WORDS BY
LOUISE DONOVANMUSICREAD Y,
SE T,
GOU
IN FOUR SHORT
YEARS, PEGGY GOU
HAS GONE FROM
FASHION STUDENT
TO SUPERSTAR
DJ, PLAYING AT
THE WORLD’S
BIGGEST CLUBS
AND WORKING
WITH THE MAN
BEHIND OFF-WHITE.
ELLE MEETS HER“EUGH, DISGUSTING!” exclaims Peggy Gou loudly.
The petite, energetic 29-year-old springs up, knees to
cheeks, her black Nike x A-Cold-Wall* trainers now
teetering over the edge of a bench. It’s swelteringly hot,
and we’re in a hotel courtyard just metres from the
Sydney Harbour Bridge. The reason for her disdain?
A pigeon, perched dangerously close above our heads.
“This is what I hate. You just came here to poo?
Disgusting,” cries Gou again. She turns back to me:
“Anyway, do you think I’m tanned? I got a good colour
from Bondi Beach yesterday.”
While most DJs are familiar with the jetlag-induced
fatigue that their career demands, Gou appears immune.
In fact, she’s currently running at 100km/h. When we
meet, the Berlin-based musician – dressed in bright,
cloud-patterned trousers, multiple gold chains and rings,
and her signature black, cat-eye sunglasses (which will
remain on throughout our interview) – is in the middle of
an Australian tour. In the next three days she will fly
between Sydney and Melbourne twice before jetting
off to Vietnam and Thailand. Not that you’d know. Gou
is animated, enthusiastic and even a little hyper,
alternating between warding off pigeons and asking her
tour manager Florian for (another) coffee.
Still, she’s got a lot to be excited about. In 2018, Gou
played nearly 200 shows (that’s one every 1.5 days),
did festivals (from Coachella in California to Dimensions
in Croatia) and was labelled the “most beloved DJ on
earth” by music bible Fader. Her eclectic sets are fearless- she’s become known for weaving between genres
you’d typically have to visit several different clubs to
hear. “I always try to change it up,” she says. “I don’t play
just one genre; I play disco, house, maybe techno.”
Last year saw her breakthrough as both a producer
and vocalist. In March, she released EP Once, featuring
standout track “It Makes You Forget (Itgehane)” – a
catchy, mellow house classic on which Gou sings in
Korean. It was also the year that Gou-mania went
global. Most DJs turn up and the crowd does its thing.
With Gou, people come to see her. Fans wave giant
giraffes in the air (Gou’s favourite animal; their
peacefulness reminds her to “calm down”) or take off
their shoes and chant “Peggy fucking Gou” so loud she
often can’t hear the music she’s playing. There’s even an
Instagram page (@peggystshirts) dedicated to posting
the best of fans’ T-shirts and posters, featuring puns such
as “Goucci Gang” and “Ready To Gou”. “Even my Photography: Mok Jung Wook. Additional words: Elle McClure