Dutch producer Laidback Luke is known in electronic dance music circles as a nice guy who reliably -- and consistently -- turns out effective original tracks and remixes. He teamed up with Majestic for "Pogo," a fun, simple house track that's firmly in the Dutch style (other Dutch producers: Chuckie, Sidney Sampson, Afrojack, Tiesto ... the list goes on).
"Since I'm just home for about four days a month, I make my tracks mostly in hotel rooms," Luke told The Huffington Post of the track. "This one probably came about in a hotel room somewhere on tour."
Relentless touring is the status quo for top-tier DJs, who book hundreds of gigs a year and may travel to half a dozen or more countries each week. Luke's able to continually release music because, frankly, it doesn't take him much time to puta new song together. "[Pogo] was probably a 3.5-hour session," he said. "I make tracks in like three to four hours nowadays."
Successful dance producers have a knack for placing seemingly random vocal samples at precise moments. But while A-Trak and Armand Van Helden, for example, didn't start out planning to include the words "Barbra Streisand" at the pinnacle point in the song of the same name, Luke says he started out with a concept for "Pogo."
"It's basically the new Dutch wave with the distorted kickdrums," he explained. "We have a long history in those kickdrums and usually people bounce and jump to it. So I came across a Jewish mouth harp which sounds like a spring. I sent it over to Majestic, who nailed it with the 'Pogo' lyric."
The 36-year-old likes to keep things light -- he told us a story of being held up at security at one of his recent gigs. "They asked me if I was on the guestlist," he said with a laugh. "I told them 'No, I'm on the poster,' and pointed to the poster hanging on the door and they let me through."
And why not keep things upbeat? Luke, who says he's "a very grateful person" and is eager to remind us that "every day on the road and in the studio is a blessing," continues to sell out gigs and perform at some of EDM's most prized stages.
To help get a bit more juice behind the tune (which is available on Beatport), Luke put together a 32-minute guest mix that's premiering exclusively on HuffPost Entertainment. Take a listen above. Coming soon: remixes from Chuckie, Congrock, Deorro and HP Vince, and a Laidback Luke-Hardwell collaboration called "Dynamo."