Lyktum interview

PM: Hi there, Lyktum. Let’s start from the basics for the people that don’t know you: Who you are and where are you from?

Lyktum: Hello, My name is Dejan Jovanovic, I have a project called Lyctum, created at the end of 2011, I’m from Belgrade, Serbia.

PM: How you started with psytrance?

Lyktum: I started around the year 2003, I have an older brother who was into psychedelic trance back in the day, around 11 years ago I started listening to it, cause he was pumping up the volume so hard that I simply loved the vibrations for the basslines, and approx 1 year after I start with a kickoff into a more productive way and I also started going out on parties to meet the scene and people. A couple of years after that I started getting booked in my country and just a few more years after I got gigs all around the world.

PM: How you got involved with psytrance production?

Lyktum: Just a simple interest in the psytrance genre. It became a part of my life so fast and it influenced me, creativity-wise.

PM: Is it true that your album was the second best-selling album of 2012 and how this made you feel?

Lyktum: Yes, of course, it’s true. It made me feel truly blessed, the feeling of being played all around is magnificent.

PM: What gig you consider as the highlight of your career till now?

Lyktum: Very difficult question by the way, I can’t say only one, cause lately all gigs started looking fantastic, greatly done with a bunch of effort, but my favorite 5 so far are Universo Paralello, Timegate, Hadra, Mandallah and P.L.U.R. festival, cause I have them printed instantly in my mind, happy and good times, never to forget!

PM: Is there any festival that you would like to play and you didn’t till today?

Lyktum: Sure, of course, Ozora, BOOM, Sun, Maitreya, Rainbow Serpent, Fusion and the list goes on.

PM: A lot of people that reading us now are involved with Music Production, speak to us a little bit about the production part of your tracks.

Lyktum: If concerning the mix, make all your sounds first enjoyable to your ears and then check the meters. If concerning the ideas, Go out in the nature, make new experiences in life with pure souls, get that great positive energy and transmit it to your sound production. It works great for me!

PM: Any favorite DAW and/or VST’s these days?

Lyktum: FL Studio, Massive, Sylenth and of course, old school VST’s!

PM: What is your studio set as of today?

Lyktum: So far I haven’t put much effort on it cause lately, I became a mobile producer and it’s impossible for me to shut some ideas down when I feel it in some hotel or gigs far away from home, but I started building a pro 30 square meters studio for myself and it’s about to get done! Focal monitors, AKG k141 MkII. CME UF50, Traktor Audio DJ 2, Korg nano, Korg key, Korg kaossilator 2. 3 Laptops and a PC.

PM: Where you see our scene going in the upcoming years?

Lyktum: Speaking about producers/artists.. sadly, It’s not going on a good way that much, there are few individuals who I really respect for their efforts, but nowadays there are more commercial material than ever, some styles that want to sound like psychedelics but they are too empty in atmosphere kind of way. Not so creative, just basically, dry kick/basslines with a simple square osscialtion going bloop bloop bloop, uplift before the drop, and it comes again and again, so it’s kind of boring and uncreative in my opinion, so I cannot really appreciate this kind of evolution in psytrance. Offbeat is also there registred as psytrance wanna be. I think offbeat should be in a different genre. But hey, who cares, the majority says it’s awesome, so it’s awesome. About the psytrance scene/parties, truly amazing! keep it up promoters, we want to see fake spaceships on the parties full of decorations and atmospheric lights.

PM: Is there any particular message you wanna send to all the psytrance lovers out there?

Lyktum: Yes, turn off your TV and go out have blissfull experiences! Work hard for your goals cause life is amazing!

PM: That sounds like awesome advice! Thank you very much for your time Dejan and we wish you all the best for your career!

Lyktum: Thank you! Good luck with your magazine and to your journey.