Jackie Hollander was looking for a sign. It was 2024 and she was working a grip of gigs — hostessing at restaurant, babysitting, working for her parents’ business, doing cyber security — to make ends meet while she produced music and pursued her dream of being an artist.
“At one point I thought I was going to get my real estate license,” says Hollander. “It was like, a mess, honestly.”
Having already signed with a manager and agent, her team suggested she go to London for a month to do studio sessions. It was a happy, productive time that she spent making music squarely in the tech house wheelhouse she’d been focused on. By month’s end, she was having a hard time wrapping her head around the idea of returning to her day jobs.
“It was the last week of my trip, and I’m really spiritual and believe in signs,” she says. “I asked the universe like, ‘Please don’t make me go back to this mix of jobs. Give me a sign that I’m meant to do this.” Hours later, Hollander got a call from her agent, who told her she’d been booked to play EDC Las Vegas. And Outside Lands.
“I literally called my parents, and was like, ‘I’m quitting! I’m just going do music full time and really go in!’ That was a huge moment of like, ‘I’m meant to do this.’”
And so Hollander has, growing her profile and catalog with releases across influential labels including Nervous Records, Chris Lake’s Black Book Records, Gorgon City’s Realm and beyond. Her most recent singles include the Experts Only release “High on You” and a thumping remix of Jayda G’s “All Day,” both released this month. Now based in L.A., where she speaks to Billboard over Zoom with her cat intermittently walking into frame, Hollander will soon take off on a run of major summer festivals.
Her life as a DJ started long before she was old enough to get into a club, with Hollander getting her first taste of the craft during summer camp in the mountains near Lake Tahoe. Attending as kids, she and her sister each selected DJing as an elective, then played the camp dance. While she was growing up in the Bay Area, Hollander’s parents “would always love to host the parties instead of us going to parties,” a setup that allowed her to DJ in the garage of the family home during such soirees. At the same time, she was getting into the famously vibrant Bay Area dance world.
This interest continued when Hollander moved to Los Angeles to attend college at USC. Her campus housing was close to The Shrine Auditorium, a key L.A. dance venue that’s also on the USC campus. “We’d go to every weekend,” Hollander recalls, citing an October 2019 set from LP Giobbi as one that sticks out in her memory. “It was incredible,” says Hollander. “I was like, “Who is this girl?’ We were Shazamming every song.”