DJ MAG UK [Print edition April 2017]

Luke Santos can handle the pressure: two of his highest profile DJs shows since he became paralysed from the neck down in 2002 have been nerve-racking season finale-style epics: Firstly his comeback gig, Santiago Love Parade in 2006 where he played a beta version of Tracktor live for the first time to an audience of 300,000. Then again, last year where he debuted another brand-new technology – the Glassouse mouse pointer glasses – to a packed-out Global Underground crowd at Amsterdam Dance Event.

“I was afraid that I was going to use it for the first time in front of a large audience,” he admits. “But I did it with Tracktor, I could do it again! That’s what drives me – the adrenalin and breaking new frontiers.”

Madly, Luke was going to quit music after his first comeback. But a few years after settling from Argentina to Amsterdam in 2008 the music bug came calling again… As did Glassouse, who’ve introduced him to technology that have dramatically increased his abilities. As did Global Underground, where his rich, redolent atmospheric sounds are the perfect fit. With new releases and new way of controlling his life, this marks the start of new chapter. Luke Santos 2.0: a DJ with 25 years of experience and an understanding of his unique role and how he can convert sceptical crowds.
“People are curious,” he agrees. “I’ve heard many stories of people in the Global Underground party who were looking for different music and all of a sudden there’s this guy on a chair with some Daft Punk style device on his head. It’s something people aren’t used to, there aren’t many people performing in this way. But by the time they leave they will know it’s not about whether you play standing up, sitting down or doing cartwheels, it’s about the sound and the music. That’s the only thing that matters: the emotions you’re able to transmit with your music.”

Expect him to transmitting emotions well into the future with forthcoming material on Global Underground and a further developments with Glassouse technology. The story of Luke Santos 2.0 continues…

Luke remains at the forefront of technology. He’s now sponsored by a company called Glassouse; head-guided mapped mouse control glasses with a mouth control for clicks.

“It gives me a rainbow of possibilities that is beyond what I had with my right arm,” says Luke. “There’s a lot more control and so much faster. The best thing is the guys who made it never imagined someone would use it to play music.”

Dave Jenkins – DJ MAG UK