Sound Advice: Laidback Luke

Join Laidback Luke on Sound Advice, the weekly interview series covering artists’ journeys and their creative process. In this episode, we discuss the Dutch dance DJ, producer and label owner’s decades-spanning career, new music, advice for artists, his recent call for “1000 BPM” remixes and more.

‍

Welcome to Sound Advice, the series spotlighting artists’ creative process and their SoundCloud journey. We’ll get the inside knowledge straight from the source on how musicians, producers and creatives are leaning into everything SoundCloud offers to elevate their sound, get heard and catapult their careers. Sound Advice is now available in audio format on the SoundCloud Stories profile.

‍

On this episode of Sound Advice, we’re talking to dance music giant Laidback Luke: the Dutch DJ, producer and label owner of Mixmash Records, who’s been headlining the world’s stages with banging house and electronic dance music for the better part of three decades. 

This episode of Sound Advice is also very special: it’s the first time we’ve recorded the show in front of a studio audience of friends and fans, live from the SoundCloud office in New York City. In this interview, we talk to Luke about his beginnings in the DJ world, the evolution of his sound and the Dutch music scene, and the stories behind some of his biggest tracks, like “Show Me Love” and “Be” with Steve Angello. 

We also take things up to the present day; exploring how Laidback Luke approaches DJing now, his return to the bloghouse sound and the studio sessions with Nostalgix that birthed his latest Dim Mak release, “1000 BPM.” In case you missed it, we recently collaborated with Laidback Luke to exclusively release the free stems to the track on the SoundCloud Store, and called on the DJ/producer community to share their take on the festival-ready banger. While the limited edition stems are no longer available, you can check out what producers came up with by searching the tag #1000BPMRemix on SoundCloud and listening to Laidback Luke’s “1000 BPM” Remix Party playlist here.

Elsewhere throughout our in-depth conversation, Luke offers advice on how to navigate difficult crowds, deal with DJ anxiety and make your tracks better, as well as sheds light on how he uses SoundCloud to support new artists and their releases, find new talent, connect with potential collaborators and more.

‍

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO EPISODE OF SOUND ADVICE FEATURING LAIDBACK LUKE

‍

LISTEN TO “1000 BPM” BY LAIDBACK LUKE

‍

LISTEN TO LAIDBACK LUKE’S  “1000 BPM” REMIX PARTY PLAYLIST

‍

Things We Talked About In This Episode of Sound Advice

‍

Laidback Luke’s Early Days in Dance Music, Hip-Hop and Producing His First Tracks

• We begin the conversation with how Laidback Luke first got into electronic music. In the late 1980s in his native Netherlands, Laidback Luke was turned onto dance beats when Chicago house producer Lil Louis’ now-classic track “French Kiss” was a surprise chart hit. As a fan of high energy hip-hop acts like House of Pain and Criss Cross, he felt an affinity with “French Kiss.” 
• The turning point, though, was the 1989 release of Technotronic’s “Pump Up The Jam.” Hearing how the track fused hip-hop lyrics with a house energy, he was inspired to start producing his own music as a teenager. Thanks to a friend who had an Amiga Tracker, he says he realized that he could make music on a computer and hasn’t looked back since.
• Going further down this early path, Laiback Luke remembers how he released his first vinyl record in 1995, which caught the attention of major dance DJs in the U.S. like Danny Tenaglia, and that his remix of Green Velvet’s track “Stalker” got put onto British dance legend Carl Cox. After those tracks dropped, he started to DJ at shows outside the Netherlands. 
• Here, Laidback Luke learned one of his earliest lessons as an artist, explaining how you can be a producer and a DJ, but you can’t focus entirely on the former and only use the latter to tour. To be successful, you have to give your beats and your mixing the same care and attention in order to compete successfully in the dance music industry.
• Laidback Luke’s positive attitude comes through in the advice he gives. Coming from the Netherlands, he recognizes that a quirk of his countrymen is to be naturally cautious when it comes to ambition. Luke, however, doesn’t think that way; he always aims high and follows his dreams, thinking internationally rather than just locally. When he mentors young artists today, he says, he tells them to aim as high, too. 

