Name: Luke Hess
Nationality: American
Occupation: Producer, DJ
Current release: Luke Hess' new album Arkeo is out May 9th 2025 via DeepLabs.
Recommendations: One of my all-time favorite books that I reference often is “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis. I highly recommend it!

If you enjoyed these thoughts by Luke Hess and would like to keep up to date with his music, visit him on Instagram, Facebook, and Soundcloud.

For a deeper dive, read our earlier Luke Hess interview.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colors.  What happens in your body when you are listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?
 
When I listen to good music I’m usually transported to a place I’d prefer to be.

Often times music helps me to escape my surroundings and if I’m exactly where I want to be then music helps set the mood and enhance the surroundings. When I re-listen to the music I’m transported back to a specific time and place.

I would say I typically listen to music with my eyes open. However, for a deep listening experience or when mixing/engineering my own music – closing my eyes helps me focus and heighten the sonic experience and open up further detail in sound, imagery, and imagination.

How do listening with headphones and listening through a stereo system change your experience of sound and music?

A pair of high-quality headphones, high fidelity stereo system, or a quality studio with proper acoustic treatment is a more personal listening experience. These controlled spaces are ideal for analyzing, perfecting, and enjoying music at a deeper level (or ignoring your surroundings).

Listening to music in a car with friends or listening to music at a club/festival is usually a very different experience because you’re enjoying/analyzing the music together as a group, creating memories based on the quality of the selector, or the music is acting as a catalyst for a heightened experience.

Tell me about some of the albums or artists that you love specifically for their sound, please.

I have different playlists and enjoy different artists for different reasons including time of day, seasons, location, mood, or who I’m hanging out with – as I’m sure it is with most people.

When the sun is out in the Summer or I want the sun to come out – I usually listen to dub – artists like Scientist, Tappa Zukie, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Rhythm & Sound, King Tubby, etc.



When it’s snowing, I enjoy ambient music or jazz – Deepchord/Echospace, Borderland, Pole, Miles Davis, Harry James, John Coltrane, Okonski, Kham Meslien, Nils Frahm, etc.



In the Spring/Fall I’m all over the place like the weather in Michigan – J Dilla, Khruangbin, Loud Harp, Kikagaku Moyo, Carlo Vinci, Pink Floyd, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Bremer/McCoy, Omar S, Slum Village, Jeff Parker, Gigi Masin, DJ Shadow, Massive Attack, +++++++.

[Read our Stefan Betke / Pole interview]
[Read our Peter Kruder interview]
[Read our interview review of Okonski's Entrance Music]

Do you experience strong emotional responses towards certain sounds? If so, what kind of sounds are these and do you have an explanation about the reasons for these responses?

I tend to respond or resonate with sounds that remind me of being immersed in nature.

I take a yearly trip to Glacier National Park in Montana for some hiking and to visit very close family friends for the last 20 years. When I hear birds, insects, and streams I tend to become nostalgic and long for a trip back into the mountains.

There can be sounds which feel highly irritating to us and then there are others we could gladly listen to for hours. Do you have examples for either one or both of these?

I strive to focus on the positive so I’ll give an example of an ideal sound that I could listen to for hours:

A nice chord progression from a Prophet 5 – Rev.3.2 through a RE-201 Roland Space Echo at around 110 bpm mixed in and side chained against the shallow and rocky area of the Au Sable River on a warm summer evening near a stream-side campsite with a bit of fire crackling in the background, along with some frog croaks & cricket chirps & bird songs sprinkled in.

This all sounds really nice at the moment because it’s cold in the D!

Are there everyday places, spaces, or devices which intrigue you by the way they sound? Which are these?

A short story of an intriguing place that offered extraordinary sounds was a tunnel on the side of the mountain in Glacier National Park on Going-to-the-Sun Road.

You can park your car near the tunnel and look out over the mountain cliff some 3,500 ft into the valley below. The mountain tunnel creates the perfect recipe for a stunning natural reverb.

I took some recordings of claps and stones with the natural reverb that the tunnel created and added these samples into my track “Hiketeria” on my new album Arkeo.

Have you ever been in spaces with extreme sonic characteristics, such as anechoic chambers or caves?  What was the experience like?

I’ve been into several caves and the experience was quite chilling from the sounds of dripping water, echoes of footsteps, and people breathing. All sounds are obviously more prominent due to the lack of external noise. However, because I was with a group, I didn’t experience the silence as much as it would be possible if exploring the cave alone.

I did, however, try a float tank experience aka sensory deprivation / float therapy. For the first 20 minutes or so of the 1-hour float I found it hard to relax since the float pod was completely black and there was absolutely no sound at all. However, after acclimating to my surroundings I found that minimized sensory input, even ambient noise, combined with the feeling of weightlessness from floating, was extremely calming and therapeutic in many ways.

