"Rishi, send me down a Rishi / Send her from the skies / Rishi, come on baby Rishi, / Open my eyes..."
"Rishi" by Bay Area singer-songwriter, creative, collaborator, artist Luke Sweeney at first sonic glance it is a wonderful exercise in whimsy on high. Luke's intimate art pop vocal aesthetic that stirs a sense of psychedelic existentialism against a drum machine beat and a synth melody that suggest something between a song for Sesame Street song (like Sing) and 70's bohemian pop or the sort of anomalous feeling of a punk band like the Buzzcocks doing a sweet, syrupy broken love song, feels so inviting.
There is something deeply compelling about "Rishi", too many things to decipher here now but eventually vague somber lyrical passages start to stir underneath the sweetness like:
"Dogmatic crimes & convictions, n nursery rhymes & pulp fictions, they’re only passing phrases / through the hazes of our youth (oh, sweet tooth!)"
AND
"a monitor somewhere is beeping / with consciousness never sleeping... / we had all the answers, but we gave them up to get the truth (a little sleuth!)"
When I read that "Rishi" is the title track of an album born out of tragedy, of something unthinkable, it made me so incredibly sad and frozen too. I sat on this review for weeks and decided that the very best thing to do was to share the words the artist approves of as it relates to his cathartic, healing endeavor. An album or as he says ["humble temple of songs", "mostly written in India."]
The following is cut and pasted from Luke Sweeney's website:
At a simple ghat along the Ganges river in Rishikesh, India, Luke Sweeney and his family laid his infant daughter’s ashes into the water and recited Hindu prayers. As the river carried those ashes, a force bigger than his grief pulled Sweeney into an artistic process unlike any he had undertaken before. For years, the ‘calm poseur’ had kept busy playing the part of San Francisco’s gangly trouble-making troubadour: recording three solo records, touring the western U.S. multiple times over, and lending his hand to co-conspirators Tim Cohen and Healing Potpourri. But somehow in the wake of an unspeakable tragedy, when all time and music seemed to stop, he re-discovered the point of it all.
With Rishi serving as his guide, teacher, and muse, Sweeney started to track Garageband demos on his iPhone throughout India, with only a few crude pocket-sized instruments at hand. Soon after returning to San Francisco, he was in a Mission District apartment working with engineers and co-producers Joe Santarpia (Mac DeMarco) and Roberto Pagano (Tonsstartsbandht) to bring his inspired vignettes to life as fully-realized songs in their homemade studio. The process was scattered over two years time, as Sweeney’s Peace Meal album finally surfaced and he rounded a band together. There was still grieving, conflict, struggle, and pain. But as construction on the Rishi album continued, the songs started to reveal the bigger picture of life and death — with music serving as a cosmic conduit between the material and the spiritual world.
Straddling that line between the sacred and profane has always been a skill of Sweeney’s, but here his DIY pop tightrope act is taken to another level. Deities and drifters alike play a part in a sonic procession that pulls from all corners of the world; everything from 808 beats, synth bass lines, Nile Rogers-esque strums, and groovy Prince-like party refrains sit alongside stoney 60’s-style interludes, jazzy futuristic spells, prog-rock guitar plucks and riffs, a children’s chorus and even Hindu chanting circles. Orchestrated with loads of samples from Sweeney’s original demos, these recordings are as thrifty, raw and real as they are divinely crafted — navigated by a lyrical character so sincere that it could only be the voice of someone who has endured the darkest of life’s tribulations and lived to see the light on other side. And now, these songs carry Rishi’s spirit like the Ganges carried her ashes.
"Rishi" (the album) from Luke Sweeney, inspired by the traumatic birth and unexpected death of his infant daughter in 2018 will be released on October 11th of this year (2022).
- Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
https://www.facebook.com/lukesweeneymusic/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0HUCUssIZ14hidQEb4IpwZ
https://www.youtube.com/user/wetdreamsdrymagic
https://www.instagram.com/calmposeur/
Self-proclaimed "Hardest Working Man in No Biz" Luke Sweeney has played co-conspirator to fellow Bay Area stalwarts such as Tim Cohen & Healing Potpourri in between countless odd jobs and a personal output that has sparked critical interest from the outset. His 2013 debut Ether Ore garnered praise for “melodies that feel like opiates for the soul” (SF Chronicle). Then Sweeney’s 2014 studio breakout Adventure:Us expanded into “far-reaching pop, psychedelic, and classic-rock realms with humor and irreverence” (Portland Mercury) and a “distinctly Golden State mix of psych-pop, soft rock and country/folk” that “crackles with time-worn allusions to psychedelia, bubblegum, glam, and mellow Seventies balladry” (Austin Chronicle). Playing with kindred spirits such as Jessica Pratt, La Luz, Night Moves, Morgan Delt, and Sugar Candy Mountain, Sweeney drew comparisons to a laundry list of lovable artists, like “a grittier Father John Misty, or a more sincere Push Kings, or The Flaming Lips without the silliness, or Pavement...” (Bend Bulletin).
While those muses are still present in his approach, Peace Meal feels like a rebirth; the stuff of cosmos that Sweeney has been personally tasked to deliver. "This album has a healing quality. It deserves consideration as his finest work yet" (Too Much Love). “..a smorgasbord of influence: there’s Kinks and T. Rex, there’s Mungo Jerry and the smallest touch of Latin vibes; waltzy beats. Sweeney writes songs with a connective energy about them. This Sweeney has soul” (TheBayBridged).
