Luke is the piano player/organist for Days After, and also sings backup and even lead on a few songs. He also maintains a successful solo career, serving as pianist for weddings, private parties, and lounge gigs.
Luke began learning piano at the early age of 4, not even tall enough to reach the pedals. He stayed with lessons diligently until the age of 16, having gain a solid foundation in music theory and some composition/arranging skills. A year after that, he played his first live gig with Jeremy Johnson in the bottom of the Old Post Office in Dublin, which would later become Days After’s rehearsal studio.
After graduating high school, he moved to the musical Mecca known as Athens, GA, and began studying freelance, rediscovered the art of Jazz, and dove into the local music scene. Luke enjoyed a brief stint with the band Come Back Travis, which re-united him with Dublin musician Jeremy Johnson once again. After Jeremy moved out of Athens to finish his education, Luke moved next door to Franklin Engram from Albany, GA, who played guitar and shared Luke’s passion for avant-garde music and goofy songwriting. Thus began the long days and nights of writing songs, cutting tracks, and playing Athens bars for nothing more than sheer publicity and maybe a bar tab. Luke and Franklin, along with Aaron Lee and Jerad Davis, formed Big Ole Diz, which would eventually morph into the Athens band Recycled Shotguns. They played many a gig in downtown Athens as well as Albany and thereabouts. In case you were wondering, Recycled Shotguns is still alive and kicking, and you can visit their website here.
During 2006, Luke met Tyler Lathem of the established Athens band Rhythm Token, and Tyler invited Luke onstage to jam one night at Wild Wing Cafe. The night went so well that Luke showed up for a couple of practices and before he knew it, Luke was gearing up to play at the famous Georgia Theatre in downtown Athens with Rhythm Token. The free-form jam and improvisation all melded together into a dynamite performance for everyone involved. Luke played the Theatre three more times after that first night. It was also during the summer of 2006 that he met the guys from Days After. They played a couple of test gigs and realized the potential, but at the end of the summer, Luke returned to Athens to finish up his degree.
At the end of 2006, Luke did what a lot of die-hards consider to be musical suicide…he graduated. Armed with a BBA and a wealth of newfound musical knowledge, Luke returned to Dublin to set up shop and keep his skills up. He has been playing with Days After ever since.
Luke’s musical influences cover a wide range of styles, but his primary ones include:
- Chuck Leavell (Allman Brothers, Sea Level, Rolling Stones)
- Vince Guaraldi (West Coast Jazz, most famous for his soundtrack for the Peanuts cartoons)
- Elton John
- Ray Manzarek (The Doors)
- Ben Folds
- McCoy Tyner (famous for his stint in the Miles Davis Quintet)
- Jackson Browne
- Jamie Cullum
- Ray Charles
- Page McConnell (Phish)
- John Hermann (Widespread Panic)