Hello and welcome to episode 151 of the ACPG Podcast.

This week Ben is on zoom with Conradfrom the North West based band - The Luka State.

Ben and Conrad talk about all things The Luka State as well as a lot of rock n roll.

Hailing from Winsford – a forgotten town between Manchester and Liverpool –  The Luka State aren’t overly concerned with the loftier heights of the rock’n’roll dream.

“Music has always been therapy for me,” says Conrad Ellis, frontman of rising UK indie-rock powerhouse The Luka State. “You do feel like there’s a weight lifted, but for people with mental health struggles and people from working-class towns, you feel like you deserve more than the cards you’ve been dealt – those feelings don’t go away.” 

Ellis, along with his hometown childhood friends Sam Bell (bass, vocals), Lewis Pusey (guitar) and Jake Barnabas (drums), dropped their self-funded debut album ‘Fall In Fall Out’ in 2021 to media attention and critical acclaim, but also a world gone quiet due to the pandemic. “It was hard to connect with the wider world when we were all stuck at home, so we couldn’t see what impact we’d had on the scene, the industry and the wider world,” remembers Ellis. 

When the world opened up and the band could return to the stage, they found legions of fans who had connected with their debut album’s punchy stories of hometown life and knew every word. But by then, they’d already been at work on the follow-up and were evolving as a band both musically and lyrically.  

Thank you to Kat for setting up the interview. And thank you to Conrad for coming on.