Murderers is the solo synthwave / post-punk / alternative project of Manchester-based game developer / ex-physicist / human Luke Thompson. We caught up with Luke for a quick chat, shortly after the release of his debut single Sleep on AnalogueTrash.
Sam Tygier
Take 5 : Murderers
- Adrian Thompson
- January 12, 2021
- 8:34 am
Murderers stop by for a chat after unveiling debut single Sleep
Tell us a little about yourselves
I’m Luke, and Murderers is my solo synthwave/post-punk/alternative project. The sound grew from various separate ideas I’d been tinkering with for a while and suddenly snapped together. Initially my focus was going to be on playing live rather than recording, but 2020 got in the way and resulted in my debut EP, Tape One.
How would you describe your sound and art?
Murderers is lo-fi, raw and retro. Although it’s impossible right now to say what the live Murderers sound is – as it’s not yet been live! – the tracks have been produced with performance in mind and share some of that immediacy. Of course that also lets me handwave away my imperfect mixing skills…
Lyrically right now I’m all about contradiction, hypocrisy, paradox and doublethink. Some of it’s about me, some of it’s about society, some of it’s both. It’s inspired both by my emotional state and, of course, by the eye opening and frankly radicalising times we’re going through.
Why do you make music?
I’ve always played music, and have made it on-and-off since I was a teenager both solo and with friends. But it’s only recently I’ve felt like I really have something to say with my music, both lyrically and sonically. And right now, I think there’s a lot to say.
Recommend us some music. Who else should we be listening to right now?
Local Manchester band The Battery Farm are making some great, take-no-prisoners punk right now, and Bully’s new album Sugaregg is good solid grunge. Michael Kiwanuka’s soul-meets-psychedelia is also spending a lot of time in my hi-fi. And obviously, my label mates at AnalogueTrash! AT is like a family, albeit one of those freakish ones where everyone’s annoyingly talented. Paragon Cause’s What We Started in particular is one of my albums of the year.
What are your plans for the rest of 2021?
My main plan is to start bringing up my (at time of writing) week old son! Beyond that and upcoming releases I’m not really doing plans right now, with the experience of 2020 behind me. I do have songs in the works, so hopefully I’ll get something out at some point, if 2021 doesn’t manage to top 2020 in the collapse-of-civilisation stakes.
You can find more information about Murderers at...
