New Music
Introducing
Australian producer Lucianblomkamp takes us inside his new album ‘Where in The World Is Lucianblomkamp?’
We pick the hottest new acts so you can tell your friends you heard them first. Meet Australian producer Lucianblomkamp on his new album 'Where In The World Is Lucianblomkamp?'
Genre isn’t a boundary that Lucianblomkamp plays within – and on his latest album Where In The World Is Lucianblomkamp? his mastery of an ever-expanding sonic palette proves, not only why he is one of the country’s most in-demand producers, but also why everyone should be paying attention.
While it’s clear that Lucianblomkamp is the mastermind behind this collection of songs, it is the room he gives the artists he works with that makes each track feel as strong on its own as it does as part of the overall album.
Across Where In The World Is Lucianblomkamp? – which has been described as a “love letter to the Australian music ecosystem and its world class artistry” – he’s teaming up with some of Australia’s most unique and forward-thinking artists including Darcy Baylis, A.Girl., Raj Mahal, Stevan, Ninajirachi, cookii, Ijale, Madam3empress, and more.
Each track, while guided by Lucianblomkamp’s sonic mastery, is injected with the artistic flair and creativity of his collaborators, ensuring this album is not only an exciting and expansive listen, but also an ode to the beauty and limitless nature of musical collaboration.
Most of all, Where In The World Is Lucianblomkamp? is a celebration of Lucianblomkamp’s multi-faceted musical interests and inspirations, as well as his skills as a producer and musician – proving exactly why he is so in demand right now.
No matter the genre – from dancefloor bangers to dark, sultry R&B, and glitchy hip hop to left-field, angsty hyper-pop, Where In The World Is Lucianblomkamp? proves that there isn’t a genre or soundscape that Lucianblomkamp can’t master.
While he’s released numerous projects of his own – including under his Lucianblomkamp moniker as well as one half of Melbourne hyperpop duo cookii and alongside Seekae’s John Hassell as Brutalist – Lucian has spent the last couple of years focussing on his behind the scenes work, writing and producing for some of music’s most exciting artists including grammy-winning 6LACK (whose recurring relationship led to tracks with the likes of Banks, T-Pain and Khalid), and Australian favourites like Mallrat, Miiesha, Ashwarya, Sycco, Triple One, Stevan, Nick Ward, and Kult Kyss.
Lucian’s career has been born out of his commitment to a clear creative vision. From his breakout single ‘Help Me Out’, whose Australian community radio support led to Lucian winning the Iceland Airwaves competition and playing one of his first shows outside of Australia, to his relationship with hip-hop producer Singawd that led to his ongoing collaborations with 6LACK, once he started there was no slowing him down.
From crafting his own dark electronica to expanding his sound in the infinite directions of the artists he has worked with, if Lucian hasn’t directly been part of a track, his influence might have, in some way, inspired it.
Now it is his turn to stand front and centre.
To celebrate the release of his new album Where In The World Is Lucianblomkamp?, we sat down with Lucianblomkamp to get to know him better.
Check out Where In The World Is Lucianblomkamp? by Lucianblomkamp:
The Lucianblomkamp Story:
From the beginning
Lucianblomkamp: “I started making indie stuff with Rosey back in high school. Basically just wanting to put drums over acoustic guitars got me into producing. Once I’d opened that can of worms I wanted to learn as much as I could about production.
“This eventually led to predominantly making electronic music and starting the LUCIANBLOMKAMP project. Many years later I was sampled by Singawd on a 6LACK track. We started working together and in turn sparked my career pivoting towards production for other artists. That’s basically where we’re at today.”
What you’ll hear
“My sound has changed a lot in recent years, mostly because in the past I had a preconceived idea of what the project was meant to sound like. It was (at least trying to be) moody electronic music with a bit of a singer-songwriter spin. Sure, it deviated from that a bit but that was the general gist.
“Nowadays I’m not really sure. It’s funny, because I don’t think any of my new music is particularly genre-bending, it’s only hard to explain what I do seeing as I jump around a lot from song to song.
“I think when you spend a lot of time producing for other people you learn to become a chameleon to at least some extent. Unless you’re a big shot and people are coming to you for something really specific, you kind of have to be able to work that way. So when I spend a notable amount of time working on a project in a particular style, I find it hard to let it go completely. Nowadays, I think my sound is more of a representation of all the people I’ve worked with and learnt from than anything else. It’s been really freeing though. Having to jump around a lot of different styles is an enormous part of what keeps making music feel fresh and fun to me.”
Inside the Where In The World Is Lucianblomkamp? creative process
“[The creative process was] weird and convoluted. Back in 2019 I thought I was done with the LUCIANBLOMKAMP project, and for most of 2020 and 2021 that was still the case. I never found myself making the ‘moody electronic’ music I’d made the project be about, and was also just over the emotional tolls that come with putting your music out into the world.
