Laidback Luke, DJing at MGM Grand, keeping videos lighthearted

A few months ago, Laidback Luke released an upbeat song called “Pogo,” and it came with a very silly music video featuring women in underwear eating meat while jumping in slow motion.

The video delivered its desired effect.

“I’ve seen a couple of quotes from people that were watching the video, and they were like, ‘I’m not sure if I’m hungry or horny after watching it,’ ” Luke says.

You can ask Luke all about this video when he performs at the MGM Grand. He DJs Saturday at Wet Republic dayclub and Sunday at Hakkasan nightclub.

Luke’s goal with that bouncing-women video: He hoped it would be reminiscent of Benny Benassi’s classic video for “Satisfaction,” in which hot women use power tools in slow motion.

“I wanted something similar to that with hot girls bouncing up and down. So we came up with the concept of food and hot girls,” Luke explains merrily.

But here’s the thing, Luke almost always makes lighthearted videos, often with dancing girls. You should see his latest video for “More” on LaidbackLuke.com.

He’s not trying to be meaninglessly explicit. He has a point to make with silly-sexy videos: They don’t take themselves as seriously as many other music videos these days.

“Some of the new generation of kids just want videos where they see DJs straddling in front of private jets and playing in front of big crowds,” Luke says.

“Sometimes I think that’s way too serious. With ‘Pogo,’ I just wanted to (put) fun and craziness back in a humorous video.”

Luke got help from his wife, fellow DJ Gina Turner, while conceptualizing that “Pogo” video.

“She was coming up with suggestions on how to have the video look, and how to have the girls eat food. She’s awesome like that,” Luke says.

“Wow,” I respond to Luke, “your wife sounds great.”

“Yeah, man,” Luke says, “that’s why I put a ring on it!”

Luke and Turner got married in October, and they have been on the road separately quite a bit. But they come together as often as possible.

“We have one rule in our life, and that is we can only be one week apart,” Luke says.

“So every month, we make a schedule of how our life should look like, and where we should meet on tour. That’s how we keep our relationship healthy.”

This is a rare thing in the music world — two DJs and a marriage.

“But it really helps with the career,” Luke says. “Whenever I need to do pictures with girls — or when she’s in the studio with other DJ dudes — we totally understand that this is what we do.”

Doug Elfman’s column appears on Page 3A in the main section on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. He also writes for Neon on Fridays. Email him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.