Luke Hemmings talks about his new solo song "Shakes," stepping out on his own as an artists, finding his own solo sound, feeling nervous about performing on his own for the first time, what he wants fans to learn about him from this new solo project, whether the 5sos guys have heard his new solo songs and more!
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00:00 All these emotions I have inside of me get them out and I think I've learned that I'm a very
00:04 emotional person and I think I have something to say as an artist on my own.
00:08 Hey it's Luke Hemmings and this is Billboard News.
00:10 Hey everybody it's Rania Niftos and welcome back to Billboard News. We have such an exciting guest
00:25 in the studio today. We have the one and only Luke Hemmings. Welcome. Oh yeah thank you. Thanks for having me.
00:53 So the new single "Shakes" it sounds so great. I love this next era for you. Tell me a bit about
00:59 the inspiration behind it, the songwriting process. "Shakes" was written like maybe a year ago at this
01:06 point and it started in New York. I'd already had like a few ideas for the album from like writing
01:10 on the road and like a lot of it was written in hotels and like planes and all the sad boring
01:16 places so that that's where a lot of it came from. The introspective places. Yeah very introspective
01:22 and this was written the chorus was written in New York and I was like experimenting with
01:25 pitching my voice. That's why the chorus kind of sounds like me but it also has like other layers
01:31 of like pitch vocals. Anyway very boring nerdy stuff but I was getting like more I don't know
01:36 just trying out stuff so experimenting with different perspectives. The first album was
01:40 very like coming from what I my experiences and like how I see things so I was like let's try
01:46 something else not thinking that it would turn out to be the first single and then like nine months
01:50 later wrote the verses for it and yeah I was trying to just listen to a lot of like The Verve and
01:56 Blur and M83 and Beach House and stuff so that's kind of where the inspiration
02:02 came from but the way I write songs for this project is very chaotic so it'll be like I'll
02:09 write a piece here and then like won't write anything on it the rest of it for like nine
02:13 months so it'll like turn out to be this mishmash of I don't know a story but it still has that same
02:20 emotion and feeling. Jigsaw puzzle of music. Yes definitely it's very it's very a frustrating way
02:27 to work but it just works for this solo thing. Well that's what I was about to say because this
02:31 song to me even though it feels like still you feels kind of a continuation of your previous
02:38 solo project but it does feel a little bit more experimentive is that something that you've been
02:44 playing with for a future project the project that this is going to be part of? Well the first
02:49 album was very it was in COVID it's very like you know extenuating circumstances for everyone but
02:55 I was sort of figuring out what the sound was at that point and this upcoming project
03:01 and a bunch of songs is very and closer to what I think the project should be. I was experimenting
03:08 all the time that's kind of the point of it you know to have like a little playground to play in
03:12 outside of what I know really well which is the band so the whole point is to experiment with
03:17 different lyrics and sounds and emotions and all of that stuff so it definitely is it's even though
03:23 I said it was you know a frustrating way to work it is very fun and it's like rewarding and after
03:27 COVID and all of that you know making the first album it was I fell in love with that process and
03:35 the challenge of making stuff on my own and yeah that's why we're here. That is probably a big
03:42 challenge kind of shifting away from 10 years of working in a band and songwriting together with
03:48 three of your friends with a close group and making songs that fit for a group versus this is me the
03:55 artist Luke Hemmings how do I want to portray myself? It is scary you know it's less scary
04:00 well actually it's not as I was gonna say it's less scary this time but that's actually the same
04:04 now if not more you know but it is uh it is different but it's it's just a challenge you
04:10 know as a songwriter I just want to be better at what I do and I think I love making songs with the
04:16 band and making you know you I've known them you know we started the band when I was 15 so to be
04:21 here still making songs as a band is really cool and I love stepping into that role but at the same
04:26 time you after that amount of time like we're you know we're in each other's heads all the time like
04:31 even songwriting and making music is I know I can go to anyone in the band and be like you know how