** At this particular time we find ourselves in a financial pinch due to many factors. We want to keep AP going. It has been a passion project for over 13 years. PLEASE consider donating, we could really use the support. Thanks so much
We get by with a little help from our friends
Luke Sweeney, singer songwriter, musician, creative, collaborator, Bay Area, California, India, "Rishi", upcoming album, Rishikesh- India, tribute, catharsis, inspiration,
There is something deeply compelling about "Rishi", too many things to decipher here now but eventually vague somber lyrical passages start to stir underneath the sweetness like:
"Dogmatic crimes & convictions, n nursery rhymes & pulp fictions, they’re only passing phrases / through the hazes of our youth (oh, sweet tooth!)"
AND
"a monitor somewhere is beeping / with consciousness never sleeping... / we had all the answers, but we gave them up to get the truth (a little sleuth!)"
When I read that "Rishi" is the title track of an album born out of tragedy, of something unthinkable, it made me so incredibly sad and frozen too. I sat on this review for weeks and decided that the very best thing to do was to share the words the artist approves of as it relates to his cathartic, healing endeavor. An album or as he says ["humble temple of songs", "mostly written in India."]
The following is cut and pasted from Luke Sweeney's website:
At a simple ghat along the Ganges river in Rishikesh, India, Luke Sweeney and his family laid his infant daughter’s ashes into the water and recited Hindu prayers. As the river carried those ashes, a force bigger than his grief pulled Sweeney into an artistic process unlike any he had undertaken before. For years, the ‘calm poseur’ had kept busy playing the part of San Francisco’s gangly trouble-making troubadour: recording three solo records, touring the western U.S. multiple times over, and lending his hand to co-conspirators Tim Cohen and Healing Potpourri. But somehow in the wake of an unspeakable tragedy, when all time and music seemed to stop, he re-discovered the point of it all.
With Rishi serving as his guide, teacher, and muse, Sweeney started to track Garageband demos on his iPhone throughout India, with only a few crude pocket-sized instruments at hand. Soon after returning to San Francisco, he was in a Mission District apartment working with engineers and co-producers Joe Santarpia (Mac DeMarco) and Roberto Pagano (Tonsstartsbandht) to bring his inspired vignettes to life as fully-realized songs in their homemade studio. The process was scattered over two years time, as Sweeney’s Peace Meal album finally surfaced and he rounded a band together. There was still grieving, conflict, struggle, and pain. But as construction on the Rishi album continued, the songs started to reveal the bigger picture of life and death — with music serving as a cosmic conduit between the material and the spiritual world.
Straddling that line between the sacred and profane has always been a skill of Sweeney’s, but here his DIY pop tightrope act is taken to another level. Deities and drifters alike play a part in a sonic procession that pulls from all corners of the world; everything from 808 beats, synth bass lines, Nile Rogers-esque strums, and groovy Prince-like party refrains sit alongside stoney 60’s-style interludes, jazzy futuristic spells, prog-rock guitar plucks and riffs, a children’s chorus and even Hindu chanting circles. Orchestrated with loads of samples from Sweeney’s original demos, these recordings are as thrifty, raw and real as they are divinely crafted — navigated by a lyrical character so sincere that it could only be the voice of someone who has endured the darkest of life’s tribulations and lived to see the light on other side. And now, these songs carry Rishi’s spirit like the Ganges carried her ashes.
"Rishi" (the album) from Luke Sweeney, inspired by the traumatic birth and unexpected death of his infant daughter in 2018 will be released on October 11th of this year (2022).
- Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
https://www.facebook.com/lukesweeneymusic/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0HUCUssIZ14hidQEb4IpwZ
https://www.youtube.com/user/wetdreamsdrymagic
https://www.instagram.com/calmposeur/
Self-proclaimed "Hardest Working Man in No Biz" Luke Sweeney has played co-conspirator to fellow Bay Area stalwarts such as Tim Cohen & Healing Potpourri in between countless odd jobs and a personal output that has sparked critical interest from the outset. His 2013 debut Ether Ore garnered praise for “melodies that feel like opiates for the soul” (SF Chronicle). Then Sweeney’s 2014 studio breakout Adventure:Us expanded into “far-reaching pop, psychedelic, and classic-rock realms with humor and irreverence” (Portland Mercury) and a “distinctly Golden State mix of psych-pop, soft rock and country/folk” that “crackles with time-worn allusions to psychedelia, bubblegum, glam, and mellow Seventies balladry” (Austin Chronicle). Playing with kindred spirits such as Jessica Pratt, La Luz, Night Moves, Morgan Delt, and Sugar Candy Mountain, Sweeney drew comparisons to a laundry list of lovable artists, like “a grittier Father John Misty, or a more sincere Push Kings, or The Flaming Lips without the silliness, or Pavement...” (Bend Bulletin).
While those muses are still present in his approach, Peace Meal feels like a rebirth; the stuff of cosmos that Sweeney has been personally tasked to deliver. "This album has a healing quality. It deserves consideration as his finest work yet" (Too Much Love). “..a smorgasbord of influence: there’s Kinks and T. Rex, there’s Mungo Jerry and the smallest touch of Latin vibes; waltzy beats. Sweeney writes songs with a connective energy about them. This Sweeney has soul” (TheBayBridged).
** At this particular time we find ourselves in a financial pinch due to many factors. We want to keep AP going. It has been a passion project for over 13 years. PLEASE consider donating, we could really use the support. Thanks so much
We get by with a little help from our friends
Luke Sweeney, singer songwriter, musician, creative, collaborator, Bay Area, California, India, "Rishi", upcoming album, Rishikesh- India, tribute, catharsis, inspiration,
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