Chloe MooreChloe Moore sits down with Irish DJ and producer LAWRENCE, to discusses his genre-fluid sound, standout festival moments, the evolution of Ireland’s electronic music scene, and what’s next as he enters a new chapter in his career.
Hailing from Ratoath, Co. Meath, LAWRENCE has been making serious strides across Ireland’s electronic music circuit, carving out a sound that refuses to sit neatly in one lane. From Electric Picnic and All Together Now to the clubs and afterparties shaping the country’s underground scene, he’s shared lineups with the likes of X-Club, Clouds, Club Angel and Evian Christ.
Rooted in driving techno and trance, but never afraid to veer into breaks, house and more leftfield territory, LAWRENCE brings a restless, genre-fluid approach to both the booth and the studio. With a landmark festival season behind him, a release on Sorted Records under his belt and plenty more on the horizon, LAWRENCE is firmly one to keep an eye on as he enters his next chapter.
How did you first get into DJing, and what was it about the club and electronic music world that pulled you in?
I started getting really into electronic music around the early 2010s Monstercat era. Whilst my late dad seemed to maintain every genre under the sun in his collection of nearly 5,000 CDs, there was very little dance music, aside from a few ’90s trance compilations. He taught me how to pirate music and install it onto a little MP3 player he had given me, accompanied by some HTC earbuds. I used to cherish that MP3 player and smuggled it to primary school to show all my friends, most of whom ridiculed me for my taste in tracks like Skrillex’s “Bangarang” at the time.
As I got into my teens, my taste changed and veered towards grime and hip-hop, which very quickly did a 180 as I rediscovered dance music at house parties with my mates. As I got increasingly back into sounds from artists like BLK with his Fruits EP and Ejeca’s Jalek, I discovered Kaytranada’s Boiler Room, marvelling at the simplicity of it all, and finally decided to buy my first set of DDJ-200s at 17.
I think getting into club spaces was a natural progression of my enjoyment of dance music, combined with my late teen rebellious years. Clubs felt like an escape from the watchful eye of my parents and allowed me to be myself in a room full of strangers, no matter what event it was. Leaving my first Index on the quays, I was handed a flyer for LIFE Festival, which I later attended, where I spent most of my time front and centre at the District 8 tent, an experience that shaped the way I play and produce dance music to this day.
How would you describe your sound to someone hearing you play for the first time?
This has always been a tricky one for me, and the best answer I can give when describing my sound is that it’s undefinable, but not unkempt. In other words, I don’t want to be boxed into a specific sound. Whilst my music mainly centres around driving techno and trance, I believe I’ve crossed into every threshold between my sets and my productions. From proper jackin’ house to breaks and ambient, I pretty much have ticked all the boxes.
That being said, I have a newfound focus on fully refining exactly how I want to represent my sound, as I feel a lot of people register different opinions of what exactly I play. I believe as an artist you should always be developing your craft, and if that means having to uproot previous expectations and sonic reputations, then so be it.
What are you looking for when you’re putting together a set, and how much does the energy of the room influence where you take it?
I mainly focus on who’s on the bill alongside what the club’s sonic reputation is, with the goal of implementing my own LAWRENCE twist. Energy is everything for me, and I love manipulating how a crowd is going to react to different tracks. I feed off a good crowd, and if the energy is right, it makes the set 100 times better from behind the decks. I try not to shy away from big tracks, no matter how tight the energy of a room is. They’re there to be played, and as long as they are played out to complement and enhance the tracks the crowd might not know, nobody should be afraid of using them as part of a balanced diet of selections.
You’ve recently released ‘Nothing To Something’ with Sorted Records. What can you tell us about the track, and what was the creative process behind bringing it together?
Around the time I started working on the track’s initial synths, I had just come off a stint of Discord calls with some super talented guys from Ireland, the UK and Canada (shoutout Behnewrld; those who know, know), all of whom were making absolutely bonkers synth lines for their own productions at the time. I was experimenting with different variations of a synth patch I had messed around with and changed a bunch of parameters on, and that kind of built the track around itself. As you can see, I don’t really produce from my head; my mind doesn’t necessarily work that way too often. I like to try a bunch of things until I make something I love and go from there.
