Luke Kelly: ‘I wanted the EP to have dips and arcs’

London-based but Perth-born folk singer Luke Kelly has released his evocative debut EP ‘Early Twenties’.

The album comprises five original tracks and a cover of Waifs’ ‘London Still’, all of which take us on Kelly’s own journey from a teenager to his early twenties: ‘I wanted the EP to have dips and arcs and be mellow at certain points,’ he said. ‘A lot of the songs were written when I was 17 or 18 or going into my 20’s; it’s my commentary on the feelings that most people at this age feel.’

‘My Friends and I’ is one of the standout tracks on the EP, featuring a beautiful acoustic guitar line and warm vocals from Kelly that draw you in. Essentially, as the title suggests, it chronicles the lives of him and his friends with inspiration for it coming from working at the pub one New Year’s Eve in Perth: ‘I’d clocked off for the night at about 23:30 and raced to where my friends were,’ he said. ‘I think it was a bit of a bit of a crap night (laughs). When I got home, I had all this energy from working, so I just sat down in my room with my guitar and started putting that song together. I think the chord progression came to me first. Later, I realised that it was inspired sonically by ‘Peace Train’ by Cat Stevens. I actually had to check the chords and that I wasn’t ripping them off!’

As the song kicks off: “My friends and I’ve got issues but my friends and I hold on. My friends and I, we do dumb shit, falling in and out of love. We’ve got drinks we stay away from and girls we can’t resist. It’s alright, mate, it just wasn’t your night. At least you got a kiss.”

‘I’ve almost been too scared to fully record it because of a fear that it wouldn’t be as good as that original, that I wouldn’t capture the same feeling as we did that first day’

‘Fences’ on the EP is a poignant track about moving on from somebody, with the memorable line: “Lately, all my senses are just electric fences” as it builds sonically to a rousing, singalong chorus. ‘Most of my songs I’ll write by myself and then do a session with somebody and we flesh it out,’ he said. ‘I’ve done a couple of sessions where we started from scratch and I’m never in love with it that much. I think I need to have my own time with it to know if I want to take the song all the way. With this one in particular, I was on the Gold Coast with a really cool songwriter and artist called Thomas Busby. He’s in a really classic Aussie (folk) band called Busby Marou. We spent two days at his holiday house on the Gold Coast, just writing and surfing, it all came together there. I’ve had it as a voice note on my phone for the past four years. I’ve almost been too scared to fully record it because of a fear that it wouldn’t be as good as that original, that I wouldn’t capture the same feeling as we did that first day. Some songs will evolve from the first line, those are usually the more personal ones. Other times, I’ll just be fiddling around with the guitar saying gibberish (laughs). And then I might say something that I quite like and that’ll set off the whole song.’

Originally, the track was called ‘Senses’ or ‘Electric Senses’ but has undergone a significant transformation since then: ‘Each verse used to be a different sense,’ he said. ‘There was a lot more of an idea of the senses then. It’s changed now, it’s not so much in your face, but the opening line is still about smelling her perfume and later seeing her at the food truck. Then it’s about hearing our song on the radio. This song felt really country rock when I first wrote it. I thought: “Oh my God, I can’t write country” (laughs). It’s shifted now to being more folky. I felt like everything I was saying, I was pulling things from different stories and people I knew in my life. The hope for it was that it would feel like reading through someone’s diary.’

I ask him what the food truck in the song is and he laughs: ‘There’s only sort of one place to go out in the city (Perth) when you’re 18 in Northbridge and there’s probably two streets and maybe four or five bars and clubs over there. I think I was imagining the kebab shop outside of this club called Paramount. In my head, I imagine this sort of green, really dirty looking kebab shop!’

As the track goes: “Stranded at a bar, there’s a room full of girls. I swear they’re wearing your perfume. It’s a problem these days, ‘cos everything smells like you…”

‘Usually, learning a new chord opens up new ideas’

Kelly has an interesting way of getting his music mojo back if he hasn’t written a song for a while: ‘Often, I would say that the lyrics and the chord progression melody come at the same time but one might just kind of set off the other. A lot of times with songs, if I’m in a rut and I haven’t written anything recently or I feel like what I am writing is boring, I’ll learn a new cover song that has a chord that I don’t know how to play. Usually, learning a new chord opens up new ideas. Other songs have been sparked by something that someone says: ‘My Parents Love Song’ (a single from 2021) started with a phrase that my uncle had said. He said: “I’ve never seen two people argue so nicely to each other.” It’s always been a phrase I’ve hung on to, it set off the lyrics. Once I know I’ve got an idea I like, then I’ll probably shift my focus to the melody and progression.’

