Mitte November und damit direkt am Anschluss an seine Deutschland-Tour veröffentlichte die Königin des Piano Pop, Luke Leighfield, sein drittes Album “Have You Got Heart?” quasi zum Nulltarif. Den Preis dafür kann man nämlich selbst bestimmen, ohne Mindestbetrag. Natürlich wäre es auch den vollen Preis wert, aber das Ersparte kann man dann ja in die anderen beiden Alben investieren. “Have You Got Heart?” habt ihr sicherlich bereits runter geladen, in der Zwischenzeit hat sich Luke nun auch die Mühe gemacht einmal zu erläutern, was er sich bei den einzelnen Songs gedacht hat:

1. By My Side

This song is about doubt and uncertainty, and not knowing what to do in life. It talks about struggling with motivation and stuff like that, and about how life can be extremely difficult. Then the chorus is all about how life becomes a lot easier if you have love, and how love makes all these other issues fade away because love is more important. Musically, this is one of the most overblown songs that I’ve ever recorded. There is layered guitar tapping, triple guitar harmonies, and huge string and brass parts. A worthy album opener!

2. Have You Got Heart?

I wrote this song in spring 2008 when I was getting annoyed at the state of the UK music scene. I kept seeing bands get signed who had stupid images and fake lyrics. Basically, their music was written to conform to current trends and was based on what would sell, lyrically and image-wise. The chorus is just imploring people to be true to themselves and to be real, because fake images don’t last, and being honest is just far more interesting and compelling. My favourite bit in this song is the middle eight where there’s an amazing guitar solo and some cool drum parts. This song kind of sums up the album, which is about integrity, truth, and being real.

3. Every Day

This song is all about motivation, productivity, stuff like that. I really hate days where you intend to get loads of stuff done, and then when you go to bed you realise that you’ve wasted your whole day doing stupid stuff. The verses are about disciplining yourself to do the things that you need to do, because it will be good for you and help you to move on in life, and it will also make the people around you, your parents or whoever, proud of what you’re doing. The chorus is about making “every day count” because it feels great when you get to the end of a day and you’ve really achieved something. I really love the groove in the verses, the shuffly drum thing, the epic guitars in the chorus, and the huge string breakdown at the end of the song. This is one of my favourite string arrangements that I’ve ever had on a song.

4. I Won’t Look Back

I wrote this song when I started going out with my now ex-girlfriend. It’s about being really excited about falling in love, but also about feeling the weight of previous relationships, and how those have affected you and damaged you or whatever. The chorus and middle eight talk about how this new relationship surpasses all of the old ones and renders them insignificant. Lyrically, this is one of the most intimate and personal songs that I’ve ever written, and I’m really proud of it. I wanted it to be a big, romantic ballad, and I used The Fray’s first album as a reference point for the sound of it. Again, I really love the strings on this one.

5. If You So Much As Smile

This song is about saying goodbye to an old relationship that isn’t healthy, and how that can be hard sometimes if you’re not mature about it. It’s a pretty sad song, so we put a nice blues-y guitar solo in it.

6. 60,000 Miles

60,000 Miles is the most rock song I’ve ever recorded. The guitars are more dominant here than the piano, which is pretty unusual for my music. Lyrically, the song is about touring and all the miles you have to drive and all the other work that’s involved, which can sometimes be pretty hard. But it also says that all the hard work is made up for by the inspiring people you get to meet, and all the great places you get to visit. It’s also similar lyrically to ‘Have You Got Heart?’ because it’s sort of about all the people that sell out and write rubbish music in an effort to get signed. I’m saying that I’m going to keep touring, keep driving stupid distances, and keep trying because good music will prevail in the end. This song also has the best guitar solos of the whole album. Balls to the wall.

7. King and Queen

This song is another love song, but it’s not a ballad! No sir! It starts off with a huge guitar solo, which was inspired by the guitar solo and dialogue at the start of Michael Jackson’s ‘Black or White’. Everyone else hated the guitar solo when we were recording, but I loved it so it went on the record. It’s my record! The main riff in this song is the cheesiest on the record. It’s really poppy and bouncy. There’s also a really cool middle eight which sounds all atmospheric and massive. We layered loads of drum tracks up to get that really big sound, and I played loads of different piano lines. It sounds pretty cool. The lyrics are just about how you don’t need to worry about life if you have love. You can build your own universe around your relationship, and everything else that goes on doesn’t matter. I’m a romantic at heart.

8. When You’ve Reached Your Limit

This song is about the power of music and religion. Lyrically, it’s about how whenever I’m burnt out I rely on God to pick me up because I can’t do it by myself. The song is also about how music can really affect you, and completely alter your mood and mindset. An uplifting song can make you feel so much better, which is pretty incredible. The verse has a really cool groove between the bass guitar and the kick drum, which I particularly enjoy. It’s funky.

9. On To Something

A ballad! A love song! I wrote this song as soon as I started going out with my ex, back in December 2008. I was just about to go on tour to Germany, Russia and China, and was completely missing my Christmas holidays in the UK. The song is about how it’s cool to go travelling and do fun things, but about how what I really wanted to do was stay at home with her and just enjoy each others’ company. I love touring, and I was really excited about visiting some great countries, but I love love even more. It’s about how this relationship felt completely different to the ones I’d been in before, and how I thought it would last forever. The song is pretty simple, but it’s one of my favourites on the album.

10. Lullaby

This song is again kind of a love song. I called it ‘Lullaby’ because musically, at the start, it’s quite relaxing and chilled out. The lyrics are about forgetting about the past and all the mistakes that have happened, and instead looking to the future and all the good things that will happen. The line “make your mistakes with me” is saying that if we’re going to make mistakes, then we’ll make them together and work it out together. It’s all relaxed and fine until you reach the end of the song where I put a ridiculous rock ending on it. I’m not sure why I did it, I just thought it would be awesome. And it is awesome. There are huge guitars, massive drum fills, epic, epic strings and brass, and it basically sounds like the end of the world. I love rocking out to it while I’m driving my car.

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