From a humble start spinning hard industrial techno in the Phoenix Arizona club scene, to headlining humongous events, Sandra Collins' name has become synonymous with every major American dance music scene and movement, beginning with her early days playing Frankie Bones' seminal STORM raves in Brooklyn.
Her residencies in Los Angeles are themselves a history of that city's progressive dance music scene: She was resident DJ at L.A.'s Sketchpad from 1992-95, and shared a residency at L.A.'s Metropolis with Doc Martin and Taylor from 1995-98.
Her popularity and reputation for bringing out the deeply emotional side of progressive house and trance earned her a spot on the Electric Highway tour with Crystal Method and Fluke. It also landed her, oddly enough, in a Coca-Cola commercial.
In 1997, Sandra released her debut mix CD, Lost In Time, on L.A. trance label Fragrant, which earned her both a nomination for "Best Electronic Artists" in the San Francisco BAMMIE awards, and being named "Best Trance DJ" in the 1998 Global DJ Awards.
The next year, she made her production debut with the 12" "Ode to Our"/"Red," which earned press accolades as it sold out its first pressing in a single day. She followed that up with her now-classic "Flutterby" for Scotland's Hook label, a single so genre-defining it has shown up on such seminal progressive house and trance compilations as Nick Warren's Global Underground and John Digweed's Bedrock.
Her success led to her moving to New York in 1998, and soon she was spinning regularly at trance mega-club Twilo alongside Sasha and Digweed, Paul van Dyk and Carl Cox. She continued to play raves and clubs across the country, earning a residency at Crobar Chicago.
Her ability to be both a crowd-pleaser and connect emotionally with her audience won her the daunting opening night slot at Woodstock '99. Spinning after Moby, she admirably held her own with a six hour set in front of the 80,000 mostly-neophyte dance music fans, and by the end of her set had by all published accounts won them over.
By the end of '99, she had been named "Best Female Artist" by URB Magazine's reader's poll, sharing the title with Lauryn Hill. Now with residencies at Chicago's Crobar and Las Vegas' Utopia, Sandra is one of the progressive dance music's most in-demand DJs, travelling to raves and clubs across the country and around the world, from Little Rock to Lima, Peru.
Sandra has become an ambassador for American trance, which, combined with her photogenic tomboy looks and lack of pretention, has landed her on the covers and pages of every major U.S. dance music magazine, as well as in magazines like Spin and Gear.
Now with Tranceport 3, Sandra marks the first time an American (and woman) has been behind the decks for the genre-defining trance series. Following up the global trance introduction of Paul Oakenfold's Tranceport 1, and the deep, end-of-the-night vibe of Dave Ralph's Tranceport 2, Sandra's installment turns up the emotions and lets the melodies and beats pulse with a vibrance that's somehow both introspective and anthemic.
Tranceport 3 is, like her life, a journey to places both brightly familiar and darkly exciting, mapped out by progressive underground anthems and new tracks of her own that point to the future of trance, in America and the world.
The journey, as always, is as much ours as it is hers.
