With the intuitive sense and emotional depth of a filmmaker, California native David Luning looks deeply into the human condition in his music, exploring its shadowy recesses and its brilliantly lit corners. He spent a few years studying film scoring at the Berklee College of Music, then John Prine changed his life. “Some friends shared Prine’s music with me… I discovered there were other ways to express emotions and make you feel things. There are layers in lyrical content in a song, and with the right lyric you can create a thousand images in your head.”
After he discovered Prine’s music, “I knew what I wanted to do with my life…” Luning says. “I wanted to live the life of a singer-songwriter.” His dazzling originality and his knack for capturing the failures and triumphs, the joys and sadness of the human heart on his first two albums have have led to his songs being placed on a variety of TV shows from Nashville and
Grimm, to Lucifer and, most recently, the full length film 57 Seconds, starring Morgan Freeman.
Luning’s stirring performances have landed him on stages opening for artists like the Tedeschi Trucks Band, John Hiatt, Leon Russell, Dustbowl Revival, Aubrie Sellers, Elvin Bishop, and Rodney Crowell, among many others. And he’s been enthusiastically received at music events around the globe, such as Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Bottlerock Napa, Kate Wolf, Black Swamp Arts and Ramblin’ Roots in the Netherlands.
Luning brings his consummate storytelling skills and his creative musical ingenuity to his third album, Lessons. The songs range from the deep blues “Down Below” and the echoing poignance of “Out of My Head”, to the infectious rhythms of “The Way It Goes” and the ethereal strains of “The Moon Looks Cool Tonight.” Luning, also a multi-instrumentalist, plays acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano, percussion and synth on the new album. The blend of folk, blues, and country offers a freedom and spaciousness that allows Luning to follow his reflections down wherever they lead him, resulting in soaring, cinematic moments or flashes of quiet introspection.
Luning recalls, “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. 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.” On “You Like the Rain,” Luning weaves his raw baritone vocals around his circling fingerpicking and gentle strumming, as he delivers this touching love song that reflects on the simple things that draw lovers together. “My girlfriend would get so excited when it rains. I hated the rain before I was with her, but I have been inspired by her,” he comments, and so now, as the song says “I like the rain.”
On “The World Goes Around Again” the instrumental bridge carries the song into the sonic stratosphere, conveying the swirling eddies of certainty and confusion we experience in the world. “As I’ve been getting older, I’ve been thinking a lot more about life and how the world works,” Luning reflects. “It’s a wild realization that no matter what happens, whether people live or die, do right or wrong, the world keeps going. It keeps changing, it keeps turning, it keeps moving. So it really comes down to your outlook. You can interpret it all as something heavy; like you will never be able to catch up with the world, and tomorrow will just be another struggle. Or you can look at it like every tomorrow is a new opportunity to find beauty.”
On the first single, “Down Below”, Luning states, “Sometimes there are things in life you regret to the extent you feel like you are a lost cause.” “The Way It Goes” is an uptempo song with crunchy guitars and a piercing lead line that resembles Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac. “I wanted it to reflect on what it takes sometimes to get back on your feet and keep going.” “Ain’t Easy to Love Me” might be the quintessential musician’s love song, for it’s an airy folk rocker about the difficulties of loving a musician who’s gone all the time.
With Lessons, Luning continues to grow as a songwriter and musician. “Over time, I’ve gotten more aware of my strengths, and I’ve put a lot of work into my songwriting and my lyrics over the years… Sometimes, writing songs is all enveloping and the best little world to get lost in, and other times, it’s a battle. I feel that starting a song by not thinking too much allows me to connect more naturally to the music and let the creativity guide the process.”
Luning’s forthcoming full length “Lessons” is scheduled for a summer 2024 release.
