Songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Luke Hemmings has released his debut solo album, When Facing The Things We Turn Away From, via Sony Music. The album is a definitive, deeply personal statement about Luke the artist, songwriter, musician, and human that showcases a whole new side to himself unlike anything fans have heard from him before. This new perspective, and immense vulnerability, is demonstrated by the steady drop of singles leading into the album release including “Starting Line,” “Motion,” “Place In Me” as well as new focus track “Baby Blue.” Listen to the album here and view the “Baby Blue” visualizer here!
Luke shared, “I’ve loved songwriting for my whole life. I’m in a constant pursuit of bettering myself in that department. My entire world revolves around music. By writing these lyrics, I learned about myself. A lot of the songs are about now, but some of them are written from the perspective of a 17-year-old kid in the thick of the industry. Those perspectives clash on this album. It was a challenge to create on my own for the first time rather than in the context of a group. I wrote out of need, because it’s what I love. After a couple of weeks, I thought, ‘What am I going to spend my time doing?’ I started exploring and doing my own production. It didn’t sound similar to the band, and I wanted to push myself. That was the genesis of it.”
When Facing The Things We Turn Away From started purely by accident, while much of the world was on hold last year. Luke began writing on acoustic guitar and piano at home simply out of need for a creative outlet and he began to follow his inner-muse and most authentic creative self in the solitude of his own home. After a few months working on the music on his own, he found a kindred creative spirit in producer and songwriter Sammy Witte (King Princess, Maggie Rogers) and the two became fast friends and collaborators as they finished the album.
In support of the new album, Luke will be going live on Moment House on Saturday August 14th at 3pm PT / 11pm BST. The livestream will consist of a live stripped performance and Q&A from the studio where the record was made. All profits from ticket sales will go to My Friend’s Place, which assists and inspires youth experiencing homelessness to build self-sufficient lives. Get tickets here!
Luke’s solo music has been met with a sea of support globally, receiving widespread acclaim and support from Billboard, NYLON, NME, Rollacoaster, triple j, and many more. NME declared, “The project’s first two singles [‘Starting Line’ and ‘Motion’] move Hemmings into an altogether more alternative space in the pop world, taking 5SOS’ penchant for pop hooks and fusing it with the sweeping orchestral feel of records like Lana Del Rey’s ‘Born To Die” and BBC Radio 1’s Jack Saunders stated, “Luke Hemmings is making certified bangers.” Of the album, MTV proclaimed, “The music and tone of Hemmings’s voice are so powerful that the songs almost don’t require words to express emotions” and praised it as “a dramatic pop album with both big, movie-score crescendos, and quiet, intimate moments.” Meanwhile, CLASH commented that Luke had “made big songs, intimate” on a record that is “self-assured and confident”.
Luke is best known as the lead singer of 5 Seconds Of Summer and has co-written some of the band’s biggest hits including “Youngblood,” “Teeth,” “Want You Back” and “Lie To Me.”
