Today we’d like to introduce you to Luke Jones.
Luke, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
With music, I got started when I was probaby nine or ten. I started touring in bands when I was probably 14 and started doing it more full time around the age of 17/18. I’ve been steady doing that since then, no plans of stopping as of right now. With making physical art, it’s actually been recently that I started with that. I’ve always had specific visual ideas in my head for everything but I never went forward trying to make it. I never had access to photoshop or a computer, in general, to really learn how to use it. But as of recently I had been looking for designs for different things regarding stuff for music and after a couple bad experiences with commissioning it and it not coming back how I wanted it, I decided to just make everything I wanted myself. Like I said before I never had access to photoshop and still don’t so I decided to just make everything I had in my head by physically printing, cutting, gluing, taping everything. That’s pretty much how I got to where I am now.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Eh I wouldn’t call it a smooth road. Being a musician coming from a family without a whole lot of money was difficult at times. I was raised by a single mother who did as much as she could for us. She got me and my brother our first instruments, so I owe it all to her. Since I was about 14 I had to figure out ways to get money to upgrade my stuff to be able to have decent gear to play with, my mother definitely couldn’t afford to support me and my brother and also buy us anything besides the necessities so I had to figure out ways to get money to fund new gear. Luckily when I was either 15 or 16 a friend of mine asked me and another friend of mine to take all this music gear from her basement that belonged to her uncle in an attempt to keep him from selling it off to fund his heroin addiction and from that I was able to sell that stuff off and get some stuff and ever since then I’ve been buying/selling/trading from that initial incident to get to all the stuff I have today. We still don’t have much as a family and my mother’s been living with breast cancer for the better part of a decade, so it’s still hard sometimes being a broke touring musician, maybe I should have done something else but oh well too late now.
Please tell us about Blis./MDLCZN.
Regarding music, I luckily get to be in a band with Aaron, one of my longest friends and one of the best songwriters I’ve ever met. So IMO that is what sets our music apart from a lot of bands. Getting the opportunity to work within his system of songwriting has been a great experience and I think we’ve come out with a really special record (‘No One Loves You’ came out 10/6/17) and every time we start working on something new it always gives me that feeling like we’re working on something really great. Within the context of the physical art I make, since I make everything by hand, I feel like that’s what sets it apart from most things. Everything with art seems to be about being as clean and sleek as possible on a computer, so I like to make things that feel/look/are tangible and layered. Every piece I make ends up being layers and layers of paper and glue and tape on top of each other and I feel like you can tell and see that once it’s scanned into the computer. I was always inspired by the Xerox style and look of old punk flyers, so I try and emulate that vibe into whatever it is I’m making.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I’m really happy with where I’m at but at the same time, everyone has regrets so there’s definitely a few things I would have done differently. I guess if I had to change anything it would be that I wish I started touring more extensively with bands that were more important to me when I was younger. I filled in for a lot of friend’s bands when I was younger and spent a lot of time doing that and putting my own to the wayside so I guess if I had to choose something it would be that. But overall, I’m happy where things have taken me. Learned a lot of things the hard way in the process.
Pricing:
- I guess you can buy Blis.’ record No One Loves You for $20
Contact Info:
- Website: sargenthouse.com/blis
- Email: mdlczn@gmail.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/mdlczn – instagram.com/blisatl
- Facebook: facebook.com/blismusic
- Twitter: twitter.com/blisatl
Image Credit:
Courtney Emery, Drew Amandolia
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