Every now and again, the dance world produces an artist whose skills show them to be a cut above the rest. Sometimes, these talents spring up out of nowhere, but other times it’s the direct result of hard work to realise a dream. Undoubtedly, the artist currently in question falls in the latter category. Traditionally, Europe is the home to many of the industry’s biggest stars. England has Mark Knight and Carl Cox, Sweden has Eric Prydz and Axwell (to name two from many). The Netherlands has produced its fair share of trance and hard dance heavyweights, but now it’s got a new superstar in the form of a Eurasian DJ/producer maestro who’s stepped into the hall of fame for the house music genre – welcome Laidback Luke.

Not long after ITM got him on the phone and a few pleasantries are exchanged, a genuine Luke Van Scheppingen highlighted why he’s as popular with his musical peers as he is with his global fan base – sincerity. “Thanks for having me!” he proclaimed, before elaborating on his hectic schedule over the past few months. “I’ve been touring the world like crazy and it’s really amazing to see how my profile is picking up now, the hard work seems to pay off,” he says with an air of satisfaction.

Understandably, after a winter of banging out fresh tunes in studios across Europe, touring the globe seems to be the main focus for Laidback Luke during the northern hemisphere’s ‘hot’ summer season. There’s of course the current success of his most recent single alongside his Swedish House Mafia buddies to encourage him to get out there. “I’m very happy with the result. Leave the World Behind was written in Steve and Seb’s studio in Stockholm,” he reveals. “The four of us were there for three days. Axwell had a lot of input. He pulled out the Deborah Cox vocal from one of his secret drawers and after Seb came with those chords we were pretty much set,” he continues.

Fresh from his visit to Miami, a trip which has become a permanent fixture over the last eight years of his annual calendar, Laidback Luke is more excited than ever about the prospect of returning to Australia very soon after his first trip early last year. “The first time I traveled to Australia was in March 2008 and it was an amazing time. [There was] lots of crazy people that knew my stuff and I never would have imagined my [popularity] could travel that far,” he says with obvious delight. For all his Australian fans out there, you can be assured that Laidback Luke has a host of fresh productions that will be seeing release over coming months.

“I see music as doing graffiti really,” he says, referring to his well-known childhood roots as an artist. “The complex structure, where I’m sometimes lost in, reminds me of graffiti where you also have a lot of multilayered stuff that you have to deal with,” he says, painting a picture as to how he achieves his production success, choreographing a his massive dancefloor anthems like Be, Housetrap and Break Down the House. He says that in the next few months his fans can expect to hear Need Your Loving, “the original Korgis bootleg that I did will come out soon on my label Mixmash. I have a collaboration with Diplo called Hey lined up to be released on Southern Fried Records. Also, there will be a new Stealth release coming that I did together with my Dutch mate Gregor Salto. I’ve collaborated with David Guetta on a few tracks for his new album, I’m really looking forward to that,” he told in ITM, confirming our suspicions of busy he was in the studio during winter.

And then there are the weekly sets that Laidback Luke routinely provides for Club FG, a web- based radio station in France that he loves being a part of. “I do have a good following in France at the moment and they are very good for me. I really enjoy doing the weekly mixes for Club FG. It keeps my CD map fresh and sorted, and I’m surprised by the amount of people who pay attention to it globally,” he says.

Laidback Luke concluded with an observation that the dance industry hasn’t always been the competitive entertainment force that is today. He’s seen the standards of professionalism improve drastically on a business level, as well as needing to adapt to the technological advancements of the twenty-first century. That might be common knowledge to some, but there’s a hidden message there suggests that times change. Not so long ago, Holland was without question considered Armin van Buuren’s playground. Laidback Luke might be sharing the festival lineup with Armin in Australia over the long weekend, but he’s also fast becoming the crowd favourite amongst Dutch clubbers, due solely to his ability to deliver dope sets and timeless original productions. In his interview with ITM, Luke Van Scheppingen thanked the Australian public for inviting him back to perform. Little does he know, that if we had it our way, we’d never let him leave.

Laidback Luke’s latest mix compilation Stealth Live is out now through Stealth/Stomp, catch him at the following shows:

Saturday 30th May – Family, Brisbane
Sunday 31st May – We Love Ministry of Sound, Perth
Saturday 6th June – We Love Sounds, Sydney
Sunday 7th June – Warehouse Festival, Canberra
Sunday 7th June – Winter Sound System, Melbourne
Monday 8th June – We Love Sounds, Adelaide

Check out ITM’s Festival Pages for more info on all the winter festival action we’ve got coming up.