INTERVIEW: Luke Marzec on his journey to be free
Photo: Luke Marzec’s debut album is called Something Good Out of Nothing. Photo courtesy of Theo Batchelor / Provided by Reybee with permission.
Singer Luke Marzec is billed as a British soul-experimentalist, and he has a number of projects developing at any given time. His latest creative output is a big one for his career: his debut album, which is called Something Good Out of Nothing. The jazzy record is now available and features the single “Space to Be Free,” which is about disconnecting from the many distractions in the world and finding room to breathe.
Marzec, who also curates a music collective in London called Headroom, recently exchanged emails with Hollywood Soapbox to talk about his new album. The singer classifies the new songs as pop, but with soul and jazz influences. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What can fans expect from your debut album Something Good Out of Nothing?
Well, you know what they say — best not to have any expectations. That’s how I best live life. But it goes something like this — this album is my take on soul music. Tt draws on influences from hip hop, Motown, R&B, soul and jazz with some spacious soundscaping. I’ve got this big voice and write songs that mean a lot to me. It’s a great variation of sounds and instrumentation, from the most naked acoustic guitar accompaniment to full-bodied soul sound with horns. It’s embracing the old world and looking forward. Something like that.
How long have you been working on the album?
I may have had a couple of spare ideas sitting around, but the bulk of the writing of the album happened in about a month, during which I demoed around 30-40 tracks. After the tracks were demoed, I then spent a further two or three months, on and off, working with David Beauchamp, laying down drums and re-producing the demos. I wrote, produced and recorded the record myself, playing all the instruments (bar the drums). Two of the songs were written out of the studio with my good friend Theo Bathcelor. It basically happened over the autumn and winter of ’23/’24, with most of 2024 spent getting the right team together to do the mix, master and distribution.
What inspired the creation of the song “Space to Be Free”?
It’s about the age old power dynamics that I’ve been aware of since coming of age. I started the song before the pandemic, before we began to really distrust the tech lords, and before AI was talked about in the public sphere. I revisited it last year and was able to finish the song super easy. But at its core, most of us don’t want a lot. And we don’t need a lot either. A bit of space and time is all we need, and with it, we can flourish. But the price of real estate is so expensive in so many places; and we are all working longer hours, that space and time is a luxury many of us lack for us to flourish. The rich get richer, and a lot of us have to struggle for what was given only a generation or two ago. We know the story. Power is concentrated in ever smaller quantities etc., but most of us just want a simple life, which can for some, be quite the challenge to achieve.
Do you currently have space to be free? Is that an ongoing struggle for us all?
It is an ongoing struggle for a lot of us. But yes, I have now found that space. It took a while to get it. But I have a freelance job in the film industry, which gives me flexibility with my time, and I live somewhat nomadically, between the cities of Bristol and the South Devon countryside. Moving between places, feeling different cultures and people, even within the borders of my country, is very freeing.
How would you describe the sound you create? Soul? Jazz?
I’d say it is song music, pop music, but with soul and jazz influences. I love spacious instrumentation. I also used some synths and samplers to get some cool textures, but the live sound is completely natural — just keys, electric guitar, bass, drums and voice.
For those who can make it to Headroom in London, what’s the experience like?
Headroom is actually on hiatus! It was a great project bringing together many amazing live electronic musicians and artists, but all of us have so many projects going on, it has taken a back seat for now. There’s been talk of getting it going for a few USA guests who are visiting in autumn. Headroom is a jam session with a brilliant mix of live musicians (horns, guitar, bass, voice) and electronic musicians (drum machines, modular synths and other synthesisers), and its long free-form jamming with various guests dropping in and out. I can’t wait to have the time to get more going.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Luke Marzec’s debut album, Something Good Out of Nothing, is now available. Click here for more information.
