Meet Luke Lucas, double threat producer and singer-songwriter. A familiar face on the Reading music scene, Luke is ready to reach a national audience, with the release of his debut EP.

Luke started playing guitar classically at just 6 years old, before taking on a more indie-folk style when he started singing.

ENRG Music caught up with Luke, who’s currently in Australia, to talk inspiration, producing and the release of his EP.

So Luke, you’ve been playing guitar since you were 6 but when did you start singing and writing your own songs?

I think I’ve been writing little bits and bobs for as long as I’ve been able to play guitar. It was never really anything worth using, just some silly ideas about a random topic someone gave me and I’d try to make it rhyme. I think the first proper original songs actually came when I was about 14 or 15 years old just after I started singing. I think the only one I still use today though was written when I was 16.

Is that song on the EP?

No, but I am hoping to have it as my next single or on my next EP. Obviously being out here in Australia isn’t quite as easy being back home to work on things, so we’ll see.

Who are your biggest musical influences?

For me I have it split into influences for writing and then for producing. For writing, I’d say Lewis Watson or Ben Howard are really massive for me, especially the way Lewis Watson’s words always seem to say exactly what I’m feeling – in an almost conversational way. Then my production interests have always been really shaped by Bon Iver and more recently The 1975. I love just messing about with sounds just to see what I can fit it with,

You decided to do a degree in Production at the Academy of Contemporary Music. What made you want to be able to produce on top of writing and performing?

I think it was mainly a combination of looking for a potential career path after GCSE’s (I knew I wanted to do something in music) and recording myself to post on YouTube. Gradually I realised that the more I experimented and tried things out, the more I loved that side of making music.

Did you produce your EP yourself?

Yeah, the first 2 singles were 100% recorded, mixed & mastered by me. Then on a couple of tracks I got another producer, TJ over at Mellow Head Studios, to help out with recording some vocals so I could focus a bit more on singing and enjoy it, but everything else was still done by me in either my home setup or the studio I work at.

How does it feel to have your EP Not Right Now out in the world? How long had you been working towards releasing it?

I started recording the tracks you hear on the EP in May this year, but it feels like a lot longer as I’d been playing about with demos for it since the first week of 2017.  I was always unhappy with the sound/style of them. But now it feels amazing to have something out there that I’m really happy with. I get that it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, and I’m ok with that, but I really like it and that’s saying something for me!

What are your plans going into 2019 now the EP is out?

I think the main thing for me at the moment is trying to build up an audience, so while I’m out here in Australia I’m going to gig as much as possible. I also don’t want to waste the opportunity to write and release more music, so I think it’s safe to say new music’s on the way, and even though it’s not completely changing there will be a taste of something new.

Listen to Luke’s debut EP Not Right Now right here.

By Luka Kenyon