With Poppin’ New Music & a Reunion with a Top DJ Brand, Laidback Luke Enters ’26 in a Big Way.
Long Island City, N.Y. – It’s nearing set time in the tricked-out green room of Midnight, a cozy Queens club just a short walk from the 59th Street Bridge, and Laidback Luke is welcoming guests. Kisses and handshakes are exchanged, champagne glasses clink, VIP servers do their bottle-serving.
Soon, Luke waits for a lull, pulls me close and intones: “I think I have an exclusive for you – I’m back with Pioneer DJ/AlphaTheta.”
In a sense, it’s not stop-the-presses news, as the longtime hitmaking DJ/producer certainly has made the rounds in the DJ-technology world. Going back more than two decades, he’s worked as a brand ambassador for Pioneer DJ (in its initial CDJ-1000 days and beyond), Denon DJ (through the release of the Prime 4 system), and most recently for a pair products from German brands – Algoriddim (djay Pro software) and Reloop (Mixtour Pro compact controller).
“I’ll have more to discuss at or after the NAMM show in a few weeks,” he promises, just before he’s led to the DJ booth.
While some may entertain a cynical thought or two about Luke’s latest free-agent move, it’s also true that he’s one of the rare global jocks who has actively promoted genuine innovation in the DJ industry for the past 20-plus years. Like many, Luke, 49, started his career in the vinyl era and has always looked for the freshest angles in the digital-DJ world. His tech-forward enthusiasm is real.
Indeed, one of the best tutorials I’ve ever seen was a Luke session at Amsterdam Dance Event where he demonstrated the evolution of DJ gear – from the analog disco days through the digital EDM era and into the near future, as he saw it. Always a pitch-perfect presenter, Luke breezed through the hour-long seminar with aplomb, easy humor, and an entertaining, yet reverent sense of the subject’s history.
Back at Midnight (stylized online as 00:00), the club is celebrating its first anniversary – no small feat in New York City’s competitive clubland. The 600-capacity main room is full tonight with its youthful, spend-happy, predominantly Asian clientele ready to hear the hits, and Luke doesn’t disappoint.
Through the venue’s booming RCF PA, Luke spins a diverse, Vegas-styled, open-format set, loaded with mashups, remixes and edits of evergreen dancefloor faves… from “Sweet Dreams” to “Show Me Love,” from “Empire State of Mind” to “Gasolina,” from “We Found Love” to “Somebody Told Me,” plus some cuts from his recent, retro-flavored “CODE/RED” EP, including “I Got Soul (Super Bad),” his ripping electro-house “collab” with James Brown. It’s an evening of sloshy singalongs, popping bottles, and plenty of smiling-faced selfies.
Fast-forward a few weeks and indeed we’re at the Anaheim Convention Center for the Winter NAMM show. I happen to pass AlphaTheta’s busy exhibition stand and, sure enough, there’s Luke in the DJ booth, spinning with a pair of CDJ-3000X units and giving the new RMX-IGNITE effects unit a workout before an enthusiastic audience of DJs, retailers, press, and reps. Luke’s back in the fold with the industry’s leading brand, demonstrating a forward-thinking unit. Perfect.
We catch up again after the show to complete the following interview. As we’ve spoken professionally several times in the past decade, including two keynote Q&As at DJX and a 2017 cover story for DJ Times, we dispense with most of the bio-related info for this story. At the very least, most DJs already know Luke (aka Lucas Cornelis van Scheppingen) as the Filipino-born, Dutch DJ/producer who has enjoyed global hits like “Show Me Love” (with Steve Angello feat. Robin S), “Leave the World Behind” (with Swedish House Mafia’s Axwell, Ingrosso and Angello feat. Deborah Cox), and “Turbulence” (with Steve Aoki feat. Lil Jon). He’s also remixed hits for some of the pop music’s top artists – Madonna, Mariah Carey, and Nicki Minaj – plus some of electronic music’s legendary acts – Daft Punk, Depeche Mode and Moby.
