Meet The Australian DJs Making Waves Across The Globe

In 2025, Australian electronic dance music is a hugely successful global export. Our DJs are touring internationally, landing prominent residencies in Ibiza and Las Vegas, and headlining major festivals. Sydney/Eora's Timmy Trumpet is currently #5 in DJ Mag's influential Top 100 DJs poll.

In fact, Australian DJs have long joined the international circuit, with many relocating to Los Angeles, London, or Berlin. In the '90s, Tarndanya/Adelaide's DJ HMC (aka Carmelo Bianchetti) was celebrated as the Godfather Of Australian Techno on the back of 1995's banger Phreakin', eventually reinventing himself as the nu-disco Late Nite Tuff Guy (and remixing New Order).

In 2007, Dirty South was among the earliest Antipodean stalwarts to place in DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs. He collaborated with Axwell and has had two remixes nominated for a Grammy. The Serbian-Australian opened the way for NERVO, once the highest-ever ranked female DJs in Top 100, and Alison Wonderland, who in 2018 was Coachella's highest-ever billed female DJ.

The advent of EDM saw a fresh wave of Aussie super-DJs – Will Sparks popularising Melbourne bounce in the 2010s. And homegrown DJs have continued to set trends.

An innovator, Flume ushered in an amorphous mode of future bass initially called the 'Australian sound', while Luude had led the drum 'n' bass resurgence. Sydney/Eora club DJ Anna Lunoe has emerged as a global tastemaker because of a longstanding Apple Music curatorial gig (and, as early as 2013, toured North America with The Weeknd).

Aussie DJs are enjoying sustained success. In April, the veteran Kaz James will play The Do LaB stage at Coachella as part of an impressive Australian contingent alongside rising Naarm/Melbourne star Pretty Girl as the festival-within-a-festival marks 20 years. Meanwhile, Tom Lowndes is trading on collective nostalgia with Hot Dub Time Machine.

Indeed, Australian DJs are at the forefront of a post-pandemic dance music boom. Brisbane/Meanjin's Odd Mob just played Groove Cruise 2025 in the Caribbean with Eric Prydz. So who are the DJs making waves today?

FISHER

FISHER (Paul Fisher) is more than a DJ/producer – he's a brand. The Gold Coast rebel started as a pro surfer, taking up DJing in 2012 and forming the duo Cut Snake. FISHER's ascent has been spectacular. He was voted #8 in the 2024 DJ Mag Top 100 DJs poll.

In 2017, The Fish released his debut single Ya Kidding on Claude VonStroke's Dirtybird Records. The next year, he played his inaugural Coachella at The Do LaB. FISHER blew up majorly that year with Losing It, the tech-house banger earning him a Grammy nomination ('Best Dance/Electronic Recording') and placing at #2 on the triple j Hottest 100.

In 2023, FISHER scored another hit with Atmosphere, featuring Australian pop princess Kita Alexander. It was nominated for two ARIAs, including 'Song Of The Year'. Lately FISHER recast Gotye's Somebody That I Used To Know with his DJ BFF Chris Lake and Italy's Sante Sansone.

The superstar DJ has residencies in Las Vegas and Ibiza plus launched his own festival in Malta, TRiiP (where he promises to do shoeys). On the side, FISHER has a seltzer, Hard FIZZ, and is a property developer. He was just in Australia for festival season, heading Lost Paradise and Wildlands. FISHER will return to the Gold Coast in May for the second edition of his beach party OUT 2 LUNCH.

DOM DOLLA

A super-DJ, Dom Dolla (Dominic Matheson) has a winning personality, but he's also a credible tech-house producer and hit machine. The Melburnian has been on a roll since 2018 when he broke out globally with Take It.

Today, Dom has three ARIAs, most recently picking up 'Best Dance Release' for Saving Up. This year he celebrated a Grammy nom for his remix of Gorillaz' New Gold (with Tame Impala and former Pharcyde MC Bootie Brown).

And Dom is flexing his versatility. In 2023, he facilitated Nelly Furtado's comeback with Eat Your Man. Last year, Dom issued a drum 'n' bass track, CAVE, featuring the ubiquitous Swede Tove Lo – complete with a vampire hunter video (plus a remix by Partiboi69 and London-based Aussies X CLUB). He's popular with Hottest 100 voters, his acid anthem girl$ coming in at #7 in 2024's edition and CAVE at #14. In February, Dom unveiled Dreamin, again tech-house, with US vocalist DAYA.

Dom played his first Coachella in 2019 – and returned in 2024. He's famed for his sets at Colorado's Red Rocks Amphitheatre. In 2023 Dom DJed back-to-back with John Summit at Detroit's Movement Electronic Music Festival, playing solo the following year. But he had his biggest US shows at Los Angeles State Historic Park this past October.

