Interview | Lost Frequencies

With popular festivals like Tomorrowland and Ultra just around the corner, let’s talk with Belgian artist, Felix De Laet, or more famously known by his Lost Frequencies moniker on the start of his “Lost in America” tour and about new releases coming from him before he headlines these stellar events.  With new singles coming out in March and a new album dropping before summer, he is super stoked to meet his American fans along his tours. 

Although young, Lost Frequencies is no newcomer to the electronic music scene.  Now at 25, he has had a stage at Tomorrowland for four years now and will now be headlining with acts such as Armin van Buuren and Steve Aoki.  His ambition as a producer is to have as much creative agility as possible while creating the studio of his dreams as a space for other artists and contributors.  He wants to continuously work for the “purist” of sounds in EDM. 

Signed in 2014 to Armada music, his ferocious feel-good beats have climbed European charts at multi-platinum streaming levels totaling a billion listens.  Last year, to help those who may be ‘lost and now found,’ Felix created Found Frequencies – a label of his own to work more independently with other artists on the rise. Now with the creative edge and freedom on his own projects to pursue his passion of connecting with other artists and fans, he is determined to build his own new studio and brand. 

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You’re playing a new song for us tonight here at U Street Music Hall? 

Yes, it’s Estelle and Kanye’s remixed track of ‘American Boy.’

Nice choice on wanting to play ‘Old Kanye’ versus ‘New Kanye.’

Yes.  Well, it’s more of Estelle’s song than Kanye’s.  I was really happy when they asked me to do the remix. 

You are pretty active on social feeds and reviewing music you get from artists wanting their content released on your label.  How do you like having this new creative independence since forming Found Frequencies? 

I get a lot of demos; like today, I listened to about 50 different demos. I try to give as much feedback to artists as I can. I can tell them why it sounds good. It also helps me to also keep an open mind. “Can we sign this one or not?  What can we do?  Can I play it in my set? Can we do different stuff with this?”

How big is your Found Frequencies team now? 

Close to me, we have two people. We are starting to create a real identify cover-wise.  All the artwork for the single [is ours] – we just hired a designer. Otherwise, I have another girl working for me doing all the planning and all the releasing and working with all the other artists too — so they know what is coming up.  And then I have song guys from Armada – they are helping us to put everything in line and put some promos [together].

Where do you see this label, Found Frequencies, going five or ten years from now?

I want to be where I can do the distribution myself and have a sub-label to my label.  I want to work with friends doing a lot more techno music.  Hopefully I can have a whole team working together to be able to release stuff.  I want to have a whole stage at festivals and have a whole family at festivals. 

Would you want to launch your own festival?   

Not yet. I have a friend organizing a festival in Brussels for like 2,500 capacity.  We are just putting artists on the label out there.  It’s a fun challenge. 

In hoping to build a studio, what do you want to really accomplish when working and collaborating with other artists? 

I’m really happy to help those guys out and to do something new for them and take it to the next step. 

For the label for example, a lot of guys send tracks, and the idea of the track is really good, but sometimes the mixing is not that great.  So I tell them to send me the track – I know a guy – he’s going to help you mix the final track really good and then we can release it as a really good track.  And then it’s really exciting – it’s a step that a lot of people don’t really know. 

So you’re constantly traveling, making music, and listening to new artists’ demos — when do you sleep? 

I sleep when I’m at home.  I’m actually really focused on when I’m supposed to sleep to get full nights. For example, we arrived yesterday in Washington and I’m counting my hours to get full nights to be able to do all the rest — to be in a good mood. 

It’s not about the business, I want to be able to enjoy it.  If I was here and I was really tired, I [wouldn’t] be enjoying tonight.