Munich band of the week: Luka Blau – Munich

“One, two, three,” says a voice into the microphone. A moment’s silence. Then four instruments join in, with the full sound of the trumpet in the foreground, which the drummer presses to his lips. Together with the cello, piano and e-guitar, a gentle but determined sound emerges that seems to be moving forward, driven by the chords of the piano.

The voice of Luka Blau, the guitarist and frontman, who sings the first verse of “Bisschen Both” into the microphone, is gentle but determined and has a tendency to be smoky. It’s about opposites, about “that not everything is subject to an ‘either-or’, but that an ‘or’ can sometimes be replaced by an ‘and’,” says Lukas Schäfer, as he is actually called. “Between black and white there are a thousand colors in between,” he sings towards the end of the song, after speaking of contrasts such as “a little broke, a little indulgence” that seem to clash and yet often coexist.

Betty Akhigbe, Vincent Crusius and Maximilian Kremser carry the song along – in a delicate way. They want to leave Lukas space for what he wants to tell. You have the role of a passive companion, because Lukas writes the arrangement and lyrics himself. What started out as a solo project is now a Luka Blau ‘und’ – that is, with a band.

Wanting to tell something – that is a need that became stronger and stronger in Lukas. When he studied psychology, he noticed: “It’s nice to listen to others, but I felt that there was a lot in me that had to come out.” He has been making music since he was little, but only started writing lyrics three years ago. “When I make music, the question of why I’m doing it becomes superfluous. Then I no longer ask myself what the meaning of life is, it’s just there,” he says. So he uses his outlet to transport everything that concerns him – and that ranges from free love to criticism of capitalism.

He often uses “wake up” as a keyword when he talks about his music. His message: break out of the blinders of everyday life and perceive what is happening outside. “For example, one of my songs is about homelessness. These issues are just there. The question is whether we are also looking,” he says. In early 2024, the debut album “Bisschen Both” is scheduled to be released in early 2024 – as in the song of the same name, it is supposed to be about “a bit of everything from the whole”.

Luca Blue