Producers create, players elevate—and Lbert is the ultimate player. With a keen ear for the finest deep, progressive, melodic, and occasional techno grooves, Lbert curates and mixes tracks that ignite dance floors everywhere.
From beachy lounge vibes to Ibiza club energy and melodic techno journeys, Lbert’s sets are as diverse as they are immersive. A passionate digger of underground gems, his mission is simple yet powerful: to bring music, culture, and people of all ages together, transforming any venue into a happy place to dance. After all, why pay for therapy when you can dance it out?
As a resident DJ for The Deep Club, Meerradio, and SAM Ibiza Radio, Lbert’s talent has taken him to gigs at Shinypeople, Nachtruis, Brak, The Bas[s]ment, and beyond—including several years at Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE).
Off the decks, Lbert wears many hats. As a Dance Programmer at Cpunt in Hoofddorp (Netherlands), he blends his organizational skills with his love for connecting like-minded, dance-loving souls. Whether behind the booth or building the scene, Lbert is all about spreading joy through music.
Get ready to dance, connect, and feel the vibe—because with Lbert, every beat is a journey! Tune in to his guest mix and enjoy his story.
Connect with Lbert on Mixcloud / Instagram
Can you tell us about your introduction to DJing and how you discovered your passion for deep -, progressive house and melodic techno?
DJing starts with listening. For me, there was a clear point in time when underground dance music caught on to me. It was through the radio show For Those Who Like To Groove (FTWLTG) by Robin Albers aka Jaydee which was aired around 1992. The early days of the house sound and dance scene. From there on things started going wrong ;-).
As a member of The Deep Club, how has being part of this collective influenced your growth as a DJ and your sound?
Being part of these collectives makes it possible to organize events en collaborate with other DJ’s and organisations in playing venues and stages. We keep each other humble and sharp and simply have lots of fun entertaining audiences. Also switching from opening, peak time, closing and playing back 2 back lets all of us grow musically as an artist. We all have an attitude of bringing the right quality tunes and tracks and therefore there is no need to play at insane volumes or having high bpm’s.
How would you describe your signature style, and what do you want people to feel or experience when they hear your sets?
The style I’d like to refer to is Deep from Beachy Lounge to Ibiza Club to Melodic Techno. I dig up fresh tracks from the underground and surprise people with happy danceable beats en melodies from all cultures (Afro, Middle Eastern, Indie and Western dance). My mission is to mix music, DJ’s, culture and people of all ages and in a way that transfers a venue in a happy place to dance.
Which artists, places, or moments have had the biggest impact on your musical journey so far?
Besides the radio attending (illegal) festivals and parties like de Luna, de Hoeve and Marcanti ignited the love for dance. Further on the pre-corona Solomun was hugely inspiring. The main inspiration for me is a lot of colleague DJ’s and the incredible amount of great tracks produced every day. Listing and finding the pearls is besides a lot of work a truly great source of inspiration.
How do you approach building a set? Do you have a particular process for selecting tracks and creating a narrative?
I first choose the style fitting the purpose and event. My set a mainly divided in three big groups namely Deep, Club or Techno. For an hour I select around 20 – 30 tracks most recently found. Then I create an in-key path. Roughly scroll if it works. See what needs to be added, deleted and adjusted. Delete some and add what’s missing, which mostly comes from some older finds. Again depending on the setting I chose my path through the selection. For a solo radio show, I choose an opener track and work on it from there. If I take over from another DJ mostly I pick a matching key and work from there onwards. Depending on the setting in an hour I wind up somewhere between 13 to 18 tracks telling the story of that moment.
What draws you to the intersection of melodic techno and progressive house, and how do you balance those elements in your performances?
I like to give the progressive sound a bit of bite with beats, vocals and sounds out of other genres like deep -, afro -, indie house and melodic techno. Especially for the dancing audience, it’s a way to keep the train rolling, the camels bumping and/or the horses riding as you like.
What are your goals as a DJ? Are there specific venues, festivals, or milestones you dream of achieving?
My goal and goal for The Deep Club is to add a great venue to the dance scene in our hometown Hoofddorp. Become a place where people know that quality dance guarantee is delivered and is the heart and soul of our visitors and very limited annoying advertisements and social announcements are needed to get a full room. And also give new talent a spot to perform.
Besides our weekly 2-hour radio show on Meerrradio we recently also have a weekly radio show aired on Ibiza via SAM Ibiza Radio. Someday playing at a venue in Ibiza for sure is a bucket list thing. A small stage on a quality festival like Loveland, Into the Woods, Komm schon alter, e.g. would be incredible. And bringing deep and progressive sounds to e.g. Mysteryland also of course would be amazing. Playing as the only ugly white guy and seeing if I can keep up in a lineup with musically gifted Afro Deep Tech DJ’s would also be a cool experiment. And further, I hope to play with lots of amazing colleague DJ’s at Amsterdam Dance Event for many many years to come.
As an aspiring DJ, what advice would you give to others looking to break into the melodic techno and progressive house scene?
Still learning every day so I don’t know if it’s up to me to give advice but the way I roll is to have fun, let the music play and find my own pad. There are so many ways to find your way in the scene. Do you produce or do you find, curate and play the best-produced tracks? Are you more traditionally skilled or do you become that DJ that knows and uses all the buttons there are? And how much time can and do you invest in one or the other? How much effort do you put in socials? Do you organize events and networking and/or have a booker? Use a ghost producer or not? Do you have, articulate and debate an opinion on others, the habits and/or the scene or not? Do you play the pioneers or other gear or even perform live with drum computers and synth’s?
Don’t let the opinions of others on what’s right or wrong, or the best way or the worst way bother you. Choose the way that fits you. But that’s just my opinion.
Thank you!
