00:00 All these emotions I have inside of me get them out and I think I've learned that I'm a very
00:04 emotional person and I think I have something to say as an artist on my own.
00:08 Hey it's Luke Hemmings and this is Billboard News.
00:10 Hey everybody it's Rania Niftos and welcome back to Billboard News. We have such an exciting guest
00:25 in the studio today. We have the one and only Luke Hemmings. Welcome. Oh yeah thank you. Thanks for having me.
00:53 So the new single "Shakes" it sounds so great. I love this next era for you. Tell me a bit about
00:59 the inspiration behind it, the songwriting process. "Shakes" was written like maybe a year ago at this
01:06 point and it started in New York. I'd already had like a few ideas for the album from like writing
01:10 on the road and like a lot of it was written in hotels and like planes and all the sad boring
01:16 places so that that's where a lot of it came from. The introspective places. Yeah very introspective
01:22 and this was written the chorus was written in New York and I was like experimenting with
01:25 pitching my voice. That's why the chorus kind of sounds like me but it also has like other layers
01:31 of like pitch vocals. Anyway very boring nerdy stuff but I was getting like more I don't know
01:36 just trying out stuff so experimenting with different perspectives. The first album was
01:40 very like coming from what I my experiences and like how I see things so I was like let's try
01:46 something else not thinking that it would turn out to be the first single and then like nine months
01:50 later wrote the verses for it and yeah I was trying to just listen to a lot of like The Verve and
01:56 Blur and M83 and Beach House and stuff so that's kind of where the inspiration
02:02 came from but the way I write songs for this project is very chaotic so it'll be like I'll
02:09 write a piece here and then like won't write anything on it the rest of it for like nine
02:13 months so it'll like turn out to be this mishmash of I don't know a story but it still has that same
02:20 emotion and feeling. Jigsaw puzzle of music. Yes definitely it's very it's very a frustrating way
02:27 to work but it just works for this solo thing. Well that's what I was about to say because this
02:31 song to me even though it feels like still you feels kind of a continuation of your previous
02:38 solo project but it does feel a little bit more experimentive is that something that you've been
02:44 playing with for a future project the project that this is going to be part of? Well the first
02:49 album was very it was in COVID it's very like you know extenuating circumstances for everyone but
02:55 I was sort of figuring out what the sound was at that point and this upcoming project
03:01 and a bunch of songs is very and closer to what I think the project should be. I was experimenting
03:08 all the time that's kind of the point of it you know to have like a little playground to play in
03:12 outside of what I know really well which is the band so the whole point is to experiment with
03:17 different lyrics and sounds and emotions and all of that stuff so it definitely is it's even though
03:23 I said it was you know a frustrating way to work it is very fun and it's like rewarding and after
03:27 COVID and all of that you know making the first album it was I fell in love with that process and
03:35 the challenge of making stuff on my own and yeah that's why we're here. That is probably a big
03:42 challenge kind of shifting away from 10 years of working in a band and songwriting together with
03:48 three of your friends with a close group and making songs that fit for a group versus this is me the
03:55 artist Luke Hemmings how do I want to portray myself? It is scary you know it's less scary
04:00 well actually it's not as I was gonna say it's less scary this time but that's actually the same
04:04 now if not more you know but it is uh it is different but it's it's just a challenge you
04:10 know as a songwriter I just want to be better at what I do and I think I love making songs with the
04:16 band and making you know you I've known them you know we started the band when I was 15 so to be
04:21 here still making songs as a band is really cool and I love stepping into that role but at the same
04:26 time you after that amount of time like we're you know we're in each other's heads all the time like
04:31 even songwriting and making music is I know I can go to anyone in the band and be like you know how
04:38 do I finish this or you know we write songs so much that it's becomes a bit second nature to do
04:45 that so to be able to do it on my own is scary but it is very rewarding to be like I can you know my
04:51 identity is very attached to the band and to be able to make something on my own is really uh hard
04:56 but it's really rewarding you know yeah it's cool it feels like we're watching you learn your own
05:01 creative process in real time which is so fun me fumbling around trying to figure it out with the
05:07 upcoming project what version of Luke are you trying I think to introduce or where are you at
05:13 right now that you'd like to portray I guess as you get you know as you get a bit older well it's
05:18 not like an old man saying that but as you get a bit oldies you know you hopefully try and learn
05:22 more about yourself and I think I've learned that you know we started like I said we started very
05:27 young and a lot of my identity and sometimes self-worth is attached to the band which isn't
05:32 necessarily a bad thing but I think being you know I'm 27 now and we started when I was 15
05:38 I don't know I wanted to push forward and all these emotions I have inside of me get get them
05:44 out and I think I've learned that I'm a very emotional person and I think I have something
05:48 to say as an artist on my own and that's you know why we're here I think that's why any artist does
05:53 anything that they feel they have something inside themselves they want to get out you know
05:57 I'm sure it's very validating too in the sense of you can trust yourself now or feel like maybe
06:03 you can trust yourself more in the sense that like your whole formative years were in a band
06:08 to have a solo project that did so well with fans looking forward to more of it
06:20 must feel so validating definitely yeah no it's it's it's been super nice you know I was making
06:25 stuff of my own I was like is anyone gonna like this yeah will anyone relate to this and people
06:30 did and it was encouraging you know I played a couple shows on my own and it it did it was it
06:35 was like you know because like I said it was in COVID so to be able to have people in front of
06:39 you singing the songs that you made from like these really dark and like intense personal emotions
06:44 having people sing them back and understand I was like even before we played those shows I was like
06:50 did anyone like this so it was it gave me encouragement to do more stuff on my own and
06:57 explore it more and it's all very me trying to understand it's how I see the world and how
