From Tokyo To Dallas: How LuShreds Spun Childhood Keys Into Club-Wrecking Bass

LuShreds stands at the intersection of two scenes: Dallas grit and Tokyo discipline. He first sketched café-vibe demos on GarageBand at age nine, then leveled up to Logic Pro and Serum under remote mentorship from Tokyo. His tracks now echo from KNON’s guest mixes to KNTU’s local rotation, and in April 2024, earning his first club spot. Guided by a philosophy of “small, consistent steps,” he weaves classical piano training, jazz improvisation, and glitchy bass textures into the evolving tapestry of Texas EDM.  

Long before club lights flickered, LuShreds greeted dawn beneath Tokyo’s pastel skies, fingertips tracing ivory piano keys. “In Tokyo I mostly listened to whatever my parents put on,” he says. “We would have dance parties to Skrillex, Deadmau5, and some pop stuff like Nicki Minaj. I got a small keyboard as a toy and played with it all the time, so my parents put me in traditional piano lessons. In Japan, that's just practicing a piece until you have it perfect and then going to the next one.” 

Outside the studio’s metronome clicks, he taught himself GarageBand at nine, molding Café Del Mar-style chill grooves and uploading them to SoundCloud. Back in Dallas, he pooled savings into a DJ controller, sliding into Logic Pro and dialing in custom Serum sounds until his bedroom demos thumped like nightclub anthems.

“During the COVID-19 pandemic, musicians couldn’t play in clubs, so some turned to private lessons. That's when I met my mentor, Philip Woo, who had a completely different approach. Teaching by ear and theory worked a lot better for me, and he taught me how to improvise in different keys, helping me set up for making music. They also had music lessons in Japanese public school where I learned traditional kids’ songs on the melodica, so I learned Japanese nursery rhymes instead of English ones.” 

Through sessions with Woo, LuShreds learned to sculpt sub-bass frequencies and polish mixdowns. In his home studio - he shifts effortlessly from stiff four-on-the-floor house kicks to the snap-and-grind of 140 BPM grime. “I make music based on whatever I'm listening to. There was a lot of house music in my house when I started making my first tracks, so it was easy to copy that 4/4 track style,” he explains. “Then, I made a Deadmau5-sounding track the day after I caught him at Toyota Music Factory. I've been recently inspired by artists like Prosecute, Viperactive, and Tape B when trying to push out heavier tracks. As long as it sounds good, I like to make it.” 

Momentum first hit when LuShreds slipped into DJ Positive P’s open-deck stage and was invited to KNON’s Then & Now Show on the spot. As 89.3 KNON and KNTU spun his tracks, promoter Phonixx tapped him for a debut club spot. A year later, back-to-back shows with Sounds from Below had their crew’s cheers filling a cold night sky. 

“We'd show up to other shows and bump into people we met the week before, and even people I hadn't met yet had heard of me and wanted to say hi,” LuShreds recalls. “That's when I started to feel like part of the community when I was connecting with good promoters, getting to know people personally, and getting repetition on lineups.” 

Rooms trembled under his sets at Wonder Bar, Sons of Hermann Hall, and the Green Elephant. His track “Stars” into rotation on KXT’s Music Meeting, its crystalline pads slicing through rush-hour banter.

“The radio play is cool to see what it's like to be a more successful artist because I can see how they submit tracks and record intros for their songs like I did for 97.1,” LuShreds explains. “Playing live on the air at 89.3 KNON taught me a lot about broadcasting rules and some technical tricks, like keeping the show moving smoothly with all the commercial breaks and promos the DJs need to do, so I feel prepared to handle that environment now. It's fun to play in new venues and with different groups, and I learn something new every time!”

LuShreds thrives on open-deck nights, testing unreleased drops against shifting crowds. He says that showing up to as many open decks as possible to experiment with what musical style and dance crowd feels good. “Listen to feedback and other people’s mixing styles. Put in the practice to become confident enough to get yourself out of any technical issues. From there, as long as you go meet people, network, and stay respectful, you'll find spaces that accept you.”

LuShreds’s journey traces his beat from the click-clack of a toy keyboard in Tokyo to seismic bass rattling Dallas venues. June’s lineup reads like a mixtape: birthday bass at Good Side Pizza Pub on June 4th, Kid’s Fest on Green Elephant’s outside lawn on June 8th, and the all-ages Summer Flow Session at Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studio on June 15th. His signature alchemy - equal parts childhood curiosity and grown-up grit - spins on, and we urge you to chase his next drop.