Interview with Luke Lauber

UTR: What led you to pursue music and songwriting?

Luke: I grew up with 3 older brothers, all who were amazing at sports. Then there was me. I tried sports for a long time only to find out I wasn’t amazing at them. One day my mom gave me her guitar from college and at first I didn’t like it but grew to love it over about the span of two years. When I began to love it I would come home from school everyday and practice for hours. So that is the musical side of it, as far as the songwriting side I always liked writing songs but I only wrote funny ones because I was far too insecure to write songs that were really on my heart.  So, I made funny ones because I knew I could say things that were on my heart, just say them humorously. It was the perfect combo, put my heart out there but disguise it with humor so if people didn’t like it I could play it off as being funny. Which is quite funny because the first song I ever wrote was called “I suck at playing the guitar.” This came from a traumatic moment when I thought I was amazing at guitar because I knew a few chords and then somebody introduced me to bar chords and this shattered my entire universe.  Fast forward a few years, I was in college and I knew I had something on my heart to say but didn’t know how to say it, so I just prayed, God if you want me to write help to write, because I don’t know how. A few weeks later I wrote my first serious song and ever since then have slowly written songs throughout the years. (Side note: I later played this song for a big producer guy in a songwriting class and he ripped it apart, funny how that happens.)

UTR: Do you have a particular process for songwriting?

Luke: Any time I feel like I have a good process for anything and I try to do it again it never seems to work out quite so well. I feel like songwriting is that thing in life for me that God wants me to depend on Him. He changes what works so I have to stay in constant communication with Him.  Anytime I feel like I have a way that will work every time, it doesn’t work the next time. The thing that seems to be a constant is I have to come to a place that is very honest and real, not trying to impress anyone but just say what is on my heart – what I have been walking through. If I come from any different place it seems to not work out so well and the song seems to always feel weird or foreign to me when I sing it.  So I guess the only process I really have is to be dependent upon Him to give me the words to sing at this point in life.

UTR: Congratulations on the new EP In Love & War (The War of Love). Are there any songs that particularly stand out to you?

Luke: I am sure this is a hard question for most people! If I had to pick, I think for me the one that stands out most is the last one, “(And your heart awakes to find it’s only) -> The Beginning.”  It’s crazy how God works things out but this song was written a few years ago and made the cut (it was originally called “Keith’s Song” for years but that is another story for another day). When we began to work on the project I felt like in life God was saying, “This period of your life, spiritually, is ending and this project is one way to show that.”  The last decade spiritually I feel like God over and over has taught me about His love in absolutely insane ways; the simplicity of it, the magnitude of it, the black and white of it the grey of it, the unexplainable nature of it. It all made no sense but made perfect sense all at the same time in its simplicity. He was showing me how His love was bigger than we could ever fathom or imagine, like eternity.  I have done nothing but learn about His love for me, and everyone else, and just how absolutely insane it is for the last decade of my life. So, in a way I felt like God was saying you are entering into a new season spiritually with me.  This song is the last one on the project but symbolizes a new chapter, hence why, when you listen to it ends all over the place, symbolizing this new thing beginning, almost like the album is just beginning, like it is just beginning to take shape. That’s where I feel like I am in life and spiritually. Going into a place that is unknown, pioneering places spiritually and artistically I have never been.  Hopefully the song symbolizes that.

UTR: How did you get connected to the folks at Old Bear Records?

Luke: Another crazy God story, but it started with they came through and played at the church I worked at.  When they talked about music and worship it was like they spoke the words I had been thinking for years.  The way they spoke of music connected with my heart in a way I couldn’t explain.  We wrote a song together while they were in town with a few other people from the church and we began a conversation about me coming out there to record. The rest is history!

UTR: What do you want the listeners to take away from your new album?

Luke: What I think I would like people to take away is that God is rising up an army that is rooted in his love to begin to conquer the darkness.  We are rooted and fed by the power and presence of God.  We can’t make it on our own and we absolutely need Him.  The war of loving others is something we can’t do in our own strength, but when we lean on Him we see Him do miracles and move in powerful ways.  God moved through people powerfully when they began to love people, when they began to care.  Jesus could have saved humanity in a lot of ways but chose a simple way that no one expected, love. That is what it took to die on a cross for humanity. It didn’t make sense, people thought He was crazy but it ended up saving the world. If we could begin to grasp this I think we would change our society, our world, ourselves. I hope in a way people walk away from this album feeling brave enough to love.

Below you can watch the promo video about Luke’s new album from Old Bear Records.