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Sandra Collins' epithet "Trance Goddess" is accurate beyond its vague implication of beauty. Stoic almost to the point of frigidity, Collins is the electronica pantheon's answer to Athena, whose steely gray eyes mask a benevolent, feminine wisdom. While Collins' aviators make a conspicuous concession to the 21st Century, the Greek feminist archetype nonetheless applies. Notorious for infiltrating the old boys' network of trance superstardom, Collins has chosen a sub-genre reflective of her personality. Where jungle's loopy bass and frenetic beats reflect a Dionysian excess, trance is pure Athena: introspective, reticent, a personal head-trip tweaked by moments of transcendent brilliance.
The third and best album in Kinetic's Tranceport series, Collins' Tranceport3 seeks neither to differentiate the style nor to rehash its greatest hits. If Paul Oakenfold's and Dave Ralph's Tranceport installments outlined the parameters of trance, Collins' mix is a genre gem, its slow build and cathartic peak lending the rhythmic, emotional trajectory we might expect from a live DJ set. Astral Projection's crowd-teasing opener "Liquid Sun" sets the album's tone, foregrounding the climactic salvos "I'm Not Existing" (LSG) and "C'est Muzique" (Shane) nearly 50 minutes before they occur.
sputnik7 recently spoke with Sandra Collins in New York after her Roseland performance with Paul Oakenfold. Whether the interview's subdued tenor arose from Collins' exhaustion or post-show bacchanalia remains unclear.
sputnik7: Your name has become almost synonymous with the electronica sub-genre "trance." For anyone not familiar with it, what is trance and how does it differ from other types of electronic music?
Sandra Collins: Well, it's a lot of hypnotic patterns that are repeated. It drops and kind of goes right back into what it started out like. And the way it's mixed, it's seamless. It creates a trance state of mind.
s7: A lot of people know you by your epithets - "The Trance Goddess," "The Best Female DJ in America" - but there's not too much out there on Sandra Collins as a person. How did you get started with DJing? Where are you from? What do you do in your spare time, besides music?
SC: Well I grew up in Vegas, and then I moved to Arizona, and that's where I started DJing, in '87. And it's weird that after I started DJing, I looked back on my childhood, and I was going to all-night skates at the age of nine. You know, coming home at six in the morning. And then I went on to teen clubs, and then from there I was sneaking into older clubs. And it just made sense that, you know, that I became a DJ. But I didn't realize that my whole life was kind of gearing towards it. Then I moved to Los Angeles where I continued to DJ. Then I moved to New York, and now I live in New York and Orlando.
s7: What were your first influences, musically? What bands did you love as a kid before electronica was big?
SC: I was a big Duran Duran fan, and New Order and the Cure. Early as a child, I liked the very subtle, melodic sounds of John Lennon, and there'd always just be one little part and I'd rewind it and rewind it, and then eventually that kind of music came out as a whole. But Duran Duran was my first major, like I went to their concert and freaked out and I was into them for a while. I still listen to them.
s7: Outside of music, what kinds of things interest you culturally? Are you a TV consumer? Do you read? Do you like films?
SC: I don't watch a lot of TV. I like to watch movies. I like to do very normal things. I like sports. Well, not sports but, like, the gym or swimming. I like Disneyland. I like to, not travel, but I like to get to a place that's very spiritual and just kind of rejuvenate. So I guess I'm somewhat of a spiritual person. I wish I had more time to have more hobbies.
s7: A lot has been made about the fact that you're a top female DJ. Does your gender affect what you do at all? Is that a forced distinction?
SC: I mean, everything that's been said about me is by other people, you know, and I just can't help what people say. I guess my gender maybe puts me in a category as a top female DJ, whereas if I was a male, I'd just be another "top." Or maybe not even a top DJ, there's so many of them. So, who knows.
s7: Does it bother you to be distinguished that way?
s7: When you're playing at a club, it's a different sort of live experience than if you were playing a concert - with instruments, for example. How is DJing different from other types of live music performance in terms of performer-crowd interaction?
SC: Well, I guess if you were in a band you'd have more freedom to do your thing, but I, personally, interact with the crowd a lot. But I can't, like, throw my mic down or anything and jump all over the stage and do those things. But, you know, maybe one day I'll throw a turntable down [laughs]. Just smash it [mimes breaking a turntable over her knee].
s7: Do you play any live instruments or incorporate live instrumentation into your work?
SC: I don't do that. I used to play drums and I played piano and stuff like that, but... No, I don't. I use the computer [laughs].
s7: You just released Tranceport 3. What's the story with the Tranceport series, and why has trance become the most widely embraced form of electronic music?
SC: I think it's just time. Eventually it was going to get here, and I think that it all started at 2000, the millennium. Trance became big, and female DJs became big, and hopefully it sticks around because it's what I've always spun. But I guess it's just very trendy right now.
s7: Where is electronica going? Will songwriting, as we used to think of it - traditional verse, chorus, guitar, bass, drums - go the way of the dinosaur? Will it be replaced by electronic music as new genres gain prominence?
SC: I think people always want to see a band onstage. They want a face with the song. And unless there's more electronic bands out there, I don't think the bands thing will go away because there'll always be a crowd for that. I hope not, because it takes a long time to be, you know, a big band, and for, like, people who make one techno record and become big and they're out. I don't know. I'd be kind of pissed off [laughs].
s7: Do you produce your own tracks in addition to DJing?
SC: I've put out a couple of tracks. I've got a studio at home. My boyfriend's my engineer, and he's awesome, so I plan on doing another single in the next six months and then starting my album.
s7: What's the deal with this upcoming album?
SC: Well, I want to collaborate with some talented engineers and different singers. I mean really big names. I want to try and shoot for a major album, so I'm really excited about that. It'll be a good variety of different music. Dance music, of course, and then stuff that kind of makes sense to the dance scene that people can still relate to.
s7: Aside from things other people have said about you, if you could script your own biography and say a few things about yourself that really define Sandra Collins, what would they be?
SC: Goofy, not very serious, but I can be very serious. I guess I'm just very, very... I have a really weird sense of humor that I'm very known for in my circle of friends. Sometimes it gets me in trouble. Like in the URB interview I did, I was sarcastic. I was just joking, and everyone thought I was serious. [mock reporter response] "She's a bitch!" But it was complete sarcasm. So I guess I'm misunderstood a lot, but it's all just fun. You can't take it too seriously.
SC: No, I try not to let things bother me, because you can't really help what people say and I just like to stay happy. That's what creates my sets, is being happy and not getting bitter towards everything.
s7: You've done a bunch of spinning in LA, New York, and pretty much everywhere in between. What are the musical and cultural differences between the coasts and where do you feel most comfortable performing?
SC: When I lived in LA, the scene - just anything that gets big there - they blow it up, you know, completely. And then it dies really fast. And they never really had a consistent club, whereas on the East Coast they have consistent clubs with the same residents that come. You know, like, Junior Vasquez, he's always there, and it's been successful for a long time, whereas on the West Coast it was never like that, and I was always trying to figure out what it was about the West Coast that makes it... They actually just started a club, Giant, out there, and it's been pretty successful so far, so... Um, the music: LA's got kind of a...an LA sound. I don't know. Like a lot more raw trance. New York's got a lot of the international talent that comes over. I don't really know a lot of resident DJs that live here that are trance DJs. Do you?
s7: No, I don't --
SC: On the West Coast, there's tons of them. 
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