Bakermat kicked off his US tour during Miami Music Week where we sat down with the 24-year-old melodic house producer and talked ‘20s jazz, festival flavor, and stand-up comedy aspirations.
Before headlining European charts in 2012, Bakermat, aka Lodewijk Fluttert, was in pursuit of a degree in psychology when he decided to put the last semester on hold for the arts.
“I was studying psychology in Utrecht for three years and basically every week was the same. I was studying, then go to a bar with friends…go back to studying and it was all the same for three years,” adding that, “I was at the point of finishing and I thought like alright, is this all of it, is this supposed to be a time when I find out all different sides of me, like what can I do? So I took the last semester off and didn’t do it and canceled all my courses and started doing stand-up comedy, making films, I bought a camera, and I bought music software to make music.”
“The stand-up comedy went really well…I entered a competition and got to the final but I lost, the photography went really bad, the film went really bad, music went really good, because the song I made, the one song, my first song, went viral in Paris and Amsterdam. I got agencies and stuff and I made a second record and that went to number one all over Europe – so it was totally random, still haven’t finished college, on pause for like 4 years already.”
More than three years after the release, melodic house is continuing to draw a wider audience outside of Europe, happily contrasting ‘EDM’ while adding festival flavor.
“First it was just Progressive, Big Room, EDM stuff; it was just one genre. It was all that and dubstep of course – but it was very aggressive and you’ve got this complete opposite to take over, like tropical house, so I think it’s good, I think it’s always good when stuff diversifies, it’s always a good sign.”
“Like in Europe it is completely diversified already, like you have every kind of genre, every kind of style is there already and that’s really nice – like when you go to the festival you can check out that or check out that, me personally I really don’t do a genre like, ‘I like rock and that’s it’, I like all kinds of stuff like all kinds of artists so I like it if I’m at a festival I can go to wherever I want like, ‘Ah I can check out some dubstep there or some hip-hop or house or hip-house as well’, so it’s a step in the right direction I think.”
Hailing from the Netherlands, some early influences came from jazz, blues, and soul; resonating in style ever since the breakthrough release of ‘Zomer’ in 2012.
“Coleman Hawkins was the biggest for me, I love Miles Davis and all the legends and stuff like that, I actually have a huge record collection of vinyl records that I started collecting when I was 16 that has always had a great influence, but also classical music and soul music, James Brown, stuff like that.”
“For starters, I don’t like the super complex intellectual jazz, I hate it, I don’t like it, I actually love the old ‘20s very simple jazz, like just the basics.” “I think jazz is a bass, piano, and a brass instrument, that’s it, that’s all you need, and some drums to get the tempo going. I don’t like the super weird stuff but I like the simple comforting melodies with a lot of emotion like the way they play and all that kind of stuff.”
After consecutive stellar releases, he landed a breakthrough gig in 2014 as the first electronic artist to play in Europe’s most famous music hall at Olympia Bruno Coquatrix.
“The most special moment for me was the Olympia, it’s the most famous venue in Europe…they don’t let electronic acts do their thing there but I got it, and as the first electronic artist DJ I was able to pull a show there and it completely sold out… I brought my parents and stuff – it was amazing, most special night of my life.”
Alongside the US tour to kick off the 2016 circuit, you can expect more traveling, the release of a ‘happy summer record’, and original visuals in the works.
“I just want to make a lot of music and I like my life now. I’m still exploring at the moment and I’m still frustrated about the photography thing and I want to nail that, so I took a course, and in the end I want to do everything. I started with designing my own visuals for the show, like the whole package, I would love to do that.”
Catch the rest of the US tour:
April 7th – The Mid, Chicago, IL
April 8th – Secret Warehouse, Brooklyn, NY
April 9th – The Works, Detroit, MI
April 10th – Sky, Salt Lake City, UT
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