Pxssy Palace are ‘rewriting what freedom looks like’

A week before they step onto the Plant Room stage at HOMOBLOC on December 6, Pxssy Palace are catching their breath (albeit barely). Just two nights earlier, the DJ trio – Nadine Noor, Mya Mehmi and Ryan Lovell – opened for JYOTY at Alexandra Palace, one of their biggest stages yet. “It felt really familiar in the best way,” Mehmi tells Dazed over video call. “I think we all felt at home there.”

Home is a moving target for Pxssy Palace. From a London house party in 2015 to some of the city’s largest venues, their work has always been anchored in QTBIPOC joy, collective care and comfort. It’s this grounding that makes these big stages feel instinctive, a natural extension of the rooms where they first learned what a dancefloor could hold. Over the years, the collective has reshaped what queer nightlife can feel like – tender, political and defiantly alive.

Their sets move like worlds, fluid in sound and texture, built for release and recognition. The visuals follow suit – think tin-foil-lined walls, draped velvet in motion, soft fur and fluffy accents, fabrics that billow and catch the light. “We would really transform that house into a different world for the parties,” says Noor. Even online, that instinct for texture endures: the Pxssy Palace logo is set against rippling cloth. Their worldbuilding shapes the room itself, using softness, texture and motion to guide people into both the space and themselves. Behind it all is a trio thinking carefully about how to hold a room, build safety and keep growing without losing the pulse Pxssy Palace began with.

“That's when I sort of realized, OK, this is rewriting what freedom could look like,” recalls Noor. “It’s just so beautiful to see people come into themselves, whether that takes one night or a few times.” 

Ahead of their return to HOMOBLOC, Noor, Mehmi and Lovell sat down with Dazed to reflect on safe spaces, labour-versus-pleasure, and why the future of nightlife depends on rooms that can move, rest and grow with the people in them.

Most DJs have a favourite ‘I can’t believe that happened’ booth story. What’s yours?

Nadine Noor: When the music cuts, it’s so stressful – it can kill the energy instantly. I’ve been at parties where the music cuts and people leave. A minute feels like a lifetime. But at Pxssy Palace, I panicked for a second and then the panic disappeared because people just kept singing and dancing. They didn’t even need the music. That was one of the most amazing things I’ve seen from behind the booth.

Mya Mehmi: Another one was when we booked CupcakKe. She was performing, and we were behind the decks at KOKO in 2023. Her music soundtracked my early years at Pxssy Palace around 2016 and 2017, so seeing her in front of us, and flying her in from Chicago, was definitely a full-circle moment. And oh my god, JT. When she shouted us out on stage and said, ‘We at the Pxssy Palace tonight, right?’ we lost our absolute shit. 

Recently, we played at Breaking Borders Festival in Malta, which was a very cis-het Punjabi festival. To be there as Pxssy Palace, and for me as a Punjabi trans woman, and shell it down with so much love and support from the audience… that was a real pinch-me moment. 

There’s a power in being hyper feminine, in being sexy, and being able to express that however you want

How intentional is your aesthetic language, and how do you think about visual influence in the world you’re building?

Nadine Noor: There are two major influences for me. One is that I used to hate pink in a very misogynistic way. I was a goth teenager trying not to be anything like my Pakistani family, and rejecting anything ‘girly.’ When Pxssy Palace started, I embraced pink, hearts, and purple. I was shedding that internalised misogyny and sexism. So, one massive influence is like, fuck that. Let’s be hyper feminine. There’s a power in being hyper feminine, in being sexy, and in being able to express that however you want.

The other influence is 90s UK rave culture. It’s really a blend of those worlds: hyper femininity with real strength in it, and the harder shell of rave culture. Both have softness and defiance in their own way. 

So, if Pxssy Palace had an official colour palette, what would be in it?

Mya Mehmi: Definitely pink.

Nadine Noor: And chrome.

Ryan Lovell: Silver and black.

Pxssy Palace has always held this tension between ‘softness and defiance’. Your events offer radical joy, but that joy requires labour. How do you recover after nights that demand so much from you creatively, emotionally and logistically?

Mya Mehmi: Rest and recovery, for me, is having these two right there. We’re all very supportive of each other. 

Ryan Lovell: We’ve implemented a rest theory, focusing on the different types of rest, a holistic approach to recovery. We spend a lot of time in loud, substance-heavy environments, so it’s important to keep rest front of mind. 

What’s the worst advice you’ve ever been given?

Mya Mehmi: I get so much unsolicited advice from men that it’s hard to pinpoint just one. Every time a guy learns you’re a DJ or you work in music, they want to tell you what genre you should go into. And it’s like, ‘bitch, you are a banker. How about you focus on that?’

Nadine Noor: For Pxssy Palace, the bad advice I got once was that we should start charging people if they want to use the Pxssy Palace Support. It was from an older queer guy who offered to ‘mentor’ us. Every piece of advice was super capitalistic.

For everyone dreaming of safer, more intentional night life, what wisdom would you pass about sustaining this work long term?

Mya Mehmi: Do it because you love it. The work requires a lot. From the surface, it can look fun and glam and hot and sexy – and it is those things – but it’s also labour, and sometimes it can be traumatising. So you need passion to carry you through. Also remember you’re human. As you build a community, people might position you as more than that, but you’re not a judge or a jury or God. It’s okay to make mistakes, learn and grow. You just have to communicate, be honest and take accountability.

Ryan Lovell: Keep your own interests and what you’re contributing in tandem with the community you’re creating space for. Remember it’s bigger than you, and keep others at the forefront.

Nadine Noor: And don’t try to do it alone – the labour is way too much. Don’t be afraid to ask for support or advice.

To enter our ticket lottery for a pair of tickets to HOMMOBLOC, taking place at Depot Mayfield on Saturday December 6, download the Dazed Club app here.