Despite relocating to LA post-lockdown, Dom regularly visits Oz, with a blockbuster national tour in late 2024, selling 170,000 tickets. Next, he plays Madison Square Garden in New York.

SONNY FODERA

Sonny Fodera's success has largely bypassed the Australian media. But, even in 2022, he sold out two nights at Brixton Academy with mate Dom Dolla as special guest.

Beginning as a hip-hop beatmaker in Tarndanya/Adelaide, Fodera switched to house and moved to London a decade ago. He impressed Chicago house legends like Gene Farris early with his modern version of a traditionalist form. In 2013 Fodera delivered his debut album Moving Forward through Green Velvet's Cajual Records.

Fodera collaborated with Detroit's Marc "MK" Kinchen on 2019's One Night (featuring Raphaélla), the lead single from a fifth album, Wide Awake, released via his own imprint Solotoko. The buzz Birmingham dance diva Clementine Douglas was among the guests. In 2023, Fodera reunited with MK, and Douglas, for Asking – his first UK Top 10 hit.

Lately, he received a prestigious BRIT nomination for "Song Of The Year" with Somedays alongside DOD and Irish singer Jazzy. In May, Fodera will rep Oz at Movement in Detroit together with HAAi.

HAAI

Hailing from Karratha in The Pilbara, HAAi (Teneil Throssell) fronted the indie outfit Dark Bells, resettling in the UK. When the band folded, she embraced DJing. HAAi would be an early resident at London's underground nightclub Phonox. She took to the airwaves, too, winning BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix Of 2018 – leading to a residency with the broadcaster. Last year this selector was a regular at the hallowed Parisian Rex Club.

The DJ/producer/vocalist is an in-demand collaborator. She remixed Romy's first solo single Lifetime, co-produced by Fred again.., the trio later teaming for Fred's fizzy Lights Out. The Chemical Brothers sought HAAi to transform The Darkness That You Fear. She's also worked on spectral techno with UK experimenter Daniel Avery.

In 2022, HAAi, signed to Mute Records, presented her debut album, Baby, We're Ascending – its euphoric title track a collab with Jon Hopkins. The next year she became the first Australian to mix a volume in the iconic DJ-KiCKS series (followed by onetime Melburnian DJ BORING).

Today, HAAi is gigging solidly – in 2024 playing over 100 shows across five continents, Australia included. She's even instituted her own queer party, UNiSON. Still, HAAi has made time for the studio. In February she resurfaced with the psychedelic Can't Stand To Lose.

CYRIL

Sydney/Eora electro-housers Bag Raiders savoured a surprise worldwide hit when in 2017 their old single Shooting Stars was revived for an Internet meme. And Cyril Riley (or just CYRIL), too, owes his success partly to virality.

The Garramilla/Darwin-based DJ/producer already had a social media following when he blew up with a deep house remix of Stumblin' In – a 1978 duet by Suzi Quatro and Smokie frontman Chris Norman.

He signed with the Dutch label Spinnin' Records, now owned by Warner. No fluke, CYRIL then unleashed a remix of Disturbed's remake of Simon & Garfunkel's The Sound Of Silence, which topped Spotify's 2024 Australian Music Global Impact List.

Since landing a cover story with TheMusic, CYRIL has aired two EPs – the first, From Down Under, home to True, his flip of Spandau Ballet's '80s soul classic featuring labelmate Kita Alexander. Plus he's remixed David Guetta's reboot of Alphaville's evergreen Forever Young with Ava Max.

The streaming phenom received two ARIA noms for Stumblin' In (including 'Song Of The Year') and appeared on ABC TV's NYE24 concert.

CYRIL is jetsetting. Last year, he was forced to rest after breaking his ankle on the grounds of Tomorrowland in Belgium but luckily, he managed to tour the US. CYRIL is opening Kygo's arena shows here this month before returning to Tomorrowland in July.

CASSIAN

A multi-instrumentalist, Cassian Stewart-Kasimba gigged as a sessionist prior to entering dance music, befriending RÜFÜS DU SOL along the way. He strategically transplanted from Sydney/Eora to LA in 2015.

Cassian may be RÜFÜS DU SOL's secret weapon, serving as their mix engineer. Indeed, he has a Grammy for his work on their single Alive ('Best Dance/Electronic Recording'). But, as the flagship act on the band's Rose Avenue Records, Cassian is also a respected DJ/producer, known for his melodic house. He released a concept album, Laps, amid the pandemic in 2020 – its stand-out Magical with ZOLLY (Crooked Colours' Phil Slabber).

Additionally, Cassian has worked as music director for Tale Of Us' Matteo Milleri on his Anyma project – and he DJed at the exclusive Genesys spectacle at Flemington Racecourse in November as part of ALWAYS LIVE, just weeks after wrapping Listen Out. However, the prodigy has been in the studio, with a driving house remix of John Summit's Shiver.

