Marie Vaunt

The 303 as a dancefloor doctrine

In the booth, Marie Vaunt's acid techno doesn't ask for permission: the squelch of the 303 enters like a foreign body and stays vibrating. Nicknamed the Acid Techno Priestess, she has turned that rebellious frequency into a language of her own, halfway between a ritual and a peak-time rave. Born in Seattle and raised in Japan until her mid-teens, she brings the visual discipline of her Japanese heritage and the edge of the Los Angeles underground, where she lives and produces, to the dancefloor. The koto and shamisen appear in her tracks not as souvenirs, but as cyberpunk contrast within a cold, distorted, and precise techno framework.

Kurai, Drumcode and the chart fever

After nearly two decades in the electronic scene, including a long chapter as DJ Heavygrinder, in 2018 she refocused the project toward a darker and more physical techno. The single Witchcraft broke into the Beatport Top 100 within a few days and opened a discography that today includes Drumcode, Arcane, HILOMATIK, Revealed Recordings, EXTATIC, Monstercat, and Fe Chrome. In 2024 she co-founded Kurai Records —kurai means dark in Japanese—, a label that placed itself among the three most powerful techno labels on the platform. Dark Room, on Drumcode, reached number 1 on Techno Peak Time; ADSR and Reaction shared the Top 10 at the same time. That year she was the best-selling female techno artist on Beatport and the fourth in the general ranking. That Acid and The Chosen extended the streak of summits. In 2025 she surpassed 18.9 million streams on Spotify.

Steel Yard, Quantum Valley and the borderless tour

Creamfields' Steel Yard is among the moments she points to as decisive. The same pulse has crossed EDC Las Vegas at Quantum Valley, Dreamstate, Tomorrowland Winter, Beyond Wonderland SoCal, and stages in Japan, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Australia, and the United States. She has signed dancefloor weapons with Belocca, POPOF, ASY*S, The YellowHeads, Mha Iri, or Gabry Ponte, with support from Adam Beyer, Eli Brown, Amelie Lens, Charlotte de Witte, Hardwell, Maddix, or Tiësto. International booking is handled by United Talent Agency and, in Europe, by Love Live Agency.