Music News - Debut Album for Lucas O'Connell
20 October 2013 - 0 Comments
Songs to Sleep On is the debut album of singer/songwriter Lucas OʼConnell. It is a refreshing new interpretation of poetry, melody and philosophy in a format that reflects his wide cultural experience, and is presented in a manner that is both entertaining and provocative. He is an intelligent and astute social commentator, yet is able to capture attention at a visceral level with his musical skills.
Lucas is currently residing in the United Kingdom, but his formative years were spent conventionally in the wide open spaces and clarity of Central Otago, New Zealand. His Australian heritage and extended family also exposed him early to different lifestyles. When young he was conversant with piano and clarinet as well as guitar, but only after graduating from University and deciding to travel did his latent interest in music blossom.
Lucas has been traveling throughout the world over the last 10 years, living some kind of Bohemian existence. He has lived Japan and South Korea, where he first began to perform publicly, and then moved to South America to become fluent in the Spanish he studied at University. Whilst living Europe he studied the cultural, social and religious divisions of society and then began translating his thoughts on such issues into music. He is a pacifist, a humanist, an environmentalist and critic of the excesses of materialism.
Lucas is a relative latecomer to the music industry. The guitar became his instrument of choice as a traveller, and the early phase of his career was playing for his own pleasure, and increasingly that of his fellow travelers. Songs to Sleep On had its genesis when Lucas was living in Essaouira, Morocco, but the influences are also old European, Hispanic and Asian. In the end, his music had to transcend from solo performances. Too many people demanded it of him.
Back home in New Zealand in 2012, Lucas planned the album with renowned producer Dr. Lee Prebble, and then collaborated with a group of friends, elite musicians based in both Melbourne, Australia and Wellington, New Zealand to engineer and record Songs to Sleep On. These include Nick Martyn, drummer extraordinaire for international songwriting contest winners Clairy Browne and the Banginʼ Rackettes; Francesca Mountfort, award winning Cellist, a.k.a. Nervous Doll Dancing; extremely talented Danish Bassist Ida Dueland Hansen; beautiful vocalist Holly Beals from New Zealand indie band Family Cactus, plus Melburnian musical stalwarts (and mentors to Lucas) Phil Day, a.k.a. Whit Drawal on Horns and Hue Blanes on Piano, completing the impressive contributing line up. The recording was done in both Melbourne with Cesar Rodrigues of Blue King Brown and in Wellington at Surgery Studios with Dr. Lee, who was the principal studio engineer. The album was also mastered in Wellington by Mike Gibson at Munki Studios.
The musical style is soporific, dark but soft. It is a little Gothic, bohemian but cosmopolitan, difficult to attribute to a particular genre. Lucas has a fingerpicking style reminiscent of Nick Drake, and his lyrics evoke early Leonard Cohen or the recently rediscovered Sixto Rodriguez.
The amalgamation of sound is beautifully melodic. Musically, the songs flow wonderfully. Mountfort’s cello shines throughout the album (especially notable in 'Sands of Fantasy') and works wonderfully with Lucas’s guitar. The Radiohead-like 'Information Overload' takes society apart with O’Connell’s hard-hitting lyrics and equally hard-hitting drums from Martyn. The albums first single, 'Liquid Night' (which features as a psychedelic music video created by award-winning Aussie/English director Oliver Buckworth) leaves us wanting to cosy up with a warm bottle on a cool winter evening. It showcases the trumpeting skills of Day and beautiful backing vocals of both Beals and Hansen.
Lyrically speaking, the songs are largely philosophical and emotionally diverse. Each tune is a journey in itself, and each has its own story. 'Wandering Girl' recalls Lucas’s relationship with a woman of the Sahara and deals with the cultural confusion she has to live with, while ‘Ocean War’ tells in part his brush with death during the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami when on holiday in Thailand. The album closes with the ever so spooky ‘Song for a Ghost’, describing a post-apocalyptic scene, a eulogy for a nihilistic society, somewhat expectant of self-destruction.
For a first album, Songs to Sleep On is mature and reflects the considerable life experience of a gentle and perceptive individual. Lucas will soon be touring the UK and Ireland solo and is looking to return home to New Zealand and Australia for a tour in 2014.
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