Even when it is difficult. Many of you have experienced this and I\u2019m sure you know what I\u2019m talking about. I wanted to share my thoughts and plans with you as they evolve so that we can guide each other through the change I will be going through as an artist and I deeply feel the need to let you into my changing world so that you might better understand what it is all about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just like the majority of you my vision of society has been changed and therefore my own behaviour and interaction and this should be reflected in my actions as an artist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We all know that the health crisis had a major impact on my occupation and I\u2019d like to guide you through what I think are the causes and also solutions for me personally. Truth is, this crisis has done nothing but enhancing and pointing out things that have been happening in the music industry for some time now, but so far nobody cared or dared to take the next step in this evolution. With a lot of time at my hands I took the opportunity to reflect about my own path and analyse my position looking for ways to evolve further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are all very well aware of the fact that performances, tours and festivals have become an extremely important part of an artist\u2019s life. Today\u2019s society makes the act of creating art itself extremely vulnerable as it does not allow a permanent income flow to sustain a man\u2019s life. Simply put a producer or electronic artist cannot just make music to earn a living, he also has to become a performer. It has become the main income stream for many good people I know and many of us have become extremely dependent on that income stream at the cost of our sleep, our mental and physical health and our relationships and families. Believe me I know what I\u2019m talking about when I look back on the past 3 years of my live and see the outcome of my decisions up until now. This way of living is just not suitable for everybody. Some of us had to pay a price far too high for that moment of fame in the limelight on a stage of a famous festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mind I\u2019m not putting any blame on festivals and such. Throughout my career as a musician spanning now almost a quarter of a century I always believed that tours and performing is a great way to interact with my fans and all those people who support what I\u2019m doing. However, it should never be the very center of my existence, neither by force of habit nor by changes in society. I have always seen it as a great addition but I also noticed that that very interaction with a large crowd can become extremely addictive and I really like to see it for what it actually should be: The cherry on top of the icing of my (cup)cake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In my humble opinion I think I can still improve my interaction with my fans around the world and I believe it is not about quantity but rather about the quality of performances. I want to bring my performances to a certain level and I\u2019ll be working over the coming months very hard with that goal in mind together with a team of people that stand right next to me and want to accompany me on my way to reach that goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have been observing the world around me and myself long before the recent health crisis hit my sector hard and I came to realise that there are many things in my life that need a change. Our world tends to compartmentalize everything, including music and its composers, us the artists. They put genre labels on our music and put us in boxes that reflect those genres without taking in consideration that people evolve, they grow up and so do their actions. In an artists\u2019 life that evolution, that growth is directly reflected in the work of art he\/she creates. In my case it is the music. It has evolved over the past 2 decades and it still is evolving, but many people out there still see me as the child I used to be when I started this musical journey, well I\u2019m no longer that child, I have evolved, I have grown up and so has my music. My greatest wish is that music becomes once again the center of my life, I want to be free to make the music I really love and I want to focus on playing the music I really love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I started my journey I had set priorities and they have not changed. Those priorities are: artistic integrity and freedom, respect, kindness and focusing on a business model that is inclusive, that is a win-win for everyone. But I have to admit that even long before the crisis began I was not living up to these personal goals I had set myself and that realisation deeply affected me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are living in a consumption driven world where art and to be more specific where music has become as short-lived as many other consumer goods out there. Music itself has become a product of mass-consumption. It is seen as a right to be able to get access to music without having to pay a fee that actually reflects the hours of work that went into the act of creation. Today\u2019s Dance Music consumers rather pay a fortune on festival tickets without knowing that by doing so they kill the musical diversity that generations before us strived to create. I personally think that this diversity is exactly what we need to preserve, musically and otherwise, it is what makes our world more colourful and richer in any sense. We have to give an artist the opportunity to make his choices without having to choose between money and integrity. Today many artists compromise their artistic integrity just to get a booking fee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2021 has been the year for me where I decided to take the measure of what needs to be done to preserve my set priorities and to keep my focus on them for the next decades to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As of today I want to inform you that I\u2019m expanding my horizons in terms of business and people I\u2019ll be working with in the future. However I\u2019d like to add that I\u2019m very thankful for the past years where I worked with some incredible people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You all have probably noticed in the meantime that I have moved my studio out of my home and into a place where creativity is top priority. The people there have welcomed me with open arms and are helping me facilitating my new creative strategies. Lots of opportunities ahead and a new way to build once again my own identity in the art I have chosen: music<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To sum things up, there has been a lot of change going on in the background over the past 6 months and a lot more changes are in the pipeline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is a small leap of faith I\u2019m taking and from now on I will only grab those business opportunities that give me the chance to live up to my own expectations and that do not compromise my integrity as an artist. I refuse to depend on a chain of people and businesses that still depend too much on the old world\u2019s habits such as greed, individualism, hierarchy, power, money \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All I desire is a business that runs smoothly and financially sustainable that also gives the pleasures of happy relationships with everyone involved. I want to spread the love that is in the music once again and all this should not be at the costs we all know already. I won\u2019t be forced to become a narcissistic, cynical, greedy individual just for the sake of success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even though society tends to do as if there is only black & white, life has proven time and again that things are a little more complex than that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So if dark blue is my favourite colour then that\u2019s the way it is and I should not have to be ashamed of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2021 will bring new music to your homes. Music made by me with all of me in there, just as pure as it used to be. I had the honour of working on a movie soundtrack. Something I have been dreaming about since I was a very young lad. I loved soundtracks long before I started making dance music. The making of this soundtrack led me to a couple of amazing collaborations with some fine Belgian artists: Thank you Dee Dee and Danzel for our amazing journey together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2021 also will lead me to new ways of distributing my art. New Blockchain Tech is developing at the speed of light and the old tech and distribution options will be fading out if they do not seize the opportunity to approach the market with a fresh perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2021 will bring you new sounds that I am currently developing. I urge to check regularly on my website to get accustomed to my new sounds and soon that will also be the place to be to discover my new music. There will be a plethora of new sound packs available this year still for those of you who are into producing themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You all know how much I love playing and making new sounds, if you hadn\u2019t noticed yet but the sounds I made for the KORG Modwave are all over Youtube videos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And of course this also means that a new Airwave album will be finally coming your way. It has been in the pipeline for quite some time but the health crisis put a halt to this project. This album will not be what you expect but you will get to meet the new Airwave sound and I\u2019m preparing a very special surprise you won\u2019t see coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is time to live on my own terms and give you all another take on how things get done where passion meets music. It is time you saw the true independent artist that has come out of the shadows, out of the hiding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thank you all for supporting my art and therefore supporting me as an artist, as a person, as a human being and as a family guy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Musically yours,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Laurent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Even when it is difficult. Many of you have experienced this and I\u2019m sure you know what I\u2019m talking about. I wanted to share my thoughts and plans with you as they evolve so that we can guide each other through the change I will be going through as an artist and I deeply feel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":801,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n