Luke Wesley looks more like a linebacker than a piano rocker. With humorous song titles like "I Hope You Like This Song" and "Sorry I'm Not Hotter", he doesn't quite have the personality you'd expect from the genre, either. There aren't many other self-taught pianists in the field, and we're pretty sure he's the only one to have fallen off of a six story building and walked away with hardly a scratch. But in spite of this unconventional background, Luke Wesley brings to the table some of the catchiest, most polished piano rock the genre has seen in a long time with his debut LP, Because We Never Talk About It.
Wesley grew up in tiny Shelby, Ohio before moving to New York in his early 20s, and credits his family and small-town upbringing with shaping his musical stylings. "Between my parents and my 3 older brothers, I had a lot of differing musical tastes coming out of the home," he says. "A big family helps like that." He cites influences ranging from 1950s and 60s doowop to glam rock of the 1980s, and often draws comparisons to giants like Billy Joel, Elton John, and Marc Cohn.
Wesley's goals on Because We Never Talk About It are modest. "All we are trying to do with the album is make a really solid pop album that isn't super-overproduced and remains true to the live shows," he says. And through collaborations with producers Casey Shea and Peter Block, he manages to do just that. "At its heart, this album is simply a very well constructed pop album." The album, mastered by Mark Christensen (Langhorne Slim, 50 Cent, Raekwon), was released June 1, 2010.
"Artists like Luke Wesley come along once in a lifetime. Compelling, intimate portraits of honesty just aren’t that common, and those that are, aren’t nearly as mesmerizing as this. Never once does the album stumble, never once does it suffocate under the weight of its ambitions and never once does the disc leave one wanting more." - Absolute Punk
"Luke Wesley is a New York City transplant singer/songwriter with a distinctive voice and piano-playing style who uses sly wordplay to add depth on his catchy pop debut, Because We Never Talk About It." - The Limewire Store
"With the current indie scene set on making 80’s soft rockers Hall & Oates relevant again, Luke Wesley is on a one-man campaign to become the indie Billy Joel. Those are my words not his of course, he probably doesn’t even believe his own hype, and that is what sets him up for success." - Atlas and The Anchor
"Seems like finally Elton John and Billy Joel got some serious competition.beautiful piano pop with twisted lyrics and hooks" - The Roman Games Diary
"One of my favorite new singer, song-writer, rockers, Luke Wesley, will make you wonder why you are just getting hip to him now." - The Music Slut