Float tanks are documented to have several benefits including stress reduction, pain relief, improved sleep, increased creativity, and enhanced mental clarity. I would say I did experience reduced stress and increased creativity after that float!  Shout out to my man Sean who owns Motor City Float!

What are among your favorite spaces to record and play your music? Do music and sound feel “material” to you?  Does working with sound feel like You are sculpting or shaping something?

My favorite space to record music is my own home studio. There are no time limits, there are no rules, there are no restrictions, there is no pressure, there are plenty of snacks and good coffee. There is something very physical about recording music in my studio.

I not only have to think about each sound that I’d like to create, but I also must spend time “patching” each sound from a synth, drum machine, sampler into a series of effects and then into my mixing board. I enjoy the time spent during this process because it keeps me very intentional about the sound I’m going to create, and I usually record each sound for 10-20 minutes and pull sections from the performance for the final track sequence.

My favorite space to DJ so far has been Berghain and Tresor – both venues have booked me consistently over the years and now when I go back, I feel very comfortable in the booth – this comfort allows me to push boundaries and experiment more with my selections and create blends that are longer and more intricate.

I can also hear what I’m doing in the booth very well and it gives me confidence that I’m taking people in the audience to the same place that I’m at in the booth.

How important is sound for our overall well-being and in how far do you feel the “acoustic health” of a society or environment is reflective of its overall health?

Unfortunately, we can’t always control the “acoustic health” of our surroundings. A quarrelsome acquaintance, construction outside our home, the sounds of a busy office environment, the daily grind that may not allow us the ability to enjoy the ambient aural reset button of nature’s sounds – all these examples and more can build up over time and effect our well-being.

Take a trip to a mountain town, walk a beach on an island coast, get lost at a music festival with a seasoned DJ/musician, float a river through the woods when the trout are running, sip some tea and read a book while listening to your fireplace crackle – all these examples can definitely improve our well-being and you can usually see the positive effect of these sounds on the faces of those immersed in these settings.

However, just like any sense and stimulation, we have the ability to control our perspectives and surroundings by our thought patterns around these sounds and stimuli. Paul said it best in Philippians 4:11-13:

“Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you have had with these non-human-made sounds?
 
Nature is music. The organic ambience is all around us every day.

Some of the most healing sounds are those found in nature: the wind blowing through trees, the sounds of a river stream, rain on a lake, the cadence of insects in the forest, the crackling of a fire, and even sounds of industry i.e. a component production line can be inspiring. It’s natural white noise and can be an incredible source of rest and peace.

Field recordings of these types of sounds are still a large part of my sound palette when building tracks. For example my first album - Light in the Dark - has my field recordings for ambience in the background of almost every track.
 


We can surround us with sound every second of the day. The great pianist Glenn Gould even considered this the ultimate delight. How do you see that yourself and what importance does silence hold?

Silence is an essential element in music as well is in life.

Silence in classical music notation is represented by “rest” markings to denote moments where nothing is played. These moments build tension, prepare the listener for something, give syntax to a piece of music, and can create space and calm during a performance. This can be an effective tool during long DJ sets as well – using crescendos and decrescendos to build for incredible moments on the dancefloor.

In my personal life, silence holds an equally essential role for a rich a full life. Studying God’s word is a part of my daily routine. This time includes reading, studying, research, considering the application of the text, and prayer. In this silence I’m quieting myself, my personal wants, hopes, and even needs, and making room for what God wants for me and what He values and holds in high regard for a life well lived.

This time of silence has a powerful transformative effect on my perspective, my character, and my availability towards others.

Seth S. Horowitz called hearing the “universal sense” and emphasized that it was more precise and faster than any of our other senses, including vision. How would our world be different if we paid less attention to looks and listened more instead?

I think every person filters and processes what they see and hear differently.  Each person interprets and perceives things accordingly to their spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and physical maturity in their heart and mind.

The world would absolutely be a better place if we “judged people according to the content of their character instead of the color of their skin” – i.e. paid less attention to looks and listened more intently to each other with kindness, patience, love, understanding, and less judgment.

This is obviously an issue in our music and entertainment industry as well. I think we can all benefit from listening to music and to our fellow human beings on a deeper level. Not only would our music collections and promotional channels be filled up with more interesting and exciting music, but our relationships would likely be deeper and much more fulfilling.

The bible says that each person was made with a purpose, we all have intrinsic human value, and we were made in the image of God. Ephesians 2:10 says,

“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”

That is an amazing privilege and awesome responsibility. But with proper application, this will allow us to do things like love our enemies, give grace to our fellow human beings when we make mistakes (just as we hope people will forgive us when we make a mistake), and listen more intently to people before simply judging them by their outward appearance or affiliations.

This is the theme of my first DeepLabs record – Sound Mind EP.



The idea behind the release was to be “Quick to Hear”, “Slow to Speak”, and to “Incline Your Ear” to understanding.