About this Archive

Administrative/Biographical History

Black Dahlia is an EBM/industrial producer based on Gadigal Land, Australia. Living in Belgium and Düsseldorf in her early years, Black Dahlia’s vision and inspirations were set in stone from the beginning. Hearing echoes of New Beat and the memories of dark streets, she was inspired by this sound and in her early teens began to produce synth pop.

Immersing herself deeper into goth music artists such as The Cure, Cocteau Twins, Joy Division, and Depeche Mode, she also began to fall in love with gothic fashion which would then lead to her deep interest in fetish fashion/culture. Her teenage years were identified by wearing 80’s shoulder-padded jackets with avant-garde makeup, engaging in performance art/dance/music, and consistent engagement with theatre. The attraction to becoming different personas everyday eventually led to her current project.

In recent years, she has been performing in Sydney, Australia as Black Dahlia - an EBM/Industrial project which features dark, gothic live sets with distorted, empowering vocals. Releasing on labels such as Up North Records (Au), Deep Scan (Au), Insane Industry (Italy), Idlestates (Scotland), and soon to be Motorik Records (Au), and Berlin label X-IMG, run by EBM artist Sarin. She has supported lineups of artists such as Rebel Yell, Kobosil, Paula Temple, SPFDJ, SNTS, Boston 168, and Adriana Lopez, and has also played at festivals such as Antigravity and Trench.

Her upcoming EP being released on X-IMG, Animasochist, is an exploration of sex, fetishism, and empowerment through those mediums. Various samples from vintage sexploitation and pornographic films, interviews about fetishism, and 80s films, it is paired with the sounds of New Beat and EBM, which has become Black Dahlia's signature sound.

Producing dark, industrial music has inspired Black Dahlia’s path into fetish fashion and culture by finding solace in leather, latex, and fishnets. “Being surrounded by sex worker friends has opened my eyes to a world of possibilities and forms of empowerment for myself. I feel most empowered when in leather and fetish clothing. It, for me, is a strong form of armour and inspiration for myself, as well as an erotic pleasure of mine. It goes hand in hand with my music - both fetish fashion/culture and my music is a form of healing for my trauma, and strength for me.” - Black Dahlia

Scope and Content

Archive of artist Black Dahlia, including four promotional photographs by George Popov and four mp3s of music (including tracks, Dead Box, Flexx, Ricoche Holly and Self S'Abattoir), 2020.