04:38 do I finish this or you know we write songs so much that it's becomes a bit second nature to do
04:45 that so to be able to do it on my own is scary but it is very rewarding to be like I can you know my
04:51 identity is very attached to the band and to be able to make something on my own is really uh hard
04:56 but it's really rewarding you know yeah it's cool it feels like we're watching you learn your own
05:01 creative process in real time which is so fun me fumbling around trying to figure it out with the
05:07 upcoming project what version of Luke are you trying I think to introduce or where are you at
05:13 right now that you'd like to portray I guess as you get you know as you get a bit older well it's
05:18 not like an old man saying that but as you get a bit oldies you know you hopefully try and learn
05:22 more about yourself and I think I've learned that you know we started like I said we started very
05:27 young and a lot of my identity and sometimes self-worth is attached to the band which isn't
05:32 necessarily a bad thing but I think being you know I'm 27 now and we started when I was 15
05:38 I don't know I wanted to push forward and all these emotions I have inside of me get get them
05:44 out and I think I've learned that I'm a very emotional person and I think I have something
05:48 to say as an artist on my own and that's you know why we're here I think that's why any artist does
05:53 anything that they feel they have something inside themselves they want to get out you know
05:57 I'm sure it's very validating too in the sense of you can trust yourself now or feel like maybe
06:03 you can trust yourself more in the sense that like your whole formative years were in a band
06:08 to have a solo project that did so well with fans looking forward to more of it
06:20 must feel so validating definitely yeah no it's it's it's been super nice you know I was making
06:25 stuff of my own I was like is anyone gonna like this yeah will anyone relate to this and people
06:30 did and it was encouraging you know I played a couple shows on my own and it it did it was it
06:35 was like you know because like I said it was in COVID so to be able to have people in front of
06:39 you singing the songs that you made from like these really dark and like intense personal emotions
06:44 having people sing them back and understand I was like even before we played those shows I was like
06:50 did anyone like this so it was it gave me encouragement to do more stuff on my own and
06:57 explore it more and it's all very me trying to understand it's how I see the world and how
07:02 you know I feel a lot of the time it's all very melancholy and personal and existential and all
07:09 those ethereal we're talking about that all those things and that's it's just trying to
07:17 give a window into how I see the world which sounds really artsy-fartsy but it's you know
07:22 and I think it's capturing a very universal feeling I mean I'm also in my late 20s and
07:28 I feel like that feeling of transitioning from young adult to full-blown adult is very existential
07:35 and very strange and confusing and I feel like it's something relatable and it's a cool thing
07:41 for you to be able to express that artistically and I love that well thank you and over the last
07:45 couple years as you know in going into late 20s I've been touring a lot with the band and a lot
07:52 of that time I'm spending on vocal rest because the shows are quite hard to sing which means like
07:56 you don't talk a lot so it was a lot of like hotels and planes like riding on the hotel pad
08:02 with the like the little hotel pencil whatever they give you and it was very uh it was very
08:09 existential and I was like you know that longing to like go home and like yeah that loneliness is
08:14 really portrayed in in this music and I'm really proud of that it's hard to get that middle balance
08:20 of not being too like sad and not to be obviously too boppy and happy and I think being in that
08:24 melancholy spot was what I was really aiming for I mean you did a wonderful job well thank you
08:29 you're welcome thanks speaking of the performing how was that transition going from performing in
08:35 a band to performing as a solo artist I was very nervous for it yeah I've only played two shows
08:41 one at the Fonda here in LA yes yes yeah two shows at the Fonda and it was it was very scary it was
08:47 very nerve-wracking you know like I said I've only ever been in the band and played shows
08:50 part of the band so it was scary but like I said it was when I was playing those shows
08:55 I still after COVID and putting out the first album I still was like internally like you know
09:00 are people gonna like the songs are they gonna know them like what what's going on and um it
