Luke Morley has stood at the very heart of UK rockers Thunder since 1989 as their guitarist, chief songwriter and producer. He’s been a lynchpin in their 14 albums’ success and served a crucial role in building up these rock heroes’ loyal fanbase and enduring popularity. That’s helped Thunder enjoy 7 UK Top 10 albums and 18 Top 40 singles but with the band on hiatus right now as lead singer Danny Bowes recovers from a serious health issue, Morley confidently steps into the arena of Rock-tinged Americana with his brand-new solo album ‘Songs from The Blue Room.’
The new album is a tour de force for Luke Morley’s multiple talents: songwriter, singer, musician, and producer. Not only is he a renowned guitarist but he’s a multi-instrumentalist and plays all instruments on the album, bar drums (with Dave McCluskey taking on those duties.) ‘Songs from The Blue Room’ also brings Luke Morley’s strong, but nuanced, rock vocals to the fore where he sings lead on all tracks. We were thrilled to grab some time to talk to him all about it.
It’s great to talk to you again, Luke. Before we dig into ‘Songs from the Blue Room’, can I ask if you’ve been pleased with the reaction to the re-issue of the first three Thunder albums on vinyl?
i think so, yeah. A lot of our fans have been delighted that they can now get those albums on vinyl, finally. The debut did come out on vinyl originally, but the other two didn’t. It’s one for the collectors!
Looking at the branding and the cover for ‘Songs from the Blue Room’, I’m assuming ‘the blue room’ is your studio and not a state of mind?
Absolutely. (laughing) It is what my studio is painted and has nothing to do with any mental state or being a Manchester City supporter! (laughing) When it comes to matters of interior design, my wife is, obviously, the governor and she chose the colour for the room.
You last released a solo album in 2001. Tell me about the differences between that, ‘El Gringo Retro’, and this new album.
Ok. With ‘El Gringo…’ it was something of a very quick decision to record that album. I hadn’t been writing with a view to making a solo album back then. There was a few songs laying around that I’d written with Andy Taylor (Thunder producer and Duran Duran member) and that coincided with Thunder saying what we thought was a farewell and EMI in Japan inviting me to make a solo album.
With ‘Songs From the Blue Room’ it was more of a gradual process. Three of the songs, ‘Killed by Cobain’, ”Errol Flynn’ and ‘Nobody Cares,’ were all kind of written during the period when I was writing the ‘All the Right Noises’ album for Thunder. I didn’t think they fitted with what the band’s sound was on that album and then lockdown happened and they got pushed back further.
It was my wife that said I should think about doing something with those three songs just as I was starting to write the ‘Dopamine’ album and so the rest of the songs came from out of that period of putting ‘Dopamine’ together. With these songs, they are all written with me singing them in mind, whereas with ‘El Gringo Retro’ they were just songs I wrote that I wasn’t sure who was going to sing.
Was ‘El Gringo Retro’ going to be your solo career post-Thunder or just a passion project of songs you had at the time?
The latter, really. I’ve never really seen myself as a solo ‘artiste’. I like being part of a team and the camaraderie of being in a band. In the modern music industry lots of artists are doing lots of different things and projects now that the bands of the 80s and 90s wouldn’t have been allowed to do. All the guys in Thunder have had various projects over the years, whether that’s making a record or being part of other bands. As a musician, you wanna play and whenever you do something outside of your ‘day job’, it always allows you to bring something fresh and new back.
Is there a quantifiable thing you can put your finger on that makes a Luke Morley song different to a Thunder song?
With Thunder, when we all get in a room and start making a noise, we sound a certain way. With the solo songs, it’s much more me on my own in a studio, layering up the tracks bit by bit. I also probably worry less about people’s expectations as to what it’s going to be with the solo songs, that’s the great joy of making a solo album. The freedom is very enjoyable.
There’s songs on this album that I just couldn’t see fitting into Thunder’s sound or catalogue at all. Arguably, a few of the songs could be worked up to sound like Thunder but most of them couldn’t and wouldn’t be right for the band. Often I know when I am writing the song and think, ‘maybe this just doesn’t sit right with what Thunder should sound like.’
“I’m the One You Want’ or ‘ I Wanna See the Light’ could have been on a Thunder album I think?
Possibly. They are the two closest songs to Bluesy Rock on the album so I think that’s a natural thought process. Because it is me writing the songs, some of it will always sound a little bit like Thunder (laughing), it’s inevitable really.
You’ve been a prolific writer in recent times and have touched upon some quite serious social and political issues too. ‘Songs From the Blue Room’ seems a little more lighter in terms of tone.
My writing always reflects how I feel at any one time. There wasn’t a conscious decision on my part to be more political on ‘All the Right Noises’ or ‘Dopamine’, it’s just how some songs evolved. ‘Nobody Cares’ is me moaning about the mundanity of most people’s interactions with social media, I guess, but apart from that, musically, there is an intensity about Thunder’s music that the lyrics need to match. On this solo album I was a little more relaxed about where the lyrics went and what they were. I didn’t worry, maybe as much as I usually do.
