Displaying a remarkable level of creative confidence and dexterity on his debut release, alt-folk singer-songwriter Luca Firth presents ‘Wings,’ out now on Bad Influence. It’s a charming DIY affair, recorded with just a couple of guitars, alongside pieces of furniture that were adopted as makeshift instruments to conjure up percussive soundscapes.
Noted influences include the likes of Justin Vernon, Phil Elverum and Sharon Van Etten. The Bon Iver allusions ring truest, with a heavy dose of overlapping harmonies and vocal modulations that lend a sense of grander artistic ambitions. There are also shades of Nick Mulvey to be found, with various styles and influences meshed into a very warm, ambient and accessible format.
Eschewing any kind of formal structure, the song moves more like a cascading wave, with different layers rising and falling in-line with a simple guitar line that underpins the whole number. There’s a real fluidity to the way the song moves, an authenticity to the composition and the vocal performance that rings true to its emotional statement of intent. Recorded in isolation at his student halls in Exeter University, in his own words, Luca describes the music as “a sort of autobiographical statement of where I was at that point in time. While writing and recording, I realised I was kind of just at a loss. I was confused and struggling to picture what I was going to do with my life – as so many people were at the time.”
It’s a sentiment that will ring true for a great many of us, those times and spaces over the past year where we’ve found ourselves confined away, that frustration and sense of helplessness of being unable to live the lives we had planned or intended. This keen emotional grounding to the music lends it a real weight, the sense of melancholy in the lyrical content counterbalanced beautifully with the lightness of touch to the melody as it builds and shifts around.
‘Wings’ is out now on Bad Influence, and as a first release from a brand new artist, we’re hooked in from the start. We’ll certainly be keeping our ears primed for more to come from Luca Firth over the coming months.
‘Wings’ is available to Stream/Purchase here.
