It's not even been six months since his hit remix of Men At Work's 'Down Under' catapulted Luude – aka Christian Benson – to fame.
Thanks to the success of his electronic take on the Aussie classic, the drum & bass artist is about to wrap up a national Australian tour when he speaks to scenestr, having sold out all but one show on the run.Next he'll take off to New Zealand on tour, with a stint in Europe and the UK (including appearances at Creamfields, Reading Festival and Tomorrowland) following immediately.
The rate at which Christian's life has changed because of that one song is, he says, crazy.
"Honestly, I just made it for a bit of fun, just to chuck in my sets, just because I thought it would be funny to play in my Aussie sets," Christian admits.
"Now it's become, like, this whole thing!"
It's been non-stop for Luude. The start of this year saw him perform a handful of festivals and in between that and this tour stretch, he tried to "smash out" about a year's worth of music in about three months.
Something, Christian says, he does so he's not stressed out about having new material when he finds himself overseas.
"You get to work with people you used to look up to," Christian says of his fast-paced adventure. "I'm pretty stoked with it."
Prior to the success of his 'Down Under' remix, Christian had built his career off the back of a slew of singles. On average, he's released two tracks a year since 2015.
The fractured output of material under his Luude moniker came, Christian says, because he "wasn't having much fun with Luude stuff" and was busy with his other project, Choomba.
"The last two years I've been knuckling down and making a lot of drum & bass [as Luude]. But yeah, I have been putting out music as Luude for years, and now a remix is the one that really takes off, it's crazy!"
This summer, Luude will be appearing at Falls Festival.
Bringing in the New Year alongside other producers and DJs, not to mention the slew of indie and pop acts also on the line-up, Christian says the vibe from his performance is often the same as when he's billed solo.
"You want to put on the best performance you can – it's a festival, everyone in the crowd, you want them to be having so much fun. End of the day, it's a performance, that's how I look at it, as long as the crowd's having fun, you're doing alright.
"Funnily enough, Falls [Festival] is the first festival I ever went to growing up, and it's pretty crazy to now be on the line-up."
And of that line-up, there's a few artists Christian is itching to see.
"For sure Arctic Monkeys, I absolutely love them! "Lil Nas X, I'm a Lil Nas fanboy. Amyl And The Sniffers, it's such a good line-up, there's a bit of everything!
"Even Ocean Alley, they're one of my favourite bands. PinkPantheresss I've been listening to so much in the last year. . . there are probably too many to name that I'd like to see [at Falls]."
Falls Festival 2022-2023 Dates
29-31 Dec - Pennyroyal Plains (Colac)31 Dec to 2 Jan - North Byron Parklands (Byron Bay)
7-8 Jan - Fremantle Park (Fremantle)
Falls Festival 2022-2023 Line-up
Arctic MonkeysLil Nas X
Peggy Gou
Chvrches
Jamie xx
Aminé
Ocean Alley
CamelPhat
Spacey Jane
DMA'S
G Flip
PinkPantheress
Rico Nasty
Amyl And The Sniffers
Mall Grab
Ben Böhmer (LIVE)
DJ Seinfeld
Genesis Owusu
TSHA
CC:Disco!
Young Franco
Anna Lunoe
Luude
Lastlings
May-A
Choomba
The Vanns
King Stingray
Peach PRC
Beddy Rays
Jean Dawson
Telenova
Biscits
Barry Can't Swim
Floodlights
Elkka
Wongo
Yng Martyr
1300
Moktar
Magdalena Bay
Dameeeela
Ebony Boadu
Elsy Wameyo
Rona.
Juno Mamba
Plus more to be announced
