For Erika Jayne, music has never been a side project — it has always been the foundation. Now, she’s officially returning to her roots, announcing that she’s stepping back behind the turntables under the name DJ Pretty Mess. Her first appearance back will take place at the Saturday night @findyourgps party during Palm Springs Pride, marking a renewed focus on DJ culture and nightlife performance.
In a recent statement, Erika Jayne described music as her “first love,” recalling her early years immersed in New York City’s underground club scene in the late 1980s. Long before chart success and global stages, she was crate-digging for vinyl and absorbing the raw energy of dance floors that would later inspire her own sound and persona.
That inspiration crystallized with the release of her 2009 debut album, Pretty Mess. The project defined an era of unapologetic dance-pop — bold, glamorous, and driven by pulsing club beats. Singles like “Roller Coaster,” “How Many F**ks,” “Painkillr,” and “XXPEN$IVE” helped establish her as a consistent presence on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart. The “Pretty Mess” era wasn’t simply about music; it became a full identity built on high-fashion visuals, theatrical performances, and a confident, larger-than-life attitude.
Her stage presence eventually expanded beyond clubs into large-scale productions, including an elaborate Las Vegas residency that blended choreography, couture, and spectacle. Festival culture also played a key role in her trajectory. In 2018, she officially stepped behind the decks at Coachella for the Jeremy Scott x Moschino party, spinning alongside artists like Diplo and A-Trak. The following year, she headlined her own desert party during Coachella weekend, tying in her ShoeDazzle collaboration and further exploring her role as both performer and curator of sound.
Now, six years later, that creative spark has reignited. By embracing the name DJ Pretty Mess, she seamlessly connects her early dance-pop era with her renewed commitment to DJing. It’s less of a reinvention and more of a continuation — a return to the underground influence that shaped her artistry in the first place.
Her musical resurgence arrives amid ongoing legal challenges, including the recent loss of a SLAPP appeal in an $18 million lawsuit filed by a designer and continued negotiations in a $25 million lawsuit brought by the bankruptcy trustee of Tom Girardi, which is currently expected to proceed to trial in February 2026. Despite the turbulence, she remains publicly focused on her creative pursuits.
For Erika Jayne, stepping behind the decks represents more than a gig — it’s a full-circle moment. From underground clubs in New York to global stages and now back to the DJ booth, the rhythm that defined her “Pretty Mess” era is once again front and center.
