Introduction

Through this blog post, I want to share the qualities that I’ve admired Laidback Luke for (apart from his DJ sets/skills and music), over the last 10 years.

I will talk about who he is, how I came across him, what I’ve learnt from him and also share some links to his vlogs and interviews that have helped me grow.

Laidback Luke

Lucas Cornelis van Scheppingen, aka Laidback Luke, is a legendary DJ and producer who has been in the music industry for over 30 years. Some of his classic hits include Show Me Love, Leave The World Behind, Turbulence and Rocking With The Best.

Luke is a technically skilled DJ who regularly plays sold-out club and festival shows with thousands of people and keeps himself up-to-date with the newest DJing technology.

Luke is widely known to be one of the nicest guys in the electronic music scene. He has helped and mentored a lot of artists throughout his career and has freely shared a lot of his knowledge publicly through his weekly YouTube vlogs, his old forum page and his numerous talks, interviews and podcasts. Some of the artists he discovered and/or mentored include Avicii, Afrojack, Steve Angello, Oliver Heldens, Deorro, Nicky Romero, GTA and Bingo Players.

The day this blog post is being released (22nd Oct 2025), is Luke’s 49th birthday! Happy birthday, Luke! 🎉

Personal Note

I have been a fan of Luke for over 10 years now and he has inspired me in ways that changed my life. Funnily enough, I also made a tribute page for him five years ago when I was learning to build websites!

Although I’m not in the music industry at all (just an avid listener), I’ve always been fascinated with DJing and producing, and looking up stuff related to DJing and producing is how I discovered Luke’s YouTube channel. I’m extremely grateful to have discovered his channel at a very vulnerable time in my life, because I got to learn and imbibe a lot of qualities from him.

It’s crazy how very responsive Luke is on social media (initially on Twitter and now on Instagram) to just about anyone. He answers questions anyone asks him and gives out good tidbits of advice from his experience. He has replied to my questions quite a few times as well and it always feels surreal.

Some of Luke’s qualities that I have admired and learnt from over the years:

  • Sharing knowledge and experience publicly and freely without expecting a return
  • Being honest, vulnerable and open, especially with mistakes and the ’not-so-good’ things one does
  • Giving importance to fundamentals and raw skills
  • Being true to oneself and the DJing art form
  • The way he keeps himself up-to-date with the latest tools available and reinvents himself
  • His humility, empathy and ‘down-to-earth-ness’
  • His focus on mental health alongside hard work
  • Being a helpful person
  • Sharing poised and thought-out opinions
  • His ’easy-to-contact’, accessible and responsive persona
  • His positivity

I’m a work in progress, but applying the above to my life over the years has shaped me into a better person and I try my best to pay it forward as well. What I’ve learnt seems obvious and common place, but applying them consistently has made me notice the positive effects in my life. I like who I’ve become as a person. I’m super grateful to Luke for changing my life for the better. I am not saying that Luke is perfect by any means, because no one is, but I just wanted to acknowledge that I have learnt so much from him and I’m thankful for that.

So, thank you Luke, for being a positive influence on me and countless others! 💛

A quote by Luke from one of his vlogs that I really like:

Starting this, seeing this, tackling this, it seemed impossible to do and only with perseverance and really like a sense of like goal and being goal oriented, I was able to make this work… It might take some time, it might take a year, it might take two years, it might take four years and along the way there will be lot of failures, but I want you to be fueled by failures and never give up and eventually you will get where you want to be.

Links

Here are some links (mainly videos) by/on Luke that have really helped me. I hope they help you more!

Luke’s Vlogs

Interviews, Podcasts and Talks

Miscellaneous Clips

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