Luke Chable is one of the most legendary producers in the history of underground dance music, and since his career began, he has truly lived on the forefront of the progressive sound. In this interview, we cover his production process, some stories behind his most iconic tracks like “Ride” and “Melburn”, his remix of “You Are Sleeping” and of course, what “progressive” means to him.
Originally aired on March 6, 2023. Transcribed by James Wright.
Luke Chable: Progressive House Interview | SP017
Super Progressive: What’s up? I’m William, and I’m just so stoked to have you here man, I probably started this two years ago. My cousin, he’s a producer, his name’s Ned Shepard, he makes music with Sultan.
Luke Chable: Yeah, yeah, I know them.
Super Progressive: Yeah, so I always liked this music. He would take me to his shows when I was 16 and I was like, this is so cool. But when I moved out to LA a couple of years ago, he gifted me his old Global Underground collection and Renaissance collection, this huge old vinyl box filled with CDs and I just fell in love with it and it was super cool. So I started this Instagram account and YouTube account to kind of explore this history in real time with an audience who really knows what they’re talking about. And all of them have guided me to your music. And I’m not just saying this, bro, but I am so stoked for this interview. You are my favourite producer, and if you told me two years ago when I was starting this that I’d be having this interview right now, I’d be like, get out of here. So I’m just so stoked, bro. Thank you.
Luke Chable: Awesome, man. No worries. No worries at all.
Super Progressive: Yeah, so, you know I’m really interested in hearing your backstory, but I think a really, really good place to start this is where are you based and where are you calling from?
Luke Chable: So I’m in Melbourne, Australia, born and raised here. Other than a little stint living in Amsterdam, this is where I’ve been most of my life.
Super Progressive: Wow.
Luke Chable: Yeah, yeah. So this is where I got my chops making music and started getting into Progressive and that later on and all that sort of stuff where I first got signed and all of that. So yeah, this is my home – Melbourne.
Super Progressive: I’m so excited about that because were you in the scene before you started producing? Were there big clubs that you liked to go to or when you started producing, were there clubs in the city that were bringing in international talent, but also kind of growing the local talent as well?
Luke Chable: Well, yeah. So when I started producing, I wasn’t going to clubs, and that was, I was eight years old.
Super Progressive: Oh, there you go.
Luke Chable: Haha, so but when I was in year 7, which I was about, there was two year 7 discos, and I think it was the first, yeah, I didn’t go to the second one because I broke my collarbone, but the first one I went to, so I was probably about 12 or 11 at that time and I heard 2 Unlimited – Get Ready For This, and I was already making music at home constantly. But when I heard that, it was like, no, this is what I want to do. I want to make music, dance music specifically, I wanted to make electronic dance music and that’s it. I just said, that is what I’m going to do. But in year 7 as well, I started going to an underage nightclub, which was actually just one of the biggest nightclubs in the city that they just did underage events at, which just means no alcohol essentially and also people only up to 17. So 13 – 17, everyone was allowed to go. And when I first walked in there with my best friend, I knew this was just amazing. Unfortunately, that club has been destroyed, it was an old theatre and it was called Metro, and now it’s been destroyed by developers, so we’ll never be able to see that again. But it was something that just drove me to do it even more. When I started hearing tracks there, I was like, no, this is the best. And so I kept going to those underage events all the way up until 17. And when I was 17 I think, or 16, I got, oh God, I can’t even remember. It’s somewhere between 14 and 17 I got my first music played in clubs, and that was at that club. The DJ started playing, I begged them to play my track and they’d listened to it and they’d go, ‘Yeah, I’ll play it.’ And they really liked it, they go ‘Keep doing it.’ I kept bringing them tracks and one of them said, you have to get signed. You have to speak to these people, you have to speak to these people. I went, no, I’m not ready yet. No, I’ve got a way to go. I knew I wasn’t ready and that sort of led to me initially getting signed after school. I was 18, I was working at an internet company doing tech support, and they were being dodgy. So I said, I don’t want to work for the man, I want to work for myself, I want to get signed. And on that day I went home and I wrote a track and took it to this guy, Ivan Gough that you might’ve heard of, that I was linked with through a person from my other school, blah, blah, blah. It’s a long sort of weird story, but took the music to him. I’d sent music to him, or I’d sent music to him initially, previously, and he was like, yeah, keep working. I’d like to keep hearing your stuff, but when I made this decision, no, I’m going to get signed. I took that song to him and he goes, yeah, this is great and then I think it was within a week he called me and said, ‘Are you sitting down? You’re signed, let’s go.’ And then I started working with him. And so there were number of big clubs in Melbourne, and that was where I was inspired by some of the clubs I went to. The music that was being played was just so energising. Some certain clubs were bringing certain music in and other clubs were being more different music. There was a lot of, I used to call it German trance and techno, and it wasn’t Euro dance because it wasn’t cheesy. It wasn’t cheesy compared to real Euro dance. But yeah, I kept going to those clubs constantly and I got into Progressive thanks to Ivan and then my other friend Dan Mangan. ‘Progressive’ in the term that you know it because I was more into trance at that time and not the Ferry Corsten kind of trance, not the Gatecrasher, which I dunno if you’ve heard of gate crasher yet?
Super Progressive: Of course.
Luke Chable: But not that kind of trance. Then it was just more what trance was, what it always was, if you get time, go listen to a TranceMaster compilation or Reactivate or something like that. And then I got funnelled into the Northern Exposure stuff and I got shown breaks by Phil K. And then it was like, alright, this is what I want to do. So yeah, I was always making music ever since I was about eight and all throughout school I was wagging. Do you guys know the word wagging? No.
Super Progressive: What’s that?
Luke Chable: So when you should be at school, but you’re not.
Super Progressive: Yeah, yeah,
Luke Chable: Yeah. You’re wagging still. So I used to wag and go home and make music or I’d stay up late and make music and kill my ears with terrible headphones. But yeah, so the inspiration came from friends and it comes from everywhere and going to these events and all of that and all sort of boils into who you are and what you do. But there was definitely a very vibrant scene when I was coming through. It was for one of a better word, was for me, it was full of wonder. It was just like, whoa, this is amazing. And I loved just hearing new music, finding new music constantly, and being right at the front of what’s the latest song and all of that sort of stuff.
Super Progressive: So I have a couple questions about everything. That was an awesome overview. Thanks so much. First question is; every city kind of has this ecosystem I’m learning during this era of underground music where there’s the clubs, there’s also the record shops, and then there’s also the local DJs that are kind of pushing the local sound forward and holding those residencies at those clubs. When you, when were falling in love with this music who were kind of like the Godfather-esque, maybe not Godfather is the right word, but the DJs on top of the scene at that point in Melbourne.