‍

Advice for DJing, Practising Your DJ Sets and Preparing For The Unexpected 

• Laidback Luke has been DJing for 30 years, so he’s full of stories and advice about playing to crowds across the world. Here, he shares some anecdotes about his early days as a DJ, and the kind of lessons you can only learn when you’re starting out fresh on the scene. 
• When it comes to working through nerves as a performer, Luke has found a lot of inspiration and calm through his journey in martial arts. Quoting his kung fu teacher — “fail to prepare, prepare to fail” — he shares advice for up-and-coming DJs on how to get ready for a set, and anything the event might throw at you.
• To be truly prepared, Luke shares that it’s not just a case of putting a set list together. Here, he explains his process: of playing practice sets at home, recording them and listening back to them. This way, he can work on transitions, tricks and combinations to elevate his set. In the end, it all comes down to flexibility. By practicing his sets in this way, he finds it gives him more confidence to freestyle his sets according to the vibe of the audience and setting.

‍

How Laidback Luke Was Inspired by Electroclash and Dutch House to Produce His Hit “Show Me Love” Remix and New Tracks

• Laidback Luke is currently on his global Code Red tour. You can find more details about tour dates, locations and tickets here. Conceptually, the tour is all about a new stage — and feeling — in his career. After decades at the top of dance music, particularly after the EDM boom of the 2010s, Luke was starting to feel like he needed something new and fresh to inspire him. Here, he tells the story of how he went through an old hard-drive of tracks from 2007-2009 — featuring music by Crookers, Switch and more — and felt the need to reconnect with a more underground sound once again. As he tells it, the last decade was like riding a wave; now, he wants to create a new wave.
• Here, Luke opens up about the expectations of maintaining a career in the dance music industry, and how those expectations can influence an artist’s creative and business choices. His advice to others who may be going through a similar phase is to remember who you are as an artist. For Luke, that means reclaiming the role of DJ as the one in control of the room, and focusing on the journey of the set. He explains how he aims to play for the craft and the love of sharing music, rather than to explicitly please every person on the dancefloor. 
• One of Laidback Luke’s biggest tracks is his collaborative remix — with Steve Angello of Swedish House Mafia — of the Robin S classic “Show Me Love.” Here, he talks about the making of the remix: from his Baltimore club, electrohouse and Dutch house inspirations, to travelling to Sweden to work with Angello in the studio.
• Luke also gets into more detail about the origins and sound of Dutch house, how it relates to Chicago house and how the sound has spread internationally — thanks, in no small part, to the influence of the legendary DJ David Guetta.

‍

The Making of “1000 BPM” with Nostalgix and Calling for Remixes From the SoundCloud DJ/Producer Community

• In May 2025, Laidback Luke released “1000 BPM,” a collaborative track with dance artist Nostalgix, on Dim Mak Records. Inspired by the bloghouse and electroclash festival bangers of the late 2000s, “1000 BPM” marks a new chapter in Luke’s career, and brings a more raw, underground style into his beats. Luke talks about the making of the track, what it was like to work with Nostalgix and where the inspiration for the title came from. 
• You can listen to Laidback Luke’s episode of Voice Notes, which features exclusive commentary on the making of “1000 BPM,” “It Clicked” and more here.
• Recently, to mark the release of “1000 BPM,” Laidback Luke put out an open call for remixes of the track, collaborating with SoundCloud to offer the stems for free, exclusively available from the SoundCloud Store. To answer the call for remixes, producers put their spin on the track and uploaded it to SoundCloud with the tag #1000BPMRemix. To celebrate the creativity shown by the DJ/producer community on SoundCloud, Laidback Luke put together a dedicated playlist of some of his favorite remixes, which you can find here. 
• During our conversation, Laidback Luke talks about how he was inspired to collaborate on the remix challenge by the wealth of up-and-coming talent on the platform, and how he was curious about how others would re-imagine his music.