Cassian has evidently experienced homesickness: he remixed Icehouse's Great Southern Land into a festival epic. In May he'll return to Australia for shows in Naarm/Melbourne and Sydney/Eora.

LOGIC1000

Logic1000 (Samantha Poulter) is another DJ who made a career happen from abroad – leaving Sydney/Eora for London, then Berlin. She gained recognition when Four Tet dropped her track DJ Logic Please Forgive Me, sampling Deborah Cox's '90s R&B ballad It's Over Now, at 2019's Coachella. Logic1000 would establish herself as a cult producer and remixer (check her take on Fever Ray's Shiver), while DJing on the European circuit. She's guested at fabric London.

In 2021, Logic1000 graced the cover of Mixmag. Unusually for a DJ, she's candid about her mental health journey, having been diagnosed with schizophrenia at 25, and the challenges of balancing tour commitments with parenthood. In early 2024, Logic1000 started a podcast, Therapy with Heléna Star.

Last March, Logic1000 launched a bid for popdom with her debut album, Mother, on the French label Because Music – describing it as her "love letter to house music." The single Grown On Me typifies her wonky, and subliminal, sonic hybrid of UK garage, bass and nightbus.

Dua Lipa has consistently commissioned Aussie remixers (remember Alison Wonderland's New Rules?) and Logic1000 turned her Illusion into slinky deep house.

In November, Logic1000 returned to Australia as a special guest on Peggy Gou's East Coast tour. She'll drop a DJ-KiCKS on 28 March.

SAM ALFRED

Sam Alfred is primed to be one of 2025's break-out stories, landing in the NME100 together with Pretty Girl. The DJ was born into a South Sudanese family in Egypt, winding up in lutruwita/Tasmania.

Now based in Naarm/Melbourne, Alfred has cultivated a grassroots following locally and on the domestic festival circuit – lately being Mix Up resident on triple j. He's also touring internationally, in 2024 playing a massive set for Boiler Room x AVA Festival in Belfast.

Like Jamie xx, Alfred revels in '90s nostalgia, dipping into house, UK garage and progressive. Last year the prolific producer notably remixed Royel Otis' Foam and issued the Roadblocks EP on Gerd Janson's Misfit Melodies. He closed 2024 with the choppy cut I Want You To Know – a collab with Brit Kyle Starkey. Alfred has just announced a run of Australian headline shows.

RONA.

Kaytetye DJ/producer/activist RONA. (Rona Glynn-McDonald) has been generating heat for three years. In 2022 she presented her debut EP Closure on RÜFÜS DU SOL's Rose Avenue Records – her ambitronica thematising First Nations cultural heritage and memory. Early last year RONA. made a buzz Boiler Room premiere under the Sugar Mountain banner in Naarm (on the same bill as Logic1000) and played East Coast dates with Pretty Girl.

RONA. grew up in Mparntwe/Alice Springs, her father the iconic film director Warwick Thornton (Samson And Delilah). She studied economics and founded the organisation Common Ground before becoming director of First Nations Futures. This gamechanger was even in Forbes' 30 Under 30 Asia List.

In September RONA. introduced her own label Rarre Records ('rarre' translating as 'wind,' 'air' or 'breath) with the acid house banger Raise It. She also aired the resistance anthem Burn It, featuring neo-soul vocalist KYE, on the anniversary of the Australian Indigenous Voice referendum.

Living between Naarm and Central Australia, RONA. has just toured nationally with Laneway – KYE accompanying her in Naarm. Late in 2024 she was in London recording with UK veteran Ewan Pearson as engineer.

NINAJIRACHI

The Sydney/Eora-based DJ/producer Ninajirachi (Nina Wilson) has hallmarked her style "girl EDM" – a pointed, and playful, move in an often male-dominated scene. Her music is tricky to describe, being a Gen Z mash-up of divergent '90s and 2000s genres: rave, trance, progressive, hard house, electro and dubstep.

The Central Coast trailblazer was actually producing as a tween in 2012. A decade on, she released her premiere mixtape Second Nature on Nina Las Vegas' NLV Records. But Ninajirachi has long consolidated her profile domestically, prophetically warmed up for Charli xcx's secret show at the Oxford Art Factory in 2019. Meanwhile, she impressed US bookers, joining 2023's Lollapalooza.

In September, Ninajirachi had an EP, girl EDM (disc 1) – Billboard citing the hyper-glitch Angel Music as one of its tracks of 2024.

Ninajirachi has had a busy summer back home on the festival circuit, culminating in a support slot on Porter Robinson's latest tour and a Laneway run. She's just shared her first music for the year in the complextro All I Am.