So, for this discussion, we brush a bit on his past, touch on the DJ/music industry’s present and, of course, we discuss what DJs should expect to experience in the near future. Here goes:
DJ LIFE: How did you enjoy the gig at Midnight in LIC?
Laidback Luke: I really enjoyed it! It kind of felt like the Nebula of Long Island City. They are doing proper stuff over there and I love it that there’s a community for solid
dance music and the dance-music experience over there.
DJ LIFE: Let’s talk about the latest release, your “CODE/RED” EP. Some of the tunes definitely sound like they could’ve rocked the dancefloor 15 to18 years ago – electro-house well before it kinda burned out. There’s a real energy to these tunes – what was your approach to these tracks?
Laidback Luke: It’s interesting how you said it burned out, because in my experience it morphed into Dutch House and EDM, which is the exact reason why I grabbed back to that Fidget/Bloghouse/Electro sound in the first place. My whole year started off with me randomly going through an old DJ folder from 2007 and 2008 and there was an unleashing of passion and nostalgia hearing those tracks again – stuff from Switch, Crookers, Bloody Beetroots, Bart B. More, Proxy and many more. That vibe took control of me and I wanted to dedicate 2025 to bringing that sound back in my sets. And it needed to be pre-EDM for me, to go back and grasp the innocence I had back then.
DJ LIFE: How long had you been working on these six tunes? What was the process?
Laidback Luke: I still make music fast. Maybe even faster than ever before. The process was one of creative flow. It was letting go of the “EDM Luke” that was stuck trying to chase streams for over a decade. So it was super-fun for me! I got to be the “young and unapologetic me” again, and I had been longing for that.
DJ LIFE: Where do you make music these days? What’s your studio like?
Laidback Luke: I make music wherever my laptop is. But to be honest, it was this year that I rebuilt my studio, too. I visited the home studio of my manager in L.A. and I loved it so much, with white panels and colored lighting everywhere. I wanted the same for my home studio in New York, so I rebuilt it all by hand and I love my new creative area now more than ever.
DJ LIFE: What’s your DAW? Monitors?
Laidback Luke: My DAW is Ableton and my monitors are white Genelec 8331 SAM units. They are so detailed and precise, I know that if anything sounds good on them, it will sound good anywhere.
DJ LIFE: Do you have some favorite plug-ins?
Laidback Luke: In terms of plug-ins, I’m back onto mostly stock Ableton plug-ins – believe it or not! In all my 35 years of producing, I’ve collected and bought so many plug-ins, but I love keeping it basic. If I had to name a few, I’d say the SSL G-EQ channel strip by Waves and Trackspacer [by Wavesfactory].
DJ LIFE: Any vintage gear?
Laidback Luke: I love vintage gear, but I travel too much still to actually go out of my way to own it… although I still have a Korg MS-20 in my studio in The Netherlands. I started producing in 1992 and was all outboard gear up until 2003. So I know what it’s like!
DJ LIFE: Of course… so, when you look back over your career and see what the modern studio looks like now, what do you think?
Laidback Luke: I love it. My perspective of electronic music was that it was always driven by technology. Those are the roots. From Kraftwerk to DJ Pierre to Daft Punk, it’s always been tech-based. And it evolves. I remember being ridiculed back in 2008 when I was putting out really solid tracks… from just my laptop. I was an early adopter to the modern studio, as I started producing only from a laptop in 2003. I’m still waiting for the day when there’s something like a CapCut for producing on mobile. I have already been experimenting with SUNO on my phone. It keeps evolving!
DJ LIFE: What was your music-making evolution like? What were you using to make music initially?
