‘When we decided we wanted to do music seriously there was no question of getting a real job’

Daniel Luke is on the first of his flat whites. He is thinking about where his family’s creativity stems from – he and his brothers Liam, James and Kevin Smith are all working musicians. Liam’s band, Audible Chocolate, recently released their debut single, The Amber Thief. James was, like Luke, in the now defunct Gypsies on the Autobahn, then released his debut solo album, (…) And You Chose Not to Laugh; band and record were both critically acclaimed. And Kevin releases music and provides riotous entertainment as Kojaque.

Luke, who uses his middle name for his stage name – “I thought it had a bit more gravitas than plain old Dan Smith” – decides his mother is to blame. “She would have played the piano and sung in choirs.” There were no professional musicians anywhere in the family, he says. “She forced all of us to play the piano from the age of six or seven, but then whenever one of us had a whim to learn another instrument she was fine with it and arranged lessons for us. There was a supportiveness there, and when we decided that we all wanted to do music seriously there was no question about any of us getting, so to speak, a real job. She very much let us find our own way.”

What mostly inspired Shadow Dance’s beautifully delicate instrumental piano pieces was his decision to take jazz lessons in 2019

Did the father of the house have any say in the matter? “He died when we were quite young,” he says. “Mam said that if he had been alive, we would all have ended up as golfers and not musicians.”

PGA’s loss is our gain. From their teenage years onwards, Luke and his brothers forged their respective artistic spaces while also ducking and diving into and out of each other’s musical endeavours. Luke spent almost 15 years as the drummer in Gypsies on the Autobahn. They formed in 2006 to compete in a school battle-of-the-bands competition, and released two albums – Born Brief, their debut, from 2017, which included lots of references to the Smith brothers’ late father, and Suspended, from 2019 – and split up in 2020, just as Covid started to creep in.

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Luke says he began to work on his solo debut, Shadow Dance, just after the band had given up the once-realistic dream of making a living from their music. What mostly inspired Shadow Dance’s beautifully delicate instrumental piano pieces – part Erik Satie and Bill Evans, part vulnerability, meditative and pure – was his decision to take jazz lessons in 2019.

“It started almost by accident, in that over the years I had written little bits and pieces on piano but for no particular reason or purpose. The jazz lessons were just wanting to try something different, but they kicked something off for me. With classical piano, the emphasis is on a different type of creativity that revolves around technique and discipline. For me it isn’t really about creating your own music. The outcome of the jazz lessons is that you’re forced, more or less, to start composing, and that puts you into the mindset of feeling you can actually make something. The first piano piece that I was satisfied with was Bloom, which is why it’s the first track on the album.”

Luke knows that the difference between good propulsive rock songs (of which Gypsies on the Autobahn had many) and genteel neoclassical/ambient pieces is the dividing line between radio play and virtual silence, but he seems a resilient, canny, deft musician who is wisely looking to use Shadow Dance as, among other things, a calling card for soundtrack work. “Its niche neoclassical piano tracks aren’t going to be played on mainstream, daytime radio. Maybe Lyric FM, but it’s not going to be in the charts!”

That takes some of the pressure off, he says as he finishes his second flat white. “The goal isn’t to have a hit record but to keep making things I like, which is good music, videos and live shows. I’ll see if I can build it that way.”

Four other neoclassical/ambient Irish albums you need to listen to

Brian Crosby: Imbrium (2021)

We said: “Intended as a balm for our times, a quiet, reflective and meditative safe space to take refuge from the commotion. Tracks such as Puzzled Love of the Light and The Front Bench are gorgeous gems to enthral and delight.”

BK Pepper: Territories (2020)

We said: “Handsomely suffused with shades of Nils Frahm, Ólafur Arnalds, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Max Richter and Conor Walsh, its distinctiveness and dynamism are impossible to overlook. The music may flow with grace, but prickly, singular edges are never too far away.”

Una Keane: In the Deep (2019)

“There is a timeless nature to these beautifully composed, minimalist instrumentals; her use of looped tracks and field recordings gives it a modern-day perspective akin to the work of Ólafur Arnalds, while a Max Richter influence is also audible.”

Conor Walsh: The Lucid (2019)

“It all hangs together as a sparkling collection of piano-based gems played in Walsh’s rich and unique style. The closing track, An Fhuair, owes some inspiration to pioneers such as Nils Frahm and Aphex Twin, as it weaves spellbinding piano melodies over electronics.”

Shadow Dance is released on May 5th. Daniel Luke plays the Duncairn, Belfast, on Thursday, May 18th; and Levis Corner House, Co Cork, on Friday, May 19th, and Saturday, May 20th. Shadow Dance will be launched on Tuesday, May 30th, at the National Concert Hall, Dublin, as part of the venue’s Metronome series of events