Dreamy cello + dark beats + smart emotional lyrics = the Luke Janela sound on “Midnight Door”.
Midnight Door is an album of transition and motion. Being written while on the road for a year, living out of the back of a truck, the songs have a longing for both home and for pushing further. They are also a transition from the raw organic sound of Luke Janela’s previous work into the thick beats and electronically nuanced instrumentations.
The album is split into four parts:
South sounds sun filled, and dusty.
East is rumbling and urban,
North is dark, windswept,
and West is home, the destination, the beginning and the end.
Luke’s unique application of the cello drives the sound of “Midnight Door”. Listeners are immediately struck by Luke’s adaptation of the classical instrument to non-classical genres.
“This album was the first album I’ve done where I felt able to take the time to make it really really complete. I had spent the year traveling, I had the songs, the images, and the feelings in me, and all I needed was a home. I found one in Nevada City, a small vibrant community in the foothills of Northern California. I found a place to mix the tracks down, put down fresh cello parts (my cello was not on the road with me, sadly, just guitar), and write the final chapter.
It has now been a few months since the release and I have some more thoughts on Midnight Door. I just can’t get over what a crystallization this album became of one of the greatest things I’ve done with my time and life, which is to have traveled the United States for almost a year. When me and my girlfriend Kate were out there, we were SO out there, in the wild, in the open, and free. We also navigated the great cities, and felt the pulse of it all. When I listen to this album it is so much about the leaving, the being, the passing through, and then, unexpectedly, the returning.”
