Eris Drew

Vinyl-focused and Midwest rave

Eris Drew's sets are instantly recognizable: all vinyl, hand-ridden pitch, hip-hop-inherited scratches, and a rave energy that asks for no permission. Formed in the underground scene of Chicago and the American Midwest, she started DJing in 1994, at eighteen, after getting hooked on raves in the early nineties. Born in Perth, Australia, she arrived in the United States as a child—with stints in Wisconsin and Kansas City—and grew up in Glen Ellyn, on the outskirts of Chicago. A spiritual awakening after a 1994 rave at the Oak Street Theater gave a name to what she calls Motherbeat: a ritual pulse that, in her practice, opens the body, dissolves boundaries, and connects the dance floor with ecstatic traditions.

She was a resident at Smartbar, signed by The Black Madonna. There, she promoted parties like Hugo Ball (2012, alongside Justin Long and Sevron) and, since 2015, the Daphne gathering, dedicated to women and non-binary electronic artists. The international leap came in 2017, during Detroit's Movement: her set at the queer party Club Toilet projected her from the local network to European booths like Panorama Bar. In 2018 and 2019, she went from a few dozen US dates to an intense tour that included Glastonbury, Unsound, Dimensions, and Primavera Sound.

T4T LUV NRG, from the cabin to fabric

In 2017, she met Octo Octa. The following year, they released the joint EP Devotion on Lisbon's Naive, and in 2019 they founded the label and platform T4T LUV NRG from a cabin in New Hampshire: house, breaks, and vinyl editions designed for DJing, dancing, and celebrating trans love. The mixtape Raving Disco Breaks, Vol. 1 (2019) and the EP Fluids of Emotion (2020, Interdimensional Transmissions, Detroit) established a sound of house with breakbeats, scratches, and euphoric melodies, often crossed with garage, trance, and electro. In 2020, they were residents on BBC Radio 1 and recorded fabric presents Octo Octa & Eris Drew. Mixmag chose them as DJs of the year in 2019. Her first solo album, Quivering in Time, arrived in 2021 and earned the cover of Crack Magazine.

DJ-Kicks and the chemistry of live performance

She remains a vinyl DJ with over three decades of practice. In 2022, she signed a Boiler Room at Dekmantel; in 2024, a two-hour Essential Mix on Radio 1, the single I Can Move Move, and Raving Disco Breaks Vol. II. On November 14, 2025, she released her DJ-Kicks on !K7: seventy-nine minutes of house and breaks recorded with two turntables in the cabin. With Octo Octa, she has announced the Alchemical Sisters album for Interdimensional Transmissions in October 2026. She leads Motherbeat rites at Hot Mass (Pittsburgh) and Room 4 Resistance (Berlin), gives talks on dance music and ecstatic traditions, and works as a mentor and advocate for trans, non-binary, and queer communities. Her worldwide booking is handled by Biota Agency.