Michele Sainte

Michele Sainte is an American drum and bass DJ and former techno DJ.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8]}

Michele Sainte
Background information
Also known as	Sainte Michele Techstep Selectoress[1] The Sainte[2]
Origin	United States
Genres	Drum and bass, breakbeat hardcore, jungle, (early) techno, techstep, Witchstep
Instruments	DJ mixer, turntables
Years active	1986–present

1990–present: Clubs and raves

Sainte is a former breakbeat hardcore and techno DJ^[9] that is also "widely regarded as one of the States' premiere female drumandbass DJs" according to Dieselboy.^[10][11] She is a self-taught DJ known for mixing the techstep subgenre of drum and bass.^[12][13]

She has DJed throughout North America at clubs and raves as a breakbeat and techno DJ on a regular basis beginning in 1990, dedicating herself exclusively to the Drum&Bass genre by 1995^{[14][15][16][17][18]} and performing alongside artists such as 808 State,^[19] Joey Beltram,^[20] Meat Beat Manifesto.^[21]

She became a frequent guest DJ at music venues including City Gardens^[22] in Trenton, New Jersey, Guernica^[23][24][25] (formerly Save the Robots) in Manhattan, The Shelter (New York City), and The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Also, she was asked to be a resident DJ at Club Zadar in New Hope, Pennsylvania, in January 1990, introducing techno to the new wave venue. In addition, she became a resident DJ at several venues in Philadelphia including Evolution^[26] and Skyline.^[27] She is considered one of the first female techno DJs from North America and has been cited as "the original East Coast female drum and bass DJ".^[28]

Sainte has acknowledged the support of DJ Lenny Dee.^[29] Dieselboy has also been known to support her.^[30] She also convinced Rhys Fulber, after he met her in the “early nineties” when she worked as a Techno DJ, to eventually produce Techno and use his German name as opposed to an alias.^[31]

1986-1999: Radio

Sainte became licensed by the FCC in 1986, whilst still a high school student and went on to do her first radio show that same year at WCVH in New Jersey. At WCVH, she exclusively played Industrial, New Wave, and Punk.^[32] She also worked at WFMU (named the “best radio station in the nation” by Rolling Stone magazine from 1991 through 1994^[33]) and WPRB at Princeton University.^[34][35][36] In 1995, she created and DJed on a program with live mixing at WPRB that she called Bassquake. Bassquake aired every Friday for five years. It was the United States's first drum and bass/jungle program to air on a commercial FM radio station.^{[37][38][39][40]}

Discography

DJ mixes

• Fluid Sessions - at Fluid nightclub in Philadelphia, Bioforce Recordings, 1998

Dubplates

• Badlands (1996)
• Pitch Black (1996)
• The Unseen (1997)
• Retribution with 1.8.7 (1999)
• Dreammaker with Rhys Fulber (2008)
• Diamonds from Your Eyes (2021)
• Deadlock (2024)
• Skyclad (2024)
• Roberta Sparrow (2024)
• Killer in the Home (remix) (2024)
• Like Cockatoos (remix) (2024)

Personal life

Sainte is a vegan, regularly advocating for veganism on her social media. She is also Wiccan, having trained in California in person with Zsuzsanna Budapest.^[41] She lives on the East Coast with her calico cat.