The Luka State

Live Nation Presents

The Luka State

With album "More Than This" on tour

Every year you hear bands that make you wonder if the Brits are mixing anything into the drinking water in their small towns and metropolises. Or what is the secret behind the never-ending stream of really good young acts that keep stirring up the European music scene with guitar, bass, drums, attitude, a bag full of melodies, Sturm, Drang and working class attitude. One of the most exciting examples from recent years is the band The Luka State around singer and guitarist Conrad Ellis. The four musicians come from the small town of Winsford, which is about equidistant from the music metropolises of Liverpool and Manchester. Especially in Manchester, their name has been on the radar since their debut album "Fall In Fall Out" from 2021: Manchester United's stadium, for example, regularly plays their songs "Bring Us All Together" and "Kick In The Teeth" as a warm-up before matches. No wonder: Their sometimes snotty, sometimes melodic sound somewhere between the Arctic Monkeys, modern UK punk and early Biffy Clyro as well as their noticeable roots in the British working class just fit too perfectly into the stadium.

With their second album, "More Than This," released in March, The Luka State are now proving musically that their songs work on a stadium scale. To the indie background with punk influences, they sometimes indulge in epic moments that are almost reminiscent of Muse. Lyrically, songwriter Conrad Ellis is more grounded than ever. In the driving title track, he paints a poetic, unsparing picture of life on the poverty line in his homeland: "For the broken hearted / From a broken home / Let down on the breadline and this ain't the first time / That my kids go hungry / Did I mention that? / The estate seems ugly / You may think I'm a junkie / I need to be able to put food on the table / Working two jobs a week." For Ellis , the song was something of a spark for the album and for a new phase in his songwriting. In an interview, he recounted how he worked for a "food bank" during the darkest phase of the pandemic, distributing food packages to poor families. The mother of two children sung about in the song had lost both her jobs to the pandemic and had virtually no reserves or collateral. "It broke my heart, man," Ellis said in the interview. "And it pushed me to be even more honest and direct in my lyrics." For the first time, he also dared to tackle very personal topics like struggling with his own mental health.

Even though songs like said "More Than This," but also "Bring Us Down," " Stick Around," "Matter Of Fact," "[Insert Girl's Name Here]" and "Bury Me" already develop an amazing energy on record, you have to experience the four young men of The Luka State primarily on stage to understand why they have taken the UK scene by storm. In December, you finally have the chance to do the same in Germany.