Ready, Set, 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.”