Luke Chable: So definitely my friend, who was part of Lostep, who’s now passed – Phil K was probably the number one person pushing the Australian music, and he is responsible for a lot in Melbourne, responsible for a lot of us becoming who we are, even more in certain scenes like me with breaks. But he was always pushing local Melbourne and Australian music as much as he could and pushing all the producers as well. There were two other big progressive DJs at that time, Sean Quinn and Kasey Taylor. They’d play a lot of my music and Ivan’s music. Then there was another one, Gab Oliver and another one, Aussie LA and Gavin Keitel. Yeah, so there were just a few guys that were pushing a lot of our stuff, cos we’d give it to them. And as far as the record shop goes, for me it was really DMC records because above the record store was the studio where I worked with Ivan.
Super Progressive: Oh, interesting.
Luke Chable: Yeah, so that was this circulating, bubbling kind of thing. The DJs would come in and buy their records, they’d see us up in the studio and it would go like that for a while. And since record stores aren’t so popular these days, that really doesn’t happen as much. So we might see each other out at events and stuff like that when an international comes like a dance event, a specific event. Yeah, that’s the last few places I’ve seen people out and where there was, I think there was a Guy J party and there was like 20 producers were all there, ‘Oh, you’re here.’ So that was good. That was good to see everyone. But yeah, it’s not quite as close when you’ve got the record store in the studio above and it was a different time back then for sure.
Super Progressive: Definitely. And I want to go back even earlier to another thing you said that I found really interesting was you started producing at such a young age, but it sounds like the city’s really cool with having these underage events that introduce you guys to new music. Do you remember some of those tracks at those parties that kind of captured your imagination or really inspired you – can you share a few of those?
Luke Chable: Absolutely, yeah. So one of the first ones was Marmion – Schöneberg (Marmion remix) That is just probably the number one. There was Quench – Dreams, there’s Drax – Amphetamine, there was Punchanella – San Trancisco. I’ll send you a link, but there’s a Holy Grail CD, which was a compilation that came out, and then there was a Holy Grail 2, but the Holy Grail had a lot of the songs that were getting pumped around a lot then, but there was definitely a vibe in those early days. When I was a young teenager, the DJs that were playing were also playing in the overage clubs, so they were playing almost the same stuff. They weren’t holding any punches. They kept, even in the overage club, because it’s a big club, you might have to throw in a little bit of a more commercial thing, but they’d always push the edges and always try to educate. So we were so fortunate to have that, to have these underage events where these guys were playing the same stuff for the older people. It wasn’t like we were little kids, they didn’t care. It was all the same stuff.
Super Progressive: Really, really cool that that was just an opportunity for kids to fall in love with electronic music in that way. That’s just awesome. I’ve never heard of that. Yeah, so much interesting stuff. So you said that you had been producing a while, but you didn’t necessarily feel right. You didn’t feel ready maybe until a certain point to release a record. Can you kind of give us the story behind your first release and how at that moment it felt right to come out with music as an artist?
Luke Chable: It was partially as far as not feeling right, not being ready. I could hear it. I was educated. I come from music. Before I was making music on the computer, I did piano, violin, this and that. My dad was in bands for as long as I can remember. He had synthesisers. He’d always educate me with songs. He would say, now can you tell me the time signature of this? Or can you tell me the instruments that you hear in this song? Funnily enough, my brother who’s two years older than me, he’d stay asleep, but my dad would pull me out and say, sit down here just before you go to sleep and just have a listen to this and he used to push that. So yeah, I was educated when I was listening to music and that includes my own music. And moving forward over the years, I felt this pain when someone who’s decided they want to make music also wants their first track that they’ve ever made to come out and it’s like, no, you’ve got to sort of not earn it. It’s not earn it, but you’ve got to take a bit more time to refine your craft. It’s not important just to get a record out, it’s important to put a good record out. And that’s what I always used to say. I didn’t want to just have a record out for the sake of having a record out cos anyone can do that these days. I always wanted to actually make a splash, which is what happened funnily enough. So the song that I did to get signed was the A-side, and the B-side was the one that made a splash and it was called Accelerator by the Traveller Presents Quest, Quest being me and the Traveller being Ivan Gough and that B-side, so when I got signed, we didn’t have a studio at that time cos Ivan was building his studio that we’d eventually move into, and we set up in a friend of mine’s house that his parents were away on holiday. So we finished off the A-side and then we started working on something completely different for a dark club, an underground club at night called Sunnyside Up. And we said, we’ve got to, I loved this track called, I think it’s Loaded Bananas that’s right, and I wanted to sort of capture some of that essence. There was another track called Annihilate back then that I wanted to have a crack at sort of capturing some of that essence. And so we did this track Accelerator. Basically I was left to my own devices while Ivan went off to work and the other friend in the studio was doing work too, I think. And Ivan said, let’s do something dark, start something dark. And so I basically did the first, almost half of the track. It was a funny light coming through the room and it was a bit creepy and stuff like that. And yeah, we ended up finishing it off together and it’s got a big 303 thing in there. And what ended up happening is that track went absolutely huge in Australia, and it was number one for months. It was the biggest track of that year. And most people who went, there was a big dance party every New Year’s Day with about 20/30,000 people. I can’t remember exactly, but Sean Quinn, one of the big DJs, played it there. I was 18, in the middle of the dance floor surrounded by my friends, and I realised it was coming on and I just stopped still, I’m like, and people, my friends are shaking me going, it’s your track, it’s your track. I’m like, the thing about Accelerator is it’s got this huge breakdown where it goes and it comes back in totally offbeat. You can’t pick it, no one can pick it. And the cheer, I just got chills then. I remember the cheers. The crowd was 10 times louder than they were with any other song. They lost their minds. And when it actually came back in, it’s got this huge acid 303 and tribal thing going on, and the crowd was losing their minds and I was just absolutely in shock. I could not believe I was witnessing this. It was the biggest thing of my life, and it still has been. Nothing’s beat that. They lost their minds and I was there going, oh my God, I was just absolutely stealing my friends going oh my God. Yeah, it was mental, man. That’s the kind of thing, and I always say with Ivan, and Ivan says the same thing, as a producer, what I aim for is I want to impress myself first. I don’t really make songs for other people first. I make songs for me first. But if you as a punter, I want someone to walk into a club. I don’t want them to see their friends and go, Hey, how are you? And go get a drink. I want them to walk in and within a few seconds go, what the fuck is this record? And they go to the DJ and they find out thats the records you want to make. Don’t make records that disappear into the darkness, make records that make a difference, that grab you by the balls and go, what is this record? I need to know! That’s the sort of thing I’ve always wanted to do. And that’s what I feel like sometimes gets lost with other producers. They’re just sort of happy that we’ve finished a record and let’s get it out. Yay. No, make a difference. Make people stand up, make them scream out, all of that sort of stuff. That’s what I would love new producers to do, and that’s where it came from with me. I didn’t want to just be okay with it. I wanted to be really happy with it yet. No, this is right. And that also is a problem for me because I’m a perfectionist, and if I’m not feeling it, if it’s not absolutely bang on. If I’m not getting the chills or all of that, you’ll never hear it, just put aside next or it would just take me longer to finish.