07:02 you know I feel a lot of the time it's all very melancholy and personal and existential and all
07:09 those ethereal we're talking about that all those things and that's it's just trying to
07:17 give a window into how I see the world which sounds really artsy-fartsy but it's you know
07:22 and I think it's capturing a very universal feeling I mean I'm also in my late 20s and
07:28 I feel like that feeling of transitioning from young adult to full-blown adult is very existential
07:35 and very strange and confusing and I feel like it's something relatable and it's a cool thing
07:41 for you to be able to express that artistically and I love that well thank you and over the last
07:45 couple years as you know in going into late 20s I've been touring a lot with the band and a lot
07:52 of that time I'm spending on vocal rest because the shows are quite hard to sing which means like
07:56 you don't talk a lot so it was a lot of like hotels and planes like riding on the hotel pad
08:02 with the like the little hotel pencil whatever they give you and it was very uh it was very
08:09 existential and I was like you know that longing to like go home and like yeah that loneliness is
08:14 really portrayed in in this music and I'm really proud of that it's hard to get that middle balance
08:20 of not being too like sad and not to be obviously too boppy and happy and I think being in that
08:24 melancholy spot was what I was really aiming for I mean you did a wonderful job well thank you
08:29 you're welcome thanks speaking of the performing how was that transition going from performing in
08:35 a band to performing as a solo artist I was very nervous for it yeah I've only played two shows
08:41 one at the Fonda here in LA yes yes yeah two shows at the Fonda and it was it was very scary it was
08:47 very nerve-wracking you know like I said I've only ever been in the band and played shows
08:50 part of the band so it was scary but like I said it was when I was playing those shows
08:55 I still after COVID and putting out the first album I still was like internally like you know
09:00 are people gonna like the songs are they gonna know them like what what's going on and um it
09:06 was it was super emotional you know to hear all these things that I'd written in my house or you
09:14 know wherever it was at the time um being sung back it was really cool it also must be special
09:20 to hear that in such a small smaller venue than probably what you've been touring in in the past
09:25 couple years it must feel so much more intimate to hear yeah that those voices singing back it was
09:30 like I said I'm very comfortable in the band role and I love being that person in five sauce so
09:36 doing something outside of it and playing something like a show outside of it was very
09:39 I was nervous and very scared and that is not something I really experience anymore with the
09:46 band so it wasn't fun at the time feeling it but you know I'm trying to I'm trying you know
09:52 new year new me trying to do things trying to like push myself outside the comfort zone a little bit
09:58 which I think uh hopefully any good things can come from that for sure and speaking of the new
10:03 music as well have uh the five sauce guys heard the the songs you've been working on yet or you've
10:08 been keeping it I have played a little bit but I've been keeping it too I don't I try not to play
10:13 it to too many people honestly it's overwhelming with the opinions it's over it's overwhelming I'm
10:19 very uh because the whole point is to like try and I don't know stand on my own two feet and be like
10:25 I think this is good but I will play it to them for sure no it's good it's a good I think practice
10:31 again even transitioning away from the solo from the band to the solo you're like no this is my
10:36 stuff I need to trust myself yeah exactly yeah what are some of the key differences do you think
10:41 between performing at these huge arenas versus something like the fonda that's a little more
10:46 theater base I think it's more it was definitely more personal I don't know I like them both for
10:51 different reasons I think they're you know with arenas is a bit more of this but more pointing
10:56 up to the stands you know a bit more big jagger I don't know it's a bigger a bigger energy a bigger
11:04 character you know you got to step into those shoes I'm more of an introvert so you know it's
11:09 just turning up the the extrovert a little bit um but I like playing it's all it's all good it's
11:17 all fans yeah it's all great I think um I don't know it's just you can see people's faces which
11:21 is nice you can just actually look at them instead of the light yeah exactly five seconds of summer
11:27 got their start by posting covers on youtube which was a very of the time that was the first kind of
11:33 foray into social media stars I guess or music from social media and now tiktok is such a big
11:40 thing yeah how has it felt being someone who grew from that social media platform seeing how tiktok
11:46 has influenced music so much we've seen like lots of those social media things come and go so when
11:52 another big one pops up you're like oh this is gonna be a thing and then maybe dwindle out and
11:58 it certainly hasn't with tiktok so it's keep going it's it's here to stay yeah I don't know
12:03 I think it's cool I think obviously there's positives and negatives like there was when we
12:07 started on youtube you know there's people that are really great that come from it and there's
12:11 people that maybe are I don't know but it's doing their best it gives it gives people more
12:17 opportunity I think people who don't have connections and I can relate to all the tiktok
12:21 stuff because you know like you said we started there we there was no outlet for us being from
12:27 the suburbs of western Sydney to get our music out there so that was the only way and I can resonate
12:33 with anyone that tries to do that on any platform but obviously tiktok is a huge one right now
12:38 wherever they live and don't have any connection to the music industry or any knowledge of how to
12:43 book shows or any of that stuff I can always resonate with people putting themselves out
12:50 there you know that's what we had to do 100% obviously worked out great and lastly with this
12:57 new project with shakes with the rest of the album what do you want fans to take away from this
13:04 I think these songs I'm very like private person like online and socially and so I think these
13:12 songs are very much a window into how I see things and how I see the world I guess so I think it's
13:19 just I don't know stepping into I don't know how I see things and hope they feel it hope they
13:26 resonate with it on a personal level it's very I don't know it feels like a very human experience
13:33 bunch of songs so I hope they enjoy it honestly yeah and I mean they already have yeah but thank
13:38 you so much Luke I'm such a big fan of yours and congratulations on the new single thank you very
13:43 much thanks for having me
Comments