A Chat with Jay Luke (21.11.23)
For just on 20 years, singer-songwriter Jay Luke has been turning heads across the globe with his hard-hitting style, confidence and tunes. Playing in bands like Sorrowsun and ReachForTheSky, he honed his guitar-heavy style. His performance roster reads like an “oh my god that’s awesome” list featuring gigs with Metal Church, Joey Belladonna of Anthrax, Richie Ramone of The Ramones, W.A.S.P, and Duff McKagan of Guns ‘N Roses (to name a few). Yet, it is his melodies and not merely his charisma that intoxicates audiences. We speak with Jay Luke about his new album Me and My Demons, finding a home/work balance, creative processes and much more.
OSR: Cliché but what drew you to music? Why did you choose to pursue a career as a musician?
Jay Luke: I was drawn to music at such a young age. I guess it is one of those things where some kids want to be athletes, astronauts, cops, or lion-timers. I always wanted to be a musician. I was of that impressionable age where you are deeply affected by things that entice you and Music Television was born. It took over my life. I feel like we both grew up together. I would sit in front of the television and soak in every video, every band, every fact and just retain it all still to this day. It left such a massive impression on me that I knew it was something I wanted to do with my life. My mother loved the Rolling Stones and my father loved Led Zeppelin so in between their influence I found bands like KISS, Queen, and Van Halen and they set a blueprint in my mind of what music should sound like.
OSR: You recently released the album Me and My Demons. What can you tell us about it? Is there any theme or backstory?
Jay Luke: Me And My Demons is my fourth album. It is a deeply personal album that tells a story of a character’s descent into the madness of modern life where everything is work, stress, anxiety, bad luck, insomnia, and very little getting ahead. The story then turns to show a light at the end of the tunnel through self-reflection to find the answers are usually hidden within plain sight of us. That is an ironic thing, isn’t it? You never can see things directly until you step away from them sometimes to reveal a whole different picture.
The album title came out of both my love of classic horror and turn-of-the-century early 1900s magician performance posters. I was always entranced by the art of the magician playbills for advertising appearances where they would show devils and mystical sort of imagery. The real sealing of the deal was when I was watching an old Vincent Price film where he turned to one shoulder and a devil appeared and then to the other shoulder and instead of an angel another devil appeared. That struck me like lightning and the title Me And My Demons came to mind. I guess it was guided by the artwork before the music.
A cool side note is the straitjacket used on the album’s photograph came from when Eugene Lucas (the photographer) and I did a photo shoot at the Houdini Museum.
OSR: What is your creative process?
Jay Luke: I am an artist who needs to write real songs about real things. I admire artists of all kinds but when it comes to myself I cannot write songs about fantasy things, they have to be things relatable through my eyes. I don’t know that any one process or step is correct but I do know whenever inspiration strikes I HAVE to document it. One of the biggest mistakes most of us can make is saying “I will get to that later.” When an idea, lyric, riff, phrase, theme, or melody comes into my mind I find if I do not write it down it vanishes and might not come back for years if at all. In a way, the creative process is a lot like assembling a jigsaw puzzle. I often sit in a room and collect all these scattered notes with ideas on them and try to sort them out and put them into a workable format.
OSR: This is your fourth solo album, so how does it compare to its creation? For instance, did you face challenges with Me and My Demons that you might not have with Alone In The Crowd?
Jay Luke: With my albums, they are all snapshots of my life at whatever time I was making them. I think most musicians would tend to agree that each album or song is a diary of who you are at the time. You don’t evolve if you are the same person you were on your first album as you are on your fourth in terms of progressing or else what would be the point? Each album takes a bit of a more personal dive into my songwriting but for Me And My Demons, I took a whole new approach.
Each album can be like a therapist’s dream to listen and try to diagnose things and for the most part, I find the art of songwriting to be therapeutic. On this release, I think I showed my most vulnerable side and often worried if I was being too honest or if the listeners would get the concept. The songs themselves were written quite close to entering the studio as you typically write them and refine them quite a bit before booking the studio time. With this one I wanted the vibe to be fresh and raw. I joke a lot that the album could have been called “Winging It” because of how the writing process went.