Super Progressive: Bro, it’s so cool to hear you say that, especially about the tracks when you walk in and you just have to go up to the DJ and say, what is this? Because when I first started this project, I was into the Global Underground mixes, and not that there was just this random 900-song playlist on Spotify titled Global Underground. I’m shuffling through it trying to see like, oh, what’s this all about? I remember exactly where I was when I first heard Melburn. Literally, I’m in LA, I just got a coffee from the cafe I’m at. It’s like 6:45/7pm, sun’s going down, walking over the 101 and I’m like, what the hell is this track? And I’ll never forget it. So I just totally understand. I mean, I’m just saying, you achieved your mission. That is so sweet, man.
Luke Chable: Yeah, yeah. Look, I think Ivan and I always work with that ethos. If it’s not grabbing us, keep working, keep working, or if it just gets to that, if there’s something special in it, yes, keep working. If there’s not something special, then move on. But you’re going to have a better strike rate. You’re only as good as your last record, and if your first record can be a hit, then you don’t need to make any more records haha. But yeah, the funny thing is you can actually create a whole career on one record, and if you think like that, then you’re going to do better as a producer. So I don’t think about that, I just want the record to be absolutely amazing and people to go bastard, I want them to, and then I go, mission accomplished.
Super Progressive: I want to take it back to your ethos as a producer. Two questions I have. I guess the first one is it was really cool to hear how you were comfortable with this music and you spend time with your dad as a kid around the equipment and such. What were some core pieces of production equipment in your earliest days that you kind of first grew comfortable on?
Luke Chable: Earliest days, I fiddled with a synthesiser, but this is really early. This is before I even really started making music, and I was just playing around with it. But I never had my own equipment, I only had a computer. Infact, I only started getting outboard equipment maybe 10 years ago and it’s because I could do everything I needed in the computer. But fast forward a bit, as soon as I started working with Ivan and got my hands on the synthesiser, again, I’m looking over at my Novation Peak, but he had a Nord Lead 2 rack mount, and in a lot of the stuff from the studio in those days, it was from that. I really love a synthesiser that is hands on, there’s all the knobs and all of that. When there’s too much menu diving, I can’t stand that because you just can’t be quick and do your little tweaks and stuff like that. But the thing that I grew most comfortable on was really the computer. And that’s where when I started working with other people, they were looking around going, how is he so fast? And that’s because I spent every day working with it and I knew how to get what I needed.
Super Progressive: Yeah, that’s cool, man. The other half of this question comes from, you said that from an early age you’re making music that impresses you, right? Is that just like, and I think a lot of aspiring producers can maybe feel inspired by this, but does that come from just an internal confidence you have in your ability or your taste, or is that just coming from, you know, love this music and you know what sounds right? You know what I’m saying?
Luke Chable: I would say that everyone knows that feeling when they hear an amazing track. That’s an innate feeling in humans. So that’s all I’m going for, the same, it’s a simple thing, just push it until I’m amazed, until I’ve got tears in my eyes or chills on my scalp. And one of the things I used to love is I used to get scalp down the spine, tingles, it’d go pulsing, and it’s a crazy feeling and then you know the track is really making a difference. So it’s not about a confidence. I’ve got confidence, way more confidence now than I did 20 years ago or 30 years ago but it’s just a knowledge of what’s good and every human knows what’s good to them. If it doesn’t make you go, oh my God, that’s amazing, then there’s no point. I think that there is one thing there, I said, I reckon it was about 20 years ago, I said, I think I’ve got a taste chip. So that chip, sometimes you can sort of just tell what’s good or not. Yes, it’s working or yes, it’s amazing, or no, it’s not. I dunno, I dunno about that. But it is an internal feeling mostly.
Super Progressive: So I’m trying to put a timeline to all this. So what year was the Traveller and Quest first release?
Luke Chable: 98.
Super Progressive: 98, okay. Cool. So my next question is, which I think you’d have a unique perspective on as a producer. One thing I’m curious about is in this era, the importance of the mixed compilation in the industry and for some people, how being included on different compilations, especially by some of the huge DJs is kind of like a seal of approval in some ways, or almost like a rite of passage. You kind of got into the mixed compilations you were listening to. I’m really excited to check out that one that you said. What was it called again? You said you send over the link with the two. There was two of them.
Luke Chable: Well, there’s a few from the old days that I was into and there was Holy Grail.
Super Progressive: Holy Grail, yeah.
Luke Chable: And then there was TranceMaster and then Reactivate. This was before I got introduced to Progressive though, and my first real touch on Progressive was Global Underground stuff and Northern Exposure. And that was late. I was late to the game. They’d been out for years already by the time I was listening to them but coming from trance, it’s a lot of the melodic stuff. That’s why progressive really hit the spot for me. It’s the journey and feeling like you’ve had a full banquet by the end of it rather than I’ve just had a side of something. I was actually thinking about it the other day, listening to one of my tracks that hasn’t come out yet and it’s just this whole piece of music from start to finish. It’s a whole experience and it’s something that you sit down and you listen to, I can’t imagine dancing to it. So it’s not about that you can’t dance to it, but it’s more that I love listening to it and it’s the whole start to finish experience. But I was also into hardcore as well, like Thunderdome and stuff when I was about 15, obviously I was into your rap, your hip hop, grunge, rock, all of that stuff. It’s not like I didn’t like other music. I loved all music, but I made electronic. I went through commercial dance, hardcore, jungle, little bit of drum & bass and then Euro trance or German trance or whatever it was into progressive and then progressive breaks.
Super Progressive: One thing I kind of just have a question about is I really love learning. So in America, I’m on the Jersey Shore right now, but in America, the history of house music is kind of taught to us as a New York, Chicago, Detroit thing. Those are the three big cities. One city that I had no idea really, a state I guess, about the importance of their contribution to progressive is Florida. And the reason why I’m asking this is because I know they kind of developed a pretty, like breaks heavy sound, or I don’t know, kind of pioneered like an early breaks sound. Were you aware of any of those tracks all the way over in Australia at all?
