[INTERVIEW] Luude Discusses His New Choomba Project & Their Brand New EP

Australian trap heavyweight Luude has been tearing up the bass music scene down under for the past year. He’s also been working on a new house focused side project with his cousin Tim, better known to their fans as Methy Steve. We spoke to Luude about the new project and what to expect from it:

RTT: What’s the overall project idea and where it came from?

Luude: The idea came about on a wild night in Amsterdam late last year – Tim and I were both going to heaps of parties around the city and would get back to the hotel and keep partying and having a good time into the morning. On one of the nights we wound up opening the laptop and smashing out a bunch of ideas that became the foundation of the Choomba sound and idea was born.

House is one of the oldest genres of modern electronic music – who are some of your house idols, both past and present?

When we’re chilling out I love some of the classic house like Frankie Knuckles, Moodyman, Theo Parish and newer guys like Folamour. When we’re turning it on and giving it a nudge, guys like Rebuke, Martin Ikin, Eli Brown and Mason Maynard are doing the business and of course legends like Green Velvet, Pat Topping and Solardo always get a run.

What’s it like starting a new project as an established producer vs starting one from scratch?

When I started Luude project I was just chucking up whatever on soundcloud and didn’t really care (which is still sick) and only in the last year have I found some focus with the direction for that project. With Choomba we immediately knew exactly what we wanted to achieve and there’s definitely a focused sound and direction.

As someone who’s done the circuit of Australian clubs, what do you think it will be like playing the same rooms as a house act?

It’s going to be hell fun, can’t wait to go in and switch it up

What can we expect at a Choomba show?

Reeeal fun times, heaps of energy, stupid shit. Maybe a couple of stage dives.

Tell us about the idea to throw a house party for free for a lucky fan. Does this have to do with the NSW gov’t imposing unlivable restrictions on clubs?

Nah, we just thought if people where actually going to go out of their way to pre-order the EP that we should give something back, we’re both useless cunts with nothing to give so throwing a party seemed like the only logical reward on the competition.

What does tim bring to the project? Will he have a hand in the production? Creative direction? or will he be chief party starter and mc?

Hahaha, Tim does fuck all. Nah, he’s definitely all over the creative direction and brings the party better than anyone I know. He’s also been super involved in the production and direction for the sound.

The ep cover art looks straight out of a 90s skate magazine – was that on purpose? What does the 90s have to do with this project?

Yeah that’s exactly the vibe we wanted to go for. That carefree, real fun vibe that comes across from those old skate movies feels pretty similar to how we feel about this project, so when we matched it up with the music it really just seemed to make sense and we hope people get that feeling. Good summer-party fun.

Where do you draw your influences from for this ep and the project as a whole?

There isn’t really a specific influence. I think a lot of the music and parties we are loving from Europe meets halfway with our Australian upbringing and the result is something that’s got a little bit of both in it.

After this ep and the tour, what’s the next move? What’s a goal for the project that you hope to nail by the end of the year?

We’ve got more music to finish and just want to keep putting out fun tunes and playing shows. It would be cool to be playing as Choomba overseas by the end of the year!