Techno DJ and American producer Sara Landry takes a beat from the European run of her ETERNALISM tour to attend Rick Owens Fall Winter 2025 show, draped in the designer’s avant-garde silhouettes, wearing a cybergothic black gown complete with a sleek silver crescent ring. Landry released her debut album Spiritual Driveby in 2024, and her following performances seek to bring sensuality, transcendence, and community to her audiences. Her dark, envelope-pushing sounds are definitively feminine, with hidden healing frequencies within her music.

Here, we speak with Landry while she gets ready for Rick Owens at Paris Fashion Week.

‍Tell us about your experience at Paris Fashion Week. What's inspiring you this season?  ‍

This was my first time doing a few days at Paris Fashion Week! It’s been amazing to see the shows, soak in the creativity, and get dressed up. It’s fun and it’s made me happy. I really like the juxtaposition I’ve seen so far between avant-garde chaos and comfort. There’s also been a lot of really incredible outerwear, which I can’t wait to get my hands on!

‍‍Rick Owens' creative direction is considered avant-garde and boundary-breaking–similarly, your live shows/performances and music style prioritize innovation and creation. How do you feel your interactions with fashion and creators like Rick Owens help you inform the creation of your musical identity and aesthetic curation?

‍I’ve been a fan of Rick Owens for 10+ years now, and I’ve always found his boundary breaking ideas to be incredibly inspiring. His work has always had an amazing juxtaposition between alien, almost inhuman beauty and luxury human comfort, which I find interesting. How do you comfort and please the animal instincts that underlay the human senses? How do you nourish the corporeal body while also stimulating the infinite, quantum mind? For me, his work does both. The coolest, most insane pieces from my closet are by Rick, as are my favorite flannel sweatpants. I respect that range. 

Seeing artists like Rick Owens or Lady Gaga transcend these creative boundaries has inspired me to think about fashion, beauty, form, and experience in a different way, which has opened up perceptive doors in my chosen medium. Also, seeing someone with such a different perspective on what’s beautiful be so successful has made me feel like it’s possible for me to be successful as well, even if my ideas seem too “out there” initially. 

What kind of energy/atmosphere are you trying to cultivate for your audiences when performing, and what kind of energy do you hope to get back? 

There’s a deeply spiritual energy in all music, and I’ve always felt in tune with those higher frequencies. Sound can be a powerful conduit for transformation, and I aim to create that kind of spiritual experience for my listeners. 

Hard techno, in particular, shares this connection. There’s something incredibly powerful about channeling energy through music and watching it ripple through a crowd at breakneck speed. Seeing that collective shift while I play is an unmatched feeling, it’s cathartic for both the audience and myself. 

I truly believe I’m here to offer out-of-body experiences through my sets, I consider it to be an act of divine service and my offering for an everlasting spiritual moment in music. Most of my tracks contain healing frequencies, and I structure my sets with intention - starting heavy to purge darkness from the space and gradually moving toward something lighter and more transcendent. It’s about guiding the crowd through an energetic journey, creating something both visceral and enlightening.  

‍How has your personal style evolved in recent years, and how has your musical identity and touring impacted that evolution? 

I've always loved fashion, but it's taken on an even bigger role in my performances. Since I move so much while playing, I focus on fabrics that not only look great but also work for the intensity of performing. I've been styling myself for shows for a while now, and my approach is always evolving, but I really enjoy that part of the process. Offstage, my style leans toward elevated yet cool–pieces that feel comfortable and functional but still have an edge. Or sometimes, I go all in with statement looks featuring some of my more daring pieces. 

What excites you about the techno space in 2025? 

Oh my God, so much. Hard techno in particular has exploded over the last few years and it’s been so amazing to play a role in pushing this genre forward. After the pandemic, there was this hunger for something raw, high-energy, and immersive and interactive. Call it a blessing or a curse, social media has also made it easier for people to discover new sounds and find their scene, which has opened doors for the genre on such a major scale. We’re at a point now where sounds that were once deep underground are at the forefront, colliding in new and unexpected ways.

What excites me most is how this movement has created a space where people can be wild and chaotic in a way that feels cathartic and freeing, is what makes it so special. It’s a cultural force for a new generation of ravers, offering both intensity and solace in a world that often feels just as frenetic.

On a personal level, 2025 is already shaping up to be a huge year for me. My ETERNALISM tour has been incredible–it’s something I’ve envisioned for a long time, pushing hard techno to new heights in a way that truly represents my artistry at some of the most prestigious venues in the world including Zénith Paris-La Villette, the 02 Brixton in London, Fabrik Madrid and the Brooklyn Mirage in May. And then there’s Coachella - my debut at the festival–which is going to be EPIC. I can’t wait to bring my vision to that stage and share this energy with an even bigger audience.

Photographed by GUIRI.