A lot of the songs were written during lockdown and for me, lockdown wasn’t an unpleasant experience. I know it was for many people out there, it was awful, but I was quite happy sitting around catching up with things, listening to music and writing songs. I tried to look upon it as a working holiday and maybe the songs reflect that a little.
Let’s pick up on ‘Nobody Cares’. It’s got a quite unusual eastern European vibe to it. It also puts me in mind of something like ‘Preaching From a Chair’.
It’s also quite Greek! I’ve no idea where that came from, I could not tell you at all! (laughing) I picked up the guitar and started singing the melody to myself and thought , ‘Well, where the f**k has that come from, that’s not like me!’ (laughing) It’s in waltz time and there’s a peculiar key change in the middle too, it’s a very odd song.
I do like writing songs like that because it’s good to find out that I can still surprise myself after all these years! (laughing) I’m not a great one for analysing my own stuff, that’s your job, not mine (laughing) but it’s such an unusual song.
Is ‘Errol Flynn’ about a man in particular or the ageing process in men in general?
I think it’s about several things. It’s about the male condition, it’s about getting older, it’s about walking into a room and seeing an attractive woman look straight through you and realising you are old now! (laughing) It’s sort of semi-autobiographical! Some of it is also about my father, too, who died a couple of years ago. He had a very full life and, let’s just say, he never held back on things! He didn’t particularly enjoy getting old but he did, he got to 85 but he constantly struggled with being old but feeling young. Ultimately, it’s a song about the male condition: I’m 62 now and those kind of perceptions and feelings are kicking in and it’s important as you age to maintain your dignity, I think.
I guess a lot of people don’t age particularly gracefully in the music industry?
(laughing) There’s that old myth about living fast, dying young and having a good looking corpse, right? The fact of the matter is, If you asked Pete Townsend now about him writing ‘My Generation’ he’d go, ‘what the f**k was I thinking,’ (laughing) Ageing is an odd thing in a media which is still hung up on excess, drugs and shagging – shouldn’t we have moved on from that by now? You can’t pretend you are 22 when you are 62 can you, or at least you shouldn’t do.
‘Damage’ also really intrigues me lyrically.
There’s a little humour there on that one. It’s not about anyone or anything in particular. A friend of mine, who shall remain nameless, was in an abusive relationship where his wife was abusing him. Not the other way round, which is the usual thing we hear about. He laughs about it now but at the time it wasn’t very pleasant at all, so there’s some of that in there. It is a largely humorous song about someone being largely bullied by his other half and laughing at it after.
The first line came out when I was sitting at the piano and I just when from there.
So, that’s you on the piano on ‘Damage’ and is that you on the piano on ‘Don’t Be Long’ as well? How proficient of a piano player are you?
Yep! Shocking!(laughing) I’m OK, I’ve got better at it over the years but I find it a very frustrating instrument. Obviously, as a guitar player if I hear a melody I can play it back on the guitar but when I sit at the piano, I know where all the notes are, I know where everything is but my piano dexterity is not great. If I go out and do some live shows around this album, you won’t catch me playing the piano, put it that way!
I’m good enough to use it as a writing tool and play it in eight bar sections in the studio when building a song.
Is that you on the harmonica as well on ‘Watch the Sun Go Down’?
It is. Like a lot of people that play harmonica, I am not great, and in that description I include people like Bob Dylan and John Lennon. Most musicians have a kind of harmonica that just plays the note they need and then they blow into that. We did a version of ‘Blown Away’ on Thunder’s ‘Please Remain Seated’ tour that had a harmonica and I played guitar and harmonica on that. They are bloody cumbersome things! (laughing)
I hear the ghost of Freddie Mercury on ‘Don’t Be Long’ but my wife hears Paul McCartney. Which one of us is closest?
I have to say your wife is probably right! For me, I’m not not a Queen fan, but if you look at a lot of their music you can hear a lot of the Beatles in there. Someone said to me that they thought like it sounded like a Noel Gallagher song too, which is also the same root, it’s the Beatles. Their influence is inescapable.
It was always going to be the final track on the album. Especially when we put the strings on it. We used the same string quartet that we’ve used with Thunder on that track, they’re based in Cardiff and I was recording it at Rockfield studios in Monmouth so I got them up for the afternoon. The strings also brought a Beatles-esque feeling to it too.
Would you consider taking the album out on the road and doing some solo shows off the back of it at all?
I’m talking to a couple of people about it at the moment. My attitude has changed a little because initially I hadn’t considered doing that at all. Maybe because the reaction to ‘Killed by Cobain’ has been so good and has taken me a little off guard, If I’m being honest, I’m changing my mind right now. Danny needs time to recover and I’ve not done any gigs at all this year yet, which is weird. The thought of sitting here and not gigging for the rest of the year is slightly frustrating so I’ve started looking at it a little.
If I do it, I want to do it properly. I need the right kind of venues and the right musicians do to the album justice. If I can logistically make it work, I will.
