A Conversation: Lost Under Heaven
“The Manchester duo Lost Under Heaven, or LUH, have never been keen on subtlety. Super-sized in every dimension, the music of former WU LYF leader Ellery Roberts and visual artist Ebony Hoorn sought grand answers about love and mortality by way of drastic melodies.”
First off, for people who dont know, who is Lost Under Heaven? Ebony Hoorn & Ellery James Roberts Collaborative life work.
The first time I heard of you guys was 'I&I' on the HBO show Ballers and I was hooked. I originally thought of bands like July Talk etc, where the voice coming from the person is a surprise, in a very fascinating and amazing way. Was there a moment you can remember when you (Ellery Roberts) realized you had such a unique voice? When I was young I found a cathartic uplift in singing as hard as I could, usually in response to the noise of the rest of what ever teenage band I was playing with, since then I’ve learned to control it, focus it, People always tell me my voice is unique, it’s just how it comes out, but these days I am singing quite differently, working on a softer croon. I have nothing to shout about anymore.
In regards to the previous question, whats it like to get your music featured on HBO Ballers and even Netflix 13 Reasons Why, among other content? How surreal is that? Its always strange to see a song that has quite specific meaning or ambiance to you, put in a totally different context, but that is also the beauty of creation, once you release something you never know what it may go on to inspire.
With how unique Ellery's voice is and than to be accompanied by the other beautiful voice that is Ebony, I am surprised your music isn't showing up in a lot of other content. I picture LUH having a song in a tv show as the intro in my opinion. How much longer until North American tv/movie productions start taking notice you think? Have you gotten any offers you turned down? We haven’t turned anything down, sure it would be nice to have some high level syncs, make cash flow easier and get the name out to a wider audience, but these things always come out of the blue… We enjoy narrative, atmosphere and an expansive sound in our song writing so it lends well to soundtracks. We are actually working on our first soundtrack for ‘8 days with hopper’ a feature film due in 2021, a really beautiful project that we are very excited to be a part of.
Before we dive into the bright future that is Lost Under Heaven, we gotta go back to the past. Before you (Ellery) joined Ebony for LUH, you started in a band called WU LYF, mindset wise, what was it like being in WU LYF vs LUH? And creatively how different was it? WU was a teenage jam band that got picked up on a wave of hype. I loved the creation of the record and feel it is a very genuine document of untamed youth, but after touring it for 18 months relationships soured and the joy, the fire was gone- trying to write the second record and growing in awareness to the state of the world I fell into a deep depression, I longed for a deeper life and my heart knew I needed to make a change. I broke the band up quite impulsively which I regret for it needlessly hurt those closest to me- but life moves on, wounds heal. creatively all the songs came out of 4 people jamming together for hours and hours- with LUH the process is much more focused, considered, I sit at a piano or with a guitar & write songs working with Ebony to produce them in a cinematic world of atmosphere and tension. I only miss WU LYF in the nostalgic way people miss their teenage years of wild abandon.
With endings come new beginnings.... Right before the end of WU LYFE, did you guys always know Lost Under Heaven was the next project in mind? And has it lived up to the expectations of what you pictured? Lost Under Heaven began when I moved to Amsterdam to live with Ebony, we were not really anticipating working together but it naturally came with me making music whilst she made her visual art in the same small apartment. We then started to have grande visions of what we could create together, we see LUH as a life work, ever evolving, a process thru which we can experiment with ideas and express our ever evolving level of consciousness.
You guys are just absolutely marvelous, I even went as far as calling you my favourite band of the last decade. You guys present not just new ideas, but new sounds and something I have not yet seen. You guys have such a unique vibe its insane. Have you guys ever been approached by any labels or music reps to change anything up significantly? And what do you think of artists doing that to get signed? Fortunately we both have always had a very clear idea of what we should be doing. We are ever motivated to create and have great gratitude that we are able to live this life. To be honest nobody’s ever really challenged us to change, the way in which we work is essentially D.I.Y so we just explore where ever the energy take us. We probably would benefit from some business management, but the blessing of doing everything yourself is you learn and grow at a high pace. As to other artists, each is own their own path and they have to live with themselves so I have no judgment- personally I have never compromised my art to get a wider appeal, or more success, I strive for soulful honesty- not just entertainment.
