DJ-priestess Sara Landry proudly reps the roots beneath her rhythms

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On the final night of this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, performing before hundreds of revelers at the center of a glowing pyramid, DJ Sara Landry reached a Zen state.With eyebrows furrowed, she leaned into the decks, spinning an operatic techno mashup from the turntables and orchestrating the ebb and flow of fans’ bodies.

The 32-year-old Mexican American DJ, also known as “The High Priestess of Techno,” performed with Blood Oath: a collective of female DJs that includes DJ Jenna Shaw, LP Giobbi, Tokimonsta and Mary Droppinz, all of whom Landry assembled as her personal Avengers.As she handed over the decks to DJ Shaw, Landry’s stern visage eased into a blissful smile.Known for her witchy black wardrobe and heavy industrial production, Landry has emerged as a power player in the dance music scene — catalyzed by a viral 2023 Boiler Room set that now counts 10 million views.

In it, Landry played her original song “Legacy,” a heavenly vocal track banging her head as she unraveled a soundscape that called to mind an ethereal alien planet.With one prophetic line from a vocal sample, Landry set her career in motion: “No one can stop me now.”Landry had just graduated from NYU when she began DJing at local bars in her hometown of Austin, Texas.

Her love affair with the art form began in 2014, when she was still working as a bartender in New York City; enthralled by the local nightlife, she cut her teeth promoting events and studying her favorite DJs.“After [going to] college in New York and experiencing the underground DJ scene there, I moved back into my childhood bedroom in my mom’s house in true Hispanic fashion,” she tells De Los before her Coachella set.

Landry recalls a particular night when she watched, entranced, as a friend mixed on turntables — it was the moment that convinced her to buy her first board (on Amazon, no less).Jus...