At the crossroads of art, music, and DIY culture, you’ll find Misfit Mod, the moniker of New Zealand's Sarah Kelleher. With icy electronic beats, wet synths, and a hypnotic voice (one that veteran BBC host Tom Robinson said gave him goosebumps), Kelleher’s music radiates a technicolor fantasy full of understated strength and late-night whispers. Growing up in New Zealand—a country famous for its idyllic landscapes as much as its dreary working-class conservatism—Kelleher spent most of her time as a child absorbing whatever caught her interest. Hanging out with her brothers and friends, riding around on her highlighter orange BMX, and singing along to her father’s records was as much a part of shaping her imagination as were da Vinci and Giotto, TLC and Boys II Men. Part aversion to tribes, part artistic manifesto, Kelleher resisted taking instrument lessons or studying music theory, allowing her instead to cultivate a refined and cultured naivety that expresses her sense of musical purity and artistic individualism. Not interested in replicating what’s already been done, Kelleher combines her intuitive take on melody and vocal layering with a technological approach to the production of sound: in addition to being a serial autodidact, she is also one of New Zealand’s few certified female audio engineers. Kelleher’s aesthetic is built on the juxtaposition of art and sound. A former gallery curator and art history graduate, Misfit Mod’s music and attitudes reflect this philos