Making his debut on HCBXCast, DJ LSA steps up with a thunderous mix that fuses a number of different styles but is essentially industrial as fuck hardcore. An unmistakable underground edge that defines his sound. Ahead of the set, I catch up with LSA to pick his brains about his origins, his bloody excellent momentum in hardcore, and ermmm..... pegging.
HCBX: Alright Pascal! Thanks for agreeing to answer a few questions, and for the debut set on HCBXCast. How’s life treating you these days, and what’s been keeping you busy?
LSA: It's going well! Has been quiet for a while now, but there are finally some gigs coming up again and the next record of my label has gone into production too, so that's all great. Also working out a new hardware live setup, so that I can do that at gigs too!
HCBX: The set is an absolute cracker of Industrial hardcore. Tell me about how you pulled it together. Did you plan it out, or just hit record and go for it?
LSA: Thank you!! I just approached it the same way as I do for gigs. I always start by thinking about the vibe I want to convey, and then start picking out records that fit this. I do not play every weekend, and I really do want to give people the best I have, so my sets are pretty much always mostly planned ahead. I always want to put various styles in one mix, so I always also need to pick out "in-between" tracks, so that I can smoothly transition styles without it being too abrupt or obvious.
HCBX: What tracks or artists got you into this type or music initially. Do you have any favourite tracks from the early days?
LSA: When I started out as LSA I mostly just played Early Hardcore / Gabber - my favourite track from that time that pops into my mind is "Omar Santana - Wizard Of Oh". Other than that, it was mostly the Ruffneck and Cenobite people that inspired me.
For the (French) HardKore stuff I do now, I remember listening to Laurent Ho's mix on MCM. I heard it around the same time as I started as LSA. It was so different from all the other 90's Hardcore I heard at that point, and I did not fully understand it yet, but it did set a clear path for me that I would follow years later. All the tracks from that mix have become favorites of mine, but hearing that first (pitched up) track "Difficult Child - Big Bang" still gives me goosebumps.
HCBX: You’ve shared that as early as the age of 9 or 10, you were tinkering with hardcore in FL Studio under the alias “DJ Biohazard” — how did that happen? What got you into hardcore (and producing) at such an early age?
LSA: As long as I can remember I've always been into Hardcore, even before I actually knew what it was. I remember being very young, laying in bed way too early and not sleeping yet. I heard all the cars drive by, and sometimes I would hear these bass sounds with a high BPM coming from the cars' subs and I *LOVED* that. There was also a yearly festival around in my hometown when I was like 5 years old, which was loudly audible in our house. My parents hated it, I loved it. I later on discovered what it actually was, and have always been a Hardcore Head since. At that time though I mostly listened to mainstream (now millennium) and a bit of terror/speedcore.
I remember tinkering around with a shitty music maker program even before being 9/10, that was very limiting and you just put in premade loops or something. Don't remember a whole lot of it, but TBH I think it was a fun thing to play around with as a kid. After that, my dad arranged a copy of FL Studio for me and my brother with a Hardcore Sample pack. The stuff I made back then was absolute dogshit, but somehow the idea of being a Hardcore producer never left me.
HCBX: You eventually landed on “LSA” as a name — what's it stand for?
LSA: I hate the origin of my name, haha, and I've avoided this question for a long time now. When I started as LSA I was very much into that Psychedelic Hardcore stuff (think Ruffneck/Cenobite), and I was fully set on trying to make that style. I was also watching a lot of documentaries about drugs, just out of interest. DJ LSD seemed a bit too obvious, so I went with something close. LSA is like a similar but natural alternative to LSD that you can legally get in Smart Shops. Why I thought this was a good idea, I have no clue. People that know me well know that I've never used drugs and have no interest in it, and I've also moved on from the Psychedelic style of Hardcore. So, I don't really identify with the name anymore.
Since a few years it has been given a different meaning though, and not even by myself. It started out by Pardonax writing my name out as L.S.A. as if it were an abbreviation on his Sedation flyers.
I'm always tired late at parties (probably since I don't use dope, haha) and I've been caught asleep a few times. Because of that, Pardonax made up a meaning for the abbreviation. "Lethargic Sucker Audio" - a self-referencing nickname where I'm the Lethargic Sucker ;)
I've stuck with that since.
HCBX: You mention that for a long time you were almost isolated in the scene — you didn’t know other producers, organizers — and that made it hard to hammer out your sound. What kept you going?
LSA: Haha, that's the thing, I had actually kind of quit. At the start, I was too young to even go to parties so I did not meet people that way. I did try to get my style of Hardcore active again in my hometown (but it was not very successful). When I was finally old enough to go to a few parties, I did meet some people, but not really a lot of DJs and Producers.