“Still, I had the intention of putting out an anonymous album that was basically just made to mosh to. It was just for fun. I only had the intention of putting it on Soundcloud and not making socials for it or anything. While this project never ended up happening, some of those songs can be heard on the current album, those being ‘Lline’ with Darcy Baylis, ‘Huh? Yeah!’ with Hearteyes, and ‘Rust’ with Cookii (AKA Rosey & I).
“While I was slowly working on this personal project, I was spending most of my time producing for other people. Because of this, between 2019-2021 I accumulated a lot of ideas from sessions. It doesn’t sound particularly cool to say that this album consists of other people’s leftovers, but that’s sort of what it is. But hey, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and these songs were my treasures.
“Still, my manager was the one who encouraged me to release these songs as myself again. In the end I’m glad he did because despite how much of a stylistic mix-match this album is, I think it’s a far better representation of who I am as an artist/producer than anything I’d done before. Once we’d decided that the album was going to be a thing, I also made a few more songs specifically to flesh it out a bit. There was a bunch of other stuff on that non-existent anonymous album, some of which I eventually gave away, like ‘Blood Rave’ which later became a Triple One track, and an instrumental track I had called ‘Tokyo’ which later became ‘To The Night’ by ASHWARYA and Vic Mensa.
“[There aren’t any favourite memories] in particular. Seeing as the album was made in so many different places with so many different people, I love that most songs have a kind of collage of memories attached to them.
“A track like ‘North Haarvard’ is a good example of this. The keys that come in at the switch up were from a session I had with Singawd the first time I went to LA back in 2018. The idea’s project name was ‘Pop Chum’. Seeing as nothing happened with that idea I fleshed it out into a bigger track for Jamie (ZK King) who I was going to do an EP with at the time (late 2018). That never ended up happening though, and the idea just sat on a hard drive. Fast forward another year and I’m making a totally different beat in an airbnb with my manager on another writing trip. North Harvard was the street we were staying on. The idea was kind of rough but I liked it enough to work on it a bit more in a session with Boler Mani back in Melbourne.
“While now the beat had potential, I didn’t know where it should go after the first verse. Fast forward another year and I really wanted to work on something with Raj Mahal. I sent him a couple ideas and he ended up writing to a looped version of the ‘North Haarvard’ beat. I loved what he’d done, but again it didn’t seem to go anywhere. In a mad attempt to make it work I ended up smooshing ‘North Harvard’ and ‘Pop Chum’ together and voila! I also kept a verse from Jamie’s version as the outro as a little nod to the track’s history. But yeah, a lot of the tracks have a lot of memories attached to them like this.”
The Where In The World Is Lucianblomkamp? short film
“The idea was born out of wanting to visually convey the hodge-podge nature of the album and didn’t think music videos for individual songs would be able to do that. We asked Jordan [‘Xinger Xanger’ Kirk] if he’d be down to work on this idea and pitched a film too absurd and fun to put down. He absolutely killed it and am so grateful for all the featuring artists who were able to come back and make it a reality.”
Tell us the story
“There’s no [central] point. It’s all for fun. The title of the album mostly eludes to the fact that I’m generally quite hard to get ahold of. I’m understandably very frustrating to work with sometimes as there’s something about communicating with people online that often spooks me out. A digital social anxiety or something.”
Audience takeaway
“[I hope listeners take away from this record] that if given the appropriate budget, I have the chops to produce for your aspiring music career! Hit me up lol.”
For the love of music
“This is all going to sound so painfully cliche and lame, but just the chance to express myself. I’ve always felt to be pretty terrible with words. Music gives me a chance to get out who I feel I am without having to battle against words or anything like that. I love how absolutely intangible it is as a form of expression. There are no rights or wrongs and if you follow your gut, emotions can be expressed in the most surprising ways. Happiness can be expressed through something that sounds really angry. Sadness can be expressed through something that sounds really fun. So on and so forth.”
Kicking goals
“[My biggest achievement to date is] being able to work as a producer full time as long as I have. It’s been just over four years. I’ve been so extremely lucky to have had the support I’ve gotten over the years. I’m so chuffed to be able to live off my dream career for any amount of time. We’ll see how much longer I can keep it up. Being able to say I’m technically grammy nominated is a fun flex too though lol.”
The year ahead
“Not sure. Nothing’s planned [for the year ahead]. Maybe I’ll do another one of these albums, maybe I’ll never release anything again. Time will tell.”
Essential Listening
Lucianblomkamp – Back Up (with A.Girl.)
“I can’t remember what the time constraints were, but I remember the session we had needed to be really short. It was only two hours, and one of those rare sessions where everything just fell into place so organically. Sure I messed with the beat after the fact just to waste my own time but I didn’t really need to. Each time we’ve seen each other since, we’ve mentioned how hectic it was that we were even able to do that from scratch.”
Lucianblomkamp – Pray4u (with Ninajirachi.)
“This track was actually two pre-existing ideas that were merged together. I had sent a folder of ideas to Nina and there was one called ‘Defqon’ and one called ‘Children Pt. 2’. She decided to merge the two beats together to make the two different drops for the track.”
Lucianblomkamp – Rust (with cookii.)
“This is the only track on the album I sing on. Might very well be the last time I sing too.”
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