The Luck, brother sister duo from London, have their new single ‘Leave Your Light On’ out now. We caught up with them to get some info on the new song and see what’s going on in the world of The Luck.
Tell us about the new single.
Max: Leave Your Light On is a song about all the special people in your life that support you and keep you going. We have come across so many of these people in our travels as musicians so it felt right to pen a song about them! The song was written on an autumn day in north London last year.
Esmay: It all grew from the bridge melody and lyrics that sort of just rolled out … ‘I’ve been losing my mind haunted by emotion, and the waves crash down, they’re testing my devotion’. It’s about the struggle to do something you really want to do and being carried forward by those around you … It took a couple of evenings to finish and then we couldn’t stop playing it – the chord progression alone made us feel pretty happy… we tried it out live on a couple of our online concerts and had a great reaction to it – so we recorded it in our studio in Dalston and put it out.
Where does this fit into the narrative of The Luck and your creative journey?
Max: This song was written a couple of months after we got back to London, having been writing and performing in California the last few years. We had an amazing time over there and wanted to bring the influences we had soaked up back home in our music… this song definitely captures many of those folk/Americana bands – Tom Petty, The Eagles… even a bit of The War on Drugs and a bit of country… Hopefully it introduces our listeners to a taste of what’s to come from us this year.
Esmay: It’s also one of our more upbeat numbers. Something to make people feel the way we did driving around California listening to the radio!
Tell us about your writing process.
Max: For both of us, it always starts with melodies or a chord progression first… and a few lyrics tend to roll out with those. But we usually develop all the music before penning the rest of the lyrics, pairing them to the vibe/tone of the song.
Esmay: And the initial ideas – a melody or beat or progression – they sometimes come from just having a bit of a jam but more often than not, pop into our heads at all sorts of times…in the shower, on the tube… annoyingly often when falling asleep. No idea what triggers them but you have to record them when they do! I’m very grateful for the voice memo app. I also use notes on my phone to capture any lyrical ideas; conversations I over hear, things I’m feeling, poignant phrases I’m moved by.
Max: Songs are usually written on guitar and sometimes piano. Our test is to see if a song can stand alone on one instrument – so that we can play it live in all scenarios, even with a minimal set up. If it does, I will build an arrangement for the record with various other instruments and we go from there.
What do you set out to achieve when you release music?
Esmay: We want it to reach as many people as possible and for them to feel something.
Max: We get a lot of messages from people saying our songs have made their days better and make them feel happier or more hopeful – so we just hope it can do more of that.
How does what you do translate to a live setting?
Esmay: When we perform live we both sing, swapping between lead vocals with lots of harmonies… Max plays guitar and foot percussion and I play bass. Sometimes we do songs with 2 guitars, sometimes one on piano.
Max: Exactly … overall it’s a slightly more stripped back version than the record but still with the sensation of a 3 or 4 piece band from the rhythm section.
Esmay: We are starting to play live with a drummer and electric guitarist so you will be hearing even more of the parts from the releases in our live set.
What’s the bigger picture for The Luck? Your dream goals?
Esmay: We would love to be an internationally touring band playing our originals to as many people as possible.
Max: It would be great to play the Royal Albert Hall one day! That’s always been a dream for us.
Anything unexpected that readers don’t know about you?
Max: Esmay is an artist and does all the artwork for our releases! We also set up an Americana music night in central London called Ventura Nights – it’s once a month at The Social, W1 and features two live bands including ourselves and a DJ playing epic tunes from the 70s. It’s a really fun night!
Esmay: We also have a streaming channel where we perform online concerts a couple of times a week from our studio. You can check that out at www.twitch.tv/theluckmusic We also try to stream most of our live shows across the UK and take people on IRL tours of wherever we are.
What’s coming next?
Max: Leave Your Light On is the first of a string of singles we are going to be putting out this year (including a cover). We also recorded an album in LA that we will be releasing early next year.
Esmay: Our next track is due out on Friday 27 June and called ‘Modern Love’. We are playing a couple of summer festival slots as well as announcing dates for a UK Autumn tour!
Leave Your Light On is out now on Common Market Media.
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