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Everyone Wants Free Records: an interview with musical genius Louk
Reported by Stu Cox
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Submitted 11-04-07 08:28
It's a fact of life, isn't it? Everyone wants something for free - and in this industry that normally means records. Or more specifically upfront records - the big anthems well before they're released, that exclusive gem to drop into your sets to make other DJs green with envy. But for a label to want to give records away, they need to get something in return, which of course comes in the form of DJ feedback and support. But who's driving that forward?
And so the record promo industry is born - a network of record labels, DJs, radio stations, magazines and advertising companies with one aim: to get a track popular and recognised before it comes out, so that when it hits the stores the record-buying public lap it up like pigs in a lard bath. Of course this takes cooperation and dedication from all parties to make it work, particularly with labels all over the world trying to get their material known in the furthest reaches of the planet.
Meet Louk - one of the men responsible for holding it all together. He's been working with labels and artists from across Europe to make the connections needed to get new records into the boxes of the big DJs and a selection of supportive smaller jocks too. Join me as I find out what makes him tick, how his career in the music industry has nearly as many sides as a dodecahedron and discover how you, the up-and-coming DJ, can start getting sent promos for free, in return for some feedback, of course!
Hi Louk, how's it going?
Hey mate, how are you? Things are going very well at the moment, though my head feels like it has been put through a compressor as I was out last night, nothing ever changes eh!
Good to know you're still up to your old tricks! Let's start with the basics - What's your full name, how old are you and where do you come from?
My actual name is Loukas (though I really dislike that name it has to be said), it is surprising how many people think Louk is a nickname and my real name is actually Dave or something?! I am 21 and come from Plymouth. Half the time I'm either in Plymouth or in Birmingham working on my degree in Computer Science. It has become quite a chore but I've nearly finished.
So then Dave tell us about your role in the record promo industry - what exactly is your role and which labels have you been working with?
Basically, record labels and producers come to me with their releases and ask me to mail them out internationally to DJs/press/radio stations. I also have a list of some of Europe's key DJs that I send to. I then collect the feedback on behalf of the label and report this back to the label. Some of the clients I work with include Zzap, Joyride, Terminal 4, Reborn Digital, Drizzly, Silicon, Technoclub, NR, Midway, Dark Noize, Fektive and more. I also mail out tracks on behalf of producers such as Lee Osborne, Michael Dow, Nick Rafferty and Vicky Devine (Vicky's 'Entravanse' track was signed up after my mail out so I am rather proud of that!). I will also be mailing a Massive Drive track very soon, which I am very excited about!
How did this all come about? How did you go from university student to international promo whore?
I needed to earn money and didn't fancy working at MacDonald’s (hahahah). It started when I used to work for Redemption managing their mailouts. I made a list of all the key DJs to send to and after I left there (not on the best terms I must admit!), a few of the labels who were sending me tracks to write about wanted to know if I knew any other key DJs to send to, so I started doing mail outs for these labels and realised it was something I was more than happy to do. Obviously, every DJ is on the hunt for tunes and it's nice to give DJs tracks they will like based on their style.
Now tell us what all of the young budding DJs out there want to know - how can you go about getting yourself on a promo list to start receiving upfront tunes?
Most record labels send DJs and reviewers promotional material before a release to create hype. Many record labels have personnel employed that handle this and if you are playing out regularly I am sure many labels would be willing to send you tracks to play and give feedback upon, after all you are the DJs who will be buying their tunes so who better to get feedback from? If you're interested in the records I work with, then quite simply drop me an e-mail to promo@louk909.co.uk with your details, where you play and what styles etc. I mainly mail out trance but I do cover other styles too. If I believe your promotion of the tracks will help the label then I will send you stuff.
As someone who sees all of the feedback for a particular record, do people tend to be honest or do certain people seem to love/hate everything?
Hahaha, certain DJs I do believe just love everything and do not give bad reactions, but to be honest some people are overly critical too I feel.
As a lot of people will know, along with the good records there's also a lot of dross - you must have seen some records getting a serious slating from various DJs or even certain DJs falling in love with tracks you really wouldn't expect them to! Have you had any particularly amusing bits of feedback?
