Welcome to In Conversation, a special interview column on the site where we sit down with artists and dive deep into everything music. This week, Joe spoke with Schemata Theory member Luke Wright to discuss the band’s recent album Unity In Time, going on tour and the wider music scene.
Joe: How has it been seeing the response to “Unity In Time” now it’s released?
Luke: It’s been very strange finally having the album out in the wild and seeing the response. We have been sat on it for the last 2 years so to finally have people other than the five of us hear it and hearing their feedback has been incredible. We’ve had really positive responses so far which is always nice but personally what I’ve enjoyed the most is engaging with the community and hearing what other people take away from our music.
Joe: There is clearly a lot of deep thought and feeling put into the record, what it was like being able to express that on each track?
Luke: For me music is a release and allows me to go into topics that I would otherwise struggle to delve into. Myles is the key lyricist in the band but I dipped my toe in lyric writing for this album with the track “Pain Unknown“. The song is influenced by my grandmothers fight with dementia and I found the lyric writing process really cathartic. It allowed me to express thoughts that I wouldn’t normally vocalise and helped me work through some of my own emotions around it all.
Joe: Do you hope the album’s message has a chain reaction effect that results in people exploring the topics at hand?
Luke: For me my main hope is that people enjoy the music and hopefully find something in it that they can relate to. That being said it’s always great to see people take it a step further and dig into some of the topics touched on in our songs.
Joe: What was the process behind the sampling of the speeches etc on the album? Was it an archive built up over time or were they searched for during the production/writing stage?
Luke: There’s actually a different answer for the different tracks in which samples were used. “Horror Show” closes the album with a landscape of sounds that were actually brought in after recording by our producer Justin Hill. The sample in “Our Only Home” was from an interview with futurist & industrial engineer Jacque Fresco in 1974, who was the founder of The Venus Project, which Myles was very familiar with. ‘Vantage Point’ was actually added after we’d already finished in the studio when we realised we needed another track to round off the album. Myles took samples from a wide range of speeches throughout recorded history that he felt expanded upon the theme of unity.
Joe: Are there any changes you’d like to see in the wider music scene to help achieve the goals of “Unity In Time”?
Luke: This one is quite hard to think about from the inside I guess, people being open minded to new music is something we all hope for when trying to reach new fan bases. Beyond that, people understanding just how much it helps a band by recommending the music to their friends, sharing the social media posts and engaging online would probably a great help. Of course we hugely appreciate all of the fans listening to the music, and of course those who already do actively engage online, but it does seem that sometimes fans don’t realise just how much support they are providing by simply sharing and interacting with posts – it’s a really small thing but it goes a long way in the currency of the social media algorithms working out who to put us in front of.
Joe: Which other bands and artists do you see expressing a similar message in a way that you take heart from?
Luke: The one that comes to mind for me is Architects. All of us in the band are big fans of Architects and they are one of the bands that always come to mind when I think of bands in our scene that really lean in on a message and have something to say.
Joe: What will it be like you playing these songs live on the upcoming tour?
Luke: I absolutely cannot wait to play these songs live in the coming weeks. Given the state of the world we’re in an interesting place with this album in that, not only have I not toured any of these songs in the two years since we left the recording studio but we’ve only recently been able to get back into the practise studio with all five of us. I’m also really looking forward to seeing the reaction when we play these songs live. It’s been great hearing peoples thoughts through social media since release but nothing matches the immediate response and feedback you get in a live setting.
Joe: Are there any movies, books, documentaries etc that you’d recommend people watch if they want to explore what “Unity In Time” highlights?
Luke: “The Empathic Civilization” by Jeremy Rifkin & “The Compassionate Mind” by Professor Paul Gilbert are two books Myles always suggests.
Joe: What have you been listening to recently?
Luke: Recently I have had three albums on constant rotation. Zeal & Ardors recent self titled release, Frank Turners FTHC and Venom Prisons Erebos.
Many thanks to Luke for sitting down for a chat with us, you can find a review of Schemata Theory EP Unity In Time here. You can see Schemata Theory on tour at the follow dates:
- 18.03 – Bracknell, The Acoustic Couch
- 20.03 – Bristol, The Gryphon
- 25.03 – Workington, Lounge 41
- 26.03 – Whitechurch, Percy’s Cafe Bar
- 27.03 – Nottingham, The Angel Microbrewery