Biography
Lady Starlight crafts straightforward techno rooted in the Detroit tradition, relying exclusively on unprocessed analog equipment for her productions. Her profile rose primarily through an array of joint projects with Lady Gaga that encompassed co-hosted club events, costume creation, and service as tour DJ plus support act, thereby introducing broader pop listeners to subterranean club sounds. Several EPs have appeared on Figure, Stroboscopic Artefacts, and Tresor, among them the 2024 set Capricorn Rising.
Colleen Martin entered the world in 1975 and grew up in upstate New York, where she began creating music with her older brother and absorbing an eclectic mix of punk and dance styles from the age of four onward. Relocating to New York City in 2001, she took the stage name Lady Starlight after the Sweet track and immersed herself in nightlife, launching events that honored the 1970s glam-rock gatherings once held in Los Angeles. Her English Disco and Heavy Metal Soundhouse rock nights quickly became fixtures, and in 2007 she encountered the still-unknown Lady Gaga. The two formed an immediate connection and spent the following years staging musical revues and burlesque productions including New York Street Revival and Trash Dance as well as Lady Gaga and the Starlight Revue. Starlight played a central role in Gaga’s artistic growth, contributing to costume and show design while also serving as Gaga’s DJ on tours and performances.
She simultaneously refined a live techno set built solely around hardware and brought it to audiences in 2014 as opener on Gaga’s ArtRave tour. During a Birmingham date she voiced enthusiasm at performing in the hometown of techno figure Surgeon; by chance the producer was present, leading to a backstage introduction and subsequent rapport. The pair soon shared a stage at the tour’s Paris stop. Around the same period Starlight issued her debut track, the digital-only single “Operator,” whose driving style mirrored her live sets, although several years passed before the next release arrived. After settling in Berlin, performing repeatedly with Surgeon, and embedding herself in the local techno community, she linked up with Lucy, who issued the Untitled EP on Stroboscopic Artefacts. In 2018 she delivered the Detroit-leaning EP Which One of Us Is Me? via Figure and performed select shows across Europe, Asia, and the United States, followed in 2019 by the label’s second EP, W.
Further Figure material surfaced in 2020 with the EP 3 Days from May, alongside a separate release alongside Rødhåd. An experimental album titled Dialogue, created with Luke Slater and Anthony Child (Surgeon), came out on A-Ton in 2021. The 2023 collaboration Stay Home Soundsystem 31 united her again with Rødhåd and Speedy J. Solo EPs Choose, issued by Rant & Rave Records, and Capricorn Rising, released on Tresor, both appeared in 2024.
Colleen Martin entered the world in 1975 and grew up in upstate New York, where she began creating music with her older brother and absorbing an eclectic mix of punk and dance styles from the age of four onward. Relocating to New York City in 2001, she took the stage name Lady Starlight after the Sweet track and immersed herself in nightlife, launching events that honored the 1970s glam-rock gatherings once held in Los Angeles. Her English Disco and Heavy Metal Soundhouse rock nights quickly became fixtures, and in 2007 she encountered the still-unknown Lady Gaga. The two formed an immediate connection and spent the following years staging musical revues and burlesque productions including New York Street Revival and Trash Dance as well as Lady Gaga and the Starlight Revue. Starlight played a central role in Gaga’s artistic growth, contributing to costume and show design while also serving as Gaga’s DJ on tours and performances.
She simultaneously refined a live techno set built solely around hardware and brought it to audiences in 2014 as opener on Gaga’s ArtRave tour. During a Birmingham date she voiced enthusiasm at performing in the hometown of techno figure Surgeon; by chance the producer was present, leading to a backstage introduction and subsequent rapport. The pair soon shared a stage at the tour’s Paris stop. Around the same period Starlight issued her debut track, the digital-only single “Operator,” whose driving style mirrored her live sets, although several years passed before the next release arrived. After settling in Berlin, performing repeatedly with Surgeon, and embedding herself in the local techno community, she linked up with Lucy, who issued the Untitled EP on Stroboscopic Artefacts. In 2018 she delivered the Detroit-leaning EP Which One of Us Is Me? via Figure and performed select shows across Europe, Asia, and the United States, followed in 2019 by the label’s second EP, W.
Further Figure material surfaced in 2020 with the EP 3 Days from May, alongside a separate release alongside Rødhåd. An experimental album titled Dialogue, created with Luke Slater and Anthony Child (Surgeon), came out on A-Ton in 2021. The 2023 collaboration Stay Home Soundsystem 31 united her again with Rødhåd and Speedy J. Solo EPs Choose, issued by Rant & Rave Records, and Capricorn Rising, released on Tresor, both appeared in 2024.
Albums
Singles
