El Train on Sampling, Collaboration and Content - An Interview with El Train

If you make music, you probably make use of samples in one way or another. One person who is no stranger to samples is El Train. The Manchester-based music producer, content creator, and sample pack master is an authority on all things sampling. Whether he’s sampling his own work, creating professional sample packs that resonate, or exploring the history of sampling, El Train has carved a career for himself based around the topic.

In this interview, we hear from El Train, real name Luke, about his earliest forays into music creation, how he made it a full-time job, launching Loop Kitchen, remote collaboration, and much more.

Would you mind introducing yourself and what you do?

My name’s Luke, or El Train. I'm a producer, DJ, and sample pack maker. I guess I work around music, doing lots of different things. I also make content, mostly based around sampling and music production in general.

What was your initial introduction to music creation?

I started learning guitar when I was about 13, and then I wanted to find a way to record myself. The first software I got was probably a cracked version of Sony Acid Pro, which I used to record myself playing guitar while my friend sang really bad cover versions of songs. My guitar teacher at the time loved Jimi Hendrix, so he taught me to play a lot of his music. We were also playing some more RnB-type stuff, like Corinne Bailey Rae and that sort of thing.

After that, I discovered FL Studio, which meant I could add some awful-sounding drums on top of the guitar and vocals. We were trying to write our own songs, but they were terrible. So it was all singer-songwriter style stuff to begin with, which will hopefully never see the light of day. But all of this led me to discover and experiment with other styles of music.

Did your parents’ listening have much influence on your musical tastes?

They listened to a lot of Soul and Motown. My mum loved Marvin Gaye, and my dad loved The Beatles. There was a lot of Michael Jackson and James Brown being played too, and my sister loved RnB so I heard a lot of Destiny’s Child. Eventually, I got the first N.E.R.D album and my own tastes in music started to take shape.

I didn’t really know what music production was at the time, even though I was trying to record music myself. I discovered Pharrell Williams and The Neptunes, and that video of them in the studio recording Justin Timberlake’s first album. I was like “What the hell is this?”, and I guess that’s how I was introduced to music production.

That would explain the more soulful side of your music, but there’s some electronic influence in there too, particularly in your DJ sets. Where do you think that stems from?

I guess some of this is still Hip-Hop adjacent, but I discovered artists like Hudson Mohawke and Rustie. Their early albums had Hip-Hop-style drums and used a lot of samples, but incorporated a lot of synthesis too.

I guess on the more upbeat, dancier side, I never really got into House until I heard Kaytranada and then people like Disclosure. They were making an amalgamation of soulful Hip-Hop and more uptempo styles of music, like House and UK Garage. I feel like Kaytranada served as a gateway into more uptempo styles of music for people like me, who had been listening to RnB and Hip-Hop.

How did you go from making bad covers to building a full-time career in music?

I used to work for a music gear retailer, then about five years ago, I made a sample pack for Loopmasters which left me with enough money to live for about three months. I decided to quit my job and try to make a thing of it full-time, starting with production work, and then getting more into making and selling sample packs.

As time went on, the content side of what I do started to take over, so I do a lot of different things now. I guess that’s one piece of advice I’d share with people, is that unless you're Ed Sheeran or someone, you’ll probably need to be doing a range of things to cover all bases.

How important is social media content for your career now, and do you think it’s helped you to progress as an artist?

I’m not sure if it’s helped me to progress as an artist. It’s kind of a necessary evil, which is probably how a lot of creatives see it. If I could just quit social media tomorrow and make music, I would.

But realistically, avoiding social media is going to hold you back. It’s definitely useful for promoting your work, but I’ve found it difficult to separate my content from my own productions. I think some people just want to see my content but aren’t that interested in my music.

When I first joined TikTok, I wanted to avoid just making whatever was on-trend. I love the history and process of sampling, and discovering artists through it, so it felt like an obvious decision to make the channel about that.

You’re clearly very knowledgeable about sampling. Is it a big part of your own production process?

Yeah, to some extent, maybe not as much as I’d like. Obviously, you can’t just sample whatever you want, which is fair, but annoying. There are platforms like Tracklib now, which make it much quicker, easier, and cheaper to use and clear samples.

For me, a lot of my sampling comes from writing some music and then sampling myself. I’ve been making sample packs for years now, so if I’m not feeling particularly inspired, I can just grab something I’ve made and start something new with that.

Are there any particular sampling techniques or tools you use a lot?

