L.A. Edwards
Luke Andrew Edwards was born in the one-stop-light town of Julian, in the California desert. He is the second of seven children who tenured there in what’s lovingly called “The Rock House”, a modest home with an infamously leaky roof and questionable foundation. Though many of its repairs never came to fruition considering the many mouths to feed, this place and its inhabitants serve as the bedrock upon which this artist has built a life; family before all.
Amidst the clamor and daily negotiations that a large tribe inevitably brings, music was a balm in the tumult, but not in the way one might imagine. There are no memories of road trips listening to classic rock on the FM band or children feigning to be a Beatle in front of taped concert on television. The household was deeply religious and cloistered from much of popular culture. Rather, their first sonic experiences came from hymnals and classical music on cassette tapes borrowed from the local library.
Whether Luke’s musicality was spurred by its taboo nature in the home, or more peaceably, simply woven into the fabric of his particular being, it is a force that has remained a through-line in his life. Before performing under the moniker of L.A. Edwards, he and the eldest brother, Jesse Daniel, borrowed their mother’s old VW Westfalia and set off across America to busk its street corners, presumably hoping to cross paths with fate or at the least, wrest some semblance of adventure off of their bookshelf and into their own lives.
Luke’s first foray into recording music under “L.A. Edwards” proffered an EP titled “Secrets We’ll Never Know” in 2015. The collection leans on influences gathered later in life like Tom Petty and Jackson Browne. It was around this time his brother Jerry was taught to play the drums in order to accompany the band and tour through California’s dive bars and living rooms. Though it was a self-produced, freshman release, one can listen and note that the songwriting was anything but derivative, as is so often found with artists beginning their journey. Every verse built a narrative, every chorus stuck.
In their ambling around the West Coast, Luke befriended Ron Blair, bassist in Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers. In 2018 Ron produced True Blue, a 10-song album cut live in his home studio that expounded sonically on the previous recording, trading in jangly mandolins for electric guitar and hammond B3. The record sounds fleshed out, lush, as Blair’s production was carefully tended to as a gardener might care for a newly sprouted seed. He provided the landscape in which the Edwards brothers’ sound could continue to grow.
Upon its release, that’s precisely what they did. The dive bars gave way to large clubs and sold out festivals across the country, with stages shared by The Beach Boys, The White Buffalo, and Jefferson Starship among others. However, this newfound traction would soon be halted. The life of any artist is not without its vicissitudes, but this one in particular arrived at a global scale. In 2020 the world seemed to stop spinning. Venues shuttered, tours were cancelled, life as we knew it ended. But Luke and the boys refused to go gently into humanity’s collective dark night of the soul. Instead, he wrote an album called Blessings From Home.
The title denotes a grasping for a silver lining. The songs have a similar searching quality, with lyrics like “It seems to me, the more I learn the less I know”. It’s a galloping full-length record produced by Ryan Hadlock (Foo Fighters, Lumineers, Vance Joy) at Bear Creek Studios in Woodinville, WA, not far from Luke’s home in Seattle. The three brothers recorded again this time with contributions from Ron Blair and his fellow Heartbreaker Steve Ferrone serving as the rhythm section. The album was released in 2021 to a world still unsure of what the future would hold. With touring extensively still off of the table, Luke spent much of the year honing his craft.
In November 2022, L.A. Edwards announced their aptly named third studio album, Out of the Heart of Darkness. Rather than opting for any outside production input, this record stands as a hallmark with Luke fully at the helm. It’s a rollicking ride through the depths of human emotion. It’s darker, more cavalier, with heavy guitars and synths. It was recorded at Luke’s home studio with Jesse and Jerry, and mixed by Grammy-award winner Tom Lord-Alge (Blink-182, Steve Winwood). This “coming of age” record did not go unnoticed, with critical acclaim upon its release and even having his track “Let It Out” featured in the hit Paramount series Yellowstone. Indeed, this record was meant to be ridden until the wheels fell off and that’s exactly what the band did, with tours across Europe and the UK accompanying artists like Lucinda Williams, The White Buffalo, Lucero, and Rival Sons.
Though the album skews toward a heavier rock sound, evoking visions of Keith Moon-style hotel room destruction, Luke, one of seven siblings, also boasts a sizable family of his own. His wife Starr and five children accompany him more often than not on the road, which in an industry full of the tired, “destructive artist” tropes is refreshing. Luke keeps his inner workings close to the cuff, as an introspective artist, but anyone in the inner circle can see a devout family man out there on center stage.
After witnessing the magic and gravitas of truly trusting one’s own process with the previous release, the same formula was applied on L.A. Edwards’ forthcoming album Pie Town. This self produced record was mixed again by Tom Lord-Alge and hearkens back to his hometown in the California desert. As time inevitably wears on, it is the human condition to want to look backward, whether to make sense of the past or feel deeply connected to it. We hear this longing on its first single, “Good Luck”, a sun-soaked tune with soaring falsetto in the choruses. The record feels like an exhale after Out of the Heart of Darkness, but it wasn’t without its own set of growing pains.
After coming off the road, flying in from Helsinki, the brothers decided to start recording again immediately. They labored for days in Luke’s studio, capturing over half an album’s worth of songs when the unthinkable happened. One morning before tracking, they discovered all of their work had been lost. A faulty hard drive, a bug in the system, whatever it was, it culminated in nearly shelving the project. Anyone who’s stepped foot into a studio knows that certain takes are almost hallowed. The recording process is an intoxicating one, where something alchemical is captured and can’t always be replicated.
However after a few weeks of grief and a few bottles of Moët & Chandon, Luke and his brothers reconvened to resurrect the record. Set to be released in full on July 5th, the band plans to bring Pie Town, the album that almost wasn’t, across the pond on a slew of European tours throughout 2024, as well as a performance at Floydfest in the U.S. The road continues to roll out before L.A. Edwards and the family-filled entourage, but this time they’re bringing a little bit of home along with them.