I’ve heard parenthood explained many ways from many people. The one that struck me most viscerally was the “Wizard of Oz” comparison. Dorothy, angry and confused and unheard in her daily life, forgets it all as she steps from the sepia tone Kansas into the vibrant land of Oz. And that’s the key: it’s like seeing in color for the first time.
That feeling is hard to grasp as a non-parent. So for Luke De-Sciscio to make me feel even a fragment of that is a testament to his talent. His upcoming album, Theo, is a collection of raw, stripped back acoustic tracks both inspired by and recorded soon after the birth of his daughter. In fact, this album was recorded within 6 weeks of his child’s birth. And that really is the biggest contributor to this album’s excellence. These songs are the tunes and words of a man forever changed.
The tracks themselves are soft and sweet, as if Luke didn’t want to wake the sleeping child that finally closed their eyes for a nap. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t heavy hitting and emotional.
Being a new parent is, from what I understand, not always glamorous. But for all the sleepless nights, Luke De-Sciscio never sings with an ounce of regret or frustration. He portrays fatherhood as a thing of almost heavenly beauty.
“You are my edge
Every thought of you is ten songs”
I was fortunate enough to ask Mr. De-Sciscio some questions and even luckier that he actually answered them.
You have 16 previous albums under your belt. In what other ways did this project differ from your previous work? I’ve heard parenthood described as seeing in color for the first time. I’m curious if this was your experience and how that affected your writing.
That’s a really beautiful way of putting it and I think I agree – the World feels HD. It’s so mind boggling because I am utterly convinced my entire life before her was real but, in a flash, you just lose almost any grasp of what that person you were previously might have been doing their entire life. Like, what was I doing? I thought maybe it might be gradual, the falling in love, but it’s more like being hit by a train. So maybe that explains how it’s different to my other work. Now my heart exists outside of me and…I guess just in terms of fluidity. I don’t really remember any particular friction around any of these songs or the recording, I never felt like they were out of reach. I just – was tuned in – and I let go – and they came out.
This upcoming album is inspired by the birth of your child, recorded within 6 weeks of that event. What’s your typical turnaround time on a project like this? Was this process made easier or harder with the birth of your daughter? It felt like you were digging from a deep well of lyrical inspiration here.
Well, I’ve pretty much gravitated towards a work-flow that is very lyric and performance focused. I don’t want to spend a lot of time producing my music. In the past that has led to a lot of discomfort and I don’t think that is ever where I’ve really derived enjoyment or catharsis from my songs so, I guess by conventional ‘album’ standards, my turnaround times are pretty quick. Though this was pretty quick even by my own standards. But…I’m always writing, always recording. I’ve gotten quite adept at not wasting time in front of the mic – of riding the waves if a song is coming. I just want to follow the lyrics that lights me up to their conclusion and try and capture their very first performance with the mic on. To me it always feels like the realest.
And that natural, flowing process comes across in Luke’s music in spades. Nothing is forced. It feels almost as though the songs have always existed and Luke is just pulling them from the aether.
…And, I don’t know if the birth of my daughter made it easier or harder per say, I think she made it inevitable. The whole thing was just a vastness like I’d not experienced that felt beyond any kind of words I had already heard. So that manifested in me writing, to try and articulate it.
The whole new-born phase is near-on delirious, you’re up every couple of hours at all times of the day and night and I was writing to catalogue when we were eating, taking medication or really anything because we’d totally lost our short term memory and we were just dialed in on survival. But – when there’s a pen in my hands – if I’m facing something new and need to make sense – it manifests in words. Words have melodies in. Melodies suppose chord shapes. Emotions have rhythm. The songs just pour. When there’s something to discover in yourself, or you’re trying to find new anthems for what you’ve never faced, I find songs happen.
Who are your biggest musical influences?
These days I’d say my biggest musical influences aren’t people so much as ideas. But, Van Morrison, John Martyn, Jeff Buckley, Joni Mitchell…they all got me to this point. These days what inspires me is just trying to express my truth in the most fearless way I possibly can. That has filtered down through my lyrics, obviously into my ‘production’ style and ultimately into how I try to live and conduct my life.
What do you hope listeners take away from this album?
Just how significant this all is. In the immediate aftermath of birth I think it’s impossible not to have a sense of it. So many things have to go right for each and every one of us to even be here. It’s really just staggering how precious and how lucky we all are and how much of a gift it is to be alive. So, I hope these songs can come to represent something of that. I hope the love is palpable. And I hope it captures at least a fraction of what I was feeling across those weeks.
When did you start playing music? What first inspired you to pick up a guitar?
My grandfather was a guitarist. The guitar he handed down to me is literally the pride of my collection. It’s safe to say that were it not for him or his influence, I would never have gotten into music. So I would have started playing quite young. We would draw and listen to music all day and he was a blues guy so I think I gained a massive appreciation for just no-nonsense songwriting and music as a means of expression. Expression over perfection.
I was at breakfast with my grandfather once when he looked up from his meal and said, unprovoked, “in my next life I’ll be a blues singer.” I don’t know how much significance I should attribute to this. He also told me once that he’ll find himself a “beautiful Asian woman” when he’s reincarnated.
Though he isn’t a musician himself, he bought me my first guitar when I was 16. He didn’t understand music much, but he knows what he likes and what he doesn’t. I have a strong feeling that if I were to show him Theo, he’d enjoy it – whether he had the words for it or not. In fact, I think a lot of people would feel that way. The album draws on some inherent level of humanity within everyone. For most, it’s a kind of love only unlocked through parenthood. But Luke De-Sciscio is generous enough (and talented enough) to share a piece of that love with us.
Theo releases on September 25th, 2024.
Luke is on the final stretch of a Kickstarter campaign to fully fund the album and vinyl launch of his upcoming project. He is absolutely right in that these songs belong on vinyl and I encourage you to go check that out here.
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