LUSU shakes again with ‘Drums of the Night’

LUSU, consisting of Dutch producers Wiwek and Mike Cervello, has been paving its way in the techno scene since the start of the project back in 2022.

Known for their cinematic-yet-industrial take on techno, the duo has released multiple songs on HI-LO’s imprint HILOMATIK, the same label that will be home to their new track ‘Drums Of The Night’.

In support of the release, LUSU will be hosting an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Discord, happening July 1st at 18:00 CET. This is a unique chance for fans to connect directly and dive deeper into their journey.

You’re set for the release of ‘Drums Of The Night’. As the title suggests, the track leans heavily into powerful drum work, driving the momentum from start to finish. What can you tell us about how this track came together, and how the drum elements helped shape its overall atmosphere and intention?

The song actually started with the vocal saying ‘Drums of the Night’. We instantly felt this dope theme around it. Everything shaped up pretty naturally and after testing it a few times we felt that this was becoming a special song in our sets.

But we also felt something was still missing and those were the actual drums we use in the break and second drop. Once we added those, the song was done and ready for the dance floors.

The first release under the LUSU alias was in November 2022, roughly 2.5 years ago. With what intentions did you start this project?

We both felt like we wanted to explore another genre on the side, but without any expectations. So we rented a house in nature to work on music and we were like: “let’s see what happens.”

We made like 8 demos there that were nothing like our individual style, so we thought it would be a cool idea to drop these as a side project called LUSU.

LUSU tracks have received support from the biggest names in the scene, like Adam Beyer, Armin van Buuren, and many other influential artists, and were released on renowned labels such as Drumcode, HILOMATIK, and Arcane. Does it feel like the project is on the right track?

For sure. This was literally our goal for LUSU and we feel like all of this came together pretty naturally. All the artists we were inspired by are now also playing our songs.

We feel we are in the right zone, now it’s time to emphasize on this success and keep going.

You’ve both celebrated successes in your solo careers, in which you catered to a different audience musically. How different is it to make music and to perform as LUSU, compared to being on stage as Wiwek or Mike Cervello?

We’ve been touring for 10+ years already and we toured all over the world, which is still a lot of fun.

With LUSU, we had to start from the bottom in a new scene, which is a cool challenge. Luckily, we’ve been working together in the studio for years already.

Performing is also different, since we can mostly focus on getting the groove/feels right, the sets are usually longer so there’s more time to tell a story.

Curating songs for the sets is also fun in its own way because we can look in a whole different area than what we do for our solo sets.

Does performing and producing as LUSU also spark interest from new fans in your solo careers?

Yes. We feel some people that didn’t know us already but know us now because of LUSU are also checking the catalogue of our solo projects.

As producers who originally started out in a different genre, what’s your view on the techno scene?

We think the techno scene has opened up quite a bit. Genres are blending and there are less “cool clubs” of genres.

Obviously they’re still there, but right now we feel super accepted and supported in the scene. It’s very open-minded from what we experienced so far.

LUSU has done collaborations with big artists, including HI-LO (DIZZY) and Eli Brown (‘Escape From Planet Monday’). Are there any other artists you would love to work together with, and how do you think you would complement these artists sound-wise with the cinematic techno approach that LUSU is known for?

Actually, we have a lot of artists we would like to work with at the right moment. Someone like Adam Beyer would be super cool.

He has supported like 5 or 6 songs of ours, which is super dope. But also artists like Wehbba or Drunken Kong are cool artists we’d love to work with one day.

What can you tell us about the future of LUSU, and where it’s heading sonically? Is there anywhere we can catch you guys or see what’s coming up next?

Our music is mostly done and locked in for 2025. We are super excited for what’s to come, but can’t share too much yet.

But it will be a busy year, haha!