All posts by Luke

About Luke

Luke Hurley guitarist and singer songwriter from New Zealand.

Firebird Tonight

Firebird Tonight

In Levin playing at Firebird again . Be there or be square.
The latest idea is a ticket price but with the proviso its Koha if you are broke.
So if you are a povo there’s no disgrace…I’ve been a povo most of my life.

Visit bandcamp.com if you haven’t visited lately. We got a new one called Express Emotion that was recorded by Facundo. Listen below.

He is a music producer and filmmaker who is keen to come back from Costa Rica and travel with me all over this beautiful New Zealand and document the lives of the  wonderful supportive  people who help me…….so one day we are gonna call on ya with a production manager and all the bells and whistles. It will be all about you too.

Thanks to those of you who have given expressemotion a listen and few who have bought it. Very grateful.

Also last month an old instrumental song of mine was released by Strawpeople. It is called Busker. Give that a listen below and support if you want. What do you think?

And if you are in Wellington this weekend come along to Moon Bar for pizza and live music. I’m playing there on Sunday night.

Back in Auckland for November and expect to be playing some more at Scarecrow but will add those dates when confirmed.

Hope to see you all soon.
Luke

Songs as skeleton keys – expressemotion

Songs as skeleton keys – expressemotion

Expressemotion is a bunch of new and previous ideas. The previous you could call skeleton keys. Songs that have been done before but perceived in another way…..added to and sometimes transformed to something else.

A style defining song is like a skeleton key that opens up to or morphs with other songs…..

For instance these songs: Reha, Ghandis Rag, Ghandis Ghost, and The Sound
all derive from the skeleton key of Ghandis Rag first released in 1986 on Make Room.

It’s a style that keeps giving.

expressemotionExpressemotion is a new album I released this week. It was recorded live back in 2014 and has 5 tracks on it you won’t get anywhere else plus some of your favourites.

Getting Closer, Nobody is Good, Walk in the Light, Direct from the Cosmos and American Express are all new releases.

Yes and some of the other songs you have heard before but every time they get played they are somehow different. It’s like that story where “no man steps in the same river twice”. Because the stream is flowing and each time we go through we are different also.

Anyways I make no apology for repeats and its not due to a lack of ideas especially in light of the fact there’s so much material in a holding pattern.

In conclusion please note the song about getting closer to the light. This is also a song called everything is already ok. It explores life after death…..something that fascinates me greatly. I believe in spirit and in a creator and in love from which we were made. We have an operating system of freewill and that’s the best and worst of everything worth dying for.

By the way two other gigs of note. FIREBIRD Levin 19th and The Moon Bar Newtown 22nd. Be there or be square and please take care…there are cameras everywhere

The photo is Mt Taranaki from the air full version is here.

God bless

Old School As Well as-ism..Luke Hurley live at Scarecrow. Sunday nights from 5:30pm in August 2023

Old School As Well as-ism

Hello friends and new subscribers. Allow me to introduce the concept of “as well as- ism.” When faced with two options try to get the best of both of them.

Example: Auckland vs Dunedin. When you are a resident of Dunedin visiting Auckland you normally say…”Auckland sucks I never wanna come back here”. Your host isn’t too thrilled by this but he does his best to make your stay memorable.

You make some friends and have some good experiences. You may come to the conclusion Auckland is ok. Unlikely but who knows. In all probability when you return to Dunedin you revert to factory setting of “Auckland sucks I never wanna go back there.”

Well…

How about adopting the ‘as well as ism’ approach. Tell yourself, Auckland has the best and the worst of everything….thus you are freed of vexation. You know what’s coming and you know what’s going.

With this in mind – please allow me to invite you to the dreaded city. There are good studios here I can show you around.

The best time to come is in August when it’s quiet. Come to my shows at The Scarecrow. It’s a nice cafe and the people are right friendly. You can crash on my couch and drink my tea and see the worst and best of everything here.

Luke Hurley live at Scarecrow. Sunday nights from 5:30pm in August 2023

Let’s get out of this “oooooooorrraaagh Auckland. Who wants to love there?” And start collaborating. It’s possible to merge the interests of studios here with studios in Dunedin. Why not?

Jan Bille came to stay and I showed him Alex Sound. It’s a great studio but it needs to collaborate with Jan’s connections in Christchurch.

We have begun this interdigitation process and welcome other studios to hop on board. Come on people. It’s about small enterprises joining up….its not about competing and claiming “I’m better than…..”….even if it’s true who cares? It’s not about better it’s about interdigitation.

I had this word pointed out to me in 1975. My father was reading the latest Gray’s Anatomy he had just bought. He was relishing the discovery of a fascinating new word describing the way nerve cells interact. Interdigitate! Awesome isn’t it? He had the foresight to know this was a word of the future with wider application.

Incidentally we are recording his ( my Dad’s) talking book at Alex Sound Studio and the Narrator is Charles Pierard. He is awesome. Jan is very impressed and so is Alex. Two producers working side by side…not competing doing the “as well as ” shuffle.

Ok so here is what we need. We need your support. There are a number of albums to get out and the backlog is getting problematic. All you have to do is support this bandcamp Gaff. Download and contribute so we can afford to keep pumping it out. There are approximately four or five albums that we could put out within the next year but only with your support.

Come to the live shows. Invest in the records. Let’s make America Great Britain Again.

The truth like water

Hello faithful subscribers. Allow me to start with a plug.

