Rare DM Tickets

Dance music, dark matter, direct message, dungeon master, distant memory—people have tried to decipher the meaning behind the name Rare DM, but really it’s the singular Brooklyn-based singer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Erin Hoagg. 

Rare DM is Hoagg at her most vulnerable and visceral, as she mines dates, breakups and other adventures to make revealing, romantic darkwave dance-pop music. 

With a collection of vintage analog synths she’s gathered over several years, Hoagg transforms the mundane into the magical, transposing real DMs she’s sent and received into songs that reflect on the fractured nature of modern communication and online dating. Her songs are dark and deeply intimate, rendering in raw detail the search for that special connection we all crave, but rarely find. 

Rare DM’s 2019 debut album, Vanta Black, tackles subjects of longing and loneliness, moods that match its namesake—the darkest pigment ever created by man. In a feature interview, PAPER praised its “stream-of-consciousness” lyrics about “love without resolution,” and likened its “retro electronic sound” to “a black cloud that never quite lifts.” 

Despite the depths it plumbs, Vanta Black is also lauded for its light. VICE commended its “vibrant chromatics,” saying Hoagg’s “synth programming shimmers, [and] her drum machines burst with vintage warmth.” The flatness found in “Vantablack” the color is not apparent in Vanta Black the album. As the VICE writer points out, “there’s color even in the deepest darkness.” 

Hoagg’s new work continues to explore the dark side of modern life, but now she’s more seductress than sad girl. Where Vanta Black found her in her darkest moment, her new songs are imbued with energy, empowerment and humor. New single “Send Nudes” details a romance that unraveled in the DMs, her disaffected monotone occasionally breaking into a Billie Holiday-esque lilt. 

Rare DM lives up to her name in live performance by utilizing a DAW-less setup. This replaces the now-familiar image of someone standing behind a laptop with the striking spectacle of Hoagg dancing between an Octatrack, a Machinedrum and other analog gear. This also throws out any notions of there being anyone other than Hoagg creating the music. A flex, sure, but also a reflex against music industry misogyny. 

Hoagg has hauled her gear to stages across the US and Canada. For more, follow her @rare_dm_