Laidback Luke: Initially, I started with Protracker on an Amiga computer. But that was my friend’s computer. So, when I found out that I could sequence synths via MIDI, I tried that on the very early PCs with the first Soundblaster soundcard. But my first serious attempts were on an Atari ST using Cubase. Back then, there was zero in the box, so Cubase would just be a MIDI controller towards all my outboard gear. From there, I went to a Mac with Logic until in 2003 when I switched to just a laptop and FruityLoops – now called FL Studio because Kellogg’s threatened a lawsuit over the trademark for their Froot Loops cereal! In 2010, I switched to Ableton.
DJ LIFE: Which producers/artists – current or past – impress you?
Laidback Luke: I’m always quick to give respect to the past masters, as they had such an impact on me. Chocolate Puma discovered me and showed me music by DJ Pierre, MK and Armand van Helden. Prior to that, I was very much influenced by The Prodigy and early U.K. rave. Daft Punk, after I heard their remix of Chemical Brothers “Life Is Sweet.” Skrillex keeps on pleasantly surprising me, and now I’m also heavily influenced by the new guns like Knock2 and Cloonee.
DJ LIFE: Let’s get into DJing. Who was the first DJ who caught your attention and why? How did that DJ eventually influence you?
Laidback Luke: There was a woman out in The Netherlands in the ’90s called DJ Miss Monica. It was through her that I first heard the “Traxx On Da Rocks, Vol. 1” EP from Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter – that had a huge influence on my sound. I still think it’s one of the best dance-music EPs ever. Miss Monica always brought the energy, but on top of that, she would also scratch. She had a similar energy and skill as Carl Cox, whose three-deck mixing style influenced me a lot. I was also obsessed with Jeff Mills, who mixed with three decks, so in the late-1990s I was a techno DJ who always mixed on three vinyl decks. The DJ skills that you still hear now in my sets were also influenced by Dave Clarke, Frankie Bones and Bad Boy Bill. I would take bits and pieces from all of them and rehearse similar skills until I was able to nail it. I’d say “transforming tricks” from Dave Clarke, “vinyl doubles” from Frankie Bones, and “scratches” from Bad Boy Bill was my pedigree!
DJ LIFE: In the last couple years, you’ve been working with the Reloop Mixtour PRO, which you co-developed. Can you explain this approach to DJing?
Laidback Luke: I’ve played the biggest clubs and festivals on my Swiss-Army knife of a DJ unit – the Reloop Mixtour PRO. It holds four decks and a mixer in a powerful, AI-infused, tiny DJ unit.
DJ LIFE: I saw you DJing with the unit, an iPhone and Algoriddim djay software…
Laidback Luke: It’s actually DJing on a hardware controller and the iPhone is like your USB stick with a touchscreen. My favorite advantage was being able to strip any songs into stems in real-time, so I could do live mashups. The only drawback is there’s no jog wheels or no pitch fader, and a big disappointment is how challenging it was to demonstrate skills across a lesser-known platform, where the phone is the brain of the unit. Maybe I was in the future again and time will even that out…
DJ LIFE: I see you’re working again with Pioneer DJ, now re-branded as AlphaTheta…
Laidback Luke: Yes, I’m back with AlphaTheta/Pioneer DJ now. This doesn’t mean that I won’t keep doing my “tiny DJ sets” at random places around the world, I’ll keep doing those because it’s so easy and fun. But, I’m excited to be back on the industry-leading AlphaTheta set-up again and work with them on future developments too!
DJ LIFE: I caught your set at AlphaTheta’s booth at the NAMM show last month. What did you think of the company’s new gear?
Laidback Luke: I’m in love with the CDJ-3000X – such a big screen and the best jog wheels I’ve ever felt on a CDJ. I showcased the RMX-IGNITE as the world’s first official professional performance of the unit. That was a full-circle moment for me, as I was in the roll-out of the original RMX-1000 campaign. I think the RMX-IGNITE will earn its place among the professional DJ setups in no time. It feels very much like the RMX-1000, except you can now load in your own banks. It can connect through USB-C and, with the toggle FX, it feels very fun and intuitive. It’s a noisy machine! This might be a good thing [laughs]. I saw the release of the DJM-V5, which I think makes sense, but I didn’t get to play with it.