I’d say resampling is the main one. Most people have thousands of unfinished projects, some of which will have something cool in them, whether that’s a melody or a drum beat, or whatever. Just bounce it out, label it, and keep it in a folder somewhere that you can quickly find inspiration in future.

I also use Serato Sample quite a lot. It’s great for just throwing something in and finding samples within the audio file that you perhaps wouldn’t have picked. Or you can go in manually and pick the samples yourself. It’s a great way to get inspired.

Aside from producing music, you also run the sample store, Loop Kitchen. What was the idea behind starting that?

As I mentioned, I started selling samples with Loopmasters and did that for a while under the Loop Kitchen sample pack label. Because they have a schedule to stick to, it could sometimes take six months to actually release a pack you’ve already finished. Kind of like releasing music with a record label, I guess. After I while, I wanted the freedom to be able to publish packs more quickly.

For you, does creating samples require a different process from producing music?

As I’ve gotten busier, it’s gotten to the point where I need to dedicate certain days to certain tasks, but I guess making samples and making music can be interchangeable for me. I might make a sample one day, then listen to it the next day and decide I want to make a track out of it. When making music, rather than starting from scratch, I’ll begin with an idea I’ve already created, then make a beat and arrange it.

One thing I think is really important when making samples, especially for longer-form Hip-Hop samples like loops and song-starters, is to create unique little moments within the sample. Rather than just having a single instrument looping the same chord progression or drum beat or whatever, introduce some incidental elements to make it a bit more interesting. The idea is to have some kind of ear candy to make someone go “Oh, I want to sample that bit!”.

Apart from the sample store side of things, you’ve created somewhat of a Loop Kitchen community for producers too. Could you tell us a bit more about that?

Last year, I was working with Chillhop Music to help grow a Lo-Fi community, which was called Bread and Butter. We started hosting some beat battles, which people really enjoyed. When I stopped working with them, the beat battles stopped, so I decided to start them up again under the Loop Kitchen brand.

I give the community a sample from one of the Loop Kitchen sample packs, then they have two weeks to flip the sample. They can create any style of music in any way they like, but it has to be under 90 seconds. Once we get all the entries back, they enter a series of voting heats with the winners of each heat going through to the next round.

After the final round of votes, we host a live stream to announce the winners. Prizes include Loop Kitchen sample packs and plugins. I really enjoy doing it, and the community seems to enjoy it too. We’re hosting the next beat battle in November, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the community comes up with!

Have you had the opportunity to work on any of your own music as well?

I’ve written a five-track soulful RnB EP entitled Over and Over Again, which is coming out in November on Stereo Fox. The first single, Twin Flame, was made with a singer called Miki Rose, and came out in September.

We put out an EP called Over and Over ten years ago now, which seems like a lifetime. We became really good friends when we made the original EP, so I’ve been over to stay with her in LA, and she’s come over to stay here. We’ve worked on a lot of music, but hadn’t really committed to a proper project since the first EP. It also features a few of my friends playing different instruments, so it’s been great to work on another collaborative project.

Aside from that, I should have a beat tape coming out at the beginning of 2026. I’ve got so much stuff on my hard drive that I’m now consciously trying to finish more music and get it out there. I’ve even considered starting a second alias to allow me to share more music, but we’ll see what happens.

With you based in Manchester and your collaborators based elsewhere, how did you manage working together creatively?

Ultimately, everything’s produced by myself, with Miki on vocal duties. One song was co-produced with a friend of mine called Paal Singh. Aside from Miki’s vocals, I really wanted to get more real musicians and instruments involved, so some other friends helped out with that side of things. Saint Rumi played guitar on one of the tracks, and Theo Juarez and goodie bags kindly provided some horns for part of the EP.

Due to the distance, it was mostly a case of sending recordings back and forth, trading notes and so on. I’d say Miki and I have about 30 demos at this point, and my job was to kind of refine the ideas into a complete EP that shows off our best work.

What else have you got in the pipeline?

I’ve spent a lot of time working on my YouTube channel, posting more long-form content and continuing to grow it. The channel started off with more technical production-based content, but it’s morphed into Hip-Hop documentary-style content. I cover sampling and producer-based topics, so if you like sample breakdowns and discovering new producers, I’d recommend checking it out!

Thanks so much to Luke for taking time out of his busy schedule to speak with us. Keep an eye on Loop Kitchen’s Instagram page if you want to enter the next beat battle to be in with a chance of winning some zplane plugins. In the meantime, you can head to El Train’s YouTube channel for music production tips, new music discovery, Hip-Hop history and much more.