In the years following the release of his sophomore record Restless, things were really starting to ramp up in David Luning’s trajectory. His album was met with critical acclaim, and he was touring with acts John Hiatt, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Chris Isaak, Jay Leno, Crystal Bowersox and Donovan Frankenreiter. Then the pandemic hit, and everything came to a sudden halt. As with many people, Luning went inward. For him, this was a time of deep introspection and exploration, both in music and in life. In the music side of exploration, he built himself a modest recording studio at his house and dove deep into the world of synth and electronic music. While life introspection ended up producing songs that were much more autobiographical and sometimes painfully honest. It was during this time that the sparks began for his next album. And as a result, Lessons (scheduled for release September 6th) is the most personal album Luning has recorded yet.
When it came time to record “For some reason, I got it into my head that I wanted to record this next one in a barn, as some of my favorite records ever made were recorded in barns.” So, the search for the prefect barn began. “Turns out however, most barns are actually quite noisy. I must have checked out a dozen locations, but too often road noise was inescapable,” he explained. Eventually, he got a call from a friend, letting him know about this beautiful recording studio in a barn of his dreams in Petaluma, CA just 30 minutes away from where he grew up.
For Lessons, Luning sits down at the piano again. “In college and most of my life I’ve played piano, and yet, for my career I rarely play it. The music that I’ve written on the piano is and always has been much more instrumental cinematic music. It wasn’t until I wanted to be a singer-songwriter that I really picked up the acoustic guitar. So, when I was working on Lessons, I was stoked to sneak a little piano and synth onto the record.”
All of the songs on Lessons hold deep personal meaning for David. “I think my perfectionism really came into play when writing these songs. Most of them took quite a while to write and went through various changes and iterations. I really wanted to get it right, to do the songs justice, and I think I did, which makes me very proud of this album.”
Today Glide is excited to premiere the title track for the new album, a song that immediately brings to mind fellow troubadours like Hayes Carll and Steve Earle. With its stomping country-rock sound and vivid lyrics that speak to a bumpy period of self-reflection, the song carries a quiet intensity that eventually erupts into a wash of harmonica. Luning takes a straightforward approach to his writing with lyrics that speak to the hardships of life and lessons learned, set to a backdrop of road-weary Americana.
David Luning describes the inspiration behind “Lessons”:
“The chorus for Lessons came to me a couple years before I wrote the rest of the song. I guess I didn’t feel ready to write it yet. But it always seemed to resurface now and again. Finally, in a bumpy period of self-reflection, the song said “ok now it’s time”. It was one of those rare wonderful moments that I sat down and it just spilled out.”
LISTEN:
