“I Feel at Home Again”: Elkka on Queer Club Culture, Pleasure and 'Xpression'

Elkka’s new EP ‘Xpression’ is a euphoric tribute to queer club spaces, femme pleasure, and creative growth. We spoke to the artist about finding joy, DJing her own tracks, how dancing at London lesbian clubs helped birth her upbeat new music.

Ana Yglesias

7 min •
Jun 26, 2025
Elkka Beatportal Interview

The cover of Elkka's queer-club-inspired Xpression EP is rather cheeky – a tiny-bikini-clad body, visible from just belly button to knees, strikes a confident pose as champagne flows into a coupe floating in front of her. It flips the stereotypical imagery of ‘90s and ‘00s Ibiza CD covers – usually male-made – and reclaims it as a feminist symbol of pleasure, power, and freedom.

It's symbolic of how Elkka, born Emma Kirby in Cardiff, Wales, has carved her space in a crowded electronic scene; centering queer and femme pleasure atop inviting, layered rhythms that sample from house, ambient, '90s rave, trance and beyond. Her music is ever-surprising, enticing and gay. Xpression is a sweaty release of the chaos of 2025 – a love letter to the queer parties that helped her heal after losing her father and dropping her acclaimed debut, Prism of Pleasure.

We catch Elkka on release day – June 20, the summer solstice – calling from a beach in Marseille before her La Crème Festival set. With sunlit skin, rimless sunglasses, and her wife (and longtime creative partner) Alex Lambert just out of frame, she’s the picture of summer.

"I'm disassociating. [Laughs.] Release days are always a weird one for me, and I don't know if it makes it better or worse by being literally out-of-office touristing, but I'm really happy. I'm super proud of it," Elkka says with a smile.

"I asked myself, what's going to give me the most joy? For me, it's always in these queer spaces; they're my favorite audiences to play for and to immerse myself within. Obviously, this music is for everyone, and that's really important, but it's inspired by those parties that I really adore. Also, the history of house music and dance music is so queer as well. It's all poured into this EP," she affirms.

Surprisingly, the exuberant four-track EP marks the first time Elkka felt at ease making music she was keen to DJ. It's not that she hasn't tried; she dropped a three-tracker titled DJ Friendly in 2023. And while her debut album wasn't geared for the club, it's easy to imagine some of the tracks, particularly the ecstatic "Make Me," echoing off the walls of a packed club.

Elkka Beatportal Interview 1
@alexlambertphoto

"I have [been DJing these songs], which I usually find difficult. But with this EP, I really wanted to DJ them out as soon as they were ready," she shares. "With this EP, I found it really, really effortless. It's one of the few releases I've had where I really feel like this is something I would choose to hear at some of my favorite parties, and that's made it easier and more joyful for me to DJ myself."

After releasing her debut album Prism of Pleasure in 2024, Elkka wanted to live her life and find inspiration from doing so before jumping into the next project. She also took time to reflect on her purpose and goals around making music. She reconnected with the queer community, who remains her creative north star. Xpression was inspired by the London queer parties she frequented during this time, including the hip new lesbian bar La Camionera.

"All DJs [can] take so much value from spending time on the dance floor," Elkka asserts. "It definitely grounds me as a DJ and as a human being. I need it. It's therapy for me, even just for a few hours."

"I'd gotten so deeply into a creative process producing an album that it left a blank canvas, and I really didn't know what I was going to do. So I really took my time to just live a life for a good while and go to parties and absorb not just music, but galleries and culture, and really become a sponge again and see what came from that,” Elkka reflects.

While it doesn't magically happen every time she sits down to make music, her best creative moments come in a flow state where she feels like a vessel for sounds and ideas. The clubby music that flowed out of Elkka surprised her.

"When I sat down to write, this is what poured out of me. It was a really beautiful surprise because it was like, Gosh, I actually really like this. First, I felt panic because I didn't know what I was doing. But then I thought, I need to follow this through. Something's coming out here that I'm really meant to be making now. That's why it's called Xpression. It's a very true expression of where I am now, where I want to be, and who I want to play for.”

When asked where the panic came from, she compared the blank canvas post-album state to the feeling she had when she first taught herself to produce music.

