Purrdition.
Room to find your own way.
Purrdition on hypnotic grooves, the potential in a demo and the cost of putting your values into practice in a club.
In conversation with Purrdition
A percussion line can make her happier now than a drop at 160 BPM. Purrdition is listening with an open mind again: to slower grooves, unusual textures and her own ideas. In this conversation, the Vienna DJ and producer connects that shift with her work at FEMpire and PURRADOX. We talk about tracks that reveal their weaknesses on a big system, working together on demos, and club nights whose principles have to survive the budget.
Purrdition is Sabrina, a Vienna-based DJ and producer. In 2023 she founded FEMpire as a platform for FLINTA* producers; with PURRADOX, she organises club nights. This email conversation took place ahead of her Tohuwabohu appearance at FLUCC Wanne on 24 October 2026. The answers have been lightly edited and translated from German.
Letting the groove unfold.
On 24 October you’re playing Tohuwabohu at FLUCC, where the night is billed around rolling techno that builds gradually. What appeals to you about that kind of evening? Is there music in your collection you’d particularly like to make room for there?
My own sound has changed quite a lot over the past year. I used to play much harder and faster, and for a while I defined myself quite strongly through that sound. These days I appreciate much more what slower, hypnotic tracks can do: that gradual building of tension, subtle changes and grooves you eventually lose yourself in completely.
I’ve realised that it isn’t necessarily a track’s speed or hardness that excites me, but what it does to me. Today, a really good percussion line can make me happier than a drop at 160 BPM. Character development, I’d say.
I think I’ve also let go a little of the need to fit into a particular musical box. I’m listening with much more of an open mind again and discovering an incredible amount of new music as a result.
That’s exactly why I’m looking forward to the night. I’ll be bringing some hypnotic, groovy tracks with interesting textures and unusual sounds. And a few of my own unreleased tracks that I want to test for the first time on Saturday.
The club hears things the studio misses.
Choose one of your own tracks: what small idea started it, and what did it become during production? I’d also be interested to know whether your view of it changed after playing it in a club for the first time.
I actually find this question quite difficult, because I almost never go into the studio with a concrete idea.
Of course, sometimes I have a rough direction in mind because another track has inspired me, for example. But I’m not someone who has a brilliant idea and then sits down to realise it. Most things emerge while I’m producing. I experiment with sounds, rhythms and effects and see where they take me.
Maybe that’s also why I enjoy making remixes so much. They give me a starting point to work from without having to stick to it musically. The original points me in a certain direction, but what I do with it is completely open. Somehow, that combination of an existing foundation and creative freedom makes the production process much easier for me.
A good example is my remix of Akona’s “Acid Destruction”. It’s actually one of the few tracks of mine that I still really like today. Unfortunately, with most of my productions, I’ve stopped liking them by the time they’re finally released. Probably because I’ve already heard them about 500 times during production.
Testing something in a club for the first time can also be quite sobering. Everything sounds great at home, and then on a big system you suddenly hear things you hadn’t noticed at all before: not enough low end, an element that doesn’t cut through properly, or a drop that doesn’t quite work as intended.
They’re probably details nobody notices except me, but you’re standing there thinking: what the hell have I actually produced?
At the same time, that’s incredibly valuable. You learn a lot about how your own music actually works on the dancefloor.
It’s relatively easy to talk about values. Things get interesting when actually living by them costs something.
Hearing the potential in a demo.
With FEMpire, you give FLINTA* artists a platform for their music. What happens between the first demo you receive and the finished release? Tell us about an exchange where you realised you could help someone take a concrete step forward.
When I founded FEMpire in 2023, the basic idea was to offer FLINTA* artists a platform and actively help make more perspectives visible in electronic music.
I don’t think our scene lacks talented artists. What’s often missing is opportunities, networks and sometimes even people who believe you’re capable of doing something in the first place.
What sets FEMpire apart from many other labels is that we don’t commit to one particular sound. A lot of labels have a very clear musical direction, which is completely legitimate, of course. But for us, supporting FLINTA* artists comes first.
That’s why we release everything from slower, minimal and hypnotic sounds through to uncompromising hard techno. As long as the music works in a club and convinces us artistically, genre is secondary.
So when we receive demos, it isn’t just about whether a track is technically perfect. Sometimes there’s a really good idea that isn’t quite fully developed yet. Then we try to offer constructive feedback and work together to bring out the track’s potential.
