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LJR chats Musical Inspiration & His Upcoming Album

“…the message of the album is that trauma is a very real part of life, but in the end, it is something each person can heal from…”

LJR – Luke Justin Roberts – has over the last few months earned himself considerable attention by releasing a new track from his upcoming debut album every few weeks. Ahead of him releasing the collection, PopWrapped caught up with him to chat song-writing inspiration and the journey he hopes he takes listeners on through his music.

Where or from what/who do you find the inspiration for your music?

My inspiration is split instrumentally and lyrically. Most of the music comes from what I am currently listening to mixed with my favorite artists and songs from the past, oftentimes taking specific parts I love from previous songs and using a heavily modified version of them as a starting point to create the musical portion of the song. Lyrically, the themes come out of whatever I am processing at the time, either consciously or subconsciously. I’ve found it to be pretty interesting how there have been times I write a song that I don’t really understand the lyrics of but felt needed to come out, only to discover a few years later that I was actually connecting with something happening deep down that I wasn’t conscious of yet, but could somehow give voice to and even put words to through writing a song about it.

The lyrical themes usually stem from trauma I experienced in church and family or unhealthy relationship patterns that showed up because of that, things like intense insecurity, the pain and freedom of losing my faith, and desperately wanting and needing love but pushing it away when I finally got it.

How much of an impact did your faith background have on your upcoming album? How do you think the album reflects your personal growth?

It has had a huge impact, both lyrically and musically. The album is about the transformation I went through over the past 10 years where I lost my faith and my entire identity, and then had to rebuild that and my entire sense of meaning from the ground up while healing from the trauma I didn’t realize I had. Some of the songs talk directly about my loss of faith, and many others talk about it but don’t specifically mention Jesus or any particular Christian language, but the whole second half of the album is about my journey through that. If you’ve ever listened to Hillsong United or Bethel, you’ll probably hear some pounding anthemic musical elements of that genre in my songs as well, especially in a track called “Save” that’s coming out next year. The album represents the journey through losing my past self, coming to terms with that, and learning to create my own future going forward.

What message are you sending with the album as a whole?

I’d say the message of the album is that trauma is a very real part of life, but in the end, it is something each person can heal from by eventually finding and embracing their own power. This happens by looking inward and truly seeing ourselves, our messy and destructive coping mechanisms, accepting and loving that person, and reparenting ourselves so we can bring the beautiful inner child that’s still there back to life. 

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What made you decide to release the tracks monthly instead of all at once?

This was a strategic decision, it meant that I have new content coming out every month which means there’s always something new to look forward to, and gives each song a chance to be seen and appreciated on its own. Spotify also only lets you submit one song to its playlist curators per release, so this strategy lets me submit every song for consideration.

Your debut single “I Can’t Say” seems to be very personal, yet universal at the same time. What is something you want your listeners to take from that song?

I would like them to take away a hope that no matter how difficult and painful things are right now, no matter how dark it is, that there is a way for things to get better. That one day, you will notice that the pain is behind you, and feels so distant that it is almost a dream.

You followed up “I Can’t Say” with “More Time”, which explores a situation that can be stressful and heart-breaking.  How do you channel such strong emotions into the track?

This particular track is the one song on the album that I didn’t directly write about my own experience, but I find that with everything I do I’m always injecting or projecting some aspect of myself into it. For this one, I imagined what it would feel like to be really afraid of letting someone back into my heart after being intensely hurt and having all my walls go up. I wonder if that connected with a part of me that felt intensely betrayed over and over in my relationship with God, but didn’t feel like I could really be honest about how much it hurt that he never answered my prayers or made himself real to me, even though I dedicated my entire life to him. I’m guessing I connected with that and some other aspects of pain mixed with hope in my romantic relationships to put the energy into that song.

What was it like working with your brother and Gurpreet Sarin on your latest release, “Need A Little Lovin”?

It was awesome. My brother Daniel really crushed the guitar parts and gave me exactly what I wanted with those. It was also healing doing this song – and all the others on the album – with him because we’ve had many issues over the years we have been working on, and this helped us to work on those. Gurpreet is my former college roommate, so it felt like I was integrating a really critical part of my past with how I show up now, and Gurpreet is just an incredible singer and tabla player so he just slayed his parts on the song. The breakdown where he takes a singing solo, I do an offbeat syncopated drum fill, and Daniel then rips a guitar solo is likely my favorite part of the whole album. I’m hoping it would be something that would make Peter Gabriel proud. It’s definitely the part I play the most in the car, ha.

What journey do you hope your listeners will go on when listening to your songs?

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It’s my hope that listeners feel free to experience the full breadth of human emotion, from intense joy and hope, anger, pain, depression, acceptance, and then return to hope and experience a form of rebirth.

What was the thought process behind the order of single releases? What single do you have planned next? Can you give us a little preview as to what it’s about?

They are in the order of the album, and follow my internal journey chronologically over the past 10 years. The next single is called “Insecure,” and it’s about becoming aware of and dealing with my intense personal insecurity and anxious attachment, especially how it showed up in romantic relationships.

Give “Need A Little Lovin’” a listen above and for more information on LJR, visit his website, give his page a like on Facebook or follow him on Twitter and Instagram.

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