He’s embarking on new adventures, having moved to London at the beginning of August, leaving his workhorse Washburn guitar behind in Perth: ‘I’m not exactly a guitar collector,’ he said laughing. ‘I have one guitar and then it breaks and I get a new guitar. Sadly, my local guitar store was shutting down, so they were trying to get rid of everything. This Washburn guitar just sounded a lot better than it should. That pretty much does everything for me. And then there are the actual guitars that end up on the track. I’m the first to say I’m not the best guitarist in the world. As soon as I learned I could sing, I was like: “Oh, brilliant. I don’t have to learn guitar very well, just enough to write the songs and play the songs!” With ‘Fences’, I’ve been playing the melody for so long and it’s so intrinsic to the song that I played it for the live recording version. A lot of the backing tracks and the strumming, especially that really fast part in that song are played by my producer Pete Covington, he’s awesome! I played a couple little verses just to establish the vibe but he played the rest and did most of the production.’

It seems serendipitous and a real case of life imitating art for him to cover ‘London Still’ on the EP and to shortly afterwards make the city his home: ‘It came on on the Tube today on the way home from work. And I’m just like: “Firstly, why is my own song in my playlist?!” But yeah, it’s a really cool moment. Really, really cool,’ he said enthusiastically. ‘I’ve been travelling for about three weeks and just settled into our first apartment, our flat here in North Clapham. When ‘London Still’ came out in 2002, I would have been one, so it’s not really my era but my twin brother has very eclectic music taste (laughs). A lot of music he sent me is awful (laughs) but he said to me maybe a year before I recorded it, that I’d sound really nice if I sung ‘London Still’. So I listened to the song every once in a while from then on. When I decided to do the EP, I thought: “OK, we’re going to do six songs. I have five that I really love, why not do something that’s already in my world of what I sound like and just do it myself, really inspired by the Triple J versions that you see all the time that get bands in to reimagine stuff?” I honestly think it might be my favourite song on the EP, especially now that I’m living in London, it ties in so well to all the other themes and that bittersweet feeling of missing home.’

‘I definitely relate to the song the more and more I listen to it, even more so than when I first recorded it’

Living nearly 15,000 km from home, he is finding a new appreciation for his home city: ‘When I first left home when I was 18, I couldn’t think of anything worse than living near my family, even though I have the best family ever. I just thought: “Why live near those guys?! I’ve known them my whole life!” But now, as a 23 year old, I’m counting down the days to see my parents and miss that community and having them there all the time, so I definitely relate to the song the more and more I listen to it, even more so than when I first recorded it.’

From ‘Brother’ on the EP, which is a sweet tribute to his brother Will, and an earlier track, ‘My Parents Love Song’, a heartfelt take on his parents’ enduring relationship, it is clear that he comes from a very close-knit family: ‘We’re a super, super close family,’ he said. ‘Will loves that song purely because it’s about him! It got some radio play the other day in Australia. I told him, he thought it was cool. Then he replied later: “I didn’t know my song was getting played on the radio, you should have told me, I would have listened!” I love that one to bits. It’s probably my favourite, if I’m walking somewhere or need to relax before work, I’ll listen to that kind of song. I don’t know if it chills me out or gives me a reset. Those kind of songs with that driving bass and those really simple melodies are the songs I love to listen to if I need to relax.’

I ask him if music runs in the family: ‘My parents are both awfully not musical,’ he laughed. ‘My dad’s dream was to be a pop star, but he is so tone deaf that the man can’t be saved! My mum is actually an actor’s agent. I think she was a bit stressed when I first got into making music and she could see I wanted to do it as my career because she sees the turmoil it puts people through and how hard it can be. A lot of her feedback if I play her a song is something along the lines of: “Can you make it sound more like Ed Sheeran?!” My brother is an illustrator, he’s done a lot of children’s books. He does some manga. He paints as well. I think being a twin, you can be exactly the same and you go through life together, whereas we’re very close, but we’re opposite sides of the same spectrum. My dad’s a primary school teacher, he’s a bit of a hippie and super easygoing. If you need to talk real life stuff, you can go to mum. I couldn’t ask for a better base of support and family. I honestly don’t know how I would do it without them, it would just be awful.’

