Reasons To Be Beautiful magazine managed to snag an interview with Luke Lukess, front man (guitarist and lyricist) of one of the largest unsigned bands in Australia, My Future Lies.
A life-long musician as well as a motor racing enthusiast (who organizes bi-yearly charity drives in Australia, the next being Australia Down for Depression in 2012), look no further as Writer and Editor, Madel Tham, interviews Lukess about his music career and shares his inspirational experiences to aspiring musicians.
Madel Tham: Your band name is really interesting; how did you come up with this name? What prompted the change of the band’s name from ‘Acid Eyeliner’ to ‘My Future Lies’?
Luke Lukess: When the band formed in 2006, we were playing a lot of punk rock and the name acid eyeliner seemed to fit with the genre we thought we’d best fit into. After a while it was apparent that we were heading down a more pop rock style of writing and the name just didn’t work with the softer style of music we produced. Often we’d get billed with hardcore bands because of the name alone.
MT: So Luke, I’ve read in your bio that you’ve started performing at the age of 12! What do people around you think of your music career when you first started out?
LL: I’d always perform with older musicians, including my brother and his friends at school. We had a lot of people are the start who were supportive of what we did, encouraged us to perform and I guess inevitably gave me the inspiration to make it a full time career when I left school.
MT: What first got you interested in music; what made you decide that you were going to pursue a career in the music industry?
LL: The movie ‘Back to the Future’ Part 1, the 50′s scene where Michael J. Fox plays Johnny B. Good at the school dance. When I saw that movie, I knew I wanted to play guitar and be a performer. I even sticky-taped an extension cord to my first acoustic and convinced my friends at school it was an electric guitar.
MT: From a guitarist, to a singer and forming your band, you’ve had quite a number of years of experiences under your belt. During this decade long – and running – career, have you ever thought of giving up?
LL: I’ve thought about giving up more times than you can imagine. Over the years it has been a roller coaster ride. I’ve never been signed to a label and that has meant the majority of the early days was funded by myself and relying on fans to buy our releases to fund the next release and so on. Sometimes I’d play gigs and only have enough money to get home. Many times we’d tour interstate praying that people would come to the shows or else we’d be stranded without fuel money to get home.
The key to keeping going has been the fans that constantly support us buying merchandise and releases and a more than supportive manager who came on board with us late 2009. Without his support our 2nd album would never have happened. The support of management and family has been a key aspect of me keeping at it.
MT: What genre would you classify your style of music as?
LL: Pop Rock and the music I’m currently writing could be considered alternate rock.
MT: What general direction are you advancing towards?
LL: One of the key things with writing new music as we head towards our third album is forgetting about all the rules regarding radio airplay. I’m no longer writing songs with that 3:30 time length and I’d like to add more instrumental sections to songs that really showcase our ability as musicians and bring out the abilities we’ve all worked on over the years.
MT: Who influences and inspires your music?
LL: My lyrics come from personal experience; Love, Life, Family and Hurt. I find it easy to write about those things as it is therapy for me and also helps others relate to their problems and see that we’re all just human after all.
MT: If given a chance, is there anyone you would like to collaborate with?
LL: I’d love to work with people that have the same passion as me. I have no time for working with people that are only influenced by fame and money.
MT: The album cover for your 2010 album Chasing the Moon is very intriguing. Is there a special meaning behind it?
LL: The album cover was actually designed by Tony Melov who is an amazing artist. We wanted a piece of art that was a little mysterious. We let Tony loose on the design and he came up with something that drew attention to the album, and made people ponder the meaning.
MT: Do you take part of the creation of your album package? If so, which were your favorite album-covers?
LL: I did all the designs on the early AE & MFL covers. It was great to sit back and watch a professional do Chasing the Moon. Of course the band and management had input and we had many versions of the final cover. We’d bounce back and forth via email till everyone was happy.
Read more in our Summer 2011 August Issue!
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Watch out for their upcoming 3rd album, and look up the band’s official website http://www.myfuturelies.com/ for more details.
rtbbmagazine
rtbbmagazine
My Future lies Are grate i been supporting them for over 4 years now and they have done so much Luke supports many other artiest and bands MFL have 2 supper cool CDS out and Luke has a epic Solo EP as well they are 3 down earth cool guys DO look them up and support them
Very nice, i suggest webmaster can set up a forum, so that we can talk and communicate.