It sat for a while in a demo pack alongside some more of my productions and was soon picked up by an A&R from Nervous Records, the parent label of Sorted. It was super cool to get some music out on a legendary label of its calibre, and I’m very excited for the next few!
What are some artists, labels or scenes that you think deserve more attention right now?
Local artists in Ireland are about to have it big time, even if it wasn’t big enough already. Artists like Kule, with an unbreakable talent and super-clean back catalogue, and the undeniable sound of Kjinn, Charmur and Behne all bring forward super-big prospects for the future of the scene in their own respects and should be getting way more attention right now. I feel privileged to even just build up a repertoire of music around the same time as these guys.
External to producers, I’m absolutely loving the newer wave of trance music coming from those affiliated with TranceParty over in the UK. It feels so fresh compared to a lot of music coming out today, and I feel a huge rush of quality music is about to come ashore with the edgier and heavier techno kick drums, massive supersaws and pads that the genre entails.
On the subject of parties, big shoutout to the Equinox guys who are kicking off their run of Dublin shows this year. These guys are super passionate about keeping the dance floor alive and are definitely going to be a mainstay in Dublin for the long run!
How do you think the Irish electronic music scene has changed in recent years, and where do you see yourself within it?
From a pure dance floor perspective, compared to when I first started clubbing, the current crowds are super adept at hearing a broad range of genres. Initially, it always felt that the artists could rarely stray away from their assumed genre without facing massive ridicule from punters. I feel nowadays DJs can play a much broader range of genres and almost always receive a warm appraisal.
For myself, I see myself as someone who likes to play into that aspect and not stick myself into one range for a set. If I feel like the crowd needs something different, I won’t be afraid to stick on a good breaks tune to switch up the flow of the dance!
You’ve had so many exciting gigs, from playing with Vuncle to Outset Festival. What’s been your most memorable gig to date?
The last few shows have been an absolute blast, and it’s hard to pick one that comes up as the most memorable. I’d say there’s a big balance between this year’s Index appearance supporting X-Club and my sets at EP this past August.
The call-up for my second Index in support of my all-time heroes was a major moment for me. I had caught these guys probably 15 different times at sets across Europe and had always enjoyed every moment of them. The crowd was on point from the get-go, too, and it seemed to fill up so fast for a Thursday night.
This year’s Electric Picnic was my first at the festival (this was also my first festival season as a performer, now that I think about it) and was just about everything I wanted it to be. I got to close out the White Claw stage in the main arena on Friday, with it rammed full of people for the full two and a half hours! I also got to play the legendary Rave in the Woods, a rite of passage for many artists in this scene and somewhere I had always dreamed of playing, and I was delighted to get it done back-to-back with Kule!
You recently made your All Together Now debut on the Red Bull x Izakaya stage. What was the experience like, and how did it feel to play at such a big festival for the first time?
ATN was absolutely mental and definitely a very special place to be, being just as magic as everyone says it is. To get the call-up to play under the prestigious banner of Izakaya was amazing, and the rush of adrenaline from the pressure was like no other. To be handed over the reins from Sally C was a super-cool experience, and she had the stage absolutely rammed out. Whilst I have finally developed the ability to keep my nerves in check pre-show, I did get a bit of a shock looking at just how many people were there.
From the get-go, however, I felt really well accepted by the crowd, and, to my surprise, it just kept filling up more and more. I always wanted to play a sunset set at an open-air festival stage, and with the stage being so rammed, I was too focused on the job at hand to even realise I had completely gone from daylight to the pitch black of night, with no sign of the crowd fading as Underworld started their set on the main stage. I’m distraught at the thought that I never got an audio recording of the set, but I suppose that’s what next year can be for!
What’s coming up for you over the next while, and what are you hoping to explore with your music?
I’m super excited for the months ahead, as I feel like I’m finally moving towards defining my sound in the next slew of releases. Additionally, I have some collabs to get out with some friends, so stay tuned for that. On the show-wise side of things, I’ve got some ANLs coming up in Dublin, and I’m on the push now to start getting some shows internationally!
