Rising Star Luke Collins On The Five Things You Need To Shine In The Music Industry

An Interview With Edward Sylvan

I want to make music that is relatable to people far beyond my specific life experience, which is why a personal goal of mine is to always release songs that are co-created and credited to diverse groups that I am not a part of.

As a part of our series about rising music stars, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Luke Collins.

Having spent a decade traveling the world performing in youth orchestras, Luke studied viola in college with hopes of playing professionally. Dissatisfied with the classical music scene and seeking stability, Luke spent his post-college years working as an investment analyst in San Francisco; clocking in long hours and chasing excitement in an old jeep wrangler. Happy, yet not completely fulfilled, Luke set his sights back on music in 2019; he started venturing down to LA on the weekends to crash studio sessions with friends that were working as songwriters and session musicians. Persuading anyone he could to work with him on their days off, he eventually started cutting his own songs. Despite living a relatively quiet office life, the elation Luke got from making music resulted in a batch of songs that are upbeat and lighthearted. Now based in Los Angeles, Luke works full time in music — producing, songwriting, and composing string arrangements for other artists in between his own projects — and can still be found driving the same old jeep around town.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?

Happy and honored to be a part of it! I grew up near Long Beach in Southern California. I was lucky enough to live close to the beach, so I spent most of my childhood either playing music or out surfing.

Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?

I’ve been making music in one way or another for my entire life; I studied viola in college and loved it but knew that a classical music career wasn’t for me. I wanted to find the right way to fulfill that musical itch, and in the last few years, I dove into pop and indie music with a new appreciation after taking time post-college to work a corporate day job. It wasn’t until I started to feel comfortable in a studio environment with the right collaborators that the idea of recording and performing pop music really started to take hold in my mind.

Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

In addition to my own music, I also work as a songwriter and producer. I spend a lot of time trying to meet new artists to work with; I’ll reach out online, go to shows, or ask for introductions from mutual friends. But my biggest client to date, I met in the parking lot of a Mexican restaurant. We were both waiting to pick up take-out and struck up a conversation about music, a few minutes later I was playing them demos on my car stereo and we’ve been working together ever since. It really taught me that being friendly (and loving tacos) can get you unexpectedly far.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?

My project (lol)! The songs that I am releasing this fall have been in the works since before the pandemic and even before I came back to music full time. They have grown with me during a very interesting and transitory time in my life and I couldn’t be more excited to finally put them out for listeners. Releasing the studio recordings is also exciting because I get to keep creating around those same songs with fun videos, acoustic versions, and live performances. My love of music is deeply rooted in live performance and I absolutely cannot wait to bring these songs on stage with me soon.

We are very interested in diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers about why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in film and television? How can that potentially affect our culture?

Diversity in the music industry is extremely important, precisely because it has a deep impact on our culture and the ways in which we express it. Music is a reflection of culture, therefore a music-making process that excludes minority groups will always fall short of its potential.

I think about this specifically in the context of pop music, because it is what I make and is also the most dominant voice in setting the media narrative about culture. The recent USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative Study (linked below) is the latest in a series of indicators that gender inclusion is perhaps the biggest diversity issue in the music industry.

I highly recommend reading the full report, but the headline stat is that of the 100 most popular songs in each of the last nine years, women represented only 12.6% of the songwriters and 2.6% of the producers. Dr. Stacy L. Smith, the lead author of the report, really hammers home that women are almost completely excluded from “culturally setting the agenda for what is communicated in some of the most popular content that audiences consume”.

I want to make music that is relatable to people far beyond my specific life experience, which is why a personal goal of mine is to always release songs that are co-created and credited to diverse groups that I am not a part of.

https://assets.uscannenberg.org/docs/aii-inclusion-recording-studio2021.pd

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

This is a hilarious question because I still feel so new in this industry but:

• Not every song has to be your masterpiece (you don’t have to say everything all the time)

I’ve gone through periods of bad writer’s block because I couldn’t let go of the idea that my next song had to be the perfect depiction of my artistry; you can never boil that down to a three-minute song.

• Personality matters as much or even more than talent

I’ve got dozens of more opportunities by being a nice person than I’ve gotten by being the most talented person in a room.

• Be assertive about your ideas

Obviously, it is important to be open to feedback from the team around you, but especially when starting out I think it is important to voice your ideas. If it is something that you are passionate about, the people around you will respond well to it.

• Don’t explain yourself, proclaim yourself

I’ve spent SO much time in the last two years trying to explain away different decisions I’ve made until I realized that the only person, I was trying to convince was myself. When I started celebrating myself and my path was when people actually started listening.

• Know when to walk away

Sometimes opportunities run their course, and sometimes you are just looking for something different out of a situation. Don’t get caught up in trying to make every opportunity pan out, you might miss the ones that actually will!

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

As someone who absolutely went through periods of burn out in my earlier career in finance, I really wanted to center my music career around longevity. I thought that a big part of my burn out problem in finance was not having much passion for my work and that if I could just work in a field that excited me more it would be smooth sailing. So, it was very challenging to find myself working on my biggest passion of all, music, and still struggling with motivation at times. I guess the real tip should be “prioritize going to therapy” but something that my therapist really helped me understand in those times was that we don’t need to create positive feelings directly associated with our work, but we can focus on the purpose of our work to bring us back to action. In my life, I would focus on funding my music career when I was struggling to motivate myself in my old day job, for others it could be family, hobbies, philanthropy, etc.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

This idea is far short of a movement but is certainly something I am passionate about. I was extremely lucky to find the right career fit in music, but it absolutely took me a long time and few false starts in other fields to find my place. I think that it’s important for people to find work that is fulfilling, but I have seen first-hand how we don’t equip young people with the tools and development to make that a reality. Companies need to step up in the roles they play in supporting the development and exposure of students and recent graduates. Far too many industries are gated by knowledge and access that is only picked up if you find yourself in the right social circle, and companies need to do more to disseminate that knowledge especially if they want to meaningfully increase diversity within their ranks. In the music industry, organizations like She Is The Music are doing a good job of providing development opportunities for young female songwriters while also holding large companies in the industry accountable through information campaigns and partnerships. But we need to keep up that same energy for literally decades because that is how long it’s going to take to establish lasting changes.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

One of my absolute favorite things about the music industry is collaboration. From managers and publishers hammering out business details to photographers, directors, and stylists creating stunning imagery to my music, I am so happy to be a part of something much larger than I could create myself. But above all, my absolute favorite collaborations are with other songwriters in the studio, and the absolute top of that list for me is my friend: Jackie Young. In addition to being an amazing writer, she was the first industry professional that would pick up my calls. She got me into my first recording session and co-wrote my first song and has been a huge guiding force for me at every step since. We’ve known each other since high school, and I feel so lucky that we still get to work on music together.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

Lately, I’ve really gravitated towards the Joan Didion line, “We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget”. There is a lovely duality — it sounds like a quote about getting over things, kind of a “this too shall pass”. But in context, it is actually about never entirely letting go of who you used to be — staying just familiar enough with a past version of yourself to ensure you never fall back (into who you used to be).

Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)

For me, it would be (artist and songwriter) Julia Michaels. Aside from being one of the most accomplished pop songwriters out there, she’s written some of my personal all-time favorite lines so it would be a fun fanboy moment.

How can our readers follow you online?

I am releasing a bunch of music this fall and the best way to follow along is on Instagram @lukeplaysmusic. You can also check out lukeplaysmusic.com and sign up for email updates there.

This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!