Argentinean artist Lucefora celebrates the release of his debut album ‘Inocencia’ this week, we caught up with him to discuss the importance of artist LPs, working with the right record label and nightlife in his home country.

Hi Gustavo, thanks for joining us today, tell us a bit about yourself, where are you living and how long have you been producing music and DJing?

Hi guys, thanks for your invitation, currently I’m living in Buenos Aires, Argentina, I have been DJing since I was 16 years old and been producing music for the past 5 years.

How did you discover electronic music and what led you down the path of wanting to be a DJ and producer? What were some of your early inspirations?

I entered into this amazing world of electronic music at the age of 13, one of my friends was very involved into the scene and I learned a lot from him, that was what inspired me to start and get the necessary skills. Producing skills, is like the other half of a DJ needs to have to think into a career on a profession which is very competitive, its necessary to be strategic & take different decisions from other people. One of my biggest inspirations was Edu Imbernon, I really like his moog essence.

How does living in Argentina affect the music you make? or does it at all? Progressive House is perhaps more popular there than anywhere else in the world.

Maybe I don’t like so much to be defined like a progressive house artist & I work hard to change that image of me, even I feel I’ve change a lot since last year. Progressive House is very popular in Argentina but I identify myself more with Deep House, which is popular as well, but maybe not as much as genres like techno.

How would you describe the club scene in Argentina right now? Do you get to play much in your home city and what was the first amazing moment you had in club?

Well it’s a good question, clubbing has been getting very popular in this last few years, it has it’s good & bad points, you have more alternatives every weekend, and there are appearing a lot of new talents and the clubs are packed. In my case I stopped DJing for three years and but now have started to introduce myself to the scene again, at the end of last year I had the chance to play at a big event called ‘Desert in Me’, along Bog & Miss Melera, which was fantastic.

Your new album ‘Inocencia’ has just come out on ICONYC, you must be quite excited. Tell us how it began to take shape? Was there an initial goal of writing an album?

Yes, I thought that doing another EP or being part of compilations doesn’t allow you to express yourself or be the face of a release, with an album it’s a great opportunity to engulf & present yourself, like a business card if you like, to show who Lucefora is with all the facets. The album took the better part of 12 months to perfect by playing with ideas, being really selective, to produce what essentially is the best work I have ever done in my opinion.

How did the project end up on ICONYC? You seem to have found a comfortable home there, what is it that’s so great about working with them?

I had some releases there before, I believe they really understand what an artist needs to evolve, taking the interest of the artist to heart while taking good care of him as well. They have been very helpful with things like letting you pick remixers (in order to get exposure which helps you grow), the mastering they provide and the great promotion. I never had the feeling like with some many other labels that I am just a release number, they received me with wide open arms and I really appreciated that. They really helped me a lot to improve as an artist.

How did you end up with the final track selection and how did you go about cutting stuff out?

Since I started writing I knew what I wanted, what kind of story and sound I wanted for the album. So it wasn’t that hard to choose the right tracks and clean the stuff it didn’t match what I had in my mind.

The writing process was around 12 months, looking back on it, what stands out in your mind?

Time passed really fast and when I see all the tracks together I feel really proud of the result.

How important do you think artist albums are in this age of rapidly consumed music?

I think people nowadays are so demanding that you have to be constant, to not lose their attention, a single album doesn’t mean anything, if you don’t follow it up with quality work. I think consistency is the magic word, something that converts you from a good to a great artist that people appreciate.

Will there be remixes coming from the album and if so what can we look forward to? Who would you like to see remix your work?

We discussed this at length but in the end, we decided to do just one single of the album with remixes. We released Boogie Hoogie with remixes from Dust Yard & dub.format, in January. Reason being that at the time of selecting the remixers for my releases, we didn’t look for just any big-name artist, I wanted to have people who appreciate my sound, and were relevant to my music and would help bring something different to the table. I want possible remixes we do in the future to involve artists that can bring their own ideas to the track. But in saying that I don’t get to hung up on remixes too much, as you as an artist need to evolve and create better songs, try to improve all the time and keep on working hard to succeed.

How do you feel about your work being remixed in general?

In some cases, I fell in love with some remixes & in other cases not so much. We don’t have to judge the intention of an artist, maybe the track was good but we had other expectations, and producers are not robots, we are different people with different creativity.

What release or achievement are you most proud of and why? Would it be your album?

All producers have a favourite one, I really love the entire album but I have to confess that I have a favourite track, which is not signed at the moment, but will be soon. There will be some news soon, for sure! The name of the track is “Aura”. I always love to name my tracks related to energy, esoteric or emotions.

What does the future hold? What can we expect to hear from you over the remainder of 2018?

I have a release on Magician on Duty this year with my mate Boggan AR with great remixers. Can’t say more at the moment but I am very excited, stay tuned.

‘Inocencia’ is out now on ICONYC, you can purchase the release: here