09:06 was it was super emotional you know to hear all these things that I'd written in my house or you
09:14 know wherever it was at the time um being sung back it was really cool it also must be special
09:20 to hear that in such a small smaller venue than probably what you've been touring in in the past
09:25 couple years it must feel so much more intimate to hear yeah that those voices singing back it was
09:30 like I said I'm very comfortable in the band role and I love being that person in five sauce so
09:36 doing something outside of it and playing something like a show outside of it was very
09:39 I was nervous and very scared and that is not something I really experience anymore with the
09:46 band so it wasn't fun at the time feeling it but you know I'm trying to I'm trying you know
09:52 new year new me trying to do things trying to like push myself outside the comfort zone a little bit
09:58 which I think uh hopefully any good things can come from that for sure and speaking of the new
10:03 music as well have uh the five sauce guys heard the the songs you've been working on yet or you've
10:08 been keeping it I have played a little bit but I've been keeping it too I don't I try not to play
10:13 it to too many people honestly it's overwhelming with the opinions it's over it's overwhelming I'm
10:19 very uh because the whole point is to like try and I don't know stand on my own two feet and be like
10:25 I think this is good but I will play it to them for sure no it's good it's a good I think practice
10:31 again even transitioning away from the solo from the band to the solo you're like no this is my
10:36 stuff I need to trust myself yeah exactly yeah what are some of the key differences do you think
10:41 between performing at these huge arenas versus something like the fonda that's a little more
10:46 theater base I think it's more it was definitely more personal I don't know I like them both for
10:51 different reasons I think they're you know with arenas is a bit more of this but more pointing
10:56 up to the stands you know a bit more big jagger I don't know it's a bigger a bigger energy a bigger
11:04 character you know you got to step into those shoes I'm more of an introvert so you know it's
11:09 just turning up the the extrovert a little bit um but I like playing it's all it's all good it's
11:17 all fans yeah it's all great I think um I don't know it's just you can see people's faces which
11:21 is nice you can just actually look at them instead of the light yeah exactly five seconds of summer
11:27 got their start by posting covers on youtube which was a very of the time that was the first kind of
11:33 foray into social media stars I guess or music from social media and now tiktok is such a big
11:40 thing yeah how has it felt being someone who grew from that social media platform seeing how tiktok
11:46 has influenced music so much we've seen like lots of those social media things come and go so when
11:52 another big one pops up you're like oh this is gonna be a thing and then maybe dwindle out and
11:58 it certainly hasn't with tiktok so it's keep going it's it's here to stay yeah I don't know
12:03 I think it's cool I think obviously there's positives and negatives like there was when we
12:07 started on youtube you know there's people that are really great that come from it and there's
12:11 people that maybe are I don't know but it's doing their best it gives it gives people more
12:17 opportunity I think people who don't have connections and I can relate to all the tiktok
12:21 stuff because you know like you said we started there we there was no outlet for us being from
12:27 the suburbs of western Sydney to get our music out there so that was the only way and I can resonate
12:33 with anyone that tries to do that on any platform but obviously tiktok is a huge one right now
12:38 wherever they live and don't have any connection to the music industry or any knowledge of how to
12:43 book shows or any of that stuff I can always resonate with people putting themselves out
12:50 there you know that's what we had to do 100% obviously worked out great and lastly with this
12:57 new project with shakes with the rest of the album what do you want fans to take away from this
13:04 I think these songs I'm very like private person like online and socially and so I think these
13:12 songs are very much a window into how I see things and how I see the world I guess so I think it's
13:19 just I don't know stepping into I don't know how I see things and hope they feel it hope they
13:26 resonate with it on a personal level it's very I don't know it feels like a very human experience
13:33 bunch of songs so I hope they enjoy it honestly yeah and I mean they already have yeah but thank
13:38 you so much Luke I'm such a big fan of yours and congratulations on the new single thank you very
13:43 much thanks for having me