What’s On teams up with Hype to bring you a profile and interview with Good Looking Records boss LTJ Bukem ahead of his Dubai set at Globalfunk.

Good Looking Records boss LTJ Bukem comes to Dubai on May 15 for a set at Globalfunk, The Music Room. Here’s what he’s had to say…

“I’m never happy with the sound quality of anything, I always think it could be better – but that’s just how I am, always wanting things to be better.”

“If I pick up a piece of music to play in a club or to release, I want it for life. I want to be able to pick up that piece of music in 20 years’ time and still enjoy it for what it is.”

“When I first started DJing in the mid-’80s, it was all very UK-based. I hadn’t even been abroad. Now you’ve got drum ‘n’ bass all over the world, so it’s just got busier and busier. Most weekends I end up in another country.”

“When I started collecting music there was no genres, not for me, I just wanted to hear things that were great, so I got into all sorts of different styles of music. Still now, it doesn’t matter what it is or where it comes from: if it hits you, that’s it.”

“It’s essential that people bring their own meaning to drum ‘n’ bass but for me it’s just a love for the freedom of expression within the music: it can go off in so many different tangents and yet you can still get so much from it.”

“I believe music in general is something that brings people together: there’s no written language, it’s the universal language of music. Without a doubt the reason I’ve been involved in music so long is that it brings so many people from so many different places together.”

“When I was very young I started piano and I played drums. I was very influenced by things that my piano teacher brought to me. My first sound system was probably back in 1984. It was a very magical moment for me.”

“As a DJ and a producer you tend to put yourself out there to be criticised. You’re never going to please everyone, so whatever you’re doing you can’t keep thinking about regrets, or something you should have played, or a track you should have made. Learn to enjoy every moment of it.”

“With music now, especially drum ‘n’ bass, we’re in a prolific period. There’s just so many people making music, so you have to find the people who are taking things forward.”

“If you’re going to sit down and make something, then make it something that you believe is one hundred per cent you. Sometimes it may not even work but you will at least have what you believe in out there. I believe in the music that I enjoy and love as much as anything else.”

LTJ Buken with SP:MC, Globalfunk, The Music Room, Majestic Hotel, Al Mankhool Road, Bur Dubai. Thursday, 9pm to 3am, Dhs100. Taxi: Majestic Hotel, Bur Dubai