Lost Under Heaven

question: We are loving your new ‘Towards the One’ EP, can you tell us a little about the backstory of the EP? When was it written and recorded?
answer: So to clarify, as we have caused a little confusion, “Towards the One” is a song that you will find on our third LP, ‘Something is Announced by your Life!’. We released the album on Vinyl in June via Bandcamp, where you can also stream the full record, and then have been releasing the songs once a month on the rest of the DSP’s. This was a strategy we came up with to try and encourage people to support the artists, rather than indulge in the passive consumption that these exploitative streaming platforms and their algorithms encourage. This is our first record self released on our own imprint, LUH*international, and having created for ourselves that autonomy in action we decided to experiment with different approaches- seeing if we could make the algorithms work for us, with play listing and so forth. Wether or not our endeavours have seen ripe fruit, perhaps it’s too early to say, but I’ve enjoyed giving our fans & patrons a deep dive into the album a track at a time, once a month, I’ve always liked serialised art form, and am ever open to explore new models of engaging with those that engage and support your work as an artist. Now the song, it was recorded in the spring of 2021, I can’t put a date on when it was written as I’ve carried the riff around for years, but I can tell you the crescendo hook “can you feel the love” was inspired by an abundance mediation from Joe Dispenza, that we listened to daily in pursuit of reorienting the scarcity mindset we are so culturally indoctrinated with into something more aligned with our blueprint, birth right, natural order. This was some of the inner work that arose in the lockdown period of 2020… when that hook arose it brought the song into a coherent whole and we recorded it during the something is announced album sessions in pinhole studios, Anncoats.
question: In the “The Return” lyric “There’s a God-shaped hole in every seekers soul” what is the message? Is there a deep meaning within the lyrics?
answer: I don’t really like to burden a song with a fixed meaning or message, often the poetry of the lyrics takes on new understandings as the years give distance and perspective… so for now I will offer this, “The Return” is a song that attempts to encapsulate the return to the truth of your being after years spent in exile, the cold of rebellion. It’s the archetypal story told over and over again throughout all cultures, the hero’s journey, the prodigal son.
question: We love your 2016 album ‘Spiritual Songs for Lovers to Sing’ so much and we’re wondering, what is your favorite track on the album? What is the biggest difference between where your music is now and where it was when you wrote ‘Spiritual Songs for Lovers to Sing’?
answer: So much has changed since that moment, I wrote most of ‘Spiritual Songs…’ as a solo album, but I had no interest in pursuing a “solo” career, I was living with Ebony in Amsterdam where she was studying visual arts in the Rietveld Academy. One day I over heard her singing to herself, and decided that she would sound perfect on the chorus of a song I had been struggling to finish (“Loyalty”, which I’d say is probably my favourite song on that record) the contrast of her voice to mine brought the sound into a entirely new realm that I was instantly enamoured by, and from there I began incorporating her voice into many of my songs. Though she has a great love and knowledge of music, Ebony had to that point never sung or played an instrument. But with her natural confidence and ease she took on the role and offered the name LUH as an identity for the new project. This all transpired over the years 2012- 2016. By 2020 we had made a second record in Los Angeles, toured around Europe and the States, Ebony had learnt Bass, Harmonium and had honed her very unique and powerful voice. As mentioned we made our third LP ‘Something is Announced…’ during this strange period in time, and many of the songs arose organically, emerging out of collaborative jams that took place most mornings throughout the first lock down. ‘Something is Announced…’ is also the first album I produced entirely myself, and to my mind is by far our best work, informed by the accumulation of all our experiences thus far.
question: Who do you look up to most when it comes to songwriting? What are your most listened to albums?
answer: The songs of Lou Reed, Nick Cave, Patti Smith, Joe Strummer, Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen serve as the icons that I strive towards, the thought that I may one day write a song that comes close to the greats is what keeps me coming back to the piano every day, working on my craft. As for most listened album, I have no idea, but recently we have listened often to Heilung’s recent LP and I’ve been getting my dad rock fix from The Band’s ‘Music from the Big Pink’. Ebony also listens to a lot of Bhagavan Das and other devotional chants.
question: Where do you think the music industry needs to go moving forward? What is your ultimate goal for Lost Under Heaven?
answer: I have no real care as to where the music industry goes in the future, as Babylon burns there’s bigger fish to fry, I have made my choices over the past few years to be as distant from the music industry as I can, whilst still mating my livelihood as a song and dance man. We currently are in a position of true independence with direct connection with those that support our project through our Patreon & Substack. I aspire to continue to grow this enterprise, as we become more more courageous at articulating our vision. I noticed a significant change of approach that me and Ebony have towards Lost Under Heaven, we have been reluctant to “play the game” at all over the past few months and I intend to make space for whatever emerges, currently my minds eye envisions an Interfaith Ministry that celebrates all of life as prayer and ceremony through song and discussion of the perennial wisdoms. But who knows what the fates have in store for us.