‍

Laidback Luke’s Production Philosophy and How He Prepares For Major Festival Sets 

• As part of Laidback Luke rediscovery of the late 2000s sounds of bloghouse, electroclash and Dutch house, he’s been working on new music that reflects that era. Explaining how he likes to produce his tracks, he goes into detail about which tools and plug-ins he likes to use, and how he uses them to keep his tracks sounding “old school.” For Luke, it’s all about making choices geared towards simplicity and directness.
• Going back to the influence of martial arts on his creative mindset, Luke explains that when he sees fighters at a higher level, he’s always struck by how much they focus on mastering the fundamentals of their martial art rather than trying to demonstrate tricks or moves with overt flair. 
• Transferring that mindset to music, he shares some wisdom: Learn the fundamentals of your instrument, your genre, your DJing, before concerning yourself with the latest plug-ins or complicated moves. If you master the basics, you will always be a strong performer.
• Developing that line of thinking further, Luke talks about how to present those fundamentals in the most authentic and supportive way possible. Having performed at thousands of clubs over the decades, he tells us that, recently, he’s been yearning to go back to the basics of what makes dance music great: a strobe, some smoke, a dark room with minimal light, and a big, bassy soundsystem.
• When it comes to festival performances, though, Luke likes to approach them differently, and explains where his mindset is today. Following the success of his Super You & Me concept at Tomorrowland — which began in 2012, as a superhero-themed event — he’s back at the Belgian EDM festival this July. You can find out more about his tour dates and tickets here.
• Coming full circle, Luke talks about how he likes to prepare for major festival sets. After his many years of constant practice, he now prefers to not prepare an exact set list for a big show. Instead, he likes to travel with at least “3500 tracks” so that when he steps up to the stage, he has total freedom to work with the crowd in front of him, and can react accordingly depending on age, tastes, energy levels and other surprise elements in the moment. This flexibility keeps Luke on his toes and excited to perform.

‍

Using SoundCloud, Navigating the Music Industry and What’s Next For Laidback Luke

• From his record label, Mixmash Records, to his mentoring of up-and-coming artists, Laidback Luke has been a consistent supporter of new talent in dance music. One way in which he supports new talent is through SoundCloud. Here, Luke explains how he uses the platform to support new artists and their releases, find new talent, connect with potential collaborators and more.
• Having used SoundCloud for many years, he’s found it to be a place where artists can grow and get discovered, without the machinations of the music industry or gatekeeping. 
• On the topic of up-and-coming artists, Luke also shares some honesty: That in this ever-changing music industry and market, a good track alone won’t get you to where you need to be. The earlier that an artist can recognize that they need to work on the full package — their social media, their visual works, their fanbase — the quicker they will have the tools for success. And beyond that, Luke notes, your work ethic and momentum are the most important elements to a great career.
• Looking forward, Luke also has some exciting news to share. Alongside his Las Vegas residency this year, Luke is getting ready to put out a very exciting collaboration with the late James Brown. After being approached by the iconic soul artist’s dance music-loving grandson, Laidback Luke got the blessing to do an official remix of a James Brown track, which is set for release later this year. Luke shares his excitement and wonder at the project, sharing earnestly how honored he feels to be given the chance to work on music by such a legendary artist. Bringing it back to a final piece of advice, he reiterates how no matter how big you get, the hustle never stops.

‍

Links and Extras 

Follow Laidback Luke’s journey on SoundCloud.
Press play on Laidback Luke’s latest tracks, “1000 BPM” and “It Clicked.”
Follow Mixmash Records, Laidback Luke’s record label.
Listen to Laidback Luke’s episode of Voice Notes here.
Hit play on Laidback Luke’s collaboration with Steve Aoki and Lil Jon, “Turbulence.” 
Go back to where it all began with Laidback Luke’s first-ever track, “Break Down The House.”
Check out Laidback Luke’s Code Red tour dates and tickets here.
Listen to the Festival House Bangers playlist on SoundCloud.
Never miss an episode and follow the official Sound Advice playlist on SoundCloud.

‍

Getting The Most Out of SoundCloud

Learn more about using DMs to connect with fellow artists and potential collaborators.
Learn more about how to make a custom playlist on SoundCloud.
Learn more about unlimited uploads, available with an Artist Pro subscription.
Learn more unlocking access to unlimited distribution, available with Artist Pro.
Learn more about getting heard with SoundCloud’s updated algorithm, available to Artist and Artist Pro subscribers.

To discover additional features a SoundCloud Artist or Artist Pro subscription offers, visit here. To catch up on past installments of Sound Advice and make sure you don’t miss out on future episodes, visit here.

‍

_{CREDITS: Host: Vivian Host, Executive Producer: Mike Spinella, Producer: KC Orcutt, Audio Engineer: David “Dibs” Shackney, Coordinator: Trevor McGee, Editorial Associate: Lauren Martin}

‍