DJ LIFE: A few years ago, the introduction of stems was the big story in the DJ-tech world. How are you using stems in your DJing?
Laidback Luke: I’ve been DJing with stems for about five years now and its freedom and a next level of creativity unleashed on my Mixtour PRO. It’s not yet possible on the flagship AlphaTheta set-up, so I simply grab my stems from the studio and have them on USB. I think the ability to use stems will one day be standard at the highest levels of DJing. It’s a new frontier that isn’t going anywhere.
DJ LIFE: On the DJ-tech side, what do you think would be next step forward? What do you want to see?
Laidback Luke: I wouldn’t be opposed to see more AI being infused, especially since it’s now the age of AI. Algoriddim is doing an incredible job at that, since they are a software company. I would also want to see all the DJ companies working together more, as we are seeing now with the rollout of OneLibrary, which is the joint project between AlphaTheta/Traktor/djay Pro.
DJ LIFE: Looking at the DJ culture – especially the club and festival DJ culture – do you think it’s more musically adventurous now or more conservative these days?
Laidback Luke: It can be both. It depends on the DJ and what crowd is in front of you. Dance music in general is a lot smaller scene and niche nowadays, but people still want to go out and dance.
DJ LIFE: General question, has technology made it too easy to be a DJ now? Does it matter?
Laidback Luke: It doesn’t matter. It’s the same with AI coming in. Look at the artists, the videographers, and music producers now, too – more people can join into the fun! The same goes for DJing. Ever since we stepped away from vinyl “everyone” could be a DJ. But did everyone actually become a DJ? Which ones lasted? There’s many aspects to all of this.
DJ LIFE: These days, there’s much discussion about how some DJs seem to prioritize their marketing over their skills. How do you see that? At DJX in Atlantic City a couple years ago, you openly encouraged DJs to get their name out there however they could…
Laidback Luke: I think it’s smart to prioritize your marketing… especially if you think you’re ready to fully take on the task of becoming a legit DJ. Without marketing, how will anyone know about you? I keep it simple and tell people nowadays: When you don’t show up where the people scroll on social media, you’re not famous. That’s the reality we live in right now. Back in the day, we needed to be in TV, magazines and ads to make a name. In that sense, nothing has changed other than that we are more in control over our own media output now.
DJ LIFE: Given the new DJ technology, how would you encourage a young DJ to cultivate one’s skills? Is there a regimen? Is it a 10,000-hour proposition?
Laidback Luke: It’s whatever you want it to be! I love seeing fresh new names coming up like DJ Sally or DJ Elfigo, who are heavily influenced by James Hype and have really stuck the time and practice in to cultivate their skills. But then you have the hordes of open-format DJs who no one ever talks about who are so incredibly skilled. For me, the skill has always been about feeling in control on the night. Knowing that you got this – whatever goes wrong, you can catch it and work with it. You’re there to read the crowd and lift the vibe up. Skills or no skills, it’s important that the crowd walks away thinking: Wow, this was a great night!
DJ LIFE: For a younger DJ, how should one go about running a label these days? That world has evolved completely…
Laidback Luke: Right, the label game has completely changed! It seems super-challenging to run a label that makes a strong profit nowadays, and most labels run on older blueprints. Labels need to adapt to the current algorithms, needs and income streams. You may have noticed Mixmash Records has been on pause because my previous manager and I sold the catalog. But I’d like to bring Mixmash back for this new day and age. But it will need to be different from how we ran it before.
DJ LIFE: Over the recent years, how would you say your artistic approach has evolved or changed?
Laidback Luke: Honestly, it hasn’t, although I finally understand how important it is to have a story behind the vision – to have proper social rollouts, and to simply show up each and every day, on socials first. All the rest comes after.
