The Mix 091: Luca Eck

There are, on occasion, pivotal moments in dance music where you feel like you could be looking into the future. Those who bore witness to the birth of the transformative sound of 3-step in South Africa’s townships just a few years ago will understand this, as well as those who foresaw trends when feeling the impact of rising BPMs and the UK’s speed garage renaissance in the early 2020s.

For DJ and producer Luca Eck, the story is much the same. Growing up in Berlin, a city traditionally dominated by hard techno and industrial styles, Luca remembers the moment when crowds’ heads turned toward a new, vocal-led style of techno that raised the tempo and took a more jovial approach to these dark sounds.

“When my track ‘Ghost Town’ came out, it was around the same time that Kobosil’s ‘Rigid’ with Rosa Anschütz also dropped – there was a big moment where these pop songs and really harsh industrial techno overlapped,” they remember. “The contrast was something that always resonated with me, and I could really feel it when I was playing these tracks.”

Inspired by their parents’ Eurodance CDs, Luca began performing shows at the age of just 15, mostly friends’ fundraiser events for Antifa organisations at first, later paid gigs at prestigious venues like Amsterdam’s De School. “Everybody was on the Adam Bayer Drumcode tip back then, 125 to 128 BPM. I started playing harder and faster sounds, which I think people were really drawn to.”

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After finding more confidence to produce music that fused both pop and techno influences, Luca’s career in music accelerated, leading them to collaborate with artists such as PC Music affiliate Namasenda, perreo princess SixSex, and pop seductress Miss Bashful across a number of releases in recent years. It even encouraged them to double down on their queer expression, particularly after releasing their 2025 EP ‘FLESH’, which they call their “most vulnerable moment” yet and a defining record that showcases where they are musically right now.

We chatted to Luca Eck about the rising sound of sexy techno, launching a community-driven dance music app that hopes to support both promoters and clubbers, and how their image becoming a meme in right-wing circles was the catalyst for new-found self-acceptance. They also deliver a pacey mix inspired by electroclash – check it out below.

Your music sits on the cusp between experimental pop and hard dance music, but you also incorporate sounds like perreo and classical. What inspired you to combine such a broad range of styles when producing?

I think for me, fundamentally, I have a multitude of influences. Being non-binary has really shaped my understanding of music, because I was always told by people to be into one thing or the other. When I started making music, I was producing pop but DJing techno, and everybody was like, ‘You should also produce techno’. I did that for a while, but I felt like I was always suppressing this part of me musically. I thought, why should I do something just because people tell me I need to focus on one thing? I wanted to embrace all parts of me equally, and make music that feels right. I think to stop compromising and start doing what feels right and encompass all of these different directions that I'm interested in was what enabled me to explore this multi-genre sound now.

Your latest EP, ‘FLESH’, came out in November, which was in part an exploration into queer identity. How did this record come about, and what was the plan for it?

‘FLESH’ was a full circle moment for me. After years of trying out different things and different facets of my style, this was the moment where I was like, ‘Okay, I'm really gonna make the EP that defines the Luca Eck sound for me’. I looked back at all of the releases I've put out over the last five years, and tried to see what about each of those releases still felt like me in essence. I then threw all of these into one pot, and it felt like who I really am at my core. It's definitely the most pop EP that I've made to date, and I think that's also just the kind of music I enjoy making the most, but it's also the most collaborative EP I’ve made. Every single song came out of collaboration, and mostly came from in-person sessions with artists that are really inspiring to me, like Estratosfera and DETO BLACK, and I wanted to try and find a fusion with those artists where we could meet in the middle of our styles to make something that brings our universes together within the context of the EP. 

Last year, I also reached this moment of acceptance within myself for my identity, both musically and personally, after what was a really rough period where I started, for the first time, to feel the repercussions of being a queer person in the public eye. This image of me became a meme, which would have been funny by itself, but it went around in these right-wing incel Reddit forums and started spreading like wildfire on Instagram, to the degree that I started receiving death threats from people in my DMs and comment sections. It was such a battle to try and get it taken down, because when I was soft in my tone speaking to Instagram, they just told me to wait, and when I started being harsher in my tone, they just referred me to speak to their legal team via post. That was a really frustrating experience, seeing how little is done to deal with this violence online. In the end, it was a difficult process, but it also hardened me up and to distract me emotionally from that, I went all out in not only wearing makeup in one post, but wearing makeup and extensions in every post online. I think the EP was very much a representation of me going that next step, and saying: ‘Hey, this is me in the flesh. I'm stripping naked and really exposing who I am’. It's definitely been the most vulnerable moment for me, and it was a risk both personally and musically, but I'm really happy with the reception of it. It felt very freeing, and really defined who I am musically again.

I'm so sorry that happened to you. It's amazing that you turned it into such a positive, though...

Yeah! I never publicly spoke about it on my account because, luckily, a lot of it happened in such far-removed circles from my bubble that not many people in my world came in contact with it. I've always thought about addressing it at some point, though I'd rather not think about it anymore.

You said this release was really important to you on a “personal level” and helped you to find your voice again after “years of trying to adhere to various genres and labels”. Can you expand on that?

I was very clear with my label telling them to just transfer me the marketing budget to do it myself, because in the past, I’ve had experiences of working with labels that haven’t really understood what I wanted to achieve visually and musically, and also having a queer view on things. So with this record, I hired my own project manager externally who I knew understood my vision better, and I think it worked really well for me. I didn't have to compromise on any of those aspects, when in the past I’ve been forced to do some kind of TikTok marketing strategy. I was just doing my own thing and coming to a place where I also felt happy and fulfilled again by releasing music. Before that, I often emotionally struggled with releasing music because it felt so anti-climactic, and I've often felt like that by the time a song comes out, I’ve already moved on elsewhere. This release feels more representative of me and my project in its entirety, and I think that enabled me to have fun with not only making music, but also releasing music again.