The album is the logical next step to Alone In The Crowd but something about this release is just like nothing we have done before. My fears of whether or not the fans would get it were quickly laid to rest when the album cracked over 100,000 streams in three days of release. There are many factors to its success. I think the lyrics tell a lot. They are things that resonate and are relatable struggles that people near and far go through. It is universal to struggle and try to balance too many things while getting by on too little sleep. It almost feels like the norm in the modern world.
The band also really caught on fire for these songs. Michael “Duds” McDonald who plays lead guitar just absolutely dominates on this release playing some of the best guitar solos and lead lines so far in the catalog. I truly cannot say enough good about him as a musician and collaborator. I am pleased with the collaboration between us and how well it all gels together. It is such an organic collaboration there is nothing forced.
OSR: What do you hope people take from your music?
Jay Luke: I hope people continue to relate to these songs and the lyrics. When you get feedback from critics, writers, colleagues, and peers it all means a lot, but nothing means as much as a fan when they tell you what a song means to them or how it made them feel. Because I know there have been times in my life where the one thing that was there for me most in life was a song. Music tends to hold you together when everything else seems to tear you apart. I hope the songs give people a sense of belonging and that they are not alone. We are all along for a very similar journey no matter how different we are, where we are from, or what language we speak.
OSR: Finding the line between home and work can be difficult. How do you find the time to work in a high-paced environment and find time to relax?
Jay Luke: This whole question is almost the entire basis of the album’s theme. So many people ask me how I do it or how I work all day, then play music ’til the vampire hours of the night, and then attempt to sleep for 3 or 4 hours to do it all over again and again and again. There are no breaks and sometimes it can drive you to madness. To balance it I think if you don’t love what you do as far as music goes then you should almost do something else.
A full-time musician’s life is incredibly difficult and often the rewards are nowhere near what you would call luxurious. You end up working so hard to record songs that show your very soul and have to give them away for people to listen to for free. The reward to me is not one of monetary means, but the reward of the fans’ feedback and stories on how they were touched by a song is worth more than a million dollars to me anyway.
OSR: What advice do you have for younger artists?
Jay Luke: My advice to younger artists is to follow what you feel in your heart. If someone says you can’t do something prove them wrong. Do not give up because your friends, parents, teachers, and girlfriend/boyfriend tell you to. They are NOT you and they can take their opinions elsewhere. Your path is not theirs so don’t change your journey to accommodate others. There is no victory in that. Write the songs you want, play the sounds that move you, and if you do that you will never regret it. Do not give up.
OSR: If you could go back in time and speak to your younger self, what advice would you give him?
Jay Luke: I think the main thing I would have told myself was that it is okay to record the songs I had when I wrote them. The first band I was in started in 2003 and after an incredible amount of lineup changes we called it a day a little before the release of my first solo album. I envisioned the lineup of the band that wrote the songs to record the songs and also perform the songs and we were constantly losing a member. I felt like we were a great sports car with a flat tyre all of the time. So my mistake was always putting the studio time off and waiting to get the perfect lineup. It wasn’t until my first solo album appropriately titled It’s About Time that I realized time doesn’t stop for anyone and these songs I write and create are only going to go into the grave with me if I don’t record them and get them out into the world. So that is the main thing I try to focus on now, to always keep at it. Write new songs and try to get a new release out each year.
OSR: What does music mean to you?
Jay Luke: Music is everything to me. As a kid, I found it both a way in and a way out. It was an escape from my problems and also a way into a new world. Very little things in the world can do what music does to a person. You hear a song and sometimes a decade or two later you hear it again and it can flood you with memories of where you were, what you were doing, or thinking at the time. It is as powerful as a drug. Like art, it is an undefinable thing to try to sum up or answer it in a simple definition. It takes away the pain and also makes you feel it.
OSR: What can we expect from Jay Luke in the future?
Jay Luke: At the moment I am promoting the new album as it just came out but I will be doing shows as always and working on writing the fifth album soon enough.
OSR: Do you have a message for our readers?
Jay Luke: Just a thank you for checking our tunes out and to everyone that has liked, followed, subscribed, bought an album, stolen an album, all of it we wanna thank you. Keep an eye out for our shows, appearances, interviews, and whatnot on the social media accounts for the most up-to-date info. We love ya!
Many thanks to Jay Luke for speaking with us. For more from Jay Luke, check out his Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Spotify.
This artist was discovered via Musosoup #sustainablecurator
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