DJ LIFE: You moved to the New York City area a few years ago – how has that been? What do you like about America? What do you find confusing or challenging?
Laidback Luke: It’s been a wild ride! But an incredible experience. I still believe in the American Dream. I still believe in the America from the ’80s, but a lot has changed. Now I have two young kids that were born here and are going through the full system. God bless capitalism, but coming from The Netherlands, it feels really hardcore when it comes to medical insurance, social security and financing for schools – costs of college! And a whole lot more debt-related structures that America has. But I still love it. Home of the brave, land of the free, and a land of opportunities. I’m a fan.
DJ LIFE: What about the North American dance-music scene? What differences do you see from, say, Europe? In a recent interview we did with Duke Dumont he said that “Europeans expect more musically and less of a show, while Americans are the exact opposite.” What do you think?
Laidback Luke: That’s an interesting take! In my niche, it’s a ton of tech-house in North America vs. a lot of uptempo mainstage techno in Europe. I can cater to both, but I feel I have more space to experiment in North America.
DJ LIFE: What are three tracks – from you or other artists – that you are always ready to play?
Laidback Luke: This past year, it was Congorock “Babylon” because of the Dutchy-and-Rocky-feel-meets-big-tribal-drums, the Antoine Delvig and Steve Aoki Remix of my track with Steve Aoki and Lil Jon “Turbulence” – the original is a stadium anthem in North America – and the Good Times Ahead bootleg of my track with Swedish House Mafia “Leave The World Behind” – also very Dutch and tribal! I’ve also been playing the unreleased DJ Snake remix of “Show Me Love,” which crushes my sets. He made it just for fun, and sent it to me personally.
DJ LIFE: What are three venues or festivals you most enjoy playing?
Laidback Luke: Tomorrowland is always a highlight of the year, the Insomniac venues in Los Angeles, like Exchange and Avalon, always treat me well. And I’ve recently fallen head over heels with OMNIA in Las Vegas and have acknowledged it as the club of clubs, globally. Also, I’m back at Ultra Music Festival Miami this year to celebrate Dim Mak’s 30th anniversary – very hyped for that.
DJ LIFE: Are you surprised that the DJ culture has become so big and influential in the modern age? Did you see that happening years ago when you were getting started? Why do you think it’s come this far?
Laidback Luke: When I started, it was nothing like that! So, personally, I never set out to do this for fame and fortune. When it started happening, it was fascinating, and then in 2010, I was right in the middle of it when it exploded. I think it’s come so far because, compared to bands, it’s a way-easier set-up… at least it was back then. You just have one “band member,” turning up with CDs or plugging in a USB stick… no instruments or backline involved. It’s very easy for traveling, too, compared to what a band needs to bring. But now you see the biggest DJs taking it next level with 3D visuals or having drones doing visuals. It’s scaling up!
DJ LIFE: Are you still involved with martial arts and the competitions? How does that discipline help you and keep you balanced with your musical career?
Laidback Luke: Yes, I am. I’m still doing and teaching Kung Fu, although at the moment it’s been Brazilian Jiu Jitsu season for me. I’ve been learning to grapple for a year now, since that’s not in my Kung Fu and Tai Chi system and I’m planning on doing my first competitions in 2026. The learning experience never stops, just like DJing. It absolutely helps me balance out this crazy music career. Whenever I get out of a martial-arts session, stressful deadlines don’t seem to be so stressful anymore. Similar to the feeling of getting off of a big stage after a DJ set, martial arts, too, fill me with energy for life.
DJ LIFE: Is there something you’d like to accomplish that you haven’t yet accomplished? What’s next for you?
Laidback Luke: Steve Aoki has been so kind to invite me onto some of his biggest festival closing slots and it’s been super-inspiring to me to get back to that level one day. I’m nowhere near done yet. Furthermore, 2025 was just the start. I have big plans for 2026!