Cain Culto: Cowboy Boots and All

Amara Korinko: This tour has been your first long term exposure to performing in the US. What are some key aspects you've noticed about American crowds in comparison to European techno culture?

Luca Eck: Actually yes, I really love the American crowd. I was surprised, because obviously Europe has a lot of thoughts about the U.S. and people usually feel like Europe is the “real deal”, but it can get into people's heads. Here, there's more of an exploratory energy. In Berlin, people tend to focus on one specific genre and are a bit less open to sets that are as genre fluid as mine usually are. Here, people are way more used to this hybrid crossover sound where I can play a trap song followed by an electrocrash song followed by some hardstyle and it still works and people are really excited by it.

I feel like in Berlin especially, but also other European cities, sometimes the people take themselves too seriously in the club. Especially at the scene-y parties with the new hyped artists, everyone is just standing, looking, scanning outfits. People are not letting loose as much. With this tour and the American crowd, everybody was not that pretentious and not that serious and people were really just letting go and a lot more open.

You and Miss Bashful are more than collaborators but genuine friends. Tell me what was the rose and thorn of producing Glamour Snobby? Did it reveal anything to you about yourself/your creative process?

It was a really, really enjoyable process throughout. We actually didn't know each other before we started working on the album. We had briefly met here and there, but it was when she wanted to produce a new album and was looking for a new sound that was more pop and experimental. Our mutual booking agent connected us and put us in the studio together, and we just really clicked from the first moment and became besties. In the beginning, we just wanted to make one song. But then every time we did a session, and we just wanted to finish the song that we started, we would make a new song idea. After a few studio sessions we were like 'Fuck, this is an album!'

It was a really great process. It was definitely a challenge to find time because we both have very intense schedules but we always found it. It was cute to have the tour there, also to serve as a deadline too like, 'Ok by the time the tour is happening, we want the music to come out'. With having ADHD, having deadlines always helps.

Also, with art I always think how can you ever say something is finished? 

Absolutely, I could never, someone has to forcibly take me away.

This album is full of provocative and humorous lyrics, reflecting the openness both of you share to vagarity. Do you have a favorite line?

I love "Fake Designer Bitch" the most. I love all the lyrics, I think it's very well written, all the wordplay on designer brands.

Mine is off "Girlz On Tour" — bitch, I can’t fuck, I got a vape in my butt.

Actually, that might be the one.

You’ve been speaking the language of music since the age of 5, and I love to ask multilingual people what language they think in. So, in your day to day, do you ever think in terms of musicality, or do you ever notice that your musical fluency influences the way you observe the world?

Absolutely. I think I constantly have some type of music or sounds in my head, could be a melody that exists already that is just stuck in my head on repeat. But it sometimes gets really exhausting, especially if I do work on music, my brain will get so into the flow and obsessively remember sounds and melodies and go on to repeat those uncontrollably.

I started doing mindful transduction courses last year and that helped me to ground myself a bit more in the moment because it was getting really overwhelming. I would have so much sound stuck in my head and it started affecting the way I listen to music to be honest. My friends always find it quite shocking because it's unexpected, but when Spotify Wrapped comes around I have the least minutes [of listening] out of all my friends because whenever I listen to music I can’t relax too much anymore. My brain automatically goes into the song, strips it into its parts, and then tries to analyze how certain songs are created, combined, mixed.

And so when I listen to music my brain goes into this analytic work mode. Sometimes I feel like making music has come at a cost of emotionally experiencing other people’s music. I really enjoy listening but it's more of a head rather than a heart thing.

As a self-proclaimed workaholic, where do you seek your inspiration and motivation?

Really randomly, honestly. Usually by listening to music; I will always listen to something and then think about how I can bring this into my world. Or I will discover a new artist. That’s why I love doing collaborations so much because that’s where I really thrive artistically, in this kind of huge and hybrid realm.

That also somehow relates to being non binary because I hate to think in black and white. My whole life, I’ve always been drawn to things that are the inbetween of two things and not one or the other. So that serves as my key inspiration, this inbetweenness and the fusion of genres and cultures because I just love to work with artists from across the globe, especially from other queer subcultures.

There seems to be a lot of similarity in developing your own sound and also solidifying your own non-binary identity, in terms of people telling you to conform to one thing or another and choosing to exist outside the normative. You’ve claimed being non-binary has shaped your understanding of music, but has music shaped your understanding of gender expression?

I think being a musical artist has allowed me to embrace my gender identity more and be more comfortable embracing it and expressing it in everyday life. If I wasn't a musical artist then I would be working a day job where chances are the acceptance of that would be way lower than it is in the music industry, so it's definitely given me an environment in which it is easier to be out and open than in a lot of other work environments.

It's introduced me to so many beautiful queer people that made me learn a lot about myself and get this community feeling of 'Hey you're not alone, there's actually so many other people and they're thriving.' This really allowed me to find my people.

