by Eric Lee Dickerson
I had a front row seat to the writing, recording and production of TWO SPIRITS… a rarity in the socially distanced times it was made within. Luke and his wife stayed with my wife and I on our homestead during the months of lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic. My co-producer credit on this album comes more from my hosting, conversation, critiquing, and facilitating than from any actual “producing” of the album. But as this album took shape, I started realizing that it was going to be the soundtrack of this strange yet beautiful time in my life. A time contrasted by great turmoil and suffering around the world… yet a time of closeness and sharing between two couples who after decades of close friendship would be living together for many months.
This led to the realization that the album could be a soundtrack for many other people around the world. While the album on its face is never too “on the nose” about the ideas it’s exploring…. with just a little hint of its themes, a complex discussion, full of conflicting duality emerges.
It is because of this desire to peel back the curtain a bit, that I took my only producer privilege and interviewed Luke about the themes and meanings of the album and then wrote the following liner notes.
In March of 2020, as COVID 19 began gripping Los Angeles and “shelter in place” orders were expected, Janela packed up his guitar and minimal recording equipment to quarantine with his wife on a friend’s homestead in Northern California. At the time, like the rest of the world, he expected things would go back to normal in 2-4 weeks. 4 months later, he wrapped up production on this album, still in quarantine on the homestead.
TWO SPIRITS was forged by the limitations and emotions imposed by lockdown. It was largely recorded on second rate instruments; a drum set that had been sitting in a shed for a quarter century and a 115 year old piano that was badly out of tune. Appropriately, it was recorded in a makeshift studio Janela pieced together in an old school bus that was parked on the homestead.
The result is an album that sounds and feels quite different than any of Janela’s previous releases. Adding yet another dimension to a multi-faceted canon of work spanning over 20 years. The album is full of dualities, contrasts and even contradictions of itself. It is rich and full of life while also being sparse, stark, and mournful.
The songs were the first fruits of a new approach to songwriting for Janela. He started the writing process with lyrical themes and writing lyrics before melodies and harmonies. “I generally have always started with a melody and fit lyrics around it, not concerned with any specific story, and especially not a story within a larger theme… not consciously at least.” he said “I was very conscious of unifying ideas and tying up loose ends this time around.”
The theme that emerged for Two Spirits was a woven tapestry with three main threads: from the beauty of nature that surrounded his quarantine environment; the fear, sorrow and uncertainty of living through a global pandemic; and a secular theological curiosity of the stories of Catholic Holy Week.
“Is there a reason, outside of religion, that rites and stories like these persist?”
Janela explains, “My birthday fell close Easter this year and I saw on my calendar that it was “Palm Sunday” while writing in my journal… I grew up Catholic, was an altar boy, so Holy Week was a big deal. Back then, as a kid, I heard the stories and had a vague idea what each day represented. But I had never really revisited them as an adult… what were the stories really about? What would I think of them as an adult who hadn’t sat through a mass for a few decades? Is there a reason, outside of religion, that rites and stories like these persist?”
The result of that thematic tapestry is an album that stands out as a heartfelt expression of an artist wrestling with the discord of modernity vs the beauty of nature and humanity, through the lens of secular Bible story interpretation. Janela’s lyrics set about meshing the tragedy, triumph and reverence of two sets of stories, separated by over 2000 years of humanity and society.
Beyond the religious connotations, due to the time spent on a rural, working homestead, the album ends up pondering the ancient and timeless idiom of “the country mouse and the city mouse”. In the end the album seems undecided on the fable’s central question: Is a simple life in peace and safety in the country preferable to a life of luxury tinged by the chaos of the city? It’s a question Janela has always pondered for himself. “I grew up in a small town, and I know I’ll always be a country boy at heart. But I’ve always felt a relentless need to push myself outside the beautiful boundaries of where I was raised, to mix and feel the bigger world, and to feel the addictive energy of creativity congregating. And so the question of which and where is home has been a relentless one.”
Interlaced into these recordings there is a collage of binaural field recordings. From police car sirens racing down Sunset Blvd. in LA., to a symphony of frogs and crickets on a quiet rural night. These “found sounds” not only reinforce the themes of the album but also give it a sense of place, or rather… places. The binaural recordings along with other stereophonic production elements add a sonic depth to the album, creating a contrast against the lo-fi instruments and their recording.
Two Spirits is a sonic journey that presents itself differently each time I hear it. Listen the first time and apply it to your own perspective of our current life and times. Listen a second time and focus in on Covid quarantine as a country mouse rather than a city mouse. On your third listen consider the ancient stories of Savior in his last days as a human being. Then “…just one more time, it was worth every dime, I had to pay in the end”…. enjoy.
