In a column released today in  UK’s Huffington Post, DJ and producer Laidback Luke speaks about a topic that plagues any musician that is popular for more than a few years: fans’ resistance to change. After turning to Twitter to see some of his follower’s tweets about him and his music, he realized how big of an issue that musical progression and reinvention is within his fan base. Asked questions such as “Did you forget how to produce or something?” being told that he’s “going downhill” and hearing a constant push to go back to making songs like his “old tracks” are among the social media complaints that Luke read through in attempts to better understand his fans. And to all of this he has but one response: “The only thing I can continue to do is follow (or lead) my own progress.”

“It seems like when you’re between 18 and 23 years old, you cling onto certain songs for life,” Luke says. To cling to that extent, though, and to refuse any progression or movement from that neutral zone “seems very boring” to him as a musician. “I can only become better as time passes, that’s how life works!” Whether you’re a fan of old work, new songs, or both, Laidback Luke aims to please his fans while still maintaining his own artistic progression.

Check out his new track with Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike:

Read the original article, “Feedback Luke” posted earlier below:

Did you forget how to produce or something..?‘ it read on one of my Twitter mentions. I looked on the guy’s profile and it said he was from Melbourne. I’ve been supporting the Melbourne sound at the moment and even trying to produce it. Globally, it’s a new and fresh sound that I see as a little brother of the Dutch sound and a nice new challenge to me! In Melbourne however, this sound has been played to death and I often find my followers out of Melbourne City being very bitter about it. ‘Giving my experience in production, it’s very unlikely for me to have forgotten how to produce‘, I quickly responded. Giving him an insight on how I think he should be proud of this sound being up next to take over the world. He thought I was coming across very arrogant about the producing part. I explained to him that I’ve probably made over 3000 tracks and have been producing for over 20 years. And told him, that’s a simple fact: ‘How can I be arrogant when that’s actually true?‘

I’ve had a bit of a struggle this week as I very much listen to what everyone has to tell me on social media. I’ve had a couple of guys from Egypt being very worried about me as well. They told me I’m going downhill. That I should be making big tracks like my ‘old’ tracks again. To me, my old tracks could be the ones that I produced back in 1995, the techno, housy period of mine my wife loves so much. My Daft Punk style days at the end of the nineties. My electro pop time at around 2003. My big room sound of 2005 and up. My full on Dutch from 2007? ‘Turbulence, Timebomb and Natural Disaster‘ is what the kid from Egypt answered me. So that’s about 2009 and up for me, pretty much around the corner! In my mind, at this moment, I’m still in that sound and pushing that forward. While a lot of kids are currently putting out tracks that sound like ‘Turbulence’ meets my ‘Guns On Demo’, I’ve already passed that.

Followers who don’t see the bigger picture, get worried. It’s a discussion I have with my older following every two to three years. It seems that when you’re in between 18 and 23 years old, you cling onto certain songs for life. Those will be yours forever and occasionally something new will come through. It’s a very common human trait. It only sucks for the artist trying to move on. ‘He’s lost it. He forgot how to produce!‘. Well I haven’t, I couldn’t! Actually, I could only become better as time passes, that’s how life works! I see a bigger picture, I’ve always done so in spite of my old followers getting upset with me. I can’t get stuck in the past doing my same sound over and over. That seems very boring to me, it would limit, and kill me, artistically. As usual though, I’m not taking this feedback lightheartedly. I care very much about my scene, our music, my followers and my progression. I can honestly say, music is my life. The only thing I can do is to continue to follow (or lead) my own progress. I’ll be switching on my Ableton now and double check if I can still remember how to work it.