Little backstory: I was once standing on a beach somewhere in a middle of nowhere, and the beach was a temporary home, something to hide away in but it was only a band-aid of escape. In the mist of the sunset setting and nothing but ocean in the backdrop, your track Loyalty from the album Spiritual Songs for Lovers to Sing came on, and everything made sense in that moment. One of my favourite songs ever, hands down. Talk about what that song means to you guys? How did it come to be? Loyalty is one of my favorites, it was actually the first song Ebony sang on, the first time I really heard her voice- I wrote the cello part years ago, probably when I was a teenager and always had the idea to make an epic street hassle (Lou Reed) kinda record, but could never figure out how, then I came up with this guitar riff and sang along it all started to come together but I had no idea how the chorus should go, so I asked ebony to just play around and those line’s “we are going to sail away…” came out of it- perfect! yeah I love that song, we have never really been able to play it well live (with out a cello player!) so I haven’t heard it for a few years- but you made me want to revisit it now…
While we are on the topic of your first album, what was the song writing process for it vs your second album Love Hates What You Become? Would you say there was a difference creative wise between the two? Spiritual Songs was written in lots of little fragments over a couple of years (2012- 2015) I mostly wrote it on a piano and then straight into Ableton so its a lot more processed production, - Love Hates I wrote whilst we toured the 1st record in 2016- I had started playing guitar for the live band so I wrote nearly all the songs on 6 strings, I finished it up in a week in January 2017 so it was fast, focused- we produced the record with Jon Congleton in 3 weeks recorded and mixed, so it was all very fast- I felt the record to had a raw urgency, to keep us moving, keep the band on the road, but then the label stagnated the release schedule for 18 months and it kinda lost the energy, I am proud of the record- but it was quite a frustrating period, which I am happy to have behind us.
I've always wondered, with your album titles like Love Hates What You Become or Spiritual Songs for Lovers to Sing, where do these ideas for album names come from? The Unified Field. I don’t know man, ideas arrive and you note them down and then months later they have meaning, that’s the way titles, lyrics most of what we do comes to be- I like walking around aimless, letting my mind roam, writing down anything that feels exciting
Speaking of creative, you guys recently left Mute Records to start your own label LUH International. What prompted this big change up? And in a nutshell what can we expect from these big changes? As eluded to earlier, after the release of Love Hates we had become frustrated by the slow and bloated process working within a label system can place on your creativity- We were looking for new way to work in the world with more intimacy and spontaneity, an opportunity had arisen with a de-centralised video platform called Vevue that enabled us to become financially independent for the foreseeable future- so we decided to make LUH.international formalised as an entity- to release our work, not necessarily a record label, I see it more as creative studio that will periodically make short run pressings of our projects- we are currently putting together the First, a book that consolidates our work on the Love Unite Humanity web series release via Vevue.
What advice can you give someone who would want to start up their own record label? Patience, perseverance and maintain a level of success consciousness- law of attraction vibes.
You guys are not just starting your own record label, but developing original content (and music) titled Love Unites Humanity (Episode zero here) and will be featured on the video platform Vevue. In saying all that, what does this project mean for you guys? And how will this take Lost Under Heaven onto the next level? Love Unites Humanity brings together a lot of our thoughts and experiences over the last few years, I see it as a way of articulating our world view, thru artistic expression. It also provides us a free space to experiment, creating work quickly and immediately releasing it with no middlemen, the Vevue platform enables us to directly earn from our work with it token exchange economy.
When can Canada expect to see LUH live in concert? ah man, I have no idea, we’d love to get over to you tho- perhaps some one reading this will want to make it happen.
5 rapid fire questions, give the answer that comes to mind first If you were not called Lost Under Heaven what else would you want to be called? Ebony & Ellery James and their Famous Flames Best venue to play in? The White Hotel, Manchester Favorite current song? ROSALÍA - Juro Que Best underrated artist? So many but my today I say, Kali Malone Favorite song that is your own? Here Our Moment Ends or Black Sun Rising
Cover photo by Chris Almeida
