LUKE STEELE INTERVIEW
By Joe Matera
www.joematera.com

What was the recording process like for Personality: One Was A Spider One Was A Bird?

Since it was a studio record it was done bit by bit. Initially I did a few months pre-production then the recording aspect was spread over a period of a year.

When it came to guitars, what did you use?

Electric guitar wise, one of the main guitars was a Fender Jaguar the same guitar I've had since I first started out. I also used a lot of Fender Telecasters. The reason I tried using different guitars was because they all bring in a different chemistry to the music. We also brought in gear from the States too like Vox guitars with tremolos on them. Acoustic wise, Matons were mainly what I used. I really liked the Jumbo acoustics. I've been using Matons for a couple years now.

The band has been a sort of revolving door for numerous members over the years with you as the mainstay. Why not just call it The Luke Steele Band?

The band is basically me and Malcolm [ Clark ] now. The reason I won't call it The Luke Steele Band is because I don't like putting that much pressure on myself by calling ii that. Plus it also sounds tacky. Anyway I always have something like four or five records on the go at the same time so it's always a long road ahead of me.

You have a musical vision that's on par with The Beatles and The Beach Boys?

Yeah and I also love Jeff Lynn. Oh man I think he's as good as The Beatles. And Stevie Wonder is another as well. It takes years to get to that level as an artist and that's what I aspire to. Sometimes it seems easy but it's not. I like all these bands and I want to inject these influences into the songs and as soon as I do that, the song takes a different form. Over the last couple of records it's been all about the song writing that I've concentrated on the most but I've been definitely getting into a lot more of the guitar side of things recently. Guys like Jeff Beck, Django Reinhardt and Stevie Ray Vaughan, the kind of stuff which I basically started out on guitar before I want through the stage of spending five years just writing songs.

Another guitarist you admire is George Harrison?

Yeah he's a real romantic on the guitar man, which is one of the reasons why I love his playing. And when he put the slide on the strings, man it sort of sounds like he's putting oil on a girl's breast! It's got that lightness and smoothness. I don't think many guys have got that type of sound in their playing. To me it's similar to the old blues things like Little Red Rooster and Dust My Broom and any of the old Robert Johnson stuff. A good example of what I'm saying about George would be Greece off his Gone Troppo [1982] album

Finally you also profess a love for Bob Dylan.

Yeah he's always been my musical hero. In a way, he really took on the machine with his songs. He was quite precise within the context of using a few words too. I never want to write eight minute songs, you know long songs, I guess like Dylan I always want to keep it short and sweet and not bore people. So he's influenced me in so many ways.

Friday 15th Dec 2006