I had a chat with Luke Thomas last week about his new project Butler and his eagerly awaited second single, Colours Of Love. Butler is the brainchild of award winning singer/performer Luke Thomas, whose electrifying new project has allowed him to explore his more commercially creative side. Already known as the front man for the band The Swing Cats, Thomas wanted to try something different with Butler.
Thomas recently released the sensational summer anthem ‘Colours Of Love’, with Afro/Irish singer J Bols. We talked about the differences between the two projects and the birth of Butler.
“ Well I’m in a band at the moment called The Swing Cats and I just wanted to get back to being more creative and explore more radio friendly songs and projects.I started this maybe two years ago just working with Irish producers just to be more current with one eye on radio play and stuff like that. I released a song last year which did quite well, it was played on most national stations and I just wanted to follow up with something summer-y and something to make people happy. I hooked up with an Afro Irish artist called J Bols and he had a song called Colours Of Love and we just rewrote parts of it and arranged it and it is what it is now. So I’m delighted and excited that people can finally hear it.
I started as a solo artist when I was a teenager, that’s going back maybe 13 years now at this stage and it was always my idea to do dance/hip hop/pop sort of music. That’s what I started off doing and I fell into The Swing Cats by accident and that was kind of my main identity – like with that band I’ve sold out a lot of venues, The Concert Hall, The Olympia, Vicar Street and it was always in my head that I wanted to return to the pop/dance element. That was the creative side, the song writing side so to speak. So I said it’s now or never, that’s how it came about. It really helps the creative side but it’s fun as well. It’s fun to hear people’s reaction to a song that you have written on the radio.”
The Swing Cats are a six piece collective which has performed for President Micheal D Higgins, appeared on The Late Late Show and enjoyed two number 1 iTunes albums. However Butler gives Thomas more freedom.
“Absolutely, I’ve gone to a point now with The Swing Cats where I feel quite comfortable and people know me from that so I’m able to explore other avenues and it really shows another dimension to what I do. At the end of the day I would describe myself as a performer without being conformed to a genre. I know a lot of bigger artists, not to compare but you look at bigger artists, like, Lady GaGa would obviously do her big dance pop numbers but at the same time she can collaborate with someone, an iconic figure like Tony Bennett who is the closest thing we have right now to a Frank Sinatra. Tony Bennett is 90 something years of age. He was around those days, in Vegas in the 60’s and 70’s. He’s won Grammys doing that style of music and there’s countless other examples of people who have switched genres so I suppose it’s just to explore it. I would never forgive myself if I didn’t give it ago. Thankfully people like it and thankfully it has been received very well.”
Colours Of Love is a vibrant and fun track – perfect for summer. I love how Thomas blends rich elements of guitar with electronics and afro beats. I wondered if he had the full idea of the song before he went into production or was it a case of messing around in the studio to get the right sounds and energy. Although he had help on elements of the song it was challenging to cut the track into a 3 minute song.
“ It was a lot longer there was another minute and a half on the song and I felt it just needed to get to the point quicker and that’s where I brought my experience on that side of things to the table and the guys were gracious enough to work with me. A lot of times if you have come up with a creative piece you don’t want people picking at it or changing it to much so it was a great partnership where we worked together to get the best out of the song and it’s turned out really well. “
Butler’s previous releases ‘Forever Young’ and ‘Applause’ have that night club dance floor feel although ‘Applause’ is more of a cool pop tune. Thomas enjoys the collaboration experience with other artists as they bring different elements and knowledge into his projects
“I like to work with a lot of different people and I suppose you always lean when you work with different people.The last song (with Butler) I worked with Lo Cutz. He is an Irish DJ as well and a producer. He was coming up with the music and the beats behind the last single and that worked well. It brings other elements as opposed to me saying I’m able to do everything because I’m not, so when you are dealing with different genres it’s great to have other experts in their field add to it and make it better. To build the best possible product. So yeah 100% I would love to continue with that and collaborate as much as possible.
The next one will probably be with Lo Cutz again. We held it back, we felt the summer vibe of ‘Colours of Love’ suited the time and the next song is more darker, an evening night time sort of song. So we are going to keep that one and maybe release that later in the year. Again it’s kind of pop dance-y with a little bit of synth in there. Just to try and build on the foundation of this style that seems to be getting a good reaction.When you release something it’s out of your control it’s down to people’s reaction whether it’s going to work or not so it’s always a nervous time.“
Ireland has a vibrant and budding music scene at the moment especially in the dance and hip hop genre. Butler believes that the great quality content of artists and how they are mastering their craft is making each genre’s scene strong
“It is, and a lot of hip hop and different genres which is great. Its great to see Irish artists coming up to the mark and delivering international level content. I know its always a sticky point for Irish artists with airplay and with getting support but I feel now that a lot of artists are at the level where it warrants the right amount of airplay and its always going to be tough no matter whether your Irish or International to get some sort of airplay particularly if you are independent, so it’s great to see the quality there. They can’t take that away from the artist anymore.The quality is there and people are getting so much better at production levels and stuff like that. It’s great to see.”
