Best known for his group work with NC band Weston Estate, Marco Luka has been working to establish his solo career. In his skew of 2019 nice releases, the Cuban artist has shown his versatility in his ability to juggle between smooth melodies and pacy flows while combining Spanish and English lyrics. His bi-lingual ability really sets him apart from the crowd in this lane and could really take him to the highest of heights as the 'Latin' music market has exploded in the last few years.
A personal favorite is "paradise," a track that Luka came out with in 2019. While talking with Luka, he revealed that after securing the rights to the beat on this track, he added time warps and other production tweaks to make it more his own, including the initial drop in the song. This is one of, if not the, best part of the song, and he rendered it entirely himself. From using phones to record beats to mastering sounds himself, Luka is demonstrating his increased maturity as an artist.
Later in 2019 he released "feel the Same." The song has some notable vocals, and we begin to see more of Luka's personality and taste in both the sound and lyrics. He spent a bit more time on this track than "paradise," but both were made rather quickly. He had a thought and just kind of ran with it, and both productions are wildly impressive even without considering that they were engineered from his bedroom computer.
Out of these three singles featured, "no more" is Luka's favorite. While talking with Luka, he revealed part of the reason he is so proud of that track is because he was able to say what he wanted in a way that he wanted to say it, letting all of his raw emotions into the song. He also shared that “no more” is the direction that he is leaning towards. He normally produces most of his own work, but this track was produced by Kado, someone that Luka works well with because he really trusts Kado with his sound.
With a video and photography background, Luka is a creative. He feels good about his work when he engineers it himself, and it is important to him to create something raw using the equipment that he has. Keeping a similar theme, the singles are represented by some insanely impressive cover art done by @femzor, a friendship/business relationship that Luka built through the online gaming community.
His unreleased Insomnia EP has been quietly garnering industry interest behind scenes while he remains working and growing traction as an artist. Luka still plans to produce a lot of the EP himself, pursuing an essence of wabi-sabi, a Japanese perspective of accepting and appreciating imperfections. When asked about the project Luka said, “I think there is a narrative to be told about an 18-year-old with a USB gaming mic that cost me two-hundred dollars. It’s a very DIY project and it’s very raw, and there are a lot of things that are left best unpolished, and this project is one of those things.” Luka shared that the first track on Insomnia, though it is subject to change, is called "Changes," and is the result of a voice memo that he time warped and edited to create a song. Not only does he enjoy it, but Luka says that manipulating the sounds to create something of his own feels really good- "I think at it's core, if for my first project ever released seriously, I kind of tell people "yo this me," it would not feel as honest or genuine if it were that polished."
Sonically, Insomnia will be more similar to “no more,” with a more acoustic and alternative sounds compared to his other releases. Luka hopes to release his first solo EP in Fall 2020. Follow @marcoluka_ and @_Kado_ on Twitter and check out Marco Luka on all platforms.