Luke Chable: Not particularly. If you said a name I’d know. Yeah, it depends. I did know a couple of producers from Florida and I worked with them, Austin Leeds, Martin Courcy, when I was at WMC in I think it was 2002 and it was so off the hook that I said I’m never going back. But yeah, so I mean, I probably will go back because of what I’m doing these days, but for different reasons.
Super Progressive: Yeah, definitely. I mean, I didn’t know, it wasn’t like a planned question I had. I was just wondering because I’m knee deep in that scene right now, and I can just hear the early stages of your sound in there.
Luke Chable: Well, yeah, that’s the thing is they had the Miami bass stuff, they had that going on, which was a kind of different scene. I think the breaks that I got into were more almost the English side of things, but it also, it took on a mind of it’s own in Melbourne, it became Melbourne breaks. And not Melbourne, Florida; Melbourne, Australia.
Super Progressive: Haha well, okay, so my next question is really a continuation of what you were talking about earlier with really progressive as we know it, and I was excited to ask you this question because it’s a question I always revisit after every interview because my own understanding of what progressive is always in flux because to some people it’s more sound to other people, it’s like an approach to the music almost. It’s more about programming than it is about the sound and I was just wondering, it’s kind of a broad question, but you can kind of take it anywhere you want it. What does progressive at it’s core mean to you?
Luke Chable: So that’s funny you asked me this because I was thinking about it the other day and I was thinking about it because of that track that I’m talking about, which I’ll send you a SoundCloud link, but it’s coming out in April. But that’s progressive breaks and it’s only progressive breaks cos it’s a broken beat. But I totally agree with you on the flux thing. I don’t think there’s a very defined thing that’s progressive. I think for me it comes in a whole range of things. The word itself means there’s two meanings, progression and moving things forward. That’s the word. Dave Seaman’s *it was Dom Phillips not Dave Seaman the guy that first coined it, what was it, MixMag or something like that, when he was editor there, he tried to name the sound and he couldn’t really put a name to it and said, well, I’m calling it progressive house cos it’s not house and that stuff at that time also came from pushing things forward, but a different structure in the song, the music itself, some tracks these days, even back in the acid house days, it was this chunk is happening, then this chunk is happening, then back to this chunk and then over to this chunk. And whereas with progressive house, it developed into this story arc. So you weren’t listening to different scenes in a song, it was actually a story. And when you think about it like that, that’s how I make it. I can’t not make it like that. There’s been a few records where I said, no, I’m not going to do that. And I’ll send you one of those examples. Shiloh – Vice, my remix is a perfect example of trying to do the chop and change and not do the story arc, but inevitably it ends up being a story arc. But my vibe, the whole thing, it’s pushing things forward, doing different sounds, trying different things. But for me, progressive means, and that doesn’t mean someone else can’t have a different definition, but for me it is that giving you a whole piece of music that sits in its own world, its own biome, and it’s its own story from start to finish. So you can sit down and you feel totally satisfied by the end of it. It’s like having a banquet. You’ve had a bit of everything. You’ve had a bit of this and that, but it starts here and it progresses through the phases. And to me, that kind of music, Giorgio Moroder – The Chase is moving into what I call progressive disco, and my dad used to play me those records, so that’s when I started making music at the very start. I said, dad, what speed is that music? And he said, oh, about one 20 BPMs. I said, ok, cool. And then that’s what I started working on. I was inspired by that, by Giorgio Moroder stuff, that Italo disco, which I sort of say is progressive disco because it has elements of what we know and love is progressive, what I know and love is progressive. So yeah, it means a variety of things. But I do get frustrated when melodic house and techno, it’s progressive, come on. But also then I petitioned Beatport once because I was sick of seeing big room EDM in progressive house. It’s not progressive house, it never was progressive house. It’s big room. And they actually finally changed it a few years ago. But I call a lot of melodic house and techno and even organic house, it’s all progressive house. Come on, we’re not joking anyone here, maybe you are using a different set of synthesisers for your sound, but it’s still at its core, it’s progressive house. I wouldn’t call electro progressive house at all. And then there’s stuff that really is melodic techno. I wouldn’t really, that’s sort of on the cusp. Stephan Bodzin, he’s almost his own genre, which melodic techno really came from. It was him, it was all him. And that could be coined progressive, but a lot of the melodic house and techno that’s out there, it’s just progressive.
Super Progressive: Yeah. I’m just curious, I’m wondering your opinion, why do you think as time has passed, we’ve continued to break down genres into sub-genres, into-sub genres.
Luke Chable: People are trying to describe what it is. So you might make a new track and you go, it’s not really this, but it’s kind of that, eventually that funnels itself into a name and that’s how it happens. I would say there’s electronic and then there’s progressive, and there’s progressive house and progressive breaks, and there’s progressive trance. There could be progressive techno, which is melodic house and techno, but that’s where I’d stop it. You go further you’re joking.
Super Progressive: Haha all right. So I want to bring it back to your career because one of my favourite stories I’ve ever learned since learning about the history of progressive house insurance is how when Brian Transeau/BT was an up and coming producer in Washington DC and this may be legend or reality, I haven’t been able to speak to him directly about it, but to me, it seems like he’s working as an up and coming producer. To me, it seems like he had no idea until Sasha literally called his home that his tracks were exploding over Europe. Like the tracks coming off that were going to be on EMA and stuff, exploding on Sasha’s dance floor specifically. So many international DJs became champions of your sound, do you remember some of those early experiences of realising that your music was actually expanding out of maybe this moment you had at the Melbourne Festival, but it was reaching around the world?
Luke Chable: Yeah, so definitely. I do remember the first thing was Accelerator and Slinky. The people at Slinky in UK were playing it, and it was exploding every time.
Super Progressive: What’s Slinky? I’m sorry.
Luke Chable: Like it was one of those super clubs back in the day. So the likes of God’s Kitchen, Gatecrasher, Cream, Slinky was one of them. And there are other people playing it as well. But then the next bump I had with that was when Hybrid met me at the WMC that I was at, and they were like, man, the drums on Sealers Cove – they were losing it. I was like, wow, that’s awesome. And then later it was, I’m trying to remember the flow of things. It was really the Sasha remix that I did, Cloud Cuckoo. So Kasey Taylor, one of the local progressive DJs, gave it to his friend from Turkey who was doing a guest show. This all happened within a week. I had an idea for doing the remix. I went that afternoon to my studio and I did it, and I said, I’m taking this to Kasey tonight. I loved it. It was great. Kasey heard it, he was DJing and he heard it. He goes, I’m playing this. And he played it and he goes, mate, he loved it. So did the crowd. And then I didn’t even know that he gave it to his friend in Turkey, and I didn’t even know that it was then played on a Digweed radio show and the Global Underground forums was where everyone used to talk and it blew up. And I was just like, whoa, what’s going on here? And that was pretty amazing. And then I used to get the calls from Sasha as well, and a whole bunch of other guys just randomly. So that was fun. And I think that puts a fire underneath you to do more and go harder. Definitely. That’s one of the biggest inspirational things is when you know it’s being supported or you hear of it being played, I’ve got on my SoundCloud, if you flick through the links, there’s Sasha playing Ride at Creamfields. Now, I didn’t hear that until years after and when I heard it the first time years after, I’m like, are you serious? You can hear the crowd over the music. It is pretty incredible. So yeah, you just hear stories trickle back about that. And even when I did Renaissance, the Renaissance tour, one of the guys from Renaissance pulled me aside, he said you know why you’re on here, don’t you? And I said, you like my music? And I wasn’t really picking it up and he said, Ride. Everyone, everyone was playing Ride everywhere. And I go, wow, okay, I didn’t know that.
