Exclusive Interview: Lost Frequencies on his new album,Tomorrowland,Skrillex and Flume

Felix De Laet better known by his stage name Lost Frequencies is a young artist whose story goes far beyond the ordinary. At the age of only 22, the charming young Belgian has reached a level of sophistication in his productions far more advanced than many of his veteran peers. After the immense success of multi-platinum hits ‘Are You With Me’, ‘Reality’ and ‘Beautiful Life’ Felix’s music career has gone from strength to strength. The talented producer has had multiple number ones worldwide, embarked on world tours behind the decks of the biggest festivals and is now looking forward to releasing his highly anticipated new album ‘Less is More’. In spite of his boundless success, the 22 year old is incredibly humble when talking about his achievements in his young career.

We Rave You had the exclusive opportunity to check out Lost Frequencies at the spectacular open-air club Ushuaïa Ibiza where he was hosted by Oliver Heldens for his ‘BLUE‘ residency. Felix was delighted to join his colleagues on the infamous Ushuaïa stage:

“I played here many times before but the ‘BLUE’ party was a really cool party because the whole crowd is there for chilled vibes. I know people here at Ushuaïa like to party and every time I come here I am really happy. It’s nice to see all the artists going around and you can talk to them. I love to come here.”

The young hit maker’s releases are not frequent but are always of a consistent quality evidenced by the massive success of every track. Felix explains:

“I don’t try to release something unless I really love it. My next release is a remix for Major Lazer’s ‘Cold Water’. I played it for the last 3 weeks in my DJ sets to tease people. After that I release a new single and then it’s the album in October. A lot of music. In terms of my album I wasn’t thinking about ADE – I wanted to release it after the summer. All of my tracks – It’s really a lot of sing-along music. I made a lot of remixes of my own tracks so I played the remix in some stuff so some people may recognize it.”

The Belgian connection was strong in the case of Felix’s association with power festival Tomorrowland and Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike.

“My manager is the same manager as the one for Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike. He approached me as I was a rising Belgian guy and they have a strong Belgian family group and are really supportive. Tomorrowland was really supportive of my whole Lost Frequencies project and I had my own stage this year. I was really thankful. It gives me a lot of credit and puts my name in the highlight so I’m really thankful to Tomorrowland and my manager for that.”

At such a young age the Belgian has achieved phenomenal success and it’s hard to believe that he only started producing music a few years ago.

“I started producing 5 to 6 years ago because I was playing piano and listening to a lot of electronic music. And when I got my computer I immediately started to make electronic music because that’s what I’ve been listening to. My music style has evolved. I was first making the Avicii/Afrojack style of 6 years ago before they were as huge as they are now. It was more Dutch vibe. I really liked the Dutch house which is a little more bass focused and a little deep. It was 128 (bpm). Then at some point I went down because I got into a more chilled vibe. Then I started to make remixes of old tracks and the Lost Frequencies project was born. I followed it with the remix of ‘Are You With Me?’ and the bootleg and the single and all that. It went really fast.”

To the delight of many of his fans, we can look forward to a new album from the young hit-maker. Felix gave us an insight of what we can expect:

“I didn’t work with a lot of famous people. I worked with a lot of really cool unknown guys that have an amazing voice and amazing ideas. I have one guy that has 3 tracks on the album and another that has 2 tracks. When I have a vibe with someone I really like I just keep it on and we work on stuff together. The album has a kind of intimate vibe because it’s not about the big names –  it’s about the music. It’s going to be really cool to discover the whole story and music. I did a little book with all the lyrics because it’s important to me to put all the lyrics down so I’m really excited about everything about that.”

With such a recognizable and unique sound of his own, Felix’s inspirations for producing music were quite surprising:

“I was really a fan of Avicii and Afrojack when they were younger and growing. They were fresh and really recognizable. Skrillex is a really good producer. When you hear a Skrillex track you know it’s a Skrillex track. I also love Flume’s productions because they are really complex. It’s not easy to make. You see there are a lot of people trying to make the same stuff and the same vibe but it’s just not the same. Good luck trying to make something that sounds like Flume. I think he shows that you can be what you want and accomplish something that way. That’s definitely something I’m looking up to.”

Aside from the release of his new album, the next big event on the cards for Lost Frequencies is the ‘Lost Frequencies and Friends’ event at this year’s Amsterdam Dance Event. Felix explains:

“The event is ‘Lost Frequencies and Friends’ with Armada. We have some great artists like Belgium’s The Magician. Also Throttle and Calvo and others from Armada so all those guys are coming over for the night which will be really cool. The space that I have at ADE is Melkweg which is a really cool place. I’m looking forward to it. I love ADE. The vibe there is just crazy – I love it.”

Although he has seemingly done it all at his young age, Lost Frequencies is far from finished conquering the electronic music world. The young hit-maker has some big plans in store:

“I hope I will have the time to build a live show. This is something I would really like to do. On my album I have a lot of musical stuff that is like ‘Are You With me’ and ‘Reality’ where you can’t go crazy on it but you can enjoy it so I would like to do a kind of live show and a live performance with singers and live instruments but I’m working on that. It’s a long way.”

If any of his previous productions and projects are to go by, we are in for so much more from the young Belgian. His humble nature, charismatic personality and immense talent will catapult this young prodigy to even greater heights and we can’t wait to see what the future has in store for Lost Frequencies.

Ushuaïa Ibiza Photographs: Roberto Castaño