The Luka State release highly-anticipated LP “More Than This”
THE LUKA STATE
NEW ALBUM
OUT NOW VIA THIRTY TIGERS
“Really digging this band.” – Tom Morello, Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave
“The Arctic Monkeys of a New Generation” – Visions Magazine
“Lovers of boozy, in-your-face indie-rock will go nuts.” – Kerrang!
“A rush of dynamic rage and emotional catharsis.” – The Line of Best Fit
“The Future Of Rock N Roll is from Winsford” – Rolling Stone
“Now is their time.” – BBC Introducing
New York, NY (March 10, 2023) – The Luka State are thrilled to share their highly-anticipated sophomore album More Than This, out today via Thirty Tigers. A body of work that mixes influences spanning alt-rock, indie, punk and rock ‘n’ roll, the album is a state-of-the-nation address which explores issues including social inequality, mental health battles and addiction – all told from a very personal perspective. But amidst the turmoil, it’s an album in which hope for a better future is a recurring motif.
Speaking on the follow-up to the band’s critically-acclaimed debut LP, 2021’s Fall In Fall Out, vocalist/guitarist Conrad Ellis says, “This album is a rebirth for us. Like every other band, we want to take over the world, but we want our message to be heard. No one out there must feel alone. There’s a way through everything and we can do it together. We can take over the world together.”
Today’s focus-track, “Losing Streak,” encapsulates a range of what The Luka State have to offer with the More Than This album. Its ferocious, granite-heavy riff pulls no punches, but its aggression is balanced by the band’s love of an enticing melody. The song’s themes also find the equilibrium between a dichotomy, with Conrad being brutally honest about his mental health struggles, but also showing to people with similar issues that there can be light at the end of the tunnel.
Conrad adds, “‘Losing Streak’ is a documentation of exactly where I was at around the time I wrote it. It follows where my mental health was at: self-medication with substances and going off the rails. My mental health was so poor, but I came out the other side. This song is for those who need it, those who have suffered through trauma or substance abuse or addiction or depression. It’s ok to talk about those things. There’s always a way through it.”
(Photo Credit: Jim De Whalley
The album’s previous singles have earned airplay from Daniel P Carter at Radio 1, BBC Music Introducing, 6 Music, Danielle Perry at Absolute Radio, Amazing Radio and XS Manchester as well as wide tastemaker acclaim. Earlier this week, the band also earned praise from an artist renowned for blending uncompromising guitar music with a vehement social message – the Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave legend Tom Morello.
More Than This was produced by Grammy Award-winner Adrian Bushby (Foo Fighters, Muse, U2). The Luka State recorded More Than This with producer Dan Austin (Biffy Clyro, You Me At Six, Pixies) at Liverpool’s Motor Museum (The 1975, Bring Me the Horizon) and EVE, near Manchester.
The Luka State will celebrate the release of More Than This by embarking upon a record store tour, which starts tonight with a homecoming appearance at The Electric Church in Winsford. The band then embark upon a UK and European headline tour which commences later this month. All shows have very limited tickets remaining, which are available HERE. The album will also be the subject of #TimsTwitterListeningParty at 12pm PT/3pm ET next Wednesday, March 15th.
MARCH – RECORD STORE TOUR
10th – Winsford, The Electric Church
11th – London, Banquet Records
12th – Nottingham, Rough Trade
13th – Leeds, Crash Records
14th – Sheffield, Record Junkee
15th – Liverpool, Jacaranda
MARCH – HEADLINE TOUR
23rd – Birmingham, Rainbow
24th – Bristol, Crofters
25th – Southampton, Heartbreakers
30th – London, Camden Assembly
31st – Leeds, Hyde Park Book Club
APRIL – HEADLINE TOUR
6th – Aberdeen, Tunnels
7th – Dundee, Church
8th – Glasgow, King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut
12th – Hamburg, Hakken
13th – Cologne, Helios37
14th – Berlin, Maschinenhaus
15th – Amsterdam, Paradise Bitterzoet
18 th – Paris, Supersonic
21st – Manchester, Academy 3
More Than This Track Listing
01.) Bring Us Down
02.) Oxygen Thief
03.) Losing Streak
04.) Two Worlds Apart
05.) Stick Around
06.) More Than This
07.) Matter of Fact
08.) Tightrope (Walking On A Wire)
09.) Swimming Backwards
10.) Metamorphosis
11.) Change
12.) Movies
THE LUKA STATE BIO
Hailing from Winsford – a forgotten town between Manchester and Liverpool – The Luka State aren’t overly concerned with the loftier heights of the rock’n’roll dream. Their gritty new album, More Than This, is an unapologetic state of the nation address, and a record born of the only world they know.
