It’s the song that basically redefined what tropical house could be. You’ve heard it at weddings, in beach bars from Ibiza to Bali, and definitely on every "Chill Vibes" playlist ever created. But honestly, most people have no idea that Are You With Me by Lost Frequencies wasn't even an original track. It's a remix. A remix of a country song.
Felix De Laet—the Belgian producer known as Lost Frequencies—was just a kid in his bedroom when he found the stems for a track by Easton Corbin. Corbin is a traditionalist country singer from Florida. On paper, mixing Nashville twang with European deep house sounds like a disaster. It should have been terrible. Instead, it became a global monster. It hit number one in the UK, Australia, Germany, and pretty much everywhere else that has a radio tower.
Why? Because it nailed a very specific, melancholic-yet-hopeful feeling.
The Nashville Connection Nobody Saw Coming
Let’s talk about Easton Corbin for a second. In 2012, he released his album All Over the Road. Tucked away as a deep cut was a track called "Are You With Me." It’s a standard, mid-tempo country ballad. It’s fine. It’s got that clean, polished Nashville production. But it didn't set the world on fire.
Then Felix found it.
He didn't just add a drum beat. He pitch-shifted the vocals, stripped away the heavy instrumentation, and left that iconic, echoing guitar riff. That’s the secret sauce. That riff is what gets stuck in your head for three days straight. It’s simple. It’s evocative. It feels like a sunset.
Felix was about 20 years old when he put his version online. He wasn't trying to change the music industry. He was just experimenting. But the way he treated the vocal—making Corbin sound almost ghostly—gave the lyrics a whole new meaning. In the original, it’s a guy asking a girl to go on an adventure. In the Lost Frequencies version, Are You With Me sounds more like a plea. It’s vulnerable.
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Why the Song Blew Up in 2014 and 2015
The timing was perfect.
The world was transitionining away from the aggressive "EDM" sounds of Skrillex and Avicii's heavier stuff toward something more organic. Kygo was rising. Robin Schulz was huge. We wanted "Tropical House," even if we didn't call it that yet. Are You With Me fit that niche perfectly. It was electronic, sure, but it felt human.
It’s interesting to look at the chart performance. The song didn't just peak and disappear. It lingered. It spent months climbing the Billboard Dance/Mix Show Airplay charts. It became a staple. Even today, if you look at Spotify numbers, it’s sitting at well over a billion streams. That’s "Shape of You" territory.
Breaking Down the Production
If you’re a producer, you know how hard it is to make something this simple sound this good.
- The Tempo: It’s slower than your average club track. It sits around 121 BPM. That’s the "walking pace" of dance music.
- The Vocal Chop: Felix didn't over-process. He kept the soul of the country vocal but gave it enough "air" to breathe in a club setting.
- The Bassline: It’s a sub-heavy, rounded pluck. It doesn't fight the vocal; it supports it.
Most remixes try to hide the source material. Lost Frequencies did the opposite. He celebrated the melody. He basically proved that a good song is a good song, regardless of the genre it started in.
The Legal Side: A Masterclass in Clearing Samples
Usually, when a bedroom producer remixes a major label artist, the lawyers come out swinging. In this case, it was a win-win. Easton Corbin’s team realized that this "Are You With Me" remix was doing more for his global brand than a standard country radio push ever could.
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It opened up a conversation about genre-bending. We’ve seen it more often since then—think about the "Old Town Road" phenomenon. But back in 2014, a country-house crossover was weird. It was risky.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Meaning
People think it’s a party song. It isn't.
"I wanna dance by the water beneath the Mexican sky."
If you listen to the lyrics, it’s about escapism. It’s about wanting to leave everything behind and asking if your partner is brave enough to actually do it. There’s an underlying tension there. Are you actually with me, or are you just here for the ride? The Lost Frequencies production highlights that uncertainty. The way the beat drops out during certain phrases makes the question feel more urgent.
The Legacy of Lost Frequencies
Since Are You With Me, Felix De Laet hasn't slowed down. He’s released hits like "Reality" and "Where Are You Now." He’s become a mainstay at Tomorrowland. But "Are You With Me" remains his calling card.
It changed the trajectory of Belgian electronic music. It showed that you don't need a massive studio or a $100,000 marketing budget to make a hit. You just need a laptop and a really good ear for a melody that’s being ignored by everyone else.
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Critics sometimes call this "elevator music." They're wrong. It’s harder to write a simple, enduring hook than it is to write a complex, technical masterpiece. The longevity of this track proves that simplicity wins. Every single time.
How to Apply the Lessons of "Are You With Me"
If you're a creator or a musician, there’s a lot to learn from how this track came together.
First, look outside your bubble. Felix wasn't looking at other house tracks for inspiration; he was looking at country albums. The best ideas usually happen at the intersection of two things that aren't supposed to go together.
Second, don't overproduce. The instinct is always to add more layers, more synths, more "stuff." The remix of Are You With Me succeeded because it was minimalist. It gave the listener space to feel the music.
Third, understand the power of a "re-contextualization." You don't always have to build from scratch. Sometimes the best work involves taking something that already exists and showing it to a different audience in a way they can understand.
Actionable Next Steps
- Listen to both versions back-to-back. Find Easton Corbin’s original and then the Lost Frequencies remix. Pay attention to what was kept and what was thrown away. It’s the best production lesson you’ll ever get.
- Check out the "The Less I Know The Better" mashups. If you like the vibe of Are You With Me, look for other genre-bending tracks that use the same "less is more" philosophy.
- Explore the "Found Sounds" technique. Try to find a melody in a genre you usually dislike. Strip it down. See if there’s a core emotional truth there that you can translate into your own style.
Ultimately, Are You With Me isn't just a song. It’s a reminder that music is universal. A guy in Belgium can hear a guy in Tennessee and create something that makes people in Tokyo dance. That’s pretty cool.
The track is now over a decade old, yet it still feels fresh. It hasn't dated like a lot of the "wub-wub" dubstep or the high-pitched vocal chops of the late 2010s. It’s timeless because it’s based on a solid song-writing foundation. If you haven't heard it in a while, go back and give it a spin—preferably while watching a sunset. You’ll get it.