Bands on Campus : LUKA

Sitting in the warmth and comfort of the asian-inspired lounge of Luka lyricist Sabrina Lord, the atmosphere is as relaxed as possible.

However, as friendly and laid back as the members of Luka appear, this recently formed five piece take their music deadly serious. Despite only being a band since March this year, the outfit have already put out a 6 song EP, Two Moons, racking up an impressive 2083 downloads since its release in September.

I sat down with the band to discuss their formation, musical favourites and future projects.

**HS: So what first inspired you to start a band together? **

PK: I always wanted to be in a band and Sabrina told me that she wrote songs, so initially we were going to be a folk band.

SL: *laughs* Which never happened, I don’t even like folk.

Pk: It just escalated from there and one by one everyone else came into the picture.

**HS: You’ve all got different tastes in music, which makes your music so interesting, could you name some of your favourites? **

SL: Fever Ray, Erykah Badu, Grimes to name a few.

PK: I like a lot of rock, a lot of darker music, grunge, doom metal, but then I also love lots of minimal techno and dubstep, so that affects the way I listen to the music we’re making.

SH: A lot of rock, more modern stuff like Muse, RHCP, but then also much older jazz and blues.

OG: Hip hop was my first love, but then I also love RnB. Prince is my favourite artist of all time, a bit of everything really.

KR: I’d say just really sad RnB *laughs*, we all listen to everything which is why I think we sound like a lot of different bands and a mixture of genres. But for me, I come from a mainly RnB background.

**HS: What influences did you draw upon when recording the EP then? **

KR: There wasn’t a conscious effort to sound like anyone, because we all go to Warwick together and we’re such good friends, we saw each other all the time. It was an intense experience, we spoke about what we were listening to before we jammed, so listening to the EP now, I can here bits of songs that remind me of what we were into at the time, but it certainly wasn’t a conscious effort to sound like anyone in particular.

SL: I was listening to a lot of Bat For Lashes and Mia at the time.

PK: I was listening to a lot of math rock which comes across I think, partly because of my listening habits but also because of the simple equipment we had when recording this first EP.

**HS: How does your song making process come about then?
**
SH: Sabrina writes a lot of the lyrics before and then we all try to bring our little touches to it.

KR: It mostly starts with Sabrina’s keys, so even if the lyrics aren’t completely finished, or we aren’t happy with the structure of the song, her keyboard is usually the foundation and stuff grows organically around that.

**HS: What does Two Moons showcase about LUKA then?**

KR: Two Moons showcases a very specific mood we were in, I feel like it’s where we were in July 2012 and despite how much we love it, we’ve moved on since then a great deal.

SL: We all really like that EP, but it’s very mellow and now that we’ve done that pace we want to move on and do something more complex and intense.

**HS: So in what sort of direction are you heading for any new releases you’re planning?**

SL: We’ve got the bare bones of an EP, with about six tracks we’re toying with, but in terms of how they’ll eventually materialise into fully formed songs, we’re still adding to them all the time.

KR: These songs are technically a lot harder to play and just generally more interesting. It’s fun to experiment a bit more and challenge ourselves as much as possible. It’s definitely darker and more dance-influenced.

PK: That’s a lot to do with Ollie, given that he’s replaced Olly Newman’s beatboxing with an electronic sample pad.

**HS: How was playing in the Duck? Did you find it accommodating for a student band?**

PK: Every venue has its shortcomings, but I love what they’re doing there at the Duck, with ‘Unplucked’ etc. One guy we met said he saw our gig on his open day and it was part of the reason he was swayed to come to Warwick.

KR: ‘laughs’ We’re making the Uni look good. We got free food, and other gigs booked just from playing there, so they were really good to us.

**HS: Constantly in The in the Boar we review the best album releases of the week e.t.c, but I often feel its quite indie-centric so given your multiple influences what are Luka’s favourite albums of 2012 so far?**

KR: I like this question.

PK: I often mix up my 2012 albums with those that came out in 2011, but I think ‘Personality’ by Scuba is just a phenomenal record, or if it can be counted the ‘Tnght’ EP that’s just been released. But now that I think about it ‘In Cuba’ by Mala has to be up there too.

SL: I love ‘Blood Oranges’ new album.

SH: Nothing this year really springs to mind.

PK: Shaun’s an old-school guy.

**HS: Alright then, just for Shaun, whats your favourite record of the moment from any era? **

SH: I’ve been listening to a lot of Ratpack at the moment. For 2012 though its probably Days go By by The Offspring, which is about as far removed from Ratpack as possible ahah.

OG: I’ve come to the conclusion after numerous listening sessions, Until the Quiet Comes by ‘Flying Lotus’.

KR:’Beach House’s’ record Bloom that came out this year is easily my favourite, its probably one of my favourites of all time in fact.

LUKA are currently working on their next EP.

You can download their first EP, Two Moons, FREE from the following link :

http://lukaofficialmusic.bandcamp.com/album/two-moons-ep-2

For a sneak peek of what your ears are missing out on, here is the track ‘Buffalo Tease’.