Laidback Luke at Liberty Hotel Boston (interview)Laidback Luke

Laidback Luke at Liberty Hotel Boston (interview)

MixMash records label honcho stopped by Royale in Boston and we asked the Dutchman a few questions. Check out the full interview after the break.

DA: How was your experience in Vegas at EDC? What it was like having EDC in Vegas opposed to in Los Angeles?

LBL: Well I can’t believe the guys actually pulled it off. Everyone was kind of skeptical about moving EDC from LA to Vegas and it was a mind blowing experience to be honest. The 3 days, the amounts of people that came, I believe they had like 100,000 people coming out per day. It was really something else, they just had a whole area and they pulled it off, it was ridiculous.

DA: Your set from EDC, and your sets in general, include so many genres- alternative metal, latin salsa, bleepy house, dubstep, EDM pop remixes, “dirty dutch,” progressive, electro, moombahton, and even rap…how do you make it all flow so seamlessly in a 2 hour long set without losing your audience’s attention at all?
LBL: This is a great question and actually in the question lies the answer as well – because the whole key of keeping an audience bound to your music is to keep varying and to keep it fresh. It’s like life, you know? The way I see it, if you have the same thing all the time, you get bored, and with my sets too I’ll just try to change up the energy and vary music genres to keep everyone’s attention. At one point I played Chop Suey and it was like, “Wake up!” Because I needed the crowd to have that kind of attention again.

DA: That’s an interesting point you make, how does the crowd respond when you play a song like that and then you drop right back into some dirty Dutch or an electro song?

LBL: Yeah, I guess it’s tricky because if I compare myself to other DJs, sometimes DJs tend to stick to their own guns and are afraid to experiment more. With me, its all about the save. I get myself into trouble and wonder how the hell I’m going to get out of it. If you do it successfully it just adds to the energy.

DA: Where do you pull your influences from and how do you remain innovative?

LBL: I guess I’m just a music lover all around. Basically for me it’s always about tapping into the energy of the crowd and the night. So that’s how I can decide what to play next.

DA: What track are you most proud of having produced (may or may not be popular)

LBL: That’s always a hard question and I always answer with: “My best track is still to come” – this keeps me passionate and keeps me alive. I’ll probably make it tomorrow or any day in the future.

DA: What are you listening to on your iPod that is not EDM?

LBL: Oh my goodness. I’m not sure. I actually don’t listen much to my iPod and I actually try not to listen to any kind of music when I’m not producing because i’m always around so much music. Basically, I produce almost 12 hours a day, and when I’m not producing, I’m busy with promos, demos, productions, remixes, mastering, and the label. I actually don’t listen to much music.

DA: So you’ll actually produce a song while you’re on the road?

LBL: Oh yeah! I do it because every year I take 200 flights and do 150 shows, trying to produce in between everything.

DA: So speaking of traveling, how do you determine what cities that you want to visit? I know that the scene in Boston is a relatively smaller scene especially with New York 3 hours away. What motivates you to come to a town like Boston to perform your sets?

LBL: You’re right. Basically, Boston is not a primary market, to be honest, and the last time I was here was about 2 years ago. So we do try to do the secondary markets every year. It’s still very interesting to do because a lot of time people from these kinds of places will travel to the primary markets to see me, so it’s always really good area to tap into. We always try to do it if I have the time.

DA: What about some of your friends in the industry? Have they started to look at Boston as a potential market where they want to showcase some of their skills? We know Avicii came to Boston on July 10th.

LBL: Yeah, I guess fellow DJs do it the same way I do. And it’s not that were very much in touch and say Boston is the place to be, but its good. Talent gets around here as well and obviously when a lot of fellow DJs come here it will start getting more and more interesting to us.

DA: So how has the crowd been in your previous visits? Pretty good?

LBL: Oh yeah! The US at the moment is ridiculous for me anyways. Basically, a lot of times when I show up somewhere nowadays it will sell out. It’s been that good.

Thanks go out to Luke, Tom, and Chris Furnari for making this happen.

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