Levenkhan: From Nickname to Fame
Levenkhan: From Nickname to Fame
Levenkhan, more fashionably known as your “favorite pink boi,” is a Netherlands-based Frenchcore artist who shakes things up with Frenchcore on mainstages across the globe. Levenkhan even sprinkles some uptempo with heavy influences from hip-hop, rap, punk rock, and his own vocals! Let’s pop a front-row seat to learn more about his influences, growth, and stories from his journey.
“How did you come up with the name Levenkhan?”
Isaiah tells us, “It’s actually my nickname since I was 10. So, I moved from Spain to the US [in] 2001. . . . There was this place in NJ called the Devil’s Tower. My cousins drove me and my little cousin to this ‘Devil’s Tower.’ Supposedly, it was haunted, and if you drove the car backward three times, a ghost would appear. It freaked me out. I was shitting my pants.” We laugh. His English was poor back then, given he had just come from overseas. With his foreign accent at the time, he says, “I’m not scared of ghosts because I will shoot them with ‘leven khunz’. And, what I tried to say was ‘eleven guns,’ but I said ‘leven khunz’. And my cousins were like, ‘What? What are you saying? They figured out that I was trying to say ‘eleven guns.’ Everybody was cracking up, and that was my nickname ever since.” From sticking to fearless lines ever since, this newest member of Aggressive Records, Levenkhan, is pulling the trigger with nasty Frenchcore beats straight out of the homeland of hard dance.
“Can you touch on the transition from how you started in the States to Amsterdam?”
Isaiah always had a subtle determination to make it happen, but amusingly, a competition he won in 2013 ignited it all. Q-Dance held a competition called ‘Q-bombing’ where one had to do a funny fifteen-second clip featuring the Q-dance logo. Levenkhan explains, “So what I did… I went to Times Square, and I got half naked, and I had a horse mask on and [held up] the Q-dance logo. And I won!” He won a flight to NL to attend Qlimax for the first time. The experience completely blew him away, and he wanted to establish a life as an artist in the Netherlands ever since. It was a struggle initially, but he prevailed to make his name well-known. Check out the details of his grind, including a personal shout-out in the interview here: Full Video Interview
“When did you start producing?”
Levenkhan comes from a hip-hop background, and it all started at thirteen after discovering FL Studio 3! His older cousin was a rapper and brought Isaiah to his shows. Isaiah wanted to create beats for his cousin and other affiliated rappers. He describes, “It’s weird how I went from that to hard dance. But, I think what got me into hard dance was Showtek and Headhunterz. People always think it [started] with hardcore, but no, it started with hardstyle first.” He adds that the one track that hooked him was “The Sacrifice” by Headhunterz. As Levenkhan felt uninspired by rap then, he discovered Angerfist, Le Bask, and Dr. Peacock, leading him to produce Frenchcore around 2015/ 2016. He still holds true to his hip-hop origins, however.
“Did you have a reference guide while producing frenchcore?”
He says, “Yeah, I had a reference track on the channel, and I was using . . . Hydra [a music synthesizer plug-in]. . . . I would use it for leads, and I would use it to make some hip-hop [back in the day],” Levenkhan shares that Dr Peacock recommended Hydra to him. With Hydra and Sytrus plug-ins, it took a year for Levenkhan to produce a self-satisfactory kick. Yet, now it can only take up to five minutes before churning up a new one at times!
One can listen to the hip-hop influences fused with his Frenchcore kicks and melodies in his track “KANYE.” Check it out here: KANYE
“How do you start with producing a track?”
“Melodies!” he exclaims as his first focus. Vocals are his last implementation. Sometimes, the lyrics come to him as he listens to his build-up loop repeatedly. He’ll start rapping in his head, recording his vocals, and naturally use it. Levenkhan also writes hip-hop songs! One can listen to his creativity in the rap album he released in 2022 called “Stalin Wears Balenciaga.”
“How important are labels in a music career?”
Levenkhan conveys, “They still hold value.” He continues, “I think now we’re in an era where artists [have] a lot of power, and they can do everything themselves. I was self-releasing a lot myself. But, I think labels are also crucial because they can also help you in pumping up your numbers getting you out there more.” He generally advises, “For anybody listening, that is an aspiring producer, if you get shut down by labels, then self-release it. Fuck it.”
“Can you share one of your most memorable moments or achievements in your career?”
Levenkhan shares, “[At] Defqon 2022, I played the silent disco at the magenta stage. And that’s probably, to this day, one of my best sets.” He continues, “I made sure to play songs with very memorable melodies that everybody knows. . . . You [could] hear everybody shouting the melodies. They were screaming it so loud that [even though] Scantraxx was having an actual afterparty as well, too, at the Blue Stage . . . people from that stage were gravitating towards mine." He mentions that it got so packed that they ran out of headphones to give out!
“What kind of sound do you want to continue influencing in the hard dance scene?”
He plans to stick around with Frenchcore for a while but shares a peculiar curiosity. Levenkhan discloses, “If anything, lately, I’ve been liking a lot of tekky sounds like frenchtek, tekstyle, hardtekk as well. Like, the French really dominate in this area, and it’s usually like 160 bpm - 170.” Down the road, he might gravitate to that experimental sound, but, for now, he is confident in keeping dear to his French drive.
“Do you have any future aspirations for yourself?”
“To share one, I really want to play Tomorrowland. I think that’s one of my very few last bucket list [festivals],” he hopes to manifest. Hopefully, Levenkhan will bring Frenchcore to the masses on the most significant festival stage in the world, Tomorrowland mainstage.
“Do you have any tips for aspiring music producers?”
Levenkhan promotes, “Just never stop, bro. If it’s something you really want, just, non-stop, dude, keep producing, keep experimenting. I think that’s the key: experimentation. Don’t follow everything by the book. It’s good to know some theory and learn some stuff, of course, the basics at least, but it’s also good to go against the rules and against the books and experiment and do some freaky shit with the sound.”
We wrapped things up with some vibrant chuckles, and nostalgic reminiscing, and appreciated the time we all gave each other.
Levenkhan will be playing Yellow Stage at Defqon.1 this year, 2024! Be sure to catch his frenchcore primal energy on the holy grounds! Yellow just may be the new pink! 😜 In the meantime, check out his newest album here: SWB2: Stalin Wears Balenciaga
If you want to listen to or know more about Levenkhan, check them out at:
Instagram: Levenkhan
TikTok: Levenkhan
Facebook: Levenkhan
Spotify: Levenkhan
Soundcloud: Levenkhan
Apple Music: Levenkhan
YouTube: LevenKhan
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Marcus is one of the leaders of San Diego Hardstylerz. As a kid, he listened to house, trance, Eurodance, and freestyle. After a friend showed him hardstyle in 2010, Marcus became passionate about the scene and music. He hopes to help the hardstyle scene throughout the states to the best of his ability.
Writer: Marcus
Co-writer: Ivan
Editor: Linda
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