You once quoted, “we have such dark times politically and as a society, that I think we need some silly escape where we can be hedonistic.” I agree this should be the foundation of nightlife, a form of escapism, yet — as you also said — it cannot be a distraction to real world issues. Do you have any take on how the club can be a scene for change, or if that’s even necessary?

I think it’s absolutely necessary. All the subcultures are always born out of political unrest or some big societal change and by the time that club nights lose their political roots, they're not subculture anymore. By the time that you’re putting on the club night for financial gain and not for the political nature of it anymore, then that’s more capital related than creating a space for people.

I think that's why techno has also decreased a bit in its coolness in Berlin. I also produce my own events in Berlin and I can tell you that it is close to impossible to make a profit from an event if you want programming that's ahead of its time and have a production standard and pay everyone halfway fairly, whereas a lot of the techno events in the city can generate such a big profit but they're not as community based.

You have an app in development — Takt (meaning beat in German) — in Berlin and coming soon to other global cities that aims to be a more intimate, community-focused alternative to the likes of Resident Advisor. What is the core philosophy behind the app and its carefully curated applicant process?

I believe that people have really come to use the word 'gatekeeping' in lots of different ways and they've shed it in such a negative light where it doesn't really live up to the term anymore. There's a difference between not telling your friend about an event and not telling all of Instagram about an event.

A lot of subcultures die if they become only this commodified thing in the mainstream, so it makes sense to have some sort of control over who is in a space, also to keep it a safe space for everyone. People often say 'oh you shouldn't do door selection' and things like that but, for example, in Spain, to the best of my knowledge, it’s illegal to do door selection other than if somebody is super drunk. But because of that, you have all these straight men and party tourists coming into queer spaces and really ruining the space for a lot of people.

That's why I think selection can be a necessity. It's not about excluding people, it’s more about making sure the space can still be inclusive for everyone it was intended for. It’s more about rewarding those who always show up to the function and make a scene what it is. Guest lists always give to people who can afford the entry anyways and not necessarily to the people who are really shaping the community, so I think that's kinda the core idea behind that.

Not exclusion but curation. You can't include people without excluding someone, that's a simple paradox.

In Berlin, we were validating that idea now and it's a very tough place for it because people in Berlin notoriously hate new things and hate digital things, which I also respect in a way but it's just a bit silly.

You can make profit and actually do good things with new inventions. We’re really hoping to bring it to a lot of cities and have it be a global thing/community across cities, asking them to take part in the culture that they've been priced out of. I don't blame the people pricing the tickets either because you have to break even but, just thinking about new ways to let people party again without spending that much money.

You have a soft spot for 2010s music, as most of our generation does. For me, I believe this nostalgia-driven fondness for that era and its music stems from a longing for a more simplified time that we barely caught. They had just enoguh access to technology to give us electronic music, but not enough to have phones out on the dancefloor. Do you have any thoughts on this notion? Or what about that era of music is so profound for you?

I 100% agree with you. I think why I’m drawn to it is probably a very subconscious thing because that was the first time I was introduced to electronic music and also the first time that I started consuming music very consciously. Before I was a teenager, my music taste would be very dictated by the CDs that my parents had or what was on the radio. Then I discovered some CDs my parents had that were more that eurodance, 2010s electronic-leaning sound and that was the first thing that inspired me to become an active listener and intentionally consume music. I started digging for music for the first time.

It's a very important phase in our generation, that transition from childhood into adolescence. It makes sense that we are now very affected still by that sound, because it was occurring during the same time as such a transition in our lives.

I love your look of sleek bangs and long extensions. Have you considered other hairstyles, or does this feel like your brand image, and what about it feels you?

It’s me! I think I’m never gonna change it, I’m just gonna let it grow longer and longer. I’ve had this hairstyle in one form or the other for 12 years now. First, I had shaved in the back with the bangs and for 6 years now I’ve been growing the back. 2 years ago I started playing with extensions. The briefing I always give for photoshoots is that I want very femme hair and makeup but masculine styling so having long hair is very important for me gender wise.

Your last EP Flesh was your most vulnerable and musically-defining moment to date. In future works, what about yourself (or your music) do you hope to solidify/explore?

One thing I want for my future music is to go back to the very beginning and put some acoustic elements, especially string, into it. I want to pay homage to the first exposure to music that I had [which was more classical]. Generally with making music, I want to create something that is very representative of myself and I want to lean into childhood a bit more.

Also next year, I want to release an album and I actually want this album to just be myself, no features. I’ve gotten so comfortable doing a lot of features and I really appreciate it and it’s my favorite way to do music, but I always do like to push myself out of my comfort zone.

It scares me to put out an album that’s just me because I need to make myself even more vulnerable and show even more of myself since it’s no longer a hybrid of me and another person, and I think that scares me and I think that’s good and I think I need to confront that. It's going to be a very important process.