Super Progressive: Alright, so I’m trying to think where we were. We were just talking about progressive. We were talking about you kind of discovering your sound going all around the world. Now this is a little segment of the interview that I’m excited for just because there’s kind of a lot of, I don’t know what the right I right word is, but maybe mystique around your career or kind of lure around your career where I come across stories relating to you, and they sound so not crazy, but just like I’m not sure if they’re true or not and you actually corrected me the first time I ever posted about you. I posted this bit about that you used to be a bingo mc, and that’s, dude, I don’t take this stuff very lightly, I got duped. I saw that in four or five different bios.
Luke Chable: Yeah, yeah, it’s crazy. So basically the problem there was my first manager thought that that would be a great idea. And I’m like, whatever. And she did the bio and put that in and I’ve even told RA, for instance, to take it down, it’s wrong and they haven’t. So all right. It sucks to be incorrect. Yeah, never stepped foot in a bingo place in my life, it was just a stupid thing she wanted to put in.
Super Progressive: It’s so funny. Now, another thing that you were just talking about your remix for, is it Cloud Cuckoo for Sasha? Off AirDrawnDagger, and first of all, one of my favourite tracks ever, nicely done, literally one of my favourite tracks ever. Second, when I talk with followers of this page about that track, one thing they like to say is that this track was part of almost like an open source remix thing that Sasha was doing with the release.
Luke Chable: No, no.
Super Progressive: Can you give us the truth about it?
Luke Chable: Yeah, I sampled the CD.
Super Progressive: Nice, bro.
Luke Chable: That’s all I did. And there’s actually not that much of Cloud Cuckoo in there. There’s only the hook, and that’s only in the break. Everything else was created by me.
Super Progressive: Dude. So crazy.
Luke Chable: And I did that in the afternoon. There was no competition. There was no nothing. I was listening to the track, I think in the CD, in my car on the way home, and I said, shit, I can do this. I’ve got to do this. And I did it in an afternoon and I took it into the club, and that was history. I didn’t touch it again, and I didn’t get the parts from anyone. I sampled the CD. I just took the section from Cloud Cuckoo, which is where the break drops. I’ll see if I can find it. One sec. Yeah, I didn’t even sample that Guitary thing that because it was too hard. So I just recreated it. I remade a bassline. I can hear it now. I’m listening to Cloud Cuckoo and I didn’t take any of that. I didn’t take any of the beats yet. I didn’t, no, sorry, I’m just listening to Cloud Cuckoo, trying to find there, from 5:54 to the end of that phrase is all I took – seriously, only a few bars, because that was the only part that was clean. So I just recreated everything else.
Super Progressive: So cool. That’s awesome that you just heard it in your car and recreated it in your own expression, bro.
Luke Chable: Oh, the crazier one was Ride. So Danny Bonnici’s manager gave him this old vinyl of an old computer game thing, soundtrack. It was like Digger or something like that, and said, oh, this would be good in a track. And Danny replayed it and then said, no, that sounds ridiculous. And then put it down a few octaves to make it a bassline. And I’ll just listen to it one sec. I’ll tell you the amount of bassline that I’ve given. Yeah, da-da-da-da-da-na-na-na that’s it. That’s all I got given. I was on the way home and I’ve dropped into Danny’s studio and Danny showed me that that’s all I got. I grabbed that, I went home, and on the way home, I made the song in my head and I got home. I said, mom, come and watch this. And I did it pretty much start to finish in about 45 minutes. But then with polishing an hour and a half, and I never touched it again. I said I was going to, but I never did. So that was a crazy story because it all made it all in my head on the way home, and I knew what I was going to do when I sat down. It just all sort of appeared. I guess I’m lucky because I can hear fully formed music in my head way before I sit down to do it. And that means everything, how everything’s going to sound like it’s already made, and then I can actually translate that as well into, like on the computer. And yeah, I don’t know if that’s a curse, because if I had the time, I’d be doing all the music I hear in my head, but I don’t have the time. So yeah, that’s what happened with Ride. It was all just fully formed and I went and sat down and did it, and I thought I was going to go back and do more on it, but I think it was later that afternoon or early evening, there was a birthday party for his manager. So I took it, burned a CD, took it there, showed the guys, and they’re like, this is finished. You don’t need to do anything else. I said, really? Yeah, no, no, no, no, and that was it.
Super Progressive: Dude, so crazy. Looking back, I don’t know, just from a fan’s point of view, it’s like you never know. You don’t assume some things like a track like that just gets pushed out in an afternoon, let alone a few hours. Some tracks take, I guess months and months of polishing and revisiting and all this stuff. But I’m sure you experienced that as a producer on a broad spectrum where some songs are years in the making maybe, and other ones are just like, I’m feeling this this afternoon and we’re going to do it.
Luke Chable: So for instance, Ivan and I have been working on an Orange Theme remix for years, not years constantly, here and there, here and there, when we get time. We just weren’t happy with the drop and all of that sort of stuff. And that’s taken a long time. But I have plenty of tracks which people go, oh, this is the most amazing thing and it took me a couple of hours, I hear Ride, and I think, oh, that could be polished here, could be polished there, but everyone else is like, oh, it’s amazing. And then there’s another one of mine called The Shepherd, which everyone absolutely loves and I dislike.
Super Progressive: Oh, interesting.
Luke Chable: Not dislike. I just don’t see why everyone loves it so much. But that was a quick one as well. It wasn’t a long record to produce.
Super Progressive: It’s cool looking at some of your discography, honestly, because I had a cool chat with Nick Muir. He’s a really, really cool, one of the coolest guys I’ve ever been able to talk to. And to hear him, it was really cool to hear him about, he really on his own, kind of elaborated about his production process with John Digweed and how they worked as a tandem. And it’s cool to see your discography, bro, just as much as it seems like you come out with solo releases, it’s a lot of collaborations as well.
