The Australian dance music scene is brimming with so much talent it
just isn't funny anymore, and Luke Chable is quite definitely the
vanguard of the movement. Something of a prodigy in the production
realm, with over 70 releases and an equally massive number of remixes,
Luke's projects have seen him rub shoulders with many of the industry's
finest, including Austin Leeds, Cass, and James Holden, and fellow
Aussies Phil K (Lo-Step), Nubreed (The Dirty Fours) and Ivan Gough
(with whom he released his first track Accelerator, which now resides
well and truly in dance music's hall of fame). He recently mixed CD 2
of Dave Seaman's Therapy Sessions, a musical tour de force of
influences and generic blurring, and his new venture Trojan Records
promises to be... well, brimming with talent. We caught up with him
just after his set at Womb.
> Interview : Matt Cotterill (HigherFrequency) _ Photo : Mark Oxley (HigherFrequency)
HigherFrequency (HRFQ) : First of all, thank you, thank you for your time, 'cos you must be tired!
Luke Chable : Oh my God, tired ! ... that's an understatement, I had two to three hours sleep last night after Shanghai, and the night before that, you are meant to sleep.....and I didn't !
HRFQ : You're supposed to sleep at night...
Luke : The way it panned out, I didn't actually sleep, 'cos I was trying to time it right, and I thought 'oh my God, I ve got to go to Tokyo at nine in the morning!' and once i got here for some reason my mind was buzzing over some music or something, so I only had three hours sleep, so yeah..... I am tired.
HRFQ : What was it like playing to the crowd in Womb tonight ?
Luke : It was awesome, I've been looking forward to this gig for so long, I've been looking forward to 'Womb' since I heard about it, I played at 'Air' like last year or something, I've been to 'Yellow' as well, and then I heard about Womb, and I'm like I just want to go there, I just want to play there... and now I am playing here, but I had to open, so there were no people to begin with, but by the end of it, the room is really packed, really full, it's wicked.
Luke : Well we enjoyed it very much, so thanks very much...
Luke : Cool!
HRFQ : The Therapy Sessions CD that you have done, could you talk us through some of the concepts that you have looked at?
Luke : Well at the start the idea was to do something different, a lot of people set out to do that but don't actually do it,they set out to do something different and they come up with something that is basically safe, that will just work, you know it's going to work, it'll be alright, it's going to be fine, you know, moving right along. My CD I actually tried to push it a bit, I've got about nearly ten genres - if you really want to break it down- ten genres on one CD, and they're all slightly different variations on the one genre, which is Progressive House, but you have got the breaks, the Nu skool Breaks, the funky breaks, the electro, the acid, the techno, the progressive trance, the progressive house the.....well......the big room breaks.....oh I can't even name them all, It just goes everywhere.
HRFQ : We heard that there was a nod and a wink to 'Bananarama', on that, what's that about?
Luke : Where did you hear that?
HRFQ : I read it on Dave Seaman's site.
Luke : Ohhh okay.
HRFQ : So you can have it out with him afterwards like....
Luke : Well actually there is a track which this guy in Hungary, "Tommy Boy" handed me, last year, early last year, and it was a bootleg remix that hadn't been bootlegged, it was just a CD copy of a remix that this guy had done from Hungary of Bananarama 'Cool Summer' and I was just blown away, and to check again in the morning, I listened to it again for like one hour straight, I was blown away, I was like "this is massive," so we tried to get the licensing and couldn't get it-because I am launching my own label, 'Trojan Records'-and we still haven't got the license, we are still trying to get the full license for the full vocal; but he did a dub remix, which is a cut up of the vocal, and it is just enough of a cut up that we can use it without getting 'stung' for using it, because there is a certain amount (of time), like eight seconds or something for any sample, like if you have taken more than a certain amount out then it is their sample rather than yours, but because sampling is so crazy, everybody samples everywhere, and there is a certain amount and this one was just under and it was just right and thats what is on the CD. On my CD is the dub mix of Cool Summer, the artist is called "Manell".
HRFQ : Well we will look forward to hearing it. You are a prolific writer, producer, but we heard it is relatively recently that you started DJing, .....how does it compare ?
Luke : I don't know if it is relatively recently, I think is relatively recently that it has been in the public's eye, I've been DJing since '99, since my first record came out I have been DJing, and I have been Djing internationally on and off from that sort of stage, but really, properly only in the last couple of years I have going internationally 'heaps', I played at Bedrock last year, you know over Europe and that, and Asia of course.
HRFQ : On the production side could you talk us through your studio set up, 'cos I think I read that you were a big fan of logic.
Luke : Yeah, just Logic and Ableton live that's it....end of story.
HRFQ : There is something about your writing, you know the Power Plant remix that you did, the bassline in that is fantastic and one of our favourites, and I think it is quite difficult to pull off a bassline like that, to keep it melodic and funky but moving in the ways that you do. How did you approach that, can you talk a little bit.......
Luke : I don't know, it's funny you should ask that, I don't know, it's something......like at the end, I know it has to be like this, and it has to be like that and it has to be like this. That sort of thing comes naturally to me, that's what I just hear in my head, I'm like Ok I want to do this, so I just start lining it up like that, I don't think about it, I just do it. It's not like I plan it out, I don't go 'I need to do this,' it's like, ' I'm hearing this, this is what has to happen.'
HRFQ : So you don't work it out in your head ?
Luke : I don't sit there and plan the whole thing out, and go 'right, I need to do this because of that's that'.....no.....it's all just in the head, it's all just totally in the head, every remix has only been totally in the head, it's never planned out, ever!
HRFQ : About the Australian scene now, Luke, There is so much talent just pouring out of there, like Infusion, Phil K... is it going to take over the world ?
Luke : ha ha ha ......I don't think there are enough of us, no, there aren't enough of us. Well, which genre is going to take over the world, 'Breaks' ? No, because there are too many English that have got that sewn up, 'Progressive'... well, there is Infusion and me as far as I know that are making any waves... mmm, I'm sure there are other guys, Jono, but he is sort of hitting the breaks, NuBreed have done their breaks thing,
HRFQ : Kasey Taylor.
Luke : Kasey Taylor, yeah...It's still not going to take over the world, it's making a mark, putting a little bit of a mark on the map, but it's not taking over the world, no.
HRFQ : On the final one you mentioned Trojan Records before, how is it going with Trojan Records now ?
Luke : It's a bit up in the air, there have been a couple hiccups, I have got a rough plan for the whole year as far as releases goes, there's Mannell- Cool Summer, to start off with, then second up there is Shavelin and the Dirty Fours- also known as NuBreed- 'Tokyo,' which I just played last, just then, then I don't know, then I don't know, then I don't know, but it is out of things like, 'Where Were You', by Petal, a mix I did with a mate of mine.... what else ? Oh Loads..... a thing I did with James Holden, and there are just other things what people come to me with in between. So it's not planned but at the same time it's never going to be 'oh I've got a new record I'm going put it out', It has to be quality, otherwise it is never going to air.
HRFQ : Well, we wish you all the best with that and once again thank you very much for taking the time out.
Luke : thanks for having me
End of the interview
Related Article
Party Report : The Therapy Sessions feat. Dave Seaman & Luke Chable @ WOMB (20/05/2005)
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