One of the hottest DJ/Producers around, Lucien Foort's signature sound has meant that he is a major drawcard on lineups the world over. His popular tech house sound is often compared to the likes of names such as John Digweed, Dave Angel and Dave Clark.

Living in Rotterdam, Holland, Lucien had an extremely well-educated musical background. Sent to music school at the tender age of 9, Lucien went on to achieve A.M.V. music training, spending a total of eight years at music school combined with five years saxophone and orchestra education.

His foray into DJing began one Sunday afternoon at a friend's house when he was just 14 years old. Right from the outset he loved it and things just took off from there. Packing the first record he ever bought (Beat St.), he was soon on his way to delivering some quality sets, with his first ever gig at Club Carrerra in Rotterdam back in '94.

After conquering the Netherlands, his signature sound and style have taken him literally from one side of the globe to the other. When it comes to production Lucien has remixed for labels such as Bedrock, Postiva, 3Beat, Cyber and React. Lucien is also infamous for his Dutch Liquid Productions, favoured by the likes of Carl Cox. His Funk Function productions have been repeatedly aired on compilations from DJs like Sasha, John Digweed, Nick Warren, Dave Seaman and Seb Fontaine.

Named after his 2003 mix CD on the Black Hole label, Lucien has also taken his 'SLICE' brand onto the airwaves in the form of his own weekly radio show. Readers can catch SLICE Radio on air every Friday Night on ID&T National Radio - www.id-t.com

Gracing Australian shores for the Christmas / New Year season, RA caught up with Lucien to find out exactly where he was at.

Thanks for taking the time out to talk to RA. What's new in the world of Lucien Foort?

At them moment it's all about marketing and promoting the SLICE brand name - http://www.slice.nl. Between SLICE radio and the SLICE parties, I'm keeping pretty busy (laughs).

Your itinerary for December and January reads like that of an international pilot - Turkey, Argentina, Amsterdam, Slovenia, Buenos Aires and Australia. How long can you keep this jet setting lifestyle up for?

Well it's not like it just popped up overnight. You've got to remember that I've been doing this for almost ten years. Besides, it's not like a normal job. I'm doing what I love.

You recently attended the South America Music Conference – can you tell us a bit about that?

That was really exciting. Because it was the first year that it was held, obviously there were some minor teething problems and the organisers are still trying to decide exactly what direction they want to take it. Still, there were some huge names there. South America is such a huge market, they really love their electronic music. Give it three years and it will be on par with the Miami Music Conference.

These days it seems you're equally dividing your time between producing and DJing. Which do you prefer?

I think both go hand-in-hand these days to be honest. I think you can't have on without the other, especially nowadays. Every aspiring DJ that wants to come out needs to produce a record in order for the world to recognise that they know what the music is all about. You can't just walk up with a record case and say "like OK, this is me, give me a slot because I know what I'm doing." There are just too many DJs out there. I make records and those records need to be promoted and I'd rather promote them myself, so that's why I'm DJing.

In the past you have remixed the likes of T99, Technotronic, Kosheen, Dirty Vegas. Who would be on your wish list of people you would like to remix?

I wouldn't want to remix everything because that's just like making another version of something that is already there, but I would like to do some collaborations though. I wouldn't mind going into the studio with N.E.R.D for instance. Beyonce I think is the new Tina Turner, so obviously an artist like her would be on there, basically people that I can get a lot of inspiration from.

You were out in Australia last year for the Two Tribes event, which is obviously a massive production with massive crowds etc. When you were out here over the New Year you played smaller (though still sizable gigs). Do you prefer to headline a gig or would you rather be on the bill with your industry counterparts?

It doesn't really matter to be honest. At the end of the day you are there to do a job and if that involves 50,000 people, 5 million people or only 5 people, you know at the end of the day you need to ask yourself this question – "Do I want to get the job done correctly or do I want to be on this big bill, yes or no?" That's what it's all about.

Do you take a different approach to smaller venues?

Yes I do approach smaller venues differently because smaller venues people will react differently. You know when you're in a big room it's easier to throw the big records at people and everybody wants to get that similar feeling, so it's quite hard to do that with records that work in a club. There are different records for different environments and a club environment in comparison to a festival environment are obviously different things. Not so different mind you, it can be quite difficult to pin point the differences between the two but as a DJ you would know that there are certain records you wouldn't play at a festival but you would play in a club.

Can you give us any indication as to what punters can expect from you at the moment?

I'm playing across the board. People know by know not to expect a specific style but just to go for the vibe because the vibe is always something strong, funky and uplifting, you know at the end of the day it's all about happy faces and making a party on the dance floor.
That's what I'm going for…

What does 2005 hold for you? Any major plans you can let us in on?

I need to produce more records you know, the traveling has taken it out of me a bit in the last year. Also I've been focused so much on doing my radio show here on National Radio here in Holland so it's one or the other, so I'll be branding the slice brand a little bit bigger, and making more records seeing as though it's going so well at the moment so I guess I'll stick with that. Oh, and play more I suppose… I'm always playing so yeah, more of what I'm doing now with a bit more structure and more recognisable to a new market like South Africa or South America and the rest of Eastern Europe like Russia and Poland.