Lukas Kwoczek, better known as 3uki (pronounced ‘three-you-key’) is one of the artists who can be characterised as ‘100% natural’. Slamming the keys on his dad’s electric piano well before he could talk, Kwoczek learnt to play drums at a preschool music group and spent 11 years in gruelling classical piano lessons until a school friend introduced him to David Guetta and Avicii. Between Lukas and EDM, it was love at first sight, and after his first big hit ‘Lose Control‘ feat. Micah Martin – over 1.5 million streams to date and counting – this relationship has grown stronger every minute and propelled him to produce melodically lush and harmonically dynamic variety of EDM similar to Kygo, Felix Jaehn, and Don Diablo, delivering stonking tunes for the heads around the world.
Born to a musical household in Salzgitter-Ringelheim, a village of 2000 inhabitants in Lower Saxony, Kwoczek reckons ‘music was already running in our blood.’ Amusing anecdote from a preschool music group confirms little Lukas was at it from day one. ‘I always wanted to play the drums,’ he recalls. ‘And the people who were hosting the whole thing, they were saying: ok, before you play the drums, you have to clap. And I remember that I just clapped and said: see, I can clap, so, please, give me the drums!’
The sheer power of a percussive instrument had an instant appeal to Kwoczek. ‘Beating the hell out of the drum kit was a very cool for me as a kid,’ he says, grinning. Being a fanboy of Travis Barker of Blink-182, Kwoczek and his school mates formed a band and started playing cover songs of songs by Blink 182, Green Day, and Red Hot Chilli Peppers. However, this was not meant to last.
Following in his older sister’s footsteps, he scrapped the plan of becoming the next Travis Barker and took up a melodic instrument instead. This path was not an easy one. ‘I always imagined it to be as easy as it looks like,’ he admits. ‘Classical training was super-hard for me.’ What followed was hours and hours of pure classics: ‘Fur Elise’ by Beethoven, ‘Rondo alla Turca’ by Mozart, to name a few. ‘There were some points where I was about to quit, and I said: oh, I don’t to play it anymore, it’s too hard for me.’
This is when EDM unexpectedly entered Kwoczek’s life. ‘I got an iPod from a friend at my own village with a lot of music on it,’ he explains. This was the perfect antidote to the daily commute of half an hour by train that bored him to tears. ‘Music gave me the possibility to daydream,’ Kwoczek explains. ‘And there were some songs that really pushed more into this.’ There were two particular tracks that were made for daydreaming ‘Love Is Gone’ by David Guetta and ‘Wake Me Up’ by Avicii. ‘That was so emotional, very inspiring for me,’ he remembers. ‘And I said: wow, this is… I want also to do something that makes other people feel the same way I feel about this song.’
That was the moment the Classical Music 101 got thrown away. Inspired by the DIY spirit of Martin Garrix who had produced the chartbusting track ‘Animals’ in his bedroom, Kwoczek equipped himself with YouTube tutorials and Cubase Lite he got off his piano teacher. Not long after that Kwoczek self-released his first single as 3uki titled ‘Never Let You Go’ featuring Lissie, a former classmate with whom he used to accompany with piano during breaks. His first major hit ‘Lose Control’ feat. Micah Martin came out in 2017, a track with over 1.5 million streams to date.
Whatever the future holds for Kwoczek, it very likely involves real instruments and intense collaborations. ‘Fred Again, he’s doing a lot of live drumming and playing piano, I really like this,’ Kwoczek states, beaming. ‘I saw him a few months ago doing this and I can also imagine doing some kind of hybrid.’
He also digs Parcels, an Australian band based in Berlin and signed to Because Music in France. ‘They’re doing indie-electro-pop music with a lot of Daft Punk -elements, the funky guitars and stuff like this,’ Kwoczek describes. ‘The lead singer [Jules Crommelin] has a very unique voice, actually, so I can imagine doing a song with them.’ That said, there are no points for guessing what he will be focusing on. ‘The main point should be DJing for the live gigs, yeah,’ Kwoczek clarifies.
We are waiting in anticipation.
Follow 3uki
Facebook – TikTok – Instagram – YouTube – Spotify
Listen to his last single ‘Back to Me’: https://3uki.lnk.to/backtome