14 Tracks, 100,000 Tickets: Sara Landry's Solo Run

Sara Landry closed her set at Ace Mission Studios on Oct. 16, but the crowd did not leave. The venue had sold out for the release party of Divine Intervention, her second album, which dropped that day on her independent label, HEKATE. After the official show ended, Landry climbed back onto the decks to play an encore. She performed a track by her collaborator Alt8, an edit of Calvin Harris and Florence Welch’s “Sweet Nothing,” and danced for the audience before taking the night off.

The album marks a shift from the massive spectacles that defined the past three years. Landry, often called the High Priestess of Hard Techno, sold approximately 100,000 tickets for headline shows this year. She also played more than 50 festivals, including a first-time headline set at Red Rocks in Colorado just six days before the Los Angeles event. Her 2023 Boiler Room set has surpassed 11 million views, and she became the first woman to headline the Sphere in Las Vegas in October 2025.

Divine Intervention consists of 14 tracks spanning hard bounce, psy-techno, and psytrance. Landry mixed every song herself and retained ownership of the masters. She developed the material over roughly a year while touring across several continents. Initial ideas emerged during Amsterdam Dance Event in 2025, when artists on her label visited her home for what she calls idea sessions. Tracks like “Decon” and “Get Inside” began in those sessions, while “Energy” was written in a single session with Australian producer Ali James in Melbourne.

The production process was nonlinear. Landry usually kept six or seven tracks in progress at once, working on whichever one felt ready. She built the album in blocks, placing bouncy sounds near the beginning and trance elements at the end. Some tracks sat at 85% completion for eight months before she finalized them. She tested unreleased songs in live sets to gauge crowd reaction, releasing them only after confirming they worked in a club environment.

Landry performed approximately 90% of the vocals on the record. She recorded many parts as voice notes on her phone, then processed the audio with vocoders and glitches. The title track features spoken-word passages and chants that she recorded from start to finish. She has recently started working with a vocal coach to improve her technique, stating that she is a soprano and hopes to sing more prominently in future projects.

Her connection to Los Angeles began in 2021 when she played a warehouse party organized by 6am Group. Since then, the city has become a primary base for her fanbase. She transformed a lot beneath the Sixth Street Bridge into an open-air rave for Insomniac’s Factory 93 over Labor Day weekend in 2024. Tickets for the first night sold out in less than an hour. She also hosted a pop-up with House of Intuition, where hundreds of fans waited in line for tarot readings.

Landry’s background influences her musical choices. She grew up in Austin, Texas, but her grandmother was born in Mexico City. Her mother raised her on a variety of music and spoke Spanish in the house. Landry speaks up for immigrant communities online and incorporates Latin percussion and Spanish vocals into her sets. She travels to Mexico regularly, headlining a solo show in Mexico City earlier this year and playing Ultra Mexico in a few weeks.

The album’s title reflects Landry’s belief in a hands-off creative process. She says the record seemed to decide its own structure and sound. “The album kind of decides what it wants to be and comes into being on its own,” she says. This philosophy aligns with her public persona, which draws on the sacred. She named her label after Hekate, the Greek goddess of witchcraft, and describes her personal practice as pagan. She views sound waves as a physical force that moves through the body, comparing the experience of a club night to the purpose of sacred music in religious traditions.