Luke Chable: Yeah, I do enjoy collaborating. It also takes some of the pressure off myself because I’m such a perfectionist.
Super Progressive: Interesting.
Luke Chable: If left to my own devices, I’ll just perfect and perfect and perfect and perfect. But if there’s someone else there going, no, this is great, we’re ready now, that kind of pulls me back a little bit and also throw some other ideas in the mix. I like collaborating, it’s good to hang out. Phil and I, for instance, with the Lostep album, we had a lot of fun on that, and I’ve got a lot of memories, good and bad with the whole process of making the, Because We Can album, that was a collaborative effort for the ages, I reckon cos we pulled everything out of everywhere and worked our asses off and had a lot of fun doing it. But yeah, I’m open to collabs as long as someone’s bringing something to the table. I’m not so keen when I’m doing all the work, all the thinking and all of that, it’s like, why even bother? But when it’s a joint effort, it’s a lot more fun for sure. And yeah, I think one of the main ones for me as well is just it takes some of the pressure off, I put too much pressure on being a perfectionist.
Super Progressive: Totally. I mean, it’s cool how the creative process just brings, I don’t know, when you add a different, it does take off the pressure a little bit because you’re like, okay, if this person thinks it’s good, I’m good with it, let’s rock with it. It’s cool. Or else you can kind of get lost when you are a perfectionist, it may never be good enough for you in some instances. So to hear someone else in the studio say, yo, dude, this is good to go, that’s cool.
Luke Chable: Yeah, yeah, it’s a bit, I mean, sometimes I disagree with that for sure, but it’s just good to keep the ball rolling you know, the train moving forward otherwise you get bogged down sometimes.
Super Progressive: Definitely. I want to ask you about probably my all time favourite track, your vocal pass of PQM – You Are Sleeping.
Luke Chable: Oh yeah.
Super Progressive: Yeah. It’s another one of those tracks where, bro, I’m driving to Disney World to go to Star Wars Land. I’m 27 years old, whatever. I love Star Wars. I’m listening to James Holden’s Balance 005 for the first time and that track comes on and I’m just like, bro, what is this? This is everything I ever needed in a track. James Holden is kind of like another guy like you that I just feel like has developed their own sound and kind of just gone down their own path and really developed a signature kind of feeling around their music. How did that remix come to be and what was the kind of process of figuring out that it was going to be on his Balance album? Which is cool because Tom from Balance is one of also the coolest, nicest guys in this industry that I’ve come across. And I know that he reps Melbourne as well, but he’s been really supportive of the page. So I just want to give him a shout out too. He’s the man.
Luke Chable: Yeah, so how the remix came about was Quick, who also has now passed, his manager at the time as well, heard my Sasha remix and they wanted to do a remix of You Are Sleeping. So got in touch with me and Quick and I already knew each other, and we just organised two studio catch ups at my house and we just worked away at it. Now, I’d also recently been to Earth Core was the dance party, and I’d heard James play some of his new music, and I already knew James at that time. Him and I chatted a lot over Messenger and stuff, and I was just like, yeah, there was a track that I heard that inspired me to make the sound of the main riff on the You Are Sleeping mix and there was a technique I was doing at the time to increase the melody, expand it, and I still do that every now and then, but that’s how that came about. And we just worked together on it and got it done, and I gave it to James straight away and he loved it immediately. He even did a remix, a bootleg of Melburn with the Nothing vocal.
Super Progressive: No way.
Luke Chable: And he gave it to me. I’ve got no idea where it is, but I mean, I could do it again. I’ve got the two versions of his Nothing. The one that no one ever heard as well, I’ve got a different version. And Come To Me, I’ve got a version that no one ever heard too. Is it called Come to Me or did I call it Come to Me? That’s what it was temporarily called, I think. Yeah. So that’s how James got it. Him and I swapped tunes a lot back in the day and how it came on the compilation, I guess he said he wanted it and spoke to Tom, and the rest is history.
Super Progressive: I’m stoked, it went down. It’s literally my favourite moment in mixed compilation history.
Luke Chable: That’s another one of those records where you didn’t realise how big the record was until way later. And then people tell you all over the place, contact you and stuff
like that, and then you hear about it, wow.
Super Progressive: That’s really awesome, man. So another thing that always caught my attention was that with Melburn and dude, you’re cranking out tracks, you’re cranking out tracks. I’m looking at your discogs from 2002 through 2004. It looks like you had 8 original releases, not even counting all your remixes. Were you just always in the studio during that time?
Luke Chable: Well, making music was always my career. Yeah.
Super Progressive: Oh yeah. No, no. So this, where I was going was this was, and I don’t know the answer, this may be a dumb question, but at this time, are you always a dedicated producer without being a DJ?
Luke Chable: Oh, so I was always a producer first and foremost. In fact, I hate it when family goes, oh, you’re still DJing because it’s like everyone can be a DJ. And I think there’s a lot more in production than DJing. And the DJs all play the producers music. So I just go, don’t call me DJ, call me a producer, but I am a DJ as well and can, fine, and know how to work a crowd. Again, the same thing there about production is when I say I know what works with production, it’s because I’m a punter too. I was always on the dancefloor. I know what works because I’m a punter. So that’s how I learned how to DJ better and how to pull the crowd left and right and backwards and forwards and stuff like that. So what was the question again? You were talking about…
Super Progressive:I was just wondering if during that kind of initial rip of tracks, if you were just a dedicated producer at this time?
Luke Chable: No, by that time I was a DJ as well after the first release. I had to learn how to DJ when I was making that first release, how to mix. I then went on to teach DJing not soon after that because once I learned how to beat mix, I just started teaching a DJ course at DMC records.
Super Progressive: Oh, nice.
