Katie Rex

Biography

Katie Rex is one of NY’s most essential and impactful DJs. The Bound founder and Basement resident has spent the last decade and changed pushing a singular vision of wild, uncompromising rave power. Fusing throbbing techno, ripping hardgroove, key selections from NY’s vibrant underground and nods to her foundational loves – goth & industrial – Rex has developed a well-earned reputation for turning the dancefloor on its head. Her sets move with the perfect balance of precision and controlled chaos, transmuting a gleefully grungy menace into liberatory catharsis.

Rex’s career began in Philadelphia where, in true DIY spirit, she began organizing parties around a key, glaring gap. Factory Girls was Rex’s first party series, an all-femme party that highlighted some of the 2010’s most vital new artists and helped point the way forward out of an oppressively male-focused monoculture. Word spread quickly, and early alliances with NY’s Discwoman drew Rex up to NY more and more. A few short years later she found herself at the center of a cultural renaissance. Regular sets at the revered, secretive Unter party, close ties with Bossa Nova Civic Club, and in 2016, the first edition of Bound all came quickly, and Rex’s position in the culture was soon indisputable.

Bound has become Rex’s calling card: a NY-based, nationally produced kink party that seeks to redefine the form. Landing at the revered institution Basement, as one of the inaugural residencies at the club in 2019. As with Factory Girls, Bound pushes back against the ensconced patriarchal power dynamics that have made many femme and queer people feel unwelcome. It instead creates a space that is directly, unapologetically for those groups, with outstanding artists to boot. Rex’s DJing at these parties inevitably sets the standard; her capacity to both wield music of brutal power and craft an immersive, captivating, even joyful journey embodies the entire ethos of the night. Through this passion for amplifying artists, Rex created a boutique label featuring releases from Dax J, Silent Servant, Terence Fixmer, Bored Lord, Kilbourne, Ireen Amnes, Kontravoid, and more. After a 6 year Lot Radio residency, featuring a host of guests including VTSS, Rebekah, Sedef Adasï, Akua, Silent Servant, and Hyperaktivist, Bound release a new mix series In 2025.

Rex has become an international presence, with regular gigs across the States and overseas. Her sets have been sought after beyond the club by Boiler Room and luxury houses Ludovic de Saint Sernin, Burberry, and Parfums de Marley. Press features in Vogue, The Face, Paper Magazine, Document Journal, and Nylon Magazine have lauded her as the face of a new wave in nightlife culture. As her vision has come to shape US nightlife, the power of her music has only become more honed and riveting. What’s come before is only the beginning.