A second solo album was one of the outcomes of all the lockdowns for Hove-based Luke Morley from the band Thunder.
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00:00 Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt,
00:04 Greek Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers.
00:06 Fantastic to be speaking to Luke Morley,
00:08 resplendent in a Rolling Stones T-shirt,
00:10 which impressed me. Do stand up, do stand up.
00:12 Brilliant. But, Luke,
00:14 you've been with Thunder for
00:16 approaching 25 years, something like that?
00:18 But you've just...
00:20 Yep, sorry, since dinosaurs roamed the Earth.
00:22 It's actually 13 years.
00:24 Yeah, let's not say they're the same breath
00:26 as a Rolling Stones T-shirt, though, obviously.
00:28 But you've been with them since
00:30 1989, I believe, across 14 albums,
00:32 but you've now brought out your
00:34 second solo album. Tell me
00:36 about the thinking behind that album. How did it
00:38 happen and why?
00:40 It was something actually to preserve my sanity
00:42 during Covid and the pandemic.
00:44 I just went to work
00:46 and it was nice to have the opportunity
00:48 to be able to spend a lot of time
00:50 writing and
00:52 you know, Covid
00:54 did afford me that luxury, so it was great.
00:56 And I managed to write during that
00:58 period of 'Thunder Owl', which is a double album
01:00 and most of this
01:02 new solo album. So it was
01:04 written without any kind of
01:06 particular sense of direction or what
01:08 I was trying to accomplish, anything.
01:10 It's like, I've got these songs, I'm going to
01:12 get them finished, get them out there and then
01:14 we'll think about what we do with them afterwards, sort of thing.
01:16 And then when you had them, you realised
01:18 that they came together to form something?
01:20 Yeah, yes, it felt
01:22 like an album and at that point I started talking
01:24 to labels and here we are.
01:26 Yeah, and it's so interesting, you were saying
01:28 that you were really productive during the lockdown.
01:30 I've spoken to so many musicians, you said they just
01:32 couldn't write, that there was no
01:34 incentive, there was no motivation, but you
01:36 found that. How come?
01:38 I think it's just the
01:40 sense of having a lot of time
01:42 and not knowing when
01:44 that period would end and wanting
01:46 to kind of use it rather
01:48 than sort of tempting as it was to
01:50 sit in the garden and drink beer and wine.
01:52 I just come out of this
01:54 with something to show for it.
01:56 I can't let this...
01:58 I try to see it as an opportunity
02:00 to actually get a lot of things done
02:02 that I'd kind of put to the side for ages.
02:04 It must be so interesting to have
02:06 that solo album. Does it feel like
02:08 a very different kind of baby to
02:10 a Thunder baby? Yeah, obviously
02:12 there's several
02:14 fundamental things in that,
02:16 the main one being it's me singing,
02:18 so there's a lot more kind of, I'm writing
02:20 for my own voice rather than Danny's voice.
02:22 And obviously
02:24 I'm not having to collaborate and I'm...
02:26 being a control freak I am, it was brilliant.
02:28 Although I did have to
02:30 have a serious word with myself on a couple of occasions
02:32 obviously. Good, yeah, and the last
02:34 solo album for this was more than 20 years
02:36 ago. You're not going to wait another 20 years for the next
02:38 solo, are you? Well, I'll probably be dead in another
02:40 20 years, so no,
02:42 I mean, we'll see.
02:44 It wasn't my desire to be a solo artist,
02:46 really. The first time
02:48 I did it, it was for a large
02:50 check from EMI and the second time, this time
02:52 the pandemic obviously affected
02:54 that. So you just have to
02:56 wait for a good reason then? Yeah, really,
02:58 pretty much. So we'll see.
03:00 You never say never, but
03:02 at least I've got this one done and
03:04 we'll see what happens in the future.
03:06 Fantastic. Good luck with that, really lovely
03:08 to speak to you. Thank you for your time, Luke.
03:10 Thank you.