Thanks for the support .. especially through Bandcamp.com where it’s possible to achieve high quality downloads. Donations help cover the daunting album/tour costs . Please visit bandcamp.com/lukehurley.

There are four albums waiting to be added pending funding of post production . Spotify is super accessible but somewhat compressed while the soundtracks on bandcamp are better.

It’s very costly to produce soundtracks. A new release finds its way to Bandcamp first and later to Spotify.
..
The way I see it is Spotify is like radio airplay back in the day and Bandcamp.com is where you go to get a quality download. Please remember this as Spotify only pays a dollar per one thousand listens…its of course not possible to cover the daunting soundtrack production costs from such a tiny revenue source hence the need for Bandcamp.com for quality downloads at a price you determine.

It’s a big canoe to push.need all the help we can get.
Here’s my thought for this day June 18 2023. At worst I reckon it could get on a chocolate box.

“The truth like water so gentle yet cuts thru stone. In heat it’s rising . It can freeze into a rolling rock . given time truth wins and brings with its gentle dominion a real loving kindness. It refines and defines all that is good”

So we got to stand for the truth at all costs and let its voice be heard. What is your truth pray tell? Email it to us luke@lukehurley.co.nz

Thank you good people at the Lumsden Hotel for inviting me to play July 1. Bringing Craig Hubber along as before. Check out the movie The World’s Fastest Indian for his sound and the hit tune he wrote about magical mystical Bondi Beach.

And wait! That’s not all.
Was talking to Greg Haver today. He had some great insights regarding the making of albums. He worked with Manic Street Preachers and others.
(See link)

Call me if you know of any possible venues that would have us down there in the deep south in July. We are Affordable, priceless & great for the whole fandamily!

Information Station and Levin

Information Station and Levin

Just had 5 weeks in Hokitika which was very calming; now in Wellington and on the way North again.

A lot of time spent in that buzzy little town called Hoki. I gotta write about the tour.

Finally can write another blog to you my friends who like me are interested in the state of the heart of our vanishing world of convivial places to meet and talk and play. It’s been a long time away.

The tour started with one gig in Christchurch and then just a case of going where invited. It’s a real eye opener seeing in real life the state of your own country.

Everywhere there are small enterprises closing.

Dunedin lost in the space of a few weeks three key watering holes. Nova. Dog with Two Tails and the Zuccini Brothers* and most likely more have closed their doors since. Meanwhile the corporate food giants feed on our addiction to the familiar. Don’t matter if it’s crappy just so long as it’s the same crappy. (* Eds note. Zucchini owners retired after 28 years)

Kids in our time probably don’t know the sheer joy of visiting places where the sole owner went to great lengths to create (key word there) a convivial civilised space for us to meet and greet and find true nourishment for body and soul. Real venues like Arc in Dunedin. Like The Island Of Real in Auckland.

There are still good places and I’m on a mission to find them so please if you know of such let us know.

What is going on though really?one can understand poorly patronized places going under but in the case of those Dunedin venues they were in fact thriving.

How can this be?

Could it be that the allurement of a keyboard and a screen has made the great unwashed happy to stay home on a government recreation scholarship rather than mix with our own flesh and blood Brothers and sisters in little ol real world ?

It’s astonishing.

At least my loafing experience involved something real with a box and vibrating strings and a mouth that could express my deepest longings. It involves reaching into the soul and finding your own unique take on things and not being at the mercy of an algorithm and simulations and titillating from the information stations.

I leave you with the lyrics of a song called Information Station. It’s on an album called Reha which is on www.bandcamp.com. look it up we wanna see you support this great facility and busy it up ok? Listen to Information Station – embedded below.

Anyway here’s a few key lines.i wrote this song 32 years ago and released it in 1994. It’s a sleeper. Wake it up ok?

“Meanwhile try to work at home
With a keyboard and this honky phone
Where is it written – Creation groans
Computer bureau bound to know”.

(i.e. what became Google and such)

i think I was bang on.

We really do have this option of vegetating in a simulation.i call it once removed living.
Do this or just get out more. Go to concerts. Go to the mountain. To the sea. Anything but tippy tippy and watching the devils eyeball .

Anything but tippy tappy and mesmerisation at a hopeless little screen……..to quote the late uncle Lenny

Real life is always gonna surpass these imaginings on a screen. We gotta support the watering holes that remain.

By the way I am playing at Firebird again. It’s in Levin. Saturday 7pm

The acoustics are great. Food is wonderful and it’s not only pizza…the kitchen is being renovated and extended significantly.

Support anywhere that encourages live music. Such places are very rare.

I should give up but I simply cannot do that. There is still too much to say and it’s gotta be said. Come and join in. Door charge 20. Call me if ya want a ticket and just have a chat…otherwise doorsales is fine. The good thing about being a little guy is you get to talk to all your supporters. 021 0259 2919.

Call me if I can help or if you want to chew the fat. It’s a dying art…talking on the phone.corporates hate it. They prefer you use the tippy tippy and don’t engage at all at all.
@#%÷ them.

God bless.keep us posted.communication is love. Love is in short supply in the world of humans .

By the way. A new album or four is waiting to be posted up .help the cause. It is costly to make album.very costly.

Just to give you a glimpse of how impossible it is to recover the cost of making an album. 20,000 listens on Spotikleptofy realises 20 bucks for the artist.

It takes YEARS to get that many listens for tiny acts like this. We ain’t going broke coz we got your support right?