We attended Tomorrowland Belgium for the third time in a row as media-press, sharing the highlights of the best dance/electronic festival in the world.
During Weekend 1 of this 20th anniversary edition, we had the opportunity to interview Lucca Van Damme, 15 y.o. producer and dj from the Netherlands who came out of the Tomorrowland Academy, and is now at his second year in a row playing at the festival, this time at House Of Fortune by JBL for JBL Belgium.
Here’s our interview!
Stefano: Hi everyone, we are here for youBEAT at Tomorrowland, with Luca van Damme.
So, let’s start with the first question. You are just 15 and it’s the second time you’re playing at Tomorrowland in a row, right?
Lucca Van Damme: Yes, the second time. It’s very special that I can be here just at fifteen. But yeah, I’m very happy. A little bit stressed, but I think it’s normal. And yeah, I will enjoy it a lot.
Stefano: You are coming straight out of the Tomorrowland Academy. How helpful was the Academy for your career and for your passion?
Lucca Van Damme: I think it’s the best Academy I can wish for because they help me with everything. If I have a question or something is difficult, I can ask it to them and they help me a lot with music production and all that things.
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Stefano: So you would recommend it to anyone younger? And is it for everyone? I mean, not only for younger people, but even for the most experienced ones that want to learn something new?
Lucca Van Damme: Yes, I think it is because also people 20, 30, 40, even older can do bootcamps there, can attend lessons in Antwerp or anywhere else remotely. It’s very nice, and yeah, I would recommend it to them.
Stefano: So, how did you approach this DJ world, and how did your family support you? I know that your your dad is a really famous pastry chef and cook, and he is also here at Tomorrowland, right?
Lucca Van Damme: Yes, he’s making waffles here, very delicious, in the festival, and he also does cooking at the restaurant here
Stefano: Nice! And did they support you in your choice?
Lucca Van Damme: Yeah, very much, yeah, my dad when he was younger, at 13 he started as a DJ as well. And when I was born he gave me a dj mixer. When I was 6 I started playing the piano and I still can play it, it’s very nice and it has been very helpful for my music production.
And then when I saw my dad hit the DJ mixer, I immediately started playing with it and yeah, then the love for DJing came out.
Stefano: What’s your favorite music genre right now?
Lucca Van Damme: Um, yeah, it’s a little bit hard, but I like mainstage EDM kind of a bit. It’s very nice, even the one that’s a little bit harder, like the kick of Maddix, and also Hardwell.
Stefano: Yeah, I saw they are collaborating together lately
LVD: Yeah.
Stefano: So, is there any famous DJ you are looking up to and that you want to follow the footprints of?
Lucca Van Damme: I think Hardwell, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike and Armin Van Buuren are the DJs that now play a little bit the same style, hard, but everybody recognise instantly what they do from the music they play. And I think that’s very important because people are always dancing when they play their tracks. So yeah, I think one of those three.
Stefano: How do you see the future of EDM music with the all the new technologies like AI? How would it be helpful for artists like you in the next future, and for the EDM genre as a whole?
Lucca Van Damme: Yeah, especially AI, it’s insane what they can do it with it. But of course that also helps with, what I do: I post every Monday a mashup and then I have to extract the vocal and so I use AI to do it, and that’s very helpful for my work
Stefano: How do you approach your productions and your mixing? You have like a workflow or you just go with your ideas?
Lucca Van Damme: I just go to the studio every day, mostly because I don’t have that much gigs because I’m young and only 15, I have to take care of things that are normal at my age. Every day after school, I go to my studio and yeah, it’s very nice, sometimes I’m just thinking of an idea and I make it on the go in one session, while sometimes I’m just “okay, now I have to finish that song I started” because otherwise, yeah, you’ll never finish a song…and I think that’s the difficulty of music. You have to manage your projects like this, thinking “From now on I have to do that, and that, otherwise you’re not going to finish it”
Stefano: Where do you see yourself in 10 years? As a 25 years old Lucca van Damme, where will you be?
Lucca Van Damme: Yeah, I hope famous, a little bit, and that everybody knows my songs. That is a dream. But I especially want to produce my songs and then I want to perform them live. I’m also going to play a song of mine and a lot of mashups and remixes of mine here at Tomorrowland.
So yeah, that’s very stressful for me also, but I love to show my music to people and to see their reaction. So I think in 10 years I want to be a DJ who has famous songs and that everybody can sing along them. And then to play at Tomorrowland and everyone will come.
Stefano: One last question. How do you manage the stress in the last years right after you came out of the academy and started playing in such big stages, like last year at Tomorrowland as well? Do you feel any stress or any burden about it?
Lucca Van Damme: Yeah, of course I’m stressed, but it’s healthy stress. I don’t know if that’s English, but in Dutch we say it. When it comes at playing at Tomorrowland, I think every DJ has a little bit of stress when he comes here, so I think it’s normal, but I have to handle it a bit.
Stefano: Thank you very much Lucca, and thanks for being here with us. Good luck for your set later and future!
Lucca Van Damme: Thank you.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C9-nV3DN56m/?igsh=MTl5anMxbmluem5teA==
Thanks to Lucca Van Damme for the availability!