You’ve spoken a lot about how you like to collaborate with other artists when you work on music in the past. Why do you prefer to work collectively? Is it something in the nature of your sound and how you like to enlist vocalists?

Yeah, I love music with vocals because it opens up another channel of communication in music that's very direct, and that many people can relate to. I've always had some form of vocals in my music – at first it was short samples, but they slowly evolved into full songs. When my track ‘Ghost Town’ came out, around the same time Kobosil’s ‘Rigid’ with Rosa Anschütz came out, there was a big moment where these pop songs and really harsh industrial techno overlapped. The contrast was something that always resonated with me, and I could also really feel it when I was playing these tracks. It unlocked a whole new level of emotional connection with crowds when there were vocals in those club tracks, because I think it's just a lot more accessible when you can hear lyrics and have these emotional melodies in there. That's why it's always been important for me to include vocals in songs, and has continued to this day. Working with other people can also really help me not get stuck in my own head – you're bouncing off of each other's energy in the track. I like to prepare by making a one minute sketch of a track, and then start working with a vocalist on it – it’s the final bit of inspiration to really finish a track.

I’ve been looking at the rise of sexy dance music – especially that blend of hard techno and trance with really sultry, sensual lyrics over the top, which is similar to what you’re doing. Have you noticed a rise in that fusion of sounds recently?

Absolutely. Especially with artists like Miss Bashful and SixSex, they’ve really taken that to an almost mainstream level in some way, and I think it’s only continuing to grow. It sort of coincided with these underground artists getting more and more mainstream – you have pop artists taking inspiration from them, like Charli xcx and COBRAH and Slayyyter. They’re becoming little pop stars of their own, and then the pop stars are taking inspiration from them – there’s a really exciting era coming for sexy, hard dance music in the next year, I think.

Why do you think people are drawn to sexy dance music? Do you think we’re finally feeling more free and expressive and open about sexuality?

Definitely. I think people are a bit tired of dark dance music. We have such dark times politically and as a society, that I think we need some silly escape from that where we can be hedonistic and just have fun and be central in the club. I think it speaks to a lot of people, and it also feels empowering.

You’re embarking on a co-headline tour with Miss Bashful in March - how did you decide to collab on that?

I'm super excited! It's my first time playing in the US. We also have some collaborations coming out, and it's gonna be a new direction for her. It’ll definitely signal her pop star era – you can expect some more 2010s, ‘The Fame’ by Lady Gaga-inspired production, but with very sultry lyrics.

You’re working on a new music tech project at the moment… could you tell me some more about that?

Me and my partner launched an app here in Berlin that we're looking to expand to other cities, which is basically a nightlife subscription service and a community app. We saw two problems that were essentially the solution to each other – clubs are struggling to sell out their events and promoters have at least 10 to 15% of tickets left over at the end of the day, and people are struggling to afford going out as often. We found a solution for that by offering a subscription where people pay 12 Euros a month and receive two guest list credits, so they can go out to the club twice a month for a much lower price. The app also offers reduced tickets and queue skips, and is partnering with clubs and events. People have to apply, and we try to screen people who bring value to promoters by having a forward-thinking taste in music and so on – it’s essentially like an organic promotion channel.

We launched in Berlin in September with around 1,000 members already, and plan to launch in a few other cities this year as a community-driven and more intimate alternative to Resident Advisor. People have been really liking it so far, and I think we’ve already noticed the spike in people attending events more. Since COVID, there’s been a really strong headline culture in music, but you often see the dancefloor empty as soon as the headliner stops playing. I hope that by recommending cool events, we can change that.

What have you got coming up this year?

The next big thing for me is my work with Miss Bashful, I'm very excited about that. I love her – we became close friends on a personal level in the process of making music over the past year or so. It's a musical direction that I'm very excited about because I love the 2010s. It was one of my favourite eras musically, and it's nice to pay homage to that. Then, I'm looking to make my next EP, probably in the summer or autumn. I have a few demos already, but I think I'm also gonna use the US tour as a period to write with artists that I usually don't have access to here in Europe. I want to go back a bit more to my classical roots also, and maybe rent a double bass again.

Can you tell us about your mix?

Moving from 125 to 170 BPM, this mix reflects the range of genres and textures I’m drawn to right now, with a strong focus on electroclash. It’s shaped by a lot of shared listening and collaboration, so huge thanks to everyone who introduced me to these tracks or worked on them with me: Annie, Jakob, Laura, Hayley, Deto, Fran, Sara, and Paul.

Gemma Ross is Mixmag's Associate Digital Editor, follow her on X

Tracklist:
saramalacara - CREO QUE NOS PODEMOS IR
Sodomland - Number 1
Shinichi Osaka, Paul Chambers - Singapore Swing
Dalhaus, SILICONE VALLEY - The Phobia
Deadmau5, Melleefresh - Sex Slave
Zukovstheworld - Dirty Denim
Luca Eck, Estratosfera - SYNAPSE
The Bird, Babymorocco - BigCityBoys
Fukkk Offf - Rave Is King
DJ Antoine - This Time (Klaas Dub Remix)
Mechatok, Ecco2k, Bladee - Expression on your Face
EQ - EQetamine
Six Sex, Luca Eck, Dauner - U&ME
Aleroj, Sapphir22 - SOBADERA SOUTH
kwes e - lyk
Theodora - MON BÉBÉ (Free Kitty Version)
WOST, MC TH - Eu Vicio Rapido (HARDGROOVED)
DJ Upstep - MFOK
Luca Eck, DETO BLACK - GUTS
Fcukers - Play Me
Luca Eck, nusar3000 - VENAS