Meet the Lineup: LAMSI

From a SoundCloud producer to a Boiler Room favourite: producer, DJ, and artist LAMSI, has been taking Amsterdam’s music scene by storm. Known for his viral GIVE IT TO ME NOW-club sensation, his ability to stir up an intoxicating mix of sexy vocals and grimy beats is unparalleled. His collaborations with powerhouse artists like Cyra Gwynth, Bambii, and Reanny highlight his preference for putting female vocalists to the forefront, adding a unique contrast to his hard-hitting beats. LAMSI’s passion for music and innovative sound promise a thrilling experience – he blends grime, Afro-Diasporic electronics, and his Surinamese heritage as he continues to push boundaries and stay true to his roots. His sets are an addictive mix of familiar hits and his own fresh productions. Get ready to feel the bass in your bones coming Thursday… Fresh off a weekend of high-energy performances, LAMSI is ready to take over Glamcult Selects x Tilla Tec and we can-not-WAIT.

Hey! How are you?
Yeah, I’m good – just recovering from the weekend. I played like three times, so I’m really tired today.

Gosh, I bet. But now you’re already coming back on Thursday to Glamcult Selects x Tilla Tec!!
Yeah, this one is really exciting!

Can you tell me a little bit more about yourself? Who is LAMSI?
Yeah, so who is LAMSI? I’m a DJ and producer. I’ve been doing this for maybe seven or eight years now. In the beginning, I really produced for a lot of other artists. Then I gradually started doing my own music more.

Were you already a musical child?
I’ve always played piano. I’m very happy that my parents put me in piano lessons at like the age of five. I’ve been really into music since then, so around 20, I just decided to take that step further and get into production. I think that was around the time of like 2014/15 when all the SoundCloud bedroom producers started coming up. I was just really excited by the idea that you can make music by yourself. To realise that there was no one to stop you from releasing it, you know?

Like the world is your oyster.
Yeah.

It’s funny how SoundCloud producers and rappers get such a bad rep. How do you feel about that now?
It’s really scary because you release a couple of tracks, maybe edits, maybe remixes. And then suddenly you fall in this cycle of having to keep releasing and staying relevant. The hardest part now is to actually make your own music and let people know the real you and your productions. At the same time it’s also very fun to introduce new music. People might not know it when you play it on a set, but if you make good music, they will connect to it immediately.

You’ve started your music journey with 2000s Hip-Hop and R&B, but have also explored grime and Afro-Diasporic electronics, then going into producing for Dutch rappers. How do you feel your music has evolved?
It’s really cool to mix all those genres, but the thing I like the most now is working with female  vocalists. I love having this contrast of hard, grimy Hip-Hop beats and female vocals. I also just like to put women to the forefront. For example, I’ve been working a lot with a Dutch rapper called Reanny and producing for Bambii. Female vocalists tend to be more open to ideas and experimentation than men, in my experience.

You’ve produced so many of my favourite songs with Bambii, also with Cyra Gwyneth.. I didn’t even realise you produced Reannys album but looking back it makes so much sense. How do you build up your DJ sets?
I play a lot of my inspirations, but also my own music. There’s a couple of songs now that I’ve produced and maybe some edits and remixes that people really know now. I play those all the time, they are my staples. Around that, I try to play new exciting music that I like. I’ve also been working on this project that mixes my Surinamese heritage with electronic music, which I’ve also been pushing.

I imagine it’s also very rewarding that you play a lot of your own productions in your DJsets as well, seeing people go crazy… Speaking of your heritage, do your roots influence your relationship to music at all?
Definitely. For example, the same rhythms and tempos that are characteristic of grime are also heard in Surinamese music. So you could really mix in the two together, and form a theme or a style around it. I didn’t notice it in the beginning, but now I’ve been exploring that direction a lot. 

It’s so cool to see these two worlds work together so perfectly. Who are your biggest musical inspirations right now?
I do have to say Bambii. She’s a really good friend of mine, and she teaches me a lot about music and standing for something. It’s like, let’s say, 30 percent music and 70 percent standing for something and being about what you say. Because of her, I’ve been really into mixing cultures by blending electronic music and Surinamese music. She really encouraged me to work on something that is really close to me. 

You just always end up making better work when it’s close to you.
For sure. 

What is something that inspires you outside of music?
A lot of film. Recently I’ve been really into Enter The Void by Gaspar Noé. He has really unconventional movies, they just don’t follow an expected storyline. His work shows that you can really think outside of the box and still have an audience. That’s maybe even better because his audience is very niche.

Do you take elements from that in your music?
I try to take visual elements from that because, to be honest, people have been saying, ‘Oh, your music is really good, but now the visuals should be as good as the music’. Everyone tells me to watch movies, look at posters, flyers to stock them up and make sure my visuals are on par with my music.

That’s exciting! Give It To Me Now, obviously went completely viral. How did it feel to be catapulted onto the big stage at that Boiler Room performance?
Well, I didn’t really plan for it, ha-ha.

You didn’t know that you had gold in your hands at that moment.
I made the song 8 months before, I put up a TikTok and then that TikTok blew up. But still, we didn’t really think anything about it. We were just trying to preview a few songs that we were going to release in the following months. I was also unsure if it was even going to work, because it didn’t sound like anything that was out. From that whole experience, I learned that if you have a sound you’re not sure about because you’ve never heard anything like it before – that’s gold. It felt really great, but now I don’t want things to go super fast. It’s easy to go viral on TikTok, but I want to build a more gradual rise. 

Within this ‘going viral’ framework, how are you protecting yourself from being chronically online while also promoting your work?
It’s important to remember that if a song is not the heights of Give It To Me Now, it doesn’t mean that it is a bad song. It could just mean that the algorithm TikTok didn’t work in my favour at that time. If you believe in that song, you should still put your best effort into it. You should push what you stand for. 

It’s so easy to fall into this trap of feeling like the amount of likes or shares determines the worth of your art. It must be tough managing that, especially when you’re so dependent on being booked and busy.
Yeah, but everybody’s in the same ship. You could get booked off of maybe a viral moment, but also if you have a cool video, or a piece in a magazine. There are so many cool things you can do that in the long run might even be better for your career.

Do you have a favourite club memory that you want to share? 
Well, there are definitely a lot of good memories. But first I have to go with the party we hosted with THE HERD, the community I’m building. The first edition happened last year at Schietclub. I’m just really proud of that moment still. At that point, everything just really aligned. It was sold out too, I didn’t even expect that. It was the first time I just did what I wanted to do as an artist, but also as a producer. So to see people embracing that and also actually be interested was sick. Last week we had its second edition, and it was even better, because even after a year, it still got sold out!! And THE HERD is more than a community, I really want to try branching it out, making it more accessible, more inclusive, so organising producing or DJing workshops for example, and really building a larger brand with it.

That makes me so excited to see you on Thursday! Time for a speed round – what’s your most used emoji?
The dancing guy.

Cute. What’s something that you never leave the house without?
My passport! 

If you could curate your dream club lineup, what would it be?
OK Williams, Talia Goddess, Bambii, A.G. I think it’d be in a small club too. 

What can we expect from you at Selects?
A lot of my Surinamese roots mixed with grime. Sexy grime. 

Love. Can’t wait to see you on Thursday!
Thursday it is!