"It does feel quite like a spiritual process where you are a bit of a vessel. I have to put myself in the best space for it, and then relinquish control and see what emerges. That's exactly the same feeling I had when I first started producing. I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't know what kind of music I wanted to make, but I started making electronic music, house music. It's nerve-wracking and exciting when you're starting that process. And now I feel grounded again. I feel at home again," Elkka asserts.

Xpression Elkka
Elkka Beatportal Interview 5
Elkka Beatportal Final

While Xpression marks a sonic shift toward banging basslines over sultry grooves, it’s still unmistakably Elkka – full of layered detail and joy. Though her intuitive creative process stayed the same, her setup changed. Prism of Pleasure was made mostly in the box using Arturia synths while she was away from home, caring for her sick father. During Xpression, she was mid-move and working with a pared-down studio. Returning to her preferred setup marked both a physical and creative homecoming – and a fresh chapter in making club-ready music.

"I was listening to a lot of noughties and '90s house music and listening to the music that was played at early house queer nights and clubs [in] New York, Chicago," Elkka says when asked about specific influences on the EP. "I was going back and asking, What makes this chunky house, percussive, simple, drum-led vocal track so impactful and why do I still love it now?"

While you can certainly hear the early house influences across the EP, it's not nostalgic classic house by any means.

"I'm a magpie when it comes to things that influence me. So I'm never going to make a fucking tech house record and it just be that. Everything I do has influences and eras built into it that jump around. I used to think that was a bad thing, but that's what makes everyone's music unique. You're taking little bits from all over the place and that's what creates your DNA," the "Gentle Gaze" producer posits.

A mix of club, day party and afterparty tunes, often with an ethereal touch, Elkka’s catalog is built on inviting, effervescent beds of sound. It's house music in the broadest sense, with a range of BPMs and other influences, samples, and more recently, her own voice, providing variety and intrigue. Her music floats in rose-tinted dreamscapes while remaining connected to the body and the way it moves, to feeling at home in your skin and the ways that love and community can nourish that.

"You have to keep being curious about new ways of making music, new music itself, and listen to things that are outside of your normal scope. I love meeting new people and getting them to give me a playlist they love," Elkka shares. "When you stop being curious, that's when you stop being a creative and you stop making good music."

Elkka Beatportal Interview 6
@alexlambertphoto

Throughout Elkka's career, pleasure, particularly centering that of queer people and femmes, has remained a throughline in her music and artistry. "[Pleasure] always will be a part of it. Having more feminine energy on the dance floor is not a bad thing," she asserts.

For her, part of what makes pleasure such an enticing subject, not unlike her approach to music-making, is its ever-evolving and exploratory nature.

"Pleasure changes. It evolves with you as a human being. Something I found pleasurable – whether it's through music or theater or sexuality – five years ago, can be different than what it is now. And it's very individual. Learning that as I got older was really empowering," the DJ, producer and singer recounts. "Being able to go with the flow with that and embrace it allows for the greatest pleasure."

Last year, to foster queer pleasure IRL and celebrate the community (and her album), she launched her Prism of Pleasure party series in London with romps at KOKO, Village Underground and others, continuing earlier this month with Leztopia at Corsica Studios.

"It comes from a very basic desire to have more queer and FLINTA [female, lesbian, intersex, non-binary, trans and agender people] spaces. There isn't enough. There hasn't been enough. It's emerging. In London, the scene is evolving; there's more dyke nights than ever, which is great, and queer nights that are not just for gay men, which is obviously really important too," Elkka explains of the parties. “I wanted to create parties for the people I make music for, to keep building community at a grassroots level. Whether it’s 300 people or 1,200, it’s about giving those I adore a safe, expressive space to be together.”

Given the continued attacks on the rights of LGBTQIA+ and women in the U.S., U.K. and unfortunately many other places, queer clubs remain a vital space to gather, feel free, and organize.

"The dance floor has always been a place for expression. The dance floor is a place to protest and reclaim what's not happening outside of it. It's essential. If we lost that, we would be losing a space for freedom and a space to [pauses and exhales] exhale because its fucking hard outside of it right now," Elkka poignantly reflects.

Elkka's four-track Xpression EP is out now via Method 808. Buy it on Beatport.

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