Women to Watch in EDM

There's no shortage of women attending dance music festivals across the globe, but there's a dearth of female DJs and producers on the bill. To make sure you aren't sleeping on the ill ladies behind the decks, Do Androids Dance presents a selection of artists worth checking for. 

From: Lexington, Ky.

Listen to: “Dynasty,” “Mickie”

Lexington, which is known for bluegrass, has to be one of the last places in the U.S. you’d expect to hear the future of electronic music, but Herring bucks the norm. She’s been bubbling on the underground, crafting electronic music that walks the line between deep grooves and left-field sensibilities, sometimes folding her vocals into the mix. In 2014, she came into her own, remixing denitia and sene’s “Side FX,” and her song “Mickie” made the first compilation from Ryan Hemsworth’s tastemaking Secret Songs imprint, helping put her music on a higher platform than ever before. 

From: Newark, N.J.

Listen To: Her debut mixtape, The New Klassiks

As one of the only women on the decks for Jersey’s Brick Bandits crew (which features DJ Sliink, Nadus, and other Jersey club DJs), UNiiQU3 has been representing the party-rockin’ club sound throughout the Tri-State, gaining the attention of the forward-thinking and highly regarded GHE20G0TH1K and Lit City crews. For the uninitiated, Jersey club is an offshoot of the Baltimore club sound (which marries the hip-hop and house scenes). The Jersey sound ups the tempo while maintaining cooler vibes and also uses trap build-ups and breakdowns. Lit City linked up with Brick Bandits to release UNiiQU3’s The New Klassiks mixtape, on which the Jersey upstart dazzled with her skills as a selector­—she’s not just picking big records, she’s picking the right records, such as the classic Bmore of Rod Lee’s “E Pillz” and thunderous future Jersey club vibe of her remix of DJ Tameil’s “Tek 9.”

From: Glasgow, Scotland

Listen To: “Scooter,” “Kiss Kat”

For the last four years, Nightwave has been the prospect everyone wants to blow up. She’s released tunes on a number of tastemaking imprints, including Unknown to the Unknown, Slit Jockey, and Fortified Audio, but it was her participation at the 2011 Red Bull Music Academy in London that put her skills as a producer and DJ on display for the whole electronic world to see. She flexes her bass-loving muscles in a number of genres, from grime to ghetto tech, and for her Hit It EP, which was the second release on her Heka Trax imprint, she even recruited legendary Chicago juke pioneer DJ Deeon for the title track. She’s one track away from major recognition.

From: Sacramento, Calif.

Listen To: “Let’s Ride,” her remix of SWV’s “You’re the One”

Kozee’s one of the few female DJs/producers who’s been representing the bass music scene in America since dubstep touched down in 2004. A lifelong music fan, she went from producing hip-hop and jazz to jungle and drum & bass before diving deep into the slow and low registers of the dubstep sound. She’s produced huge tunes, like the warbly stateside dubstep anthem “Crack” with DZ and the bouncy, Lucky Beard-released “James”; she toured the U.K. and Sweden back in 2008, at a time when Skrillex was just getting traction and few American DJs and producers were playing overseas; she’s released tunes for progressive dance music imprints like Four40 Records, Top Billin, and Lucky Beard, and is affiliated with two-time DMC World Champion DJ Shiftee’s progressive bass music imprint Hot Mom USA. She’s a true vet.