Thomas hopes to be able to do live shows as Butler and see what that set up would bring. Seen as Butler is a more dance-infused project it will be a different experience than the live band aesthetic he is used to.
“That was the plan and just get a vibe or a band together just to see what it would look like live, because I actually haven’t gigged with this project and it would be exciting because there is a lot of great young musicians and it would be interesting to see what way the physical side to things would turn out. You know, would I go with keyboards and samples or would I go with the full live band. I’m actually quite interested to see how that pans out so I suppose there is no plans just yet, obviously it’s going to come down to the current situation lifting and various things like that, so I would imagine it could be early next year before Butler will be performing fully live.But I do look forward to that and getting a few more songs and having a decent enough set to perform. “
Thomas has experienced the industry from many different aspects.Through hIs band The Swing Cats, he has worked with different people and now Butler. I wondered what advice he would give to someone who wanted to start a career in music.
“I would say first of all you have to decide what you want to get out of music. I know that sounds a little clinical but do you want to be a gigging musician, do you want to be a recording artist, do you want to be a producer because I think in this day and age sometimes when you are releasing a song it’s like buying a lottery ticket. There are so many talented people out there and you need the infrastructure around you to get the results you’re looking for. So I would say first of all decide what kind of area of music you want to be in and then you will be able to streamline your plan. You need a plan, you need to know what you want out of something. I know obviously a lot of people do it for the love and that is absolutely brilliant. I do it for the love as well but you still need to know what you want out of it because I know a lot of people that would gig around and it might be more of a past time to them or life takes over and they have to get a full time job so again it’s around sustainability, it’s around having a plan and finding out what you want from it. I feel there is a lot of talented people not just in Ireland but around the world but there are a lot of talented people in Ireland and some don’t have the tools to know what the next steps are. Unfortunately there is only a handful of top managers so you have to, for want of a better expression, die on the cross before someone comes and picks you up or saves you. Gigging yourself to the top is not always the best option. If you’ve got a particular sound, you hone in on the sound, you try and make yourself somewhat original or somewhat better.It comes down to having that product and then you need the infrastructure around you. So if you have a product you then look for people that might be able to provide the infrastructure – I call them plugins as opposed to trying to do everything yourself. So ok I might need someone that can promote songs to radio, I might need someone that can help produce things to a better level, things like that and you will get plugins along the way.
As the saying goes youth is wasted on the young. If knew when I was 17 or 18 what I know now it would be a different world for me.But that’s the way it is. You do have to learn and you do have to try and make these decisions, particularly with a new band, there’s no rush no one is waiting for you to release your song, no one is banging down the door well for most new bands, so take your time, get it right. Get your songs right, your content, get what your sound is right, listen to what’s out there on the radio. Have a listen to the top 20 songs out there and if you have songs that you’re writing, fair enough their original but have a listen to what the current taste is in music and be clever about it. Maybe you could tweak a song that you have and you know might be slightly sounding a different way and just tweek it into the area it needs to be for radio for example. If a song is too long, to short, you have to think of it like that, which allows you to get to the next level. “
Thomas is building up his writing and tunes for a potential EP next year and hopefully a tour. Things are unsure at the moment but he’s busy planning and putting all the pieces together for his next release.
“The plan would be to release one more single this year and then early next year bring out an EP and maybe a small tour that would be the ultimate plan at the moment. I suppose the climate at the moment is about having the next song ready to go and thats what people want. They want instant gratification on the music side where they won’t necessarily take the time to listen to an album. What I don’t want to do is spend a lot of time and effort in a big album and something like that for it not to get the proper exposure.So at the moment my plan is to continue to release singles until something catches on to a level where people’s ears are open and then I can bring out a more comprehensive piece of work. That is the way music has gone, certainly for Butler anyway. That may change but that seems to be the way people are consuming music. So what’s next for me is a load more promo and a load more writing. I’ve been working on this next song. I’ve been doing it remotely at the moment but hopefully with the slight changes with four people being aloud in a room I’ll be able to go and actually work on the song face to face and trying to start building the next campaign as well. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks we will have some acoustic songs up online as well just to get people’s feedback on it. That’s what I’m up to at the moment.“
Butler is an ambitious and fun project with infectious tunes that make you want to instantly dance. Thomas has clearly put a lot of planning and effort into creating and honing his craft to provide lush, well textured and melodies tunes ready for everyone to enjoy. I’m looking forward to what tunes the coming months bring and also to that all important live show as soon as Thomas can organise one.
Stream ‘Colours of Love’ below
Author : Danu