We also work with mixing and mastering engineers. On our most recent compilation in particular, some tracks needed to be reworked or mixed again before mastering.
I can completely relate to that, because for a very long time I didn’t mix my tracks myself either. Producing a good track and mixing it technically so that it works on a big club system are two different skills, after all.
It matters to me that this kind of feedback isn’t understood as criticism of the artistic work, but as part of a shared process. In the end, we all want the music to reach its full potential.
Values have a cost.
At PURRADOX you’re both behind the decks and organising the night. What experience as a DJ made you approach promoting differently? And what would you pass on to someone planning their first night?
When you’re out working as a DJ yourself, you soon notice what works well in the scene and what doesn’t. And over the years, unfortunately, I’ve experienced and observed quite a few things I didn’t want to simply accept.
Especially when it comes to equality, diversity and safety in nightlife, I think there’s still an incredible amount to do.
PURRADOX grew out of a desire to do more than talk about what needs to change: to actively do something differently ourselves.
For me, that starts with booking. Who do we give a stage to? Is it really about the music and the artists’ skills, or mainly about follower counts, fame and who knows whom? I think promoters have a responsibility for the structures their own decisions support.
Another hugely important point is awareness. I find it alarming that it’s still sometimes treated as a nice extra you offer if there happens to be enough budget left over. Even though an awareness concept is now a legal requirement for events in Vienna above a certain size.
It should be a given that people can go out as safely as possible, without fear of harassment or assault. And that takes more than putting two people in awareness T-shirts. It takes trained people, clear structures and a willingness to actually take responsibility.
Really, the same attitude runs through everything I do. Whether it’s FEMpire, PURRADOX or my own music: I want to question existing structures and give people more room to follow their own path.
But something else I’ve learned from organising events is how difficult it can be to actually live up to your own standards.
Costs have risen enormously in recent years. Artist fees, equipment, staff, travel, hotels: practically everything is getting more expensive. At the same time, you can’t keep raising ticket prices indefinitely, because club culture needs to remain accessible too.
If you also care about fair pay, a professional awareness team and good working conditions, things get financially tight very quickly.
I don’t think many people realise how much money and work goes into these events. Often it’s long since stopped being about making a profit and become a matter of covering costs at all. And sometimes you end up paying out of your own pocket.
Of course, there are places you could cut costs. But I don’t want to compromise on the things that matter to me.
It’s relatively easy to talk about values. Things get interesting when actually living by them costs something.
Organising an event responsibly shouldn’t put you at an economic disadvantage. But sometimes that’s exactly how it feels.
And I do wonder how long it can remain sustainable under these conditions. However much passion you put into it, you shouldn’t have to keep sacrificing your own financial resources to make a positive contribution to the scene.
What would I tell someone organising their own event for the first time? First, think about why you want to do it at all. What should it contribute to the scene? What do you want to do differently?
And, very practically: never underestimate the financial commitment. And perhaps start building yourself a therapeutic support network.
Following colours, shapes and sounds.
You also work with painting and photography. Is there an idea, an image or a way of working from those fields that has found its way into your music? And what would you like to work on without already thinking about a finished track or the next gig?
I’m actually a very visual person. Even as a child, I was constantly painting, drawing and making things, and later taking photographs too. Music came much later for me. I never learned an instrument, and for a long time I knew absolutely nothing about music theory.
But I think my different creative interests are much more closely connected than they might seem at first glance. Whether I’m painting, taking photographs or producing music, ultimately it’s about creating a certain mood or expressing something that perhaps isn’t easy to put into words.
For me, music has a lot to do with images too. Certain sounds immediately trigger colours, shapes or entire scenes in my mind. And particularly with the sound I’m producing at the moment, I love discovering and combining unusual, sometimes really weird sounds and textures.
One thing I’ve definitely taken from visual art is the joy of experimenting: trying things without knowing exactly what will come out of them.
That’s why I’d like to work much more with field recordings and unusual sound sources. Maybe even make a project that brings visual art and music together.
And above all, I’d like to make more music again without constantly thinking about whether a track is club-ready, which genre it fits into, or whether I’ll be able to release it at some point.
I think that’s also an important part of my musical development right now: thinking less about what’s expected of me and listening more to what excites me.
Purrdition
Interview by email · Editorial and image art direction: SCENE:ID. Bild bereitgestellt von Purrdition · SCENE:ID Bildgestaltung