‘The aim with this song was to comment on all the everyday things that you fall in love with a person for without making it sound too cheesy’

Touchingly, he wrote ‘She Feels Like a Sunday’ for his girlfriend Phoebe, with whom he’s been together for four years and it’s one of the tracks that best showcases his ability to write a love song that’s from the heart yet poetically fresh: ‘Honestly, I think I’ve only played that once live so far,’ he said. ‘It was a really intimate little Sofar Sounds gig. I was quite nervous the first time I played it because it was the last song we wrote for the EP and it was very fresh. It’s definitely one where I can see the couple will sort of snuggle in and give each other a look and all that kind of thing. The aim with this song was to comment on all the everyday things that you fall in love with a person for without making it sound too cheesy or too like everyone says it, you know? It would have been very easy to butcher that song and make it sound like 5 Seconds of Summer or something like that (laughs).’

Honest, reflective and observant lyrics underpin his storytelling, which is frequently emotive and sweet but which cleverly shies away from going overboard: ‘That’s definitely something I’m trying to do with as many lines as I can,’ he said. ‘I think there’s something to be said for just keeping it simple. Sometimes there’s there’s a big unspoken rule in songwriting about saying the word “love”. And if you’re going to say it, you need to make sure you don’t say it too much so that it has some impact. Especially writing in a genre where there’s so much music like mine, I’m trying to set myself apart and write a line that someone’s going to remember more so than someone else and for my own sake because writing’s the most enjoyable part of what I do. When I hear other artists write a line that I think is so smart, I get this jealousy and this need to do it as well! A lot of Lizzie McAlpine songs feel that way to me. There’s one called ‘Pancakes for Dinner’ where she obviously just wants to tell this person that she loves them. She says in the song: “I should tell you, in case something bad happens, I should tell you now that I want to make pancakes for dinner” instead of just saying the classic line “I love you, I want to be with you”. She comes up with that, which has the same sentiment in a completely different way.’

Kelly’s father has a massive music collection and got him into music when he was young: ‘My favourite records of my dad’s were Duran Duran, Wham, Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel and my favourite song when I was 10 was, weirdly enough, ‘Bad Boys’ by Wham,’ he said laughing. ‘Don’t ask me why! It was a cool story because in my primary school, the government had this program where if you could pass this tone recognition test, you’d get free guitar lessons for the year. That was when I realised my theory in music is really, really bad and my tone recognition and stuff is pretty poor (laughs). So I completely failed the test and didn’t get the free lessons. My brother actually got the free lessons and he hasn’t picked up a guitar since!’

‘He’d just sit us down and teach us a song, that’s what sparked it all’

The story turns out to have an unexpectedly happy ending: ‘I was so bummed out at the time – a couple of us were really bummed out – that my year five English teacher Mr. Rogers taught about four or five of us every lunchtime, every couple of weeks. He’d just sit us down and teach us a song, that’s what sparked it all. I think it was a case of just learning songs I really liked and I thought: “Oh, I can learn how to sing them as well”. I didn’t really overthink about becoming a singer. I started writing my own songs because my guitar skills weren’t great (laughs). And I thought: “All right, I want to learn more songs, but I can’t figure out how to play these chords, so I’ll just make up my own!”‘

Growing up, he listened to a lot of Mumford & Sons and The Wombats as well as the Glee show CD, which his parents bought them every Christmas: ‘That show introduced 12 year olds to Journey and stuff like that more so than anything ever could,’ he said enthusiastically. ‘We got the K-Zone magazines where you get a CD every month with bands like Kings of Leon, Fall Out Boys and some Aussie artists, like the Aussie rapper 360.’

If he could go out drinking with any musician, he picks Billy Joel: ‘I love a drink but I’m not a massive partier,’ he said. ‘I’d like to go to a cool wine bar with Billy and ask him about studio stories or advice. I’d ask him: “What made you think that you would make it apart from everybody else?” I think I ask myself that every day. He’d be so chilled!’ He’s had some brilliantly random encounters along the way: ‘My funniest moment as a musician was playing a gig for the local finishing club’s Christmas party. Originally, the gig was supposed to be two hours but they had also hired snake dancers so I ended up just playing Elvis for about 20 minutes then sat down for dinner with them (laughs). Maybe I just wasn’t their vibe but it’s one of the best gigs I ever played!’