Yeah, some of the records I have sent out have been supported by the strangest of DJs. A recent UK hard trancer was supported by Matt Darey, Krzystoc Chochlow and Fabio Stein which shocked the hell out of me! One track that I actually really liked got feedback from a DJ saying 'This is seriously whack' and was properly slated - and another one had feedback from a nameless big name DJ that said 'in an over saturated market, this will struggle like a pig in a netball team', which made me laugh so much! However, sometimes you hear funny stories about DJs or read their playlists that make you question their judgement. One DJ on the list replied to a track saying how much he hated it but then I heard from a mate who went to visit him that he had been blasting scouse house remixes of 'It's Like That' from his bedroom, I found that really amusing. Bless them!
Now on to you as a DJ. Let's start with the obvious - how would you describe your sound? And what do you feel makes you stand out from other DJs in your field?
I play Hard Trance and Techno. Well saying that I do play a wide amount of trance and tech trance in my sets, just have a habit of pitching everything up really fast! It's the way I was brought up musically and certain tracks sound much more driving and energetic when sped up. I like playing a mixture all in one set and keeping the energy flowing throughout. I also am partial to going rather crazy behind a set of decks, can't seem to stand still when playing records. It's all fun and games!
Tell us about your residency for Eyecon at Plymouth's Dance Academy, which sadly closed at the start of the year. When and how did you become involved in the night? Were you sad to see it go?
I had been going to Dance Academy for years, since around 2002. I was only about 16 back then so shouldn't have legally been going, but it was on my doorstep and they had some of my favourite DJs coming to play so I regularly attended and wrote about some of the nights there for local magazines and newspapers. I have not met a single person who went there who said the club didn't change their life or outlook on music in some way and I had many a memorable time there. The building is just amazing (although rather dirty)! I was offered a set there around the time I did my first Galaxy FM mix and played in the main room for my first time for Eyecon, then was asked to play again. It was such an honour to play there and if ever that place was to reopen, even if under different management or whatever, I'd be the first in the queue for a night out.
But of course Plymouth isn't where it stops by any means - in recent months you've been seen playing at events all over the South West and Wales as well as guesting on a whole host of radio shows. What have the highlights been in your gig calendar in the last year?
Every set is an adventure. One of my favourite bookings recently was playing a full set of techno for Hindsight at the Zephyr bar, everyone was so up for it and I turned my purple t-shirt brown because I sweated so much! I always enjoy back to back sets and every back to back set I play with Soundfixation always ends up in complete chaos. Our set for Atmosphere at the Grove in Seaton was wicked and we really enjoyed every minute, though I am quite surprised neither of us were kicked out of the venue due to the chaos that night! A third favourite would have to be my time at the North Technology Relaunch at the Brunel Rooms in Swindon, a club that seemed way too elegant for the style of music Nick The Kid and I were playing, but that night was awesome.
Last week we played at Tall Trees in Newquay and the planning side of things was left to the last minute as usual, neither of us can drive, so we had to get a National Express coach there. We arrived really early due to the time of the last bus and went straight to a pub. Randomly enough, the assistant promoter of the club was from Plymouth, so she very kindly dropped us back (we were just going to wonder around Newquay aimlessly till 8 am when the first coach was).
The upstairs of Tall Trees is a strip club and despite being in Newquay some of the dancers were from Plymouth who shared a lift back with us, that was rather random indeed!
So basically you're saying you innocently went to play your gig and ended up bringing a car full of strippers home... nice! You're set to make appearances on both Paul Kershaw's Galaxy FM radio show and Big Al's Kiss FM show in the near future - tell us how these came about.
Paul is a legendary guy, I have been friends with him for years and already have been on his show before, back in 2005. He is always very supportive of the material I send and a very honest guy as well, so I have nothing but massive respect for him. He discussed the idea of me doing another guest mix for him and I jumped at the chance. Big Al is another legend as well, though the first time I met him I fell over right in front of him, which I am sure he will never forget. Al is another supporter of the material and I am honoured that he wanted me to do a mix for him as well!