“Music has always been therapy for me,” says Conrad Ellis, frontman of rising UK indie-rock powerhouse The Luka State. “You do feel like there’s a weight lifted, but for people with mental health struggles and people from working-class towns, you feel like you deserve more than the cards you’ve been dealt – those feelings don’t go away.”
Ellis, along with his hometown childhood friends b (bass, vocals), Lewis Pusey (guitar) and Jake Barnabas (drums), dropped their self-funded debut album Fall In Fall Out in 2021 to media attention and critical acclaim, but also a world gone quiet due to the pandemic. “It was hard to connect with the wider world when we were all stuck at home, so we couldn’t see what impact we’d had on the scene, the industry and the wider world,” remembers Ellis.
When the world opened up and the band could return to the stage, they found legions of fans who had connected with their debut album’s punchy stories of hometown life and knew every word. But by then, they’d already been at work on the follow-up and were evolving as a band both musically and lyrically.
“This new record was written at a time when we were feeling very claustrophobic because the world was shutting down,” says Ellis. “We were closed in and frustrated. I lived on my own and was writing constantly 24/7; all we had was each other so we just jumped in headfirst to see where the music took us. It was our only form of escapism.”
Bell agrees: “We weren’t allowed to do anything like go to a football match or go to the pub, so this whole process just reminded us that this is what we love doing and what mattered.”
The bulk of the album was recorded at The Motor Museum in Liverpool (previously used by The 1975 and Bring Me The Horizon) with producers Dan Austin (You Me At Six, Pixies) and the Grammy Award-winning Adrian Bushby (Foo Fighters, Muse). It’s a small space, chosen to reflect the claustrophobia and tension that the songs were written in. The results are the most aggressive, visceral and immediate work of the band to date, fearlessly exploring the darker shadows of modern working-class life.
Take “More Than This,” the fiery title track. Imagine early Arctic Monkeys multiplied by the breakneck urgency of Biffy Clyro and the sharp tongued worldview of Paul Weller. It’s a damning portrait of a hungry family in broken Britain, as Ellis sings a song “For the broken hearted, from a broken home, let down on the breadline, and this ain’t the first time.”
“That one’s about me delivering food for a foodbank to a single mother of two who lost her job, felt let down by the system and just wanted more,” says Ellis. “She was late on the rent, had no money coming in, no food and just felt forgotten about. I just wanted to say, ‘Don’t judge people without knowing them, always treat people with compassion’. Love always wins.”
The scorched desert rock of “Oxygen Thief” spits back against an arsehole who sent Ellis’ mental health into a spiral, the wall-of-sound of “Losing Streak” acts as what the singer calls “a warm hug for anyone else battling addiction and trauma,” the rushing angular indie of “Two Worlds Apart” speaks to anyone “feeling a little bit lost” and the arena-ready “Matter Of Fact” is a lovelorn yearning for a company and a little healing. “Does my love decay when I’m not OK?” Ellis asks on the track, the centerpiece of a very human record that runs the gamut of anxieties that come from needing to know what’s next in life and love.
Speaking of the band coming together and realizing the narrative of the album, Bell says: “It was quite a touching moment. A lot of us were internalizing what was going on around us, but once we read Conrad’s lyrics and heard the music he had written, we all instantly related to them and realized we were all feeling very similar. We’ve got our own personal battles going on but none of us were talking about it. It was a really great moment for the four of us to realize that we are actually the same people.”
The world is open again now and The Luka State can take their new material out on the road with live performances that have been described as “exuding pure gasoline.” At every show, they’re approached by fans who have been touched by their music and are grateful for feeling less alone – regardless of where they’re from in the world. Despite most people not knowing where Winsford is, everyone knows someone feeling what The Luka State are singing about…You’re gonna be hearing a lot about the need for empathy, understanding and action on mental health and general welfare from this band.
“If it’s not something that people are turned on by straight away then I’ll fucking make them, because I’m not gonna shut up about it!” laughs Ellis.
More Than This is a huge album that came from a very real place. It’s the record The Luka State were always meant to make, and one that will finally set them on the right path. As Ellis explains “The album title says it all – people just need to realize and fight for what they’re worth.”
“This album is a rebirth for us,” concludes Ellis. “Like every other band, we want to take over the world, but we want our message to be heard. We’re not just some standard rock’n’roll band. No one out there must feel alone. There’s a way through everything and we can do it together. We can take over the world together.”
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