Into the Labyrinth.
For nearly a decade, Luke Saunders has been a familiar shape within Sydney’s alternative tapestry, fronting the kaleidoscopic sounds of Eagle Eye Jones and the art-rock journeys of Rising Bliss.
Now, he steps alone into the quiet, resonant space of Paddington Uniting Church, poised for his most definitive act.
His debut solo album, Glide Little Labyrinths Glide, is a stark and beautiful evolution, a “ceremonial completion” born from a devastating period where love, friendship, and home vanished in an instant.
These ten songs are lanterns set aloft from that darkness, tracing grief’s pendulum with falsetto whispers and chamber-inspired grandeur.
In a daring embrace of permanence, the album will be captured live directly to vinyl over two nights, accompanied by a string quartet composed by Novak Manojlovic.
The whole album will be recorded live at Paddington Church, which you can grab tickets for here and forever have the moment you witnessed Sydney’s most captivating alternative force pressed on vinyl!
It is a high-stakes baptism by fire and strings, an unfiltered signal flare into the night, announcing an artist fully, vulnerably himself.
And we sat down with Luke to discuss the journey.
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Happy: What’d you get up to today?
Luke Saunders: Chop wood, carry water. Mingle with the townsfolk.
I actually ran around town taping posters to poles and listening to Stavinsky.
Happy: After a decade in bands like Eagle Eye Jones and Rising Bliss, what compelled the shift to a solo project?
Saunders: Just an unending desire to express yourself combined with a manic compulsion to always be working on something.
Rising Bliss is an art rock project with Jason Styles, Jack Garzonio and Lauren Olofsson, where we get to stretch out sonically and craft these detailed journey sets.
So I suppose this new album and direction is just scratching a different itch.
An orchestral, ambient, sad boi itch.
Happy: The album title, Glide, Little Labyrinths, Glide, is evocative. What does it represent to you?
Saunders: All of these 10 songs have a story behind them. They come from mostly tragic events that have happened in the past two years and this is my way of dealing with them.
So to glide is to set them free upon the world. It’s my lantern in the sky or my signal flare into the night.
I think of the witch in Wizard of OZ, “fly my pretties fly!”
Happy: A defining aspect of this album is that it will be recorded live directly to vinyl. What was the biggest artistic reason for choosing that high-stakes process?
Saunders: Honestly it’s so I can’t keep tweaking it and changing my mind. Once this album is cut we move on to the next one.
I work very closely with Jack Garzonio of Studios 301. He is my mentor, producer, collaborator and best friend. I am so lucky to have a relationship like this in my life and he mixed my very first song with Eagle Eye Jones.
It was ultimately his idea to record it in the church in front of an audience. He knows my weaknesses and strengths and knows how to compliment them perfectly.
It’s also a massive challenge and a chance to grow and really push our capabilities and artistry. Will it work? We shall see.
Happy: Novak Manojlovic is arranging strings for your upcoming shows. How did chamber music influences find their way into the album’s compositions?
Saunders: I’ve always been a huge fan of Novak’s work. When I saw Godtet play at NAS with strings I was so blown away by the playfulness and creativity in the strings so when I bought the record it never strays far from the needle.
He’s an amazing composer and what he has done with my songs is phenomenal.
I also love artists like Sigur Ros, Jeff Buckley and anyone merging the boundaries between classical and contemporary music.
HOT TIP: If you haven’t listened to Godtet with the SSO stop what you’re doing and listen to it right now.
Happy: Which song on the album feels like the most pivotal moment or emotional core of the journey for you?
Saunders: I’d say Lighthouse Song is the cornerstone of the album. It was the song when I discovered this new piano and chamber driven direction.
It also means a lot to me because last year a dear friend of mine took his own life and I spent three hermetic days in the studio just scrambling ideas and thoughts together until I emerged with this track.
This is what I came out with and it’s more or less a dream to spend one last day with him. He left me with his Prophet Rev2 synth which will be played at Paddington Church in honour of his amazing talent and life.
Happy: What does “shedding of old skins” mean to you in the context of creating this work?
Saunders: Well it’s a very cliche way of saying life sucked for a minute and I had to let go of a lot of pillars that made up my identity.
My lover, my best friend, my band, my home. They all disappeared in the blink of an eye under fairly unsavoury circumstances. I was left in a vacuum of identity and questions and deep depression.
Amidst it all I was inspired to quit my job and pursue music full time and I have been doing it ever since. Pursuing my passion full time and funding this album from that money is a dream come true for me.
Sometimes you need to be viciously broken to really get where you wanna go so I suppose this album is a ceremonial completion of these tribulations but also a way of letting them go. A baptism by fire.
Happy: Once this deeply personal album is complete, what direction do you see your solo work taking next?
Saunders: I already have the next album more or less sketched out. Maybe it’s synaesthesia but I know what the sound will look like. A sunny morning, coffee steaming, guitars laying around and records playing.
That very intimate, imperfectly perfect Sunday morning of silhouettes and bright light, when the dream of last night still linger in your consciousness. That’s the vibe.
But I just wanna hit the road with the band and see where things go.
Happy: Lastly, what makes you happy? :-)
Saunders: Life is cool. I’ve been really enjoying it lately. I’m really lucky to do music for a living and I have lots of beautiful friends around me.
Oh and books! Books are my friends and they are all over me everywhere I go. :)