And then there's Louk the producer. You've got a fast-growing Discogs page with releases in the form of "Dreams" and "Forever" on labels like Club Quake and Drizzly, plus remixes for Dave Joy's Thrust Groove imprint. Europe’s certainly taking notice - have you got any big projects in the pipeline? What should we expect to hear from you in the next few months?
My solo release Your Love under the alias Future Vision has just hit the shelves. You can find it on the Dutch label V-Trax. I’ve also teamed up with Damien James to do a 2007 remix of Jim TC Honywill's So Beautiful, this has just been released on Club Quake Digital. The Final Riot remix Nick and I made is due soon, it received 5/5 reviews and was played on Radio 1 by Kutski (who called me "the unsung hero of the hard dance scene", and then went on to divulge what I got up to when I was at work, to thousands of people hahahaha)! Shadow Of The Beast is almost ready, me and my housemate were getting all retro playing old games again and this was named after the Amiga game because of that. I am also doing remixes for Store + Forward (with Simon Pitt), Marcos, Rafferty + Kershaw, remixing Johan Ekman – Exploration for Liquid Pulse (with Soundfixation) and the new Nick The Kid & Louk is coming up as well.
For the music production geeks out there, what hardware/software do you use to make your tracks? Any tips for people who want to get into writing their own music?
It's all software based at the moment, I have a production PC at home with Steinberg Nuendo as the main sequencer. I do have a hardware sampler but isn't really used anymore. Software wise, I can't get over how good Novation's V-Station is, (especially with the Synthology patches!), I must use this on every tune, also REFX Nexus blew me away and I'm quite partial to both the Korg Legacy Collection and the Discovery Nord Rack. For 303 sounds the CM303 (which was given away with computer music magazine) is really useful. Spectrasonics Trilogy & Atmosphere plugins are really helpful as well. For the Direct X side of things, I love DB Audioware Sidechain Compressor and use this loads. dBlue Glitch and the Waves Gold series are also in use and finally for mastering I use the Izotope Ozone plugin.
My advice for people who want to get into writing their own music is either Dive in at the Deep end if you think you can handle it, by going straight into the Cubase/Nuendo route. Or start small like I did, I used to use an Amiga with Octamed, then moved on to Impulse Tracker on the PC for quite a few years.
The switch to Reason and then to Nuendo was very gradual but it is all for the best. Though I am quite impressed with Renoise (www.renoise.com) which is a tracker that has VST support!
Finally, you must hear a wide range of material and get to witness loads of DJs when you are playing out. Who would you tip as ones to watch in 2007?
On the DJing side of things I am really impressed with Kamui, Adam Sheridan, Bas & Ram, Chris & Matt Kid and DJ Choose, plus there are other names like Jordan Suckley and Argy (who are two young welsh DJs who have been rocking it). It's nice to see that Mark EG still rocks it years on as he is by far one of my favourite DJs. On the hard trance route I’m into DJ Wragg, Mark Hashimi, Nick The Kid, Soundfixation, Dave R and Damien James. Pascal Feliz and Oxia have been really impressing me too with their energetic tech trance sounds and of course your good self!
Production wise there are too many to name but massive favourites for me are Jesselyn, A.S.Y.S, Ferry Corsten, Krzyzstof Chochlow, Kamui again, Marcos, Sa.Vee.Oh, Pounding Grooves, Vezzola, Sean Tyas. On a harder tip pretty much 90% of the stuff on Red Alert, Joyride, Straight On Black and Traffic Tunes (the German one) goes straight in the record box.
Thanks for your time, best of luck with the future - hope to see you soon!
No problem, thank you!
www.louk.co.uk
www.myspace.com/loukmusic
www.hindsight-online.com
www.drizzly.de
www.trackitdown.net/genre/trance/track/282716.html
Photos courtesy of Louk. Not to be reproduced without permission.
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Other Features By Stu Cox:
Fine-tune your sets with some Harmonic Mixing: Part Two
Fine-tune your sets with some Harmonic Mixing: Part One
F12 Hours Reviewed: Swedish House comes home to Stockholm
Mike Foyle Breaks Out for Electronic Sessions
The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable.
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