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Akeru is an Arizona electronic producer and DJ whose songwriting credit on the Freelancers soundtrack opened a catalogue that now runs from Requiem & Solace to "The Price of Love" — and a 216-episode mix series called The Open Door.

Short

Akeru — Kevin Lau — is an American electronic music producer, DJ and radio host based between Arizona and California. He entered dance music in 2011 as co-writer of "Won't Forget" (feat. Jenny Laszlo) on the soundtrack of Freelancers, and in 2014 launched The Open Door, a DJ-mix series that has since run 216 episodes and made him a resident on More Bass Radio. On his own Annielynn Music he has released the EPs Requiem & Solace (2015) and Noir (2019), the eleven-track LP Elemental (2016) and a run of singles from "Dream" (2015) through "The Price of Love" (2025). He is production engineer and co-producer on Sarah Yong's debut album for More Bass, and a technology entrepreneur and consultant who advises the label on information security and AI governance.

Long

The name is a Japanese word — akeru, 空ける — carrying several meanings at once: to open, to unwrap, to unlock, to grow light, and to let light end. Kevin Lau chose it in 2010 when, after years of playing instruments and DJing in a rock / electronic hip-hop group, he turned to producing electronic music. A year later his co-write "Won't Forget" (feat. Jenny Laszlo) landed on the soundtrack of Freelancers, the 2012 film with 50 Cent and Robert De Niro — a debut in cinemas before dance floors. In 2014 he launched The Open Door, a DJ set and radio series built to introduce listeners to producers across the subgenres of dance music. It has run for more than a decade and 216 episodes, from the "vNN.0" long-form mixes to the More Bass Radio residency, expanding in 2019 into live streams from Arizona's local scene — house, progressive, techno, drum and bass. A spin-off, Behind The Open Door, brings up-and-coming DJs into the studio to talk and play. His own records arrive on Annielynn Music, most of them made with Greg "Ei8ht" Leonti: the seven-track EP Requiem & Solace (2015), the eleven-track LP Elemental (2016), the Noir EP (2019), and singles from "Dream" (2015) and "Meanings" (2016) through "Serenity" (2017), "Luminous" and "Radiance" (2020), "Music Box" (2021), "Torn Apart" feat. Tekniq (2024) and "The Price of Love" (2025). Sets on record range from Perfecto at Club Rain in Las Vegas to Mad World's desert events in Arizona. Since 2024 he has worked inside More Bass's Scottsdale studio as production engineer and co-producer on Sarah Yong's twelve-track debut, and his own "Sunshine" from those sessions is next. The 2026 direction is darker — synthwave and new wave applied to dance music — because, as he puts it, he'd rather not be "pigeoned into a sound."