SensationMusic

Luke is laidback about everything except music. Named best producer of 2008 by such qualified house maestros as David Guetta, Martin Solveig and Roger Sanchez, and landing an impressive new entry – voted # 46 – in DJ magazine’s Top 100 DJs Poll, it’s clear that Holland’s homeboy is on the rise like never before. It’s why he’s been bustin’ up bassbins from the Americas to Ibiza. Why he was selected to ignite the Stealth Live! CD series with a near perfect club mix. Why his party, Nighttime Superheroes, is such a winner. Why he was snapped up for a weekly mix show by French station Radio FG. And why he was invited by the UK’s Pete Tong to complete an Essential Mix on BBC Radio 1. Sure it’s been a long time coming (over a decade now) but Luke’s stratospheric success befits his world-beating talents and is ripe to reach new levels of hotness in 2009!

Laidback Luke (Luke van Scheppingen) was born in Manila, Philippines, but grew up in the Netherlands. He loved guitars, graffiti, hip-hop and house, and soon found a mentor in DJ/producer Dobre (The Good Men, Chocolate Puma). Luke was just a teenager when he began producing music, taking the ‘laid back’ tag from Snoop Dogg’s ‘Gin & Juice’. Yet by 1995 he was putting out tracks; and from 96 he was remixing for established artists like Green Velvet, Victor Calderone and Junior Sanchez, in addition to DJing professionally. The thriller from Manila proved to be a natural born killer behind the decks. Once beating a Dutch DMC champ in battle, Luke got to show the world how he rolls with CDJs ‘n’ EFX: rinsing every mix, building energy, skilfully fusing an array of old + new skool flavours, edits, bootlegs and a cappellas into a slick signature style. He even released an album, Psyched U, in 1999. But it wasn’t until Virgin signed Luke’s seminal single ‘Rocking With The Best’ and released his 2002 album, Electronic Satisfaction, that his profile really soared. Luke’s Dance Valley anthem, ‘We Can Not Get Enough’, then blew up as a chart hit. He also mixed his first compilation album, Windmill Skill. His discography was therefore looking seriously prolific as he remixed Daft Punk (who were a huge early influence), Murk, Oliver Lieb and Tom Stephan. And to up the output in 2004, Luke introduced his own label, Mixmash.

After forming an alliance with the Swedish House Mafia, Luke remixed ‘Sexy F**k’ for Steve Angello’s label Size in 2006, and with Angello produced ‘Otherwize Then’ for Sebastian Ingrosso’s label Refune. These were massive, marking the start of what would become an annual tradition of working with the Swedes. In 2007 Luke also joined Axwell, Ingrosso & Angello for the super-sized club banger ‘Get Dumb’, while his other tracks exploded on Size and Stealth. Turning back to Mixmash, he then revitalised his label with ‘Rocking With The Best 2007’, before showcasing a deeper sound on the Afterdark Vol. 3 mix for Stealth alongside label honcho Roger Sanchez. He was really throwing it down, plus his new residency at Amsterdam’s club Paradiso – Laidback Luke presents Super You&Me – was well ‘n’ truly poppin’.

Luke continued to rise up in 2008, releasing five tracks, 18 remixes and spinning almost 200 DJ sets in less than 12 months. Going all out for his Essential Mix, he reworked, using his own vocals, a Daft Punk classic, resulting in a personal homage to ‘Teachers’. He sampled his vocals on ‘Break Down The House’, too. This was unleashed on Mixmash, as was Steve Angello & Luke’s ‘Be’ and Luke & Roman Salzger’s ‘Generation Noise’. Another big Mixmash smash came from Luke working with Kanye West’s tour DJ A-Trak for ‘Shake It Down’, which was earmarked as an Essential New Tune by Pete Tong. Others making the Essential New Tune grade this year included Luke’s remix of Underworld’s ‘Ring Road’ and his Chromeo ‘Fancy Footwork’ remix. This was a year that also saw Luke make an enormous impact on the party island of Ibiza. After playing at Amnesia, Pacha and Eden, he produced/remixed every track on his Ibiza Closing Party cover-mount mix for Mixmag. He then ended the year with the mash-up anthem ‘Show Me Love’/‘Be’ by Steve Angello & Luke featuring Robin S, which entered the Buzz Chart at # 1 and Cool Cuts Chart at # 2.

More club-shaking times lie ahead for Luke with his non-stop DJ schedule, studio collaborations including David Guetta, and that all-important third solo album on the horizon… At this point, scrolling through his achievements may be exhausting enough, but imagine living that diary/discography. His secret? Well, besides being a nighttime superhero, a clue is in the martial arts that he practises. Yes, Luke has good ‘kung fu’, always keeping an ear to the ground while his music surges skywards!