Girl To Know: Peggy Gou
โBefore I was a DJ, I was a raver,โ Peggy Gou mentions in an interview with The Guardian. The South Korean DJ lives in Berlin, yet finds herself roaming the globe making thousands of people extremely happy. Her specialty is kinetic sound mixing of genres; minimal trance, electronic, dance and house. With seven EPโs under belt, in the spring of 2019, Gou launched her own indie label Gudu Records (gudu means "shoesโ in Korean).
As mentioned in an interview with The Guardian, โGou sometimes refers to her music as โK-houseโ. โI believe that a lot of Korean and K-pop artists, they want to be European,โ she says. โBut there are so many beautiful things in Korea. And thatโs also one thing that I always get touched by: both of my big โhitsโ are not in English. When I see that crowd reaction, itโs like, they donโt even know how to sing these lyrics, and they still love it.โ
In 2009 while she was studying fashion design in London, a friend taught her how to dj. After moving to Berlin, Gou worked at a record store as she started picking up gigs and then released her EP debut in 2016. It didnโt take too long for Gou to elevate into her current cult status. She plays more than a hundred worldwide gigs and music festivals a year. In 2019 Gou was named in the #ForbesUnder30 list, with over a million dedicated instagram followers.
In February 2019, Gou returned to her love of fashion with the launch of KIRIN (โgiraffeโ in Korean), in support by Virgil Ablohโs New Guards Group. Another monumental event was the summer 2019 release of her first music video for Starry Night exclusively on Apple Music. Directed by Jonas Lindstroem, who has worked on impressive fashion campaigns with Hermes, Adidas, Kenzo and Uniqlo. The video also stars South Korean actor of Burning, Yoo Ah-in.
A new video for her song I Go dropped in August 2021, directed and art directed by Inji Seo.
Gou does not have a professional manager, she is in charge of her career. That is something refreshing and indeed scary considering the globetrotting lifestyle the creative musician and entrepreneur leads. Yet according to Gouโs Instagram stories and video โgrams, watching her presence on stage and the exuberant energy she gives out to the crowds, you canโt help but want some of that independent spirit to rub off on you.