Luciano Ferrara Interview

Posted: by Sean Gonzalez

Luke Ferrara, otherwise known as Luciano Ferrara, welcome to The Alternative, how are you today?

Thanks man, I feel pretty spectacular getting to chat with someone as cool as yourself!

So, give us some background. You were apart of a band, and now it’s just you. What happened and how did that shape your newer music?

I started out as a solo artist in like 2012-2013 and put out an EP in 2013 and a full length the next year before joining Cross Check. With Cross Check, we were on a roll pumping out some great new stuff and heading out but it all sort of unraveled after our first tour. No hard feelings or anything, but we all wanted different stuff. After the departure from CC, I went back to playing solo and its mad a great impact on my jams! I’ve got some new stuff in the works that I’m really hoping to share as soon as possible as well as just getting back in the saddle!

So what is the inspiration or drive of your music, what are you searching to find?

A lot of my music has the same kind of message, which I’ve touched upon before but with this new batch of songs, I’ve references more directly. It’s always about getting better. You can get knocked to the floor and its okay to stay there for a while and reflect on what got you there, but the key element is to pick yourself and keep moving. My LP “Cover To Cover” was the first in what I’m hoping to become a series or a kind of anthology on that concept of just keep at it.

What’s a record you listened too and found inspiration or listened and went, “this makes me want to play music,”?

Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd. The noise that comes at you when that record is spinning is unreal. That’s my favorite album; it makes me want to share my thoughts and art with everyone I can. Honestly, music is meant to be shared with everyone. That’s why that dude that bought the Wu-Tang album for himself is like the worst! You need to share whatever’s in your head because sometimes you’ll find something incredible.

On that note, what recent albums have you really been into?

Oh man, your delving into deep waters! Lately, I’ve been jamming a lot of Turnover, mewithoutyou’s crazy new album Pale Horses, Pinegrove who I recently discovered to be the coolest band and I find myself listening to a lot of other acoustic artists to sort of see what they play that I like and what styles I think I want to branch out from. When it comes to solo dudes, I love Chase Huglin he’s the homie, Casey Bolles is incredible, WATERMEDOWN absolutely slays, Dan a.k.a. My Heart, My Anchor who I did my split last year with is a great guy and musician. I listen to a lot of local bands too though; my boys in Lakeside are awesome, Break Down The Walls is an up and definitely coming band, Losing Streak is crazy good and I love Save Face, the genre blending masters!

These are all solid groups, I respect the artistry. Favorite toppings to put on pizza?

Hmm I feel like I represent New York culture here so I better tread lightly! I dig buffalo chicken, really into chicken a la vodka pizza, fajita pizza is rad but I’ve always loved olives. Black olives and maybe some jalapeños or something spicy. Can’t go wrong there!

I agree with all of the above mentions! What can we expect more of this year from you?

I have something cool coming out within hopefully a month or so! The EP will be coming sometime this year as soon as it’s all finished, and I’m hoping to head out on a tour in the spring/summer. I’m also working on a multi-platform project to help local bands get off the ground and have the kind of releases they deserve. I’m really excited about getting that started soon so keep an eye out for that and all the sweet jams I’m gonna have pouring out all over the place!

Any last words?!

I really want to thank The Alternative for letting me talk for too long, and I hope you guys dig all my jams! Remember that music is a community not a scene; scenes are for plays and scenes end. Oh, and long live With The Punches!