Today we’re pleased to welcome one of Ireland’s latest breakthrough artists, Lukey. Already an established presence in his home city of Dublin, it’s no surprise he is beginning to take the wider industry by storm, highlighted most by his recent debut on Hot Creations with his three-track ‘Less Is More’ EP (Out Now: https://lnk.to/hotc181). To mark the Less Is More release, we caught up with Lukey to find out a bit more about him!
Hi Luke! Great to have you with us today mate. How are you doing and whereabouts are you based right now?
Hi Guys, Hope you are all well. I’m very good, thanks so much for having me on, it’s a pleasure! I’m Based in Dublin right now.
It’s a very exciting time for you and we’re pleased to be chatting with you today around the release of your debut on Hot Creations. The label has been a figurehead in the scene for a decade and we hear that it has had a big impact on your sound personally – how does it feel to land your first release on the label?
It is Indeed. Hot Creations was one of the first labels to send me down the rabbit hole of electronic music at a young age, many of the earlier releases from the likes of Tom Flynn, wAFF, Patrick Topping and Jamie Jones himself had a big influence on my sound for sure but I always wanted to stay original and do my own thing from day one as they did themselves.
Consisting of three tracks, Less Is More dropped on the label on November 12th. What can you tell us about the release and how did it come to find its home on Hot Creations?
There wasn’t a big thought process behind the EP, the tracks nearly wrote themselves. I used way less channels than usual and simpler production techniques so I decided to call it ‘Less Is More’. It was always my main mission to release on the label that started it all for me, I’ve been sending Jamie music for the last 2 years, he liked one or two tracks but never enough to sign them, eventually I got the mission complete this year after serious consistency for so long. And big respect to the man, he always replied which you don’t get very often from other labels!
When did you make the tracks and what was the inspiration behind them?
I made the tracks about half way through 2021 over the space of a week or two. Many of the records I have bought over the last 2 years were probably what Inspired me the most, I wanted to make something a bit more up-lifting, high energy but still serious at the same time.
Can you give us an insight into your creative process and how you usually approach making a track? Do you have any main bits of equipment/software you go to?
I always sit down with the intention of making something new that hasn’t been heard before, it can be referential but it has to be unique and timeless. When I have something that I think works, an important question I always ask myself is ‘Will it sound good in 10 years?’. I use absolutely everything depending on the task at hand, Subboombass is definitely my most used software synth for low end. I love all the Korg Electribes, the Er-1 was my first ever piece of hardware when I was 19 so I know them all very well. But my main go to bits are Waves, Arturia and Rob Papen plug-ins and some IOS devices are real game changers for sound design.
We’d love to hear a bit about your main influences as an artist? What music did you listen to growing up and what first led you to electronic music?
Growing up I was always a big Hip Hop fan, I loved Dr. Dre, Mobb Deep, Nas, Eazy-E and artists like that. ’The Chronic 2001’ by Dre was a big influence for sure, I’ve been listening to that album since I was about 6 years of age and I still am to this day! I was led into electronic music around the age of 16, I managed to get into the Twisted Pepper in Dublin for a Route 94 gig, the warm up DJs blew me away with stuff I never really heard before, I remember one of them played ‘What They Say’ by Maya Jane Coles, I got mad inspired after that night and never looked back really.
Great to chat with you today Luke! A big congrats to you on this release, we’re sure it’s the beginning of a lot more to come from you! To round things off, is there anything else in the pipeline from yourself that you’d like to share with us?
Thank you so much and big ups for having me on, I really appreciate it! You have that right I’m only getting started, this is the plan for the rest of my life so expect plenty more. I have two vinyl-only releases coming out soon with the Carpet & Snare crew from Portugal with some nice house and electro tracks on both so you can keep your ears out for them. Also if anyone wants to book me let’s do it, I have a big stack of records ready to be heard and I’m ready to rock!
