them up into two albums and, when you’re releasing on streaming and cassette tape, it’s not a big deal to have a two-hour album. The three-hour album (Charmed) was to compete with Makin’ Magick 1 and the four hour album (Destiny) was to compete with Charmed. People seem to prefer my longer albums so I would say it was a net win for me. I just need albums to be long enough to jog to and I’m happy.
With many of your songs being over 10 minutes long, it feels like a response to the neatly-packaged two-and-a-half-minute songs that mainstream listeners are accustomed to because. Do you feel that music has therefore become too restricted? 
A lot of my favourite songs from the 90s are long and that always stuck with me: Fatboy Slim’s Santa Cruz is 7:30, Lemon Jelly’s Come is 8:29 and Chemical Brothers’ Where Do I Begin/Private Psychedelic Reel Suite is a combined 16 minutes and 19 seconds, so it’s just normal for me. It’s whatever suits the song, I guess.
I spend a lot of time getting the lengths right so the tracks feel perfectly paced for myself as I am always listening to them for fun. Comparatively, my album segues are usually longer than 2:30.
You’ve recently remixed Days of the Week by Australian duo Flight Facilities – what is your process when it comes to remixes and edits? Are you treating tracks like samples, or trying to dissect and rebuild?
I’m trying to create a space in my world for someone else’s idea. Trying to stay respectful to the original intention while making something new with some of the elements. I think remixes are a lot of fun to do. You can connect with a new audience by bridging the two styles of the remixer and remixee.

Your songs obviously feature a lot of samples: how do you choose which things to sample? Have you had any clearance trouble?
Anything and everything – if it sounds good, I’ll use it. If I was making 200% organic music, nobody would be interested as they could just make their own music themselves and it wouldn’t have that huge, universal feeling that sampling has. Estates of the late greats, along with washed up Gen X/boomers, seem to have fun suing young songwriters that have never even heard their songs (the nouveau ambulance chasers?). Looking at how popstar writers keep adding credits of other popstars to their writing credits just in case, I think it’s more risky to write original music right now.
Are there any particular samplers or software you gravitate towards using?
I just use PreSonus’ Studio One 4 (the last version). It went awful and buggy with version 5 upwards, so I just stick to what I know and update my computer around it.
You’ve just released Hex. What is the best setting for people to experience it and how do you want people to feel when they hear the record?
Most of the songs were made this year. Some are leftovers from the last few albums and one is from 2021, but it’s mostly new. I jog to listen to the albums, but driving/riding while listening would also work. I guess you can’t do that with vinyl, though. Jai Paul was always recommended as headphone listening so probably that would work best (I’m not comparing myself to him, I just always liked that idea).
Hex was originally meant to be part of a three-album simultaneous release, along with Bewitched and half of what Destiny ended up being. The heatwave of 2022 made it unbearable to mix anymore and I was exhausted so I just finished Bewitched up. Destiny ended up being a mega-release so Hex had to wait a while (that’s also why the early version of the song Hex is on the vinyl EP from 2022). It puts a hex on you, ya know?
DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ’s Hex album cover
You’re releasing it on CD, audio tape and vinyl – why the physical formats?
I love glass-mastered CDs, so it’s awesome for me. Tape and vinyl are cool, and I’m also doing a few more fun formats in a few weeks when they’re ready. They’re slightly more work for me and my big albums, but that just makes it mean more for anyone buying something they can put in a player or on a deck. I think people are just tired of not feeling like their money is buying them something tangible; they want to have something physical to own that they can probably pass down or bury in a time capsule. Streaming is really just convenient – it doesn’t make you feel particularly connected with something you love.
Did you ever expect to grow such a cult fanbase?
Absolutely no expectations whatsoever. I never thought anyone would like my music and I still just make it for myself and imagine no one else is even listening. It’s hard to remember that, even after this many years, it just feels like no one else would like what I’m doing. It’s truly humbling every day and I can only hope that in trying to please myself with music, I can make at least one other person happy with it. That’s all I’m looking to do.
What are you expecting Anthony Fantano to rate your album?
Hmm… well he gave Charmed a six and has never gone higher on any of my other albums, so I would hope he’d give it a Hex!
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