Laidback Luke is in the midst of a personal renaissance. From his recent James Brown remix to the countless collaborations with Daft Punk, Madonna, Lil Jon and others, Luke is helping build a new movement for the dance community.
“My current sound is blog house. I was going through an old hard drive from 2007/2008 because I was kind of uninspired,” he tells me. “I got overwhelmed with the passion and nostalgia I had then, right before dance music broke through in America, and the mindset I had at the time, ‘screw it. I’m just going to do my own thing.’”
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Is there a genre you love to write/produce in most?
No, it’s very much correlated nowadays. Nowadays I’m mashing up tracks that are very current with those old tracks as well, because they work so perfectly on the dance floor. For a generation of ravers, this is completely new.
I would love to see more of a sense of community. I want my music to be an integral part of that.
Tell us about your international CODE/RED Tour.
I’m trying to set my foot in as many areas and parts of the world where I can signal that, “Hey, there’s something going on — there’s something exciting coming.” We’re taking over, basically.
What inspired “Gasoline” with Linney?
Linney had a big break with Layton Giordani’s “Act of God” track. And Li is about as close to musical family as it can get. I said, “Yo, do you have some type of vocal that way for me as well?” And she pulled the “Gasoline” acapella. So I made the instrumental for it and it fit perfectly. And now I get to bring her with me on tour.
How did your collaboration with James Brown happen?
Jason Brown, grandson of James, sent me a zip file with James Brown singing in the studio. You hear the bleed of the other instrumentalists around. You hear him getting ready to sing, breathing and coughing. And it’s like, “What am I listening to right now? And wait a second, you’ll let me cut into this?”
I’ve done collabs and remixes for Donna Summer, Madonna and Daft Punk, you know? I really needed to switch my mindset — “Okay, James, what are we doing here in the studio?” When he was performing, he was quite the rebel, doing all sorts of provocative things on stage. And it always had that energy of let’s make people dance. And I was like, OK, let’s make this mine. It’s a dirty-classic sounding, newer version of “Super Bad”.
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