Luca De-Santo may be a familiar name to some, this rising star emerged back in 2015 when he gained wide recognition for his signature melodic techno sound. From holding multiple residencies and hosting his own events in his hometown of Glasgow, before venturing out to play the likes of BPM Festival, Warehouse Project, and Amsterdam Dance Event. He landed two Beatport top 20 records after signing to Carl Cox’s Intec Digital. Then the pandemic hit in 2020 bringing his career to a halt, but Luca is more than excited to be releasing music again in 2022.
We were lucky enough to invite Luca on for a 6AM Guest Mix to celebrate his return. We also managed to grab Luca for a chat to find out more about his personal journey over the past few years and to talk about his new direction and release on Aether Recordings.
Luca thank you for joining us and congratulations on your EP with Aether Recordings — how did the release come about?
Hey, thanks very much for having me. So I was hunting for a home for my new tracks and I was struggling, to be honest. My brother and fellow producer Nico Balducci (watch out for him btw) sent me a list of suggestions and Aether was on it, so I passed 6 tracks over and they loved them all. They down-selected the 2 tracks on the EP and there we have it. Following this, a release date was quickly confirmed, contracts signed, and artwork creation began.
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This new release is very different from your old stuff, we’re absolutely loving it — what was the inspiration behind the Straight Into Orbit EP?
Thanks, positive feedback is great when releasing a new sound. The inspiration came from frustration, to be honest. Approaching the latter stages of the lockdown, I started to really miss the rave and just generally being on a dancefloor; happy with other like-minded people. I have always really liked the idea of the solar system paired with euphoric music and I just kept getting this thought in my head that the first rave back would be epic, and when I was writing the melody paired with the Reese bass in the break on the A-side, I was getting those exact euphoric, spacey vibes. This is when it hit me that “when we go to our first rave back, the DJ will take us straight to orbit” and I just had to use it as the lead title.
When I was writing the melody paired with the Reese bass this is when it hit me that “when we go to our first rave back, the DJ will take us straight to orbit” and I just had to use it as the lead title.”
Reminiscing the rave scene and having hope that it would return pushed Luca to create the EP Straight to Orbit.
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What are your go-to plug-ins or other pieces of kit when laying down a track?
My favorite plug-ins right now are UHE Diva, UHE Hive, Serum, and the old faithful Sylenth. You can honestly just get lost in these plug-ins the possibilities are endless. I support a lot of Youtuber’s preset packs for all of the aforementioned plug-ins and the sound sets are just second to none. For the external kit, I only own a TR09 drum machine and I record my 909 drums into Ableton through an aggregate device and process them once they are in.
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Where do you draw inspiration from when making music?
The main inspiration is my love for main stage euphoria, to be honest. Even though I spent the first portion of my career producing techno, my love for old trance and melodic music is deeply seeded in me. I own an extensive vinyl collection packed with all of my favorite trance classics from 1990 – 2005 kind of time, and when making tracks I always try and picture what it would feel like hearing it on a stage at a massive festival like Awakenings or the Afterlife Nights at Hï in Ibiza. I like to take breaks in production to listen to similar music on Spotify and just sense-check my track to ensure it is up to the same standard.
“Even though I spent the first portion of my career producing techno, my love for old trance and melodic music is deeply seeded in me — my love for main stage euphoria is my main inspiration.”
Luca will always feel inspired by classic trance and melodic music.
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What is in store for Luca De-Santo for the rest of 2022 and 2023?
I am working to schedule more releases, but I will be giving away a few free downloads over the next 6 months so watch out for that. I am playing regularly back around my hometown again which is amazing, and a couple of gigs have dropped in for down South too which I am buzzing about. I am on a journey here and I recognize I am coming back with a fresh new look, so I am happy to put the work in and level up over time.
“I am on a journey here and I recognize I am coming back with a fresh new look, so I am happy to put the work in and level up over time.”
Working towards personal growth and aspirations is what Luca is always striving for.
Thanks for taking the time to speak with us today, hope to see you on a dancefloor soon!
Thanks a lot for having me, some challenging questions but it brought back some old memories, so thank you for that! Cya!
Connect with Luca De-Santo: SoundCloud丨Facebook丨Beatport丨Instagram
