As a guitarist, drummer and occasional bassist, Sarah Armstrong thought she would always play in alternative rock or metal bands.
But then the Geelong talent discovered the synthesiser.
Words: CHERIE DONNELLAN
Photo: TOMMY RITCHIE
Armstrong took to the digital soundwaves like a duck to water.
“I enrolled in a music engineering course at Diversitat and went in thinking I’d play in a rock band,” Armstrong says.
“I discovered I liked computerised stuff better.”
Armstrong has already earned recognition for her electropop mixes under her DJ pseudonym Von Stache. Last year she won a triple J remix competition for turning music director Richard Kingsmill’s attempted Italian accent into a hilariously repetitive Eurodance track titled Roman Kingsmill.
He applauded, saying it “perfectly captured the crapness of my Italian accent and, true to really bad Italian techno, the music and pitch-shifted vocals were incredibly repetitive and annoying”.
Armstrong recalls nervously awaiting the station’s response after completing the remix in four hours.
“I was so excited when I got a call the next day at 6.30 in the morning saying I’d won.”
Touting her quirkiness, Armstrong laughs when admitting her DJ monkier is a derivation of her dog’s name.
“We (her family) give our dogs full names and our dog’s name is Luca Von Stachian,” she explains.
“I was asking my sister for a name because I didn’t have one to use at gigs and she was looking at the dog, turned and said ‘Von Stache’, so I just went with it.”
