Lucozade
Q: Who are you, where you from, what do you do? A: My names Luke and I'm based in London, England. I suppose I would describe myself as a hardcore DJ and producer, although not exclusively as I'm also doing a degree in graphic design which I've almost finished, I get a lot of work playing Old Skool hardcore here in the UK, but I'm always pushing to try and get more upfront hardcore sets and I'm really excited about the way hardcore seems to be coming back to life at the moment! Q: How did you choose your DJ / artist name? A: It wasn't really a nickname at school, but I did get called it occasionally by these two girls in my class when I was about 14 - I also drink a lot of Lucozade, so when I started mixing and decided to give myself a DJ name, Lukozade (with a k to tie it in with my name) sounded quite good to me. Also lucozade being a high energy glucose drink and me playing high energy hardcore music was another plus point to the name! Q: Got into hardcore when and why? A: Started listening to tapes in about 92 I suppose, then listened to a lot of Pirate radio, eventually locking on to Dream FM when it first came on in '93 - thats what really got me hooked on hardcore. I used to listen to it religiously, and when I eventually went to my first rave aged 15 in 1995 it was a dream allnighter, after that night there was no turning back! By christmas I had my first decks and was spending all my money on Vinyl, a year later I had got my technics and was sending tapes off to pirate stations and promoters . . . I'll stop there - I've gone way past getting in to it by this point! Q: How many track releases you have under your belt A: So far I've had two releases, both of which I made with Uplift and Cris E Manic. The first was 'Hard Jam' and '24 hours in Aldershot' which went out on Sy and Unknown's label Quosh. Thats done pretty well really making it on to both the Original Hardcore and Masters of Hardcore albums which have both sold well, it's really exciting having a tune out on Quosh as well as its such a legendary hardcore label. The second tune I've been involved in which has been released is 'Poached & Scambled' which was the first release on Raw Elements, a label started by Uplift and Cris E Manic earlier this year. I've got quite a bit waiting to be released too, and I'm working on a couple of bits at the moment which are sounding pretty good, so there should be planty more noise coming from this direction! Q: What is your future plans for hardcore for the year ahead? A: Hardcore's really come to life again in the last year and I can see that continuing through in to next year, the music's getting better and better and I'm just hoping to play some part in its revival. I want to try and get a lot more done on the production side of things next year, there seems to plenty of room to experiment with hardcore at the moment, so I'd like to try and push the boundries a bit if I can, but most of all I just want to make good hardcore dance music! I want to get my head round the technical side of things a bit more in the studio as well, and of course, the more DJ work I can get the better - especially in the states as I've heard loads of good stuff about whats going on out there! Q: What are your current involvements or projects you are working on? A: Just about to have a tune released on the Back to the Old Skool EP, which I'll have copies to sell through my website if anyones interested. It's a hard track to define really, Bass Satisfaction's what we called it and its slow at 139 bpm - same speed as 91 hardcore. It's sort of New Old skool that doesn't sound old, but doesn't quite sound like new skool breaks either! I'd just call it slow hardcore, but what do I know! Also in the middle of a couple of tunes which are sounding pretty good, not finished yet though so can't really say a lot about them. A.W.O.L and Undefined are two more tunes that were made by Cris E Manic, Uplift and myself, and they should be coming out on Raw Elements early next year. Q: What do you think the future hardcore styles will be or evolve into? A: Not sure exactly where its going to go, I'm really in to a lot of the different stuff thats being done at the moment. The trancey stuff the Breeze, Styles, Hixxy, UFO and all the raverbaby boys are doing is wicked. Really well made dance music that stands up against anything any other scene has to offer, and I can see that sound progressing more and more next year. Brisk and Ham have a slightly different angle on the trancey sound to which I'm really keen on, but more hard and hardcorey. Really in to the breakbeat stuff Luna-C and the kniteforce crew have been putting out on KFA and KFX as well, and that movement seems to be picking up some momentum to! Can't forget Energy and Sharkey and the Freeform sound either, so **** knows to be honest! I don't know how its going to evolve, I just know that theres loads of people making loads of really good hardcore music - all with a slightly different approach, which is wicked. I'm not sure exactly where its going to go, but it feels like its going the right way. Q: Favorite record label? A: Raw Elements - because I know whats coming! Q: Favorite DJ (other than yourself)? A: erm . . .Sy probably. Q: Best / favorite hardcore moment? A: Loads of wicked moments have come from hardcore . . . not sure what the best would be though. Playing at the Brixton Academy on my 21st Birthday to 2500 nutters at Raindance, that was pretty special! Q: Worst hardcore moment? A: The end of every rave! Q: What you do in your spare time? A: Drink, smoke, watch football (the mighty Tottenham Hotspur), mix, scratch, fart, burp . . . Q: You have a web site? A: http://isotonikcrew.com Q: You have a public contact email address? A: [email protected] Q: What's your message to all the hardcore punters all over the world? A: Keep dancing!