From bad shows to a new EP, Lucas Duplan’s career is a story of finding treasure in someone else’s trash and turning it into an unforgettable show.
Picture this: a dive bar on Sunset, a father fixing the jukebox, and his son swinging his feet on a barstool as patrons order drinks.
That boy on a barstool became Lucas Duplan, the Los Angeles-based DJ and music producer building momentum in the music industry. He takes the traditional DJ set and turns it into an experience audiences cannot replicate.
From Power Outages to Neon Lights
Lucas Duplan grew up in Echo Park, and his father fixed the jukebox at dive bars. His childhood was soundtracked by strangers selecting songs on those jukeboxes.
Duplan’s dad would bring home the 45s that got skipped the most from his jukebox job. These records were songs nobody chose, and Duplan became obsessed with why.
That question, why, is central to his production style. He approaches each show with questions about why crowds choose the track that they do. “DJing is just that question asked live, three hundred times a night,” Duplan says.
Duplan began producing at just sixteen. He had a cracked copy of Ableton and played his first paid set at a backyard quinceañera. At the celebration, the power cut out. Twice.
But that isn’t Duplan’s biggest error at a show. In 2023, he says he “bombed” a showcase. He describes it as “wrong room, wrong reading of the crowd, cleared the floor in eight minutes.” After this, Duplan emailed the promoter of the show “a full post-mortem” of what happened.
He asked the promoter for the worst set he had, knowing that LA doesn’t hand out second sets. The Tuesday slot he was offered was one nobody wanted, but he turned that dead slot into an in-demand show that audiences now know him for.
That’s the real story of Lucas Duplan, DJ: a producer who takes rooms nobody believes in and flips them into “The Room” people want to be in. Duplan says, “In this industry, the obstacle is never talent; it’s whether you can survive being bad in public once.”
The Lucas Duplan Music
Lucas Duplan has taken these experiences and channeled them into his own music. His debut single is an homage to those records his dad got from the jukeboxes, called “Skipped 45,” the original inspiration behind his career.
Duplan is also releasing his first EP called Room Tone. He aims for Room Tone to become a series of releases, with each installment produced in a different iconic LA room, capturing the essence of each space.
It is his quest for uniqueness in unwanted records and special DJ sets fulfilled, though the series may not be complete for at least another three years, given Duplan’s current imagination.
A Unique Set for One Night Only
Lucas Duplan’s live set is a one-of-a-kind experience attendees cannot find anywhere else. One edit on each of his setlists exists nowhere else; it is built for that room, that night, and then deleted afterward.
Duplan says, “Most DJs curate; I manufacture on-site.” His sets use his producing skills to create something new for the crowd in front of him, rather than selecting pre-existing records.
Duplan’s live style has been developed from the beginning of his career. At his first wedding gig, he couldn’t source the couple’s song. It was a vinyl-only pressing that couldn’t be found anywhere.
Duplan did something significant. He rebuilt the track from stems by ear in one night. He played his version at the reception, and the groom cried. Nobody at the wedding knew the track was not the original until the toast.
What’s Next?
Lucas Duplan currently dreams of having a residency that he owns all on his own and maintaining a limited luxury wedding/private-event schedule.
What is certain is that Duplan plans to continue to make the music he cares about and has cared about since childhood during exclusive DJ sets and music he produces.
Once, Lucas Duplan kept the records nobody played; now, he makes the tracks people wish they could hear just one more time.
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