Luke Garcia, a Spanish DJ and producer, developed a love for electronic music and the club scene from a young age in Madrid. He started his career in the early 2000s, performing in clubs across Spain and gaining international recognition. He has particularly made a name for himself in Ibiza, Miami, and South America, where he is respected in the summer music scene.
Photo credit: Luke Garcia – Official
In addition to his DJ career, Luke Garcia is a skilled producer, releasing tracks and remixes on well-known electronic music labels. His music has received support from artists such as Dixon, Trikk, Solomun, Andhim, Laurent Garnier, and Oliver Koletzki.
Luke Garcia’s musical style is characterized by a melodic electronic sound, drawing inspiration from various genres including house, deep house, tech club, melodic house & techno, acid/afro/house, and techno. His sets are known for their fresh and groovy vibes that captivate audiences and energize the dance floor.
Recently, Luke released the ‘Amen / Ryen’ EP in collaboration with Colossio. The EP is now available on microCastle. You can stream and download the EPhere.
To celebrate the release, Luke Garcia invites us into his studio to share five valuable tips to find your unique artistic voice.
1. Inspiration
Every person finds inspiration at different moments of their day-to-day. Maybe it doesn’t happen for weeks, and suddenly, one night before going to bed, a melody comes to mind where a new project begins. In my case, personally, most of the time inspiration has come to me at quieter times in my life. I don’t work well if I have a lot of hustle and bustle around me or a problem on my mind.
I usually find a lot of inspiration whenever I go to spend the day in the mountains. I go two or three times a month, and for me, it is inspiring. When I come back home, already in the car on the way back, I get ideas.
2. Start a new project
I don’t really have an identical pattern every time I start a new track. Sometimes I start it with kick and bass, and from there, I build some chords and a melody as a hook. But also, sometimes I start with percussion. For example, a very quick TIP I use to make hi-hats with Ableton Live: I start by putting an empty drum rack and load it with several HHs. Then I go to Midi Effects and load an arpeggiator in the chain of each of these HHs. I set a different rate for each of the HHs I have loaded. Inside a midi clip, you create a sequence with all of them at the same time. Try it, the track will walk by itself.
3. Bass from percussion
Sometimes from a percussion that I like (a conga, for example), I can make a bass that makes sense for a project initially. Start placing some congas that you can create with ‘Impulse,’ which is a native instrument of Ableton Live, and lower the pitch a little and process it a little until it sounds like a bass. Load a drum bus and a compressor (the native Ableton Live ones are fine). Let me know if it works for you.
4. Harmonize with percussion
There are many times when the most difficult thing is to make the melody make sense with the groove of the project. Well, I’ll tell you a trick to create harmony from percussion tracks in your project.
You can start by taking a group of percussion or glitches too. Apply a Spectral Resonator to the group and activate the MIDI function, and click on one of the tracks that is giving harmony to your project (the bass, for example), and now, the Spectral Resonator will work according to the MIDI track that you have linked to it. Finally, if you want the effect to be more subtle, set the DRY/WET to 50%, and it will sound very fine.
5. Be creative
Try to always be creative and unique in your projects. It’s fine to look at an idea that has already worked, but the most important thing is to be true to your sound. Realize that your music is your letter of introduction to the world. It’s all very well to innovate, but having a sound that always identifies you and makes you recognized will take you very far. We are in a moment of maximum global diffusion in music. Let’s take advantage of that moment and let our talent be known from the studio.
Luke Garcia’s ‘Amen / Ryen’ is out now via microCastle. Stream and download here.
Follow Luke Garcia: Spotify | Soundcloud | Instagram