I had a specific vision of the sound I wanted to make, but I did not know how. And at that time, there were of course no tutorials online on how to make authentic 90's psychedelic Hardcore, haha. Knowing no other producers as well, it was all up to me to figure it out. In the end, I got pretty close to the sound I wanted, but to keep up with coming up with new stuff was hard and frustrating. In 2015 I released the last LSA track of that period. I do have a millenium style track that I made early 2016, but I never released it.
I did continue DJing locally for a while after that, mostly at the youth center (where pretty much only I liked this stuff, haha), but that also got pretty boring. Also for the DJing side I never really dove into discovering more Hardcore (and especially did not have something like Soulseek to get vinyl rips), so I ended up playing the same tracks for too long and getting bored of DJing altogether. 100% my own fault. I played my last local party in the summer of 2017 (which was a pretty cool outdoor festival stage I organized with DJ Lunatic).
HCBX: Since then, your network has expanded, collaborations have grown, your label Aphotik Assault is active. What’s different now, for you, from then? And how is running a label?
LSA: Due to a certain person (which we'll talk about later on) I got back into the scene and met a ton of new people (and artists!). Talking with all these artists, working together and seeing how they do their thing has given me so much techniques and inspiration to work with.
Also, I started DJing with vinyl. With this I was able to find a ton of (obscure) material to play, which really gave me my love for DJing back.
About running the label, it feels weird. It all started out to just get our group's tracks on vinyl to play ourselves during sets. But now that we started doing publicly available releases, it's clear that there is a demand for our sound. I'm pretty introverted and my network is pretty small, so it just feels surreal to hear the label's tracks being played by other DJs.
HCBX: In 2016 you played your first gig outside of your hometown. Can you tell us how it came about, and what are your memories?
LSA: My brother and I occasionally did some design work for Early Gabbers, a Facebook Group that also sometimes organized parties. So, because they knew me, they booked me at one point. I felt really proud, but I was so incredibly stressed for weeks leading up to it. The gig went pretty shit because my self-taught DJing techniques absolutely sucked, so I was pretty unhappy afterwards. That, combined with the stress, really wanted to make me quit, and eventually I did. When I started again, I still had some issues where gigs gave me a ton of stress, but luckily that's all gone now.
HCBX: You've spoken about how in 2018, Pardonax reached out to you about your older tracks, reigniting your drive to produce and DJ. How was that? Did you get straight back into it?
LSA: It was pretty cool to get that message, asking if I still produced. I just silently went away at one point and didn't think people even still knew me. He kept on 'annoying' me, slowly getting my interest back. It actually took a while. I had all these 'rules' in my head about what my tracks should sound like, still stuck in what I originally wanted to do but couldn't. I also had this thing in my head that people expected a specific style of me as LSA.
That made it pretty difficult to get started again and motivation was still not that high. Eventually near the end of 2019 he started dragging me to parties, which caused me to meet some cool people (like I said before) which helped, but I still had these 'rules' in my head. To get rid of that, I started making some extreme stuff as HEADCRAP, just to get some more experience producing again, which greatly helped my productions as LSA. Now those rules are all gone and I just make whatever I want, hehe.
About DJing, pretty funny how that started again. I had been looking for years for a track I heard somewhere. Of course, Pardonax was able to ID that instantly and also sent me a seller on Discogs along with some cool and obscure stuff he was selling. I bought the records, and when I played them on my turntable (that wasn't meant for DJing) I just started screwing around with the record. That caused this "you know what..... this is kinda fun" moment, after which I bought legit turntables and started collecting vinyl. Thanks Pardonax, my wallet will never recover from this.
HCBX: I reached out to Pardonax to let him know you were coming to the show... he had a couple of questions for you. 1) Why is Pardonax a better producer than LSA. 2) Do you like to be pegged (not sure if he was offering...) - But seriously he wanted to know how you feel you are progressing and what your proudest moment has been in music?
LSA: Amazing.
1) I mean, I kind of have to agree. Just the way he does not give a fuck is inspiring. I should do that more often.
2) I will neither confirm or deny... But any goth baddies HMU.
3) I'm just always looking for new records and new techniques for producing, so I feel like I've been non-stop moving forwards for years. Especially in recent years my productions have gotten closer to the sound I also love to play in my DJ sets, which I'm really proud of. My proudest moment is hard to say. I've been proud of everything that I was able to do these last few years, from playing at the small private Sedation parties to playing for a full area on Madness XL, and now the release on Epiteth too.. So much to be proud of :)
HCBX: How do you approach your collaborations (like My Computer with Pardonax for example) — how do you approach working with someone else? Is it splitting stems, bouncing ideas off each other, or other ways?
LSA: Completely depends! For My Computer, Pardonax had already started the track and brought it into my studio, where we finished it together. Another time, we made a track where he just gave me 6 minutes of percussion, where I added some elements on top of.
Other times, with other producers, we just visited each other's studios and just started working from scratch, where we each just took turns adding stuff to the track.
