Introducing Luude's new side project, Choomba

We've been big fans of Perth legend Luude for basically forever, watching his glow-up from a local young-gun to an international one-to-watch who can sell out big shows on the east coast with every release. When we last caught up with him mid-last-year, he'd just returned from China/India with his sights set on an Australian run of headline dates, teasing a bunch of shows that promised to be huge (they were) and some new material that also sounded huge (it is), the most recent of the latter being an extremely chill collaboration with none other than British DJ/producer Example. There's a lot more to come, with a big 2019 planned for Luude, but in the meantime, we'd like to introduce you to a little project called Choomba.

It's a new side-alias by Luude and his cousin Tim Benson, who in the midst of a trip to Amsterdam last year, conceived the project to create a new creative outlet unbound by the expectations and sound of what you'd expect from Luude. Instead, it's something more on the house side of electronic music, targetting the club music side of things that the characteristically heaving bass of a Luude track doesn't quite cater for. There's not too much to say at the moment - there's an EP expected to arrive next month with a debut headline tour in the pipeline sometime after that - so in a bid to learn a bit more about the project and to check in on all things Luude, we caught up with the king himself. Check it all out below.

Mates! Hello! So Choomba is your new side-project with your cousin – can you give us a bit of an introduction to the project and what to expect?

So, the project is me and my cousin Tim. We’re just having a hellll fun time at the moment and this is a new outlet for music. People should expect nothing but a good time from a pair of idiots.

How did the idea to do something new come about, and did anything encourage you to make the move?

Tim and I have just been on a party vibe all summer and while I was touring overseas, the music was coming super easy. The music sits outside my plans with Luude, so it was just a no brainer to team up and do something new.

It’s obviously quite a different project to what we’d expect from Luude – most obvious that re being that it’s a lot more house-leaning. Does the Choomba project give you the opportunity to start fresh and do something new, rather than it take away from the more bass stuff of Luude?

Yeah, 100%. It’s actually super exciting getting to do something new and building it up - especially because it’s so different to what I’ve already done. A lot of people warned me that having a side project would detract from Luude, but I think that’s kind of dumb - this is just another extension of what I like to make, people can like one project, the other or both and that’s sick.

You mention that the tracks were written while on a trip over in Amsterdam – can you take us back to how it came about and what the process was like?

Haha fuck, pretty funny story really. Tim and I were crashing at our managers (one bedroom) hotel for the whole of ADE. So we all got to have a nice spoon every night. It was a week-long whirlwind of going to shows every day/night - we’d get home at weird hours and just be gee’d up, so instead of sleeping we’d sit on the laptop and churn out tunes.

Can you tell us a bit about the EP? Anything else we haven’t covered already?

It’s coming out on Feb 13th and available for pre-order on the 31st - a bit of a fun fact - after those first few writing sessions we ended up finishing the whole thing on a Makita tradie speaker on a kitchen table because I didn’t have a studio set up at my new place.

What should people expect from CHOOMBA across the rest of the year? Anything else major in the pipeline?

We’ve got a heap of tunes lined up for the year after the EP and tour dates already locked in starting next month. Outside that just taking everything as it comes - we just wanna get this out there and do as much as possible with it.

And obviously this doesn’t mean the end of Luude, but what have you got in the works solo-wise for the year if you don’t mind giving a sneaky hint?

Yeah heaps on for Luude, I’ve been writing heaps and trying to push what I’m doing. I’ve got a new single which will be out in March and might drop a few free things between now and then - have been inspired by heaps of Tame Impala, MGMT and cool older stuff, so bringing that warmer organic vibe into a heavier Luude sound is what people can expect in the near future.

Working on a crazy new touring concept too which is pretty I am bloody stoked about. Can’t wait for people to see that. Will be touring it around everywhere starting in April.

Follow Choomba: FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM