LIBK

Origin: None

Hearing the term LIBK for the first time, one might wonder about its meaning. LIBK, according to the Urban Dictionary and other sources is most famously known to be an acronym for ‘Let It Be Known’; a simple term used to add an emphasis to what is about to happen.

With roots in San Jose, LIBK is a force of nature from an unlikely city. Listening to their music might make one think they have been in the music game for ages hailing from the likes of Miami, Los Angeles or even established scenes in Europe, but their music just came from nowhere, like the big bang, from a city who’s clubs are dominated by Rap & Hip-Hop music, San Jose. San Jose, however, is near San Francisco which does happen to be the starting ground for many producers who are at large today such as Kaskade and the up-and-coming M Machine and LIBK found themselves heading over to S.F. constantly to be involved and learn more about this amazing new electronic dance music scene.

LIBK was formed in early 2012 by a trio of producers, Harnick Atur, Keith Buhler & Eugene Shun whom of which share a passion for house music that is truly paramount. Eating, sleeping & breathing house music is the name of the game for these three rising stars. One might find it interesting that their nationalities are so different, yet the power of music has brought these three together. Harnick Atur, being of Punjabi-Indian descent, Eugene Shun, of Taiwanese-Chinese descent, and Keith Buhler of American descent have had very little exposure in the house music scene, but once they banded together, musically, to form LIBK, they have achieved very quick success melding three different musical styles into one cohesive unique sound. Their different nationalities truly show how music is the glue that brings people all over the world together, no matter their race.

Remixing popular artists like Calvin Harris, Cedric Gervais, Lazy Rich and recently James Egbert they have gradually found their unique style of producing. In their early music career of which they have entered numerous Beatport remix contests, they have always improved vastly over each submission after the other, constantly learning new techniques and learning to mix unique and yet palatable sounds, making each of their tracks more interesting than the last. LIBK has been quickly making a name for themselves in the house music scene and have gotten acclaim from many blogging websites and fellow DJ’s.

Dropping original tracks and LIBK remixes at each of their gigs has proven greatly successful creating amazing energy in each club they have the honor to play at. Feeding off this amazing feedback and energy they head straight back into the studio to produce more, with a never ending hunger to produce amazing house music that brings people out of this world. They are also becoming well known for their perfectly executed mashups and mix-mashes, many of which with vocals of older artists’s that everybody knows.

Grimey basslines, powerful percussion, epic synth riffs, dubstep elements and wobbles; their music contains all of these elements and much more. Some might say their music and melodies inspire a truly nostalgic feeling which brings listeners back to a time in their life where the feeling of the music was exactly what they wanted it to be.

We are LIBK.

Music, we feel, is the ultimate form of self-expression. We all want to express ourselves and there are so many different ways to do so-music being one of them. We feel that music is the best way to translate our feelings and experiences to the masses. There really is no better feeling than sharing your music with someone and watching them enjoy it too. Have you ever heard a piece of music that just took you to another world or made you feel a way you’ve never felt before? It’s like that for us. We love music that tells a story and takes you on a journey and we try to accomplish that when we produce. In a way, you could consider us storytellers; but we tell our stories with our music!

Interview

Home Town: San Jose, CA
Currently Living: San Jose, CA
Origin Of Name: Our name, LIBK, is an abbreviation for the term “Let It Be Known.” We wanted to go with a saying that symbolized our three different cultures together in one sound, so “Let It Be Known” became the unifying name for us! It’s also a statement that we are serious about our sound. We feel we have much to offer in the world of music together so “letting it be known” is how we feel about sharing our music back with the world!
Weapon of Choice: Grey matter
Source of Power: Simply put, our major source of power is music in all forms. We draw inspiration particularly from percussive musicians and songs but we love any kind of music that gets you going. Further into our producing career we began to notice that people love to dance to all types of music whether it’s dubstep, drum & bass, trap, or progressive/electro house. We love producers who produce and play varied genres of dance music such as Knife Party, GTA, deadmau5, Zedd, and recently artists like W&W and Headhunterz. There are really too many influences for us to name but we are constantly inspired by other artists and music.

Was there one particular moment in the recording or mixing process for your Discovery Project entry that made you feel like you were creating something pretty damn special?
Actually, yes! We had a “eureka!” moment when we were creating the baseline for our remix. We decided to just create a sound that was as distorted and interesting as possible. Eventually we came up with a very distinct interesting bass sound through the use of effects. We had also created an arpeggio in the key of the song that we were considering for a supporting melody but eventually we decided to hell with it…let’s try pasting these notes into the baseline sound! It instantly caught on for us so we just went with it!

What do your parents think of what you are doing?
Our parents are appreciative of our music but at the same time greatly value our education too. It may seem like a hobby to a few of our parents but Harnick’s parents, particularly his dad, are insanely supportive. Harnick’s dad literally thinks of us as rock stars so we try to play the role whenever they are around, haha.

Are you impulsive with your work or do you have a sketch in mind before you start?
Recently, with our recent originals we are working on, we have been trying to plan out our tracks before we execute them completely. Our normal way of producing is: “Hmm that sounds good, okay now let’s distort the holy crap out of it with filters. Oh and just take that baseline sound and paste all these notes we had for a different melody and see how it sounds.” Funny how we produce, it can be unorthodox at times (…most of the time). We still do try to focus on being creative and to try things we honestly think would not work.

What’s the most important piece of gear in your studio?
We would definitely have to say our sub woofer, the KRK 10S (keep in mind we are producing most of our music from home at the moment like most budding producers). The most important part of a dance track is definitely the bass response. There are so many tracks out there that have good ideas and melodies but they fail to deliver the bass properly so they suffer when played in a club or on bigger speakers. Having a good sub woofer allows you to monitor the bass, as it would sound on a bigger system to get your track to sound the way you intended.

Do you have a list of people you’d like to collaborate with in the future?
Oh we would love to collaborate with acts like Nicky Romero, Tommy Trash, deadmau5, Zedd…heck anyone. There are so many talented musicians out there right now that have so many different styles of music. We want to explore all the genres of music! To be honest though, we love hard-sounding music for some reason…there’s just something about the insane energy on some of these new songs that really gets people going! That’s probably why we like dirty Dutch music so much.

What sound or noise do you love?
Ohh, we love the Didgeridoo! Waaaooooeeeoooooaaaoooooeeeeoooowwwww…

What should everyone just shut the fuck up about?
Complaining about how the scene is changing and becoming commercialized and all that. Just make music, man! Who cares what everybody thinks. If it makes you happy and makes others happy, is that a bad thing?

Do you have a secret passion?
We are like undercover linguists…we love to joke around doing different accents and character impersonations like Dobby, Schwarzenegger, SpongeBob…you name it. We’re actually pretty weird in person! Guess you could call that a passion, haha.

Tell me about your most memorable night out.
We’re definitely going to go with Beyond Wonderland when we played there; and this is as an artistand a fan. Something in us changed since our first taste of playing at a festival; the feeling of being apart of something bigger than you is very rewarding. We love that music brings people together and we always experience that when we go to festivals. We’re sure there will be many more memorable nights to come!

What advice would you offer someone thinking about entering the Discovery Project competition?
We would say to be as creative as humanly possible, but at the same time, make the music palatable and predictable to a degree. Take that with a grain of salt because most other artists competing against you are trying to make music that is widely accepted but less unique. It’s really important, however, to try to push the boundaries of music as much as you are capable of. If you develop your sound well enough it will eventually get noticed!

Winning Track: