When you’ve achieved your rock band dreams,
spent months on tour with Robert Smith of the Cure, and had David Bowie tell you he listens to your music while folding laundry, what do you do? This is the dilemma facing Luke Jenner, the Rapture’s vocalist, guitarist and songwriter.
Read more in Record Culture Magazine Issue 2 here: https://record-magazine.com/store/issue-2
HAVE YOU LEARNT A LOT FROM YOUR TIME IN THE RAPTURE?
Yeah of course. I mean I’m from San Diego. We just booked a tour and moved over. It’s hard to even talk about how it influenced me because I started the band, and wrote the songs. I would love to do the Rapture again, at this point it’s just up to Vito [Roccoforte]. He lives like a block away from here. I’ve known him since I was nine years old. I think he just needs a break. Being in a band with a songwriter that dictates everything, has tons of ideas about whatever is cool for like 20 years. At some point, you need some space to figure out what you actually want to do. He didn’t even want to be in a band. He was like, “I’m going to film school,” and I’m like “No you’re not. You’re moving to New York,” and he’s like, “I don’t want to move to New York.”
SO THE BAND INFLUENCED THE DIRECTION OF HIS LIFE A LOT.
Yeah. It’s not that I bullied him, but we were so close for so long. He got married, and then I got married. He had a kid, and then I had a kid. I love the Rapture. I am that in a sense. I still consider myself in the band. I have songs where I’m like, “This is a Rapture song.” I could make it for myself, but also it’s a Rapture song. My voice is so specific, it’s really easily identifiable. I’m sorta waiting on a phone call from Vito, saying, “Okay I’m ready to do stu ,” and in the meantime I’m just kinda hanging out with my kid, playing softball, and asking Joakim questions about flangers and stuff
WHEN YOU PUT ON RECORDS AT HOME, WHAT DO YOU LISTEN TO?
During the Onyeabor stuff, that really opened me up to world music. I got really into African records first. I got really into Vallenato, this Colombian blues with the accordion. There’s some Arabic music from the ‘70s that I really like. Now that everything’s available, record collecting has changed so much. World music is one of the only places to dig. What happens when you can buy every Can record immediately? When I was a kid, it was like, “I heard of this band Can, and this cool record they did called Ege Bamyasi. I don’t know where I’ll find it.” I remember when they reissued that in the early ‘90s it was like, “Oh cool, I can actually buy this record.” Now you can look it up on your phone. Even with world music stu there are all these blogs, it’s this community, where people just put up these records. Like, “Hey I bought this record for $200.” There’s this really cool Australian record made by a nun i
Where They’ is a visual documentation of the creative environments of artist & people, that meet during my travels, of homes and studios.
Subscribe to my email newsletter full of inspiring stories about my journey that continues.