HCBX: You are definitely gaining some serious momentum in hardcore techno. Do you have any highlights or memories you want to share from playing or getting involved in the scene?
LSA: I mean, the whole of 2024 was a big insane highlight. Aphotik Assault started getting real traction, I got booked in Italy and Germany and just had the most amount of gigs I've ever had before. I'm so insanely grateful for everything that happened.
HCBX: What's your gear setup like, both for DJing and producing? Have you stuck with FL Studio, or have you moved on?
LSA: For DJing I have these shitty Reloop RP4000mk2's. They work fine, but I cannot even properly put Tonar Banana needles on it because they keep on skipping (heard this issue from others with similar Reloops as well). As a mixer (and for the occasional time I have to spin digitally) I use an XDJ-RX. Since Pioneer's phono conversion absolutely suuuuuucks I had to get some external preamps.
Before that I used an A&H Xone:23, absolutely loved that thing.
For speakers I use Presonus Eris Studio 5's, not much to say about those, they sound pretty good.
For producing, most of the stuff I do is in FL Studio. Funnily enough, I built a sick hybrid studio last year. I never really used all the hardware I got though since it did not fit my workflow, which was a waste. Nowadays I mostly work with (self-made) samples, chopping them up a ton and adding FX beyond recognition.
I changed the hardware setup to mostly be focused on playing live, which I want to start doing again. Still got some of the stuff from my old studio, so now I have a Launchpad X, Launchcontrol, Eurorack modular, Behringer 2600, Behringer RD-9, Behringer TD-3, Mackie 32:8, a nice pair of Focal 65 Evo monitors, and a bunch of random effect pedals.
HCBX: Under your alias HEADCRAP, you go with more extreme music and speedcore. How do you get yourself into the two different aliases? Are you in different moods?
LSA: Mood never really has anything to do with it, haha. I can be really happy and make a dark and depressing track, or feel really shit and make something happy. It's just all about the inspiration I have at the moment I start making something.
HCBX: In 2024, HEADCRAP, played hardware live for the first time. How did that go in comparison to your usual performance style?
LSA: Yeah, that was sick. Pretty different from DJing. Spent months making sounds specifically to play live. Not sure if I'll do it again as Headcrap, but I did learn a ton from it and will apply those learnings on my new LSA live setup that I'm working on.
HCBX: As mentioned earlier, congratulations are in order for getting an LSA track onto the latest Epiteth record alongside some legendary producers - how did you get involved in this?
LSA: Thanks! This also still feels so surreal. I was working on a track that was meant for AA's 4th record, but then I saw that Hô posted on Instagram asking for demos for Epiteth. Normally, I don't approach labels to send demos, but for this I could not resist. If they would not accept it, it would've been released on vinyl either way. To my surprise, it was accepted and the response I've gotten from it was truly amazing. I'm incredibly thankful!
HCBX: Who are you listening to and who is inspiring you now in the hardcore techno scene?
LSA: Of course always the other AA guys (Pardonax, Arvid, Biscanna/Smoker/Ganjaz etc) inspire me a ton and make some of the best music in the scene IMO. There are so many more names to mention, but I won't for now. Don't want people to feel left out in case I forget a name ;) just check my reposts tab on Soundcloud to see what I really support, haha.
HCBX: You’re involved in a videogame project with your brother and design artwork as well. Must be different from producing hardcore tracks! Tell us about your other projects and what keeps you so creative?
LSA: I can just not sit still, haha. My mind is always going a hundred miles per hour, and I keep getting ideas for stuff I want to make. I won't say much about the game here, since I'm not here to promote that. But I can say that it's a very cute and wholesome adventure game (completely opposing my music style, haha) and the development is going well (albeit a bit slow since I have so much other stuff to work on). Every week I just focus on a different creative hobby to spend my time on. For now, it's mostly making music, making that game, making artwork for the scene (flyers and records), a bit of WH40K mini painting and some analog photography.
HCBX: What’s next for LSA / HEADCRAP — any other new releases, projects or gigs on the way?
LSA: I'll keep on going so there's always stuff coming! I will focus a bit less on producing for the coming time to focus on my new live setup. Got a backlog of unreleased or nearly finished material though, so tracks won't stop coming out. Gigs are finally coming in again after some months of silence. End of November I'm doing a sick b2b with Biscanna at the Zinloos Geluid release party. Also some more stuff coming up that has not been announced yet, so check my Insta for that :)
HCBX: Finally, anything else you want to get off your chest?
LSA: Yeah sure! You can't pretend you're 'different' from others if you're dancing in a sold out filled to the brim arena to your shitty hyper-commercial music. Stay small, stay humble, and go listen to some horrible noises. Cheers.
DJ LSA's set goes live here on Saturday 15th November here: HCBXCast Vol 72 - DJ LSA
Aphotik Assault is on Bandcamp here: Aphotik Assault
Follow DJ LSA on SoundCloud: LSA SoundCloud
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