Luke Chable: I did that for a few years. So then when there was about 2004-2006, I was DJing a lot all around the place. And there was a point where I said, I don’t like touring. I hate it, I miss my family, I miss my friends. I am on the road constantly, not getting enough sleep. Sometimes touring would take all of the energy out of being able to produce. You get back on a, what day would you get back, like a Monday. And then by Wednesday you’re feeling good, you’re off on Thursday, and then you’re playing three or four gigs over the weekend all around Europe or whatever and it’s tiring and I was not happy doing it. So that’s when I said, I just want to stop for a moment. I want to get back to my friends and family and all of that. And yeah, I found that core happiness is far more important than a bit of money for getting gigs and that sort of stuff. And did I shoot myself in the foot when I pulled up and said, I don’t want to stay touring. I’ll take a gig here and there, but I don’t want to be on the road constantly? Yeah, maybe I did as a DJ. Do I care? Not one bit. I don’t care. The music is always going to be there. The music is going to outlive you and everything else. Your set from 1982 probably is going to get forgotten by the last people that were there. And maybe you might find a copy on the internet. But do people really care? Do they listen to that set 7,000 times? No. Do they listen to your track 7,000 times? Yes. So I sort of took that, I said, look, I love DJing. I love DJing, the big crowds. Don’t get me wrong, it’s awesome fun, I love travelling as well. But when you’re on the trot and you’re doing all of those gigs constantly, you kind of lose who you are and who you were. And for me, that wasn’t fun. And the funny thing was is that I wanted that so bad, I wanted to be the touring DJ. Everyone has this glow about it when they think about it, when they’re not doing it. And the truth is, it’s not glamorous. It’s not. You’re having the same fake conversation to every promoter that sees you, and you’ve got to be best friends with them every time they’re having the same conversation. It’s like Groundhog Day. The substance in those conversations is very shallow. And it starts and you realise what really is important to you. I did, and that’s family and friends and home and my pets and stuff like that. And these days we’re a lot more connected than we were in 2004. Far more connected with the likes of Facebook and all of that. And yeah, it was hard for me back then when I left to start the touring thing, it was really hard. It really got to me, it wasn’t bringing the happiness that I thought it would. I think that everyone is built differently, and I’m someone who requires family and friends for that happiness. And even down to the simple thing, I would be in Amsterdam when I was living there and I was imagining I was home, and I just felt so much better, how you might imagine you’re on holidays in Mexico or something. Well, I would imagine that I’m home and hearing the sounds of this and that, or missing mountain bike rides or stuff like that. And so that’s me and that’s where I got to, I sort of stopped being a touring DJ by choice for happiness.
Super Progressive: Well, I think it’s awesome that you did that because you’ve had such a long career and you still speak about what you do with so much love and so much passion, which is so important because you see so many people either not necessarily burn out, but grow very sometimes bitter towards a scene that can really take a lot out of you and it’s awesome to see that you or hear that you put what you knew to be true for yourself first, to allow you to just stay in love with what you’re in love with about this music.
Luke Chable: Yeah, and that’s the thing. I still love the music and I still love the creative process. And if I win the lottery tomorrow, you can bet I will be making a house with a huge studio and I’ll not be working on anything else, I’ll be making music. The problem with music at the moment is it doesn’t pay the bills. And I plan on changing that for everyone. If you’re just happy with the status quo, then you’re not going to get anywhere and no one’s going to change anything, but someone has to do it. So my project is changing that for everyone, starting from the ground and working my way through. I’ve got all sorts of plans everywhere, and the whole concept is making it more viable for producers to actually make a real living. Earning $300 over the lifetime of a track is shocking for a progressive house track, and you can’t live off that. So a lot of producers out there now have other jobs. I work multiple jobs, including businesses that I’ve built, which are in the music industry and more coming. But I think I understand why people become bitter because things like pirating and all that take the wind out of your sails and you can’t live off it, or people don’t get booked even though they’ve got the biggest records out that’s happened to me multiple times in my hometown and it becomes very annoying and frustrating. There’s boys clubs or whatever, you have to be at that club constantly to get a gig and that’s ridiculous. So I can totally understand why people would get bitter and one of those things is definitely a financial thing, where somehow over time, thanks to Napster, thanks to the iPod, thanks to Apple, thanks to Steve Jobs changing the price of music. It’s funny how you still have to pay a lot of money to go to a movie or pay a lot of money for art, but music is down there, books are still far more expensive. Videos like, not VHS, but DVDs or even Netflix is reducing the price of movies. But somehow music was the first one shot in the heart, making the value of it only valuable to the people who are pushing big numbers. I’ll be flat out honest, when I got a track of mine called Comet has had nearly 2 million plays on Spotify and I’ve earned a grand total of $3,000 from that. That’s shocking and that’s not okay and it’s up to other people to change that, but if no one tries to change it, it’s not going to get changed. When Spotify deliberately go out and actually go to the courts to push down the amount of royalties that they have to pay to artists, that’s when you know, nah, the system’s toast, got to start again. And I can understand every time I think about that, I get it. I’m bitter with those sorts of actions from people who don’t give a shit about the artist. DJs are getting paid 10, 20, 30, whatever grand to play, but the artist whose music they played on that gig get paid maybe 50 cents to me and it excuse my French, but that’s bullshit. That is not okay. I had an argument with someone on Facebook, I can’t remember maybe a couple of years ago about that very thing, but that’s what royalties are for. They’re not royalties, mate, that’s upside down. That is not okay. So I’ve designed a new system called Fair Trade DJs, which allows DJs to actually donate a portion of their gig fee to the tracks that were played on that gig. And all of a sudden the amount of money that producers were making before goes through the roof because they’re actually getting a little bit more money here and there and everywhere. Even if $10,000, if the DJ gives 1% of that $10,000 fee to the artist that was on that gig, they will have earned more money in an instant over the whole lifetime of that record in one gig fee that that DJ has donated. So then you expand it to multiple gigs, multiple DJs. The hope with Fair Trade DJs is that clubs will eventually get on board. We’re a fair trade venue where if I’m a fair trade DJ, they will get on board. It’s like a badge of honour. I’m donating a portion of my gig feed to the people that are making this able to happen. If all of the producers stop making music tomorrow, how many DJs would be playing gigs? How many gigs would happen? How many festivals would happen? Right? None. That’s why it’s upside down and that’s why things have to change. That’s why initiatives like this have to happen to hopefully change the conversation, change the perception, the value of the music. If that can get changed, then we’re on the path to something a bit better for everyone, for society because more people can make a living and we’re going to get better music. The people that are making great music can make more great music. We can push everything forward. Civilization was built on art and science. Art is a major part of this, and the value of music has been thrown out as an art form. It’s like throw away McDonald’s. And as soon as we can change that perception, I think we’re on the path to something better for everyone.
Super Progressive: Dude, I think that’s really, first interesting and second awesome. My initial thoughts on that are, so when I think of kind of the late nineties, basically the analogue era before digital revolution, one thing that always sticks out to me is kind of the rapport between the DJ and the producer and how DJs had producers they went to getting those early tracks and it was good for the producers to have those tracks played by those DJs because back then that may lead to more record sales or whatever. Maybe the system was still upside down then, but I think the system that you’re explaining today could strengthen that interscene kind of relationship between the DJ and the producer because they’re both supporting each other in a way. In a way they’re on the same team.
Luke Chable: Yes, exactly. At the moment, they’re not. The DJs are all up on the top and cleaning up all of the money and the poor producers are still having to work extra jobs to pay the bills and pay rent and stuff. It is totally upside down. It was always upside down, always. But earlier on we made a little bit more money of records were $20 a pop in Australia, so there was a bit more money to be made with the value of MP3s being only $1 or $2, there’s got to be other ways to change the conversation. So that’s what I’ve been working on is multiple ways of doing that. And Fair Tade DJs is one of those that’s coming. There is a platform that I’m pretty sure they heard what I was doing and they’ve sort of built it into that, but this is just going to be basically a charity organisation. I’m not going to be making any money. The only money that will be made is paying the bills for the server and stuff like that, and anyone who becomes a volunteer so that to verify things like that you are the artist or this and that. So it’s a system that, it is a charity organisation, but it’s a charity for producers and I’m hoping that it really does change things for people. And I’ve already spoken to a few big DJs and they’re already, even labels, big labels, this is great. We love the sound of this. It allows musicians and producers to do what they should be doing, making music.
Super Progressive: Yeah, exactly. The only outcome of this I feel like is more great music.
Luke Chable: Yes, exactly.
Super Progressive: That’s so awesome, and so you said this is, you just got to keep me in the loop because this is something I definitely want to help. I dunno, help out any way on my page if I can, just spreading awareness about this, but no, it sounds, dude, that’s so cool. And I love the idea, this is just kind of something that ethically speaking, artists can get behind. It’s cool.
Luke Chable: Yeah, that’s right. That’s the word. Ethically, it’s something that makes total sense when you think about it. You go, well, why is the DJ who’s playing everyone else’s music, walking home with 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 grand? And the people who were getting royalties for that show was like 50 cents, a dollar here, whatever. How does that work? And is that really fair? If all of those tracks were just deleted, then that set wouldn’t have happened. So the hope is that people do start taking that on and going, you know what? That is fair. And start actually donating. Even if their gig fee was $200 and they give $20, it all adds up, it all adds up.
Super Progressive: Definitely. No, it is really interesting and I didn’t know initiatives like that were going on, so that’s awesome bro. And I think it’s cool that, I dunno, I want to be respectful of your time. I know we’re going on and on, but I’m also inspired by your kind of entrepreneurial sense to make changes in an industry that you just think should be operating differently.
Luke Chable: Yeah, absolutely. And look, anyone can do make changes if they make enough noise. The other thing, I am lucky to be connected with big labels and big artists. So Joe Blow on the street might have a harder time of making that happen. So that’s also something that I’m leveraging, the fact that I do know a bunch of people in the industry and if we can get enough steam behind it, then everyone will start getting behind it. But yeah, at the end of the day I sit there going, well why sit there and complain? Why don’t you just make a change? Make it happen?
Super Progressive: Yeah, definitely. Alright, I think I have one more question for you and then we’ll wrap it up if that’s cool.
Luke Chable: Yeah, no worries.
Super Progressive: Alright, so one thing I respect about you as an artist is you make music that moves the most dedicated progressive house listeners. Now with that, I assume there’s some pressure that you face from going away from that sound sometimes because people are so passionate about some of the music that you make. But I just read in an article as a producer, you don’t shy away from making music of different genres at all, really?
Luke Chable: No, no. Look, there was a time, and I remember copping a lot of flack when I stopped doing progressive. When electro came in, it decimated the electro and MP3 happened at the same time and it decimated the progressive house scene and there just became no money in it. The same time I saw my friend Ivan getting huge publishing checks and actually making money and so he could actually live. I was getting to the point where I couldn’t live, so I started working on commercial music with him. There’s no progressive around anymore. Where am I going to make a buck? And I’ve seen online, plenty of people complain, but I’ve said to people in the past, Hey, you give me your entire salary and I’ll sit down and I’ll make music for you constantly, happily, what do they expect us to live on? Nothing. So that’s where I went up that angle for a while until I created a business that I can actually make an income off, which is vocalizr.com. And now I can do music on the side still and have a living. I don’t rely on music to have that. But yeah, I’ll send you another track soon. Orange Theme is more progressive trance you could say when you hear it. And yeah, I don’t mind making other genres. I’ve always done a wide range of things. You’ll see artists that are just very pigeonholed, but I don’t like doing that. I like all sorts of music so I’ll always make a lot of a wide range.
Super Progressive: That’s awesome, man. So wrapping this up, I was kind of perusing your Bandcamp and it’s pretty comprehensive. Is that where someone like me who wants to find all your music, is that a good place to go and see pretty much a lot of stuff that you have out there?
Luke Chable: Not a lot of stuff. It is still only the tip of the iceberg and I’m still building it out. It’s just a place to get it that’s not, it’s more like a simple place to get some of the old stuff. There’s still records that I can’t put on there that are on other labels and stuff like that, but that’s a good place to start. But that’s another thing that I wanted to change for people is even Bandcamp takes 15% and I think there’s a better way than doing Spotify and stuff like that. So that’s something that’s bubbling away in my head as well, a better place. So just for instance, you are looking at my Bandcamp and I’ll get a sale here and there. I get an email every now and then. You’ve earned $3, you’ve been sent $3 in your PayPal. Great. So what will I do with that? Buy coffee. Okay.
Super Progressive: Yeah, no, totally. And then it sounds like I just want to get kind of, I’m fascinated by the different businesses you either set up or thinking about setting up, but what is out there that’s not in development that you can talk about for people to check out?
Luke Chable: I’m just sending you something, this is coming very soon. Go to soundbase.net.
Super Progressive: Cool.
Luke Chable: Yeah, that’s coming very soon. One thing that is out there at the moment is Vocalizr, that’s nearly 10 years old. So that’s for producers. Before Vocalizr and Vocalizr was the first, when you wanted a vocalist, you had to ask your friends, Hey, do you know a vocalist? Or you’d have to find these directories from other things and it just wasn’t made properly. Vocalise it, change that so that you could search by genres and stuff like that. Find vocalists that would fit your sounds. And then you post a job and they show their demos, and then you actually work on Vocalizr with proper legal agreements and stuff like that, and payment. You don’t get what you paid for until you’ve paid for it and you don’t get paid until you’ve done the work. That sort of stuff. So everyone’s protected. That was the first thing. Soundbase is the next thing, that’s going to be a game changer, I think, a major game changer. And then Fair Trade DJs is an offshoot of Soundbase, I’m going to put that on the side and utilise the audience from both Vocalizr and Soundbase and other channels to build that into something useful.
Super Progressive: Yeah cool, man. I’m stoked to check all of these out. But bro, I just wanted to thank you for, and if there’s anything else you wanted to add, now’s a good time. But I mean, bro, you gave me so much time. I’m so grateful and this is one of the interviews that I’m just most excited to share with everyone, one of the most requested. But this was really, really great. Thank you so much.
Luke Chable: No problems, man. My pleasure.
