Photos by Ariana Santiago
Lule Tyler Shelton is sitting on a bench in Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn, answering my questions about his rising profile as a singer-songwriter and guitarist in the loosely defined country folk genre. Two nights before, he played his first headline show in NYC at Union Pool in Williamsburg. Then he performed at the Green River Festival in Massachusetts alongside Charley Crockett, Geese, Spoon, The Beths and Kurt Vile.
This run of activity came after the Californian signed with Concord Records (whose roster includes Sarah McLachlan, John Fogerty and Matt Berninger of The National) and recorded with Shooter Jennings and Jonathan Wilson, who produced his debut EP “Blue Sky,” released last year. Today, he shares a new single called “Reasons” and an accompanying video.
While there is no surefire path to success in a music business, Shelton’s achievements seem to have put him on a road to greater things.
“When I signed with Concord, it was kind of an artist development deal, and so I feel that’s what’s been happening: just trying to develop me and find shows or festivals and things that line up and can feel like good opportunities to put me in front of the right crowds and people,” he says.
“Working with producers is like trying to find people that understand the music and that I feel comfortable working with as I’m trying to create and figure out my sound. So my team that I’ve been able to build since I first signed with them, I feel like I’ve been able to get this stuff done and using their guidance I now feel even more comfortable knowing where I’m looking to go and how I want to do things. Because some things go really well, some things, you look back and you’re like, OK, maybe I would do this differently because now I know how that goes.”
Here are some highlights from our conversation with Luke in Brooklyn.
How do you feel that “Reasons” represents where you are right now as an artist?
I’m trying to use some pedal steel less and things like that in my songs and kind of enter a genre of myself that feels even less tied to just a country folk sound. So I’ve been writing on piano and this new song kind of feels a little bit different than the rest of them, which I’m really excited about.
How was the Union Pool show?
It was fantastic. It was great. This was my first show in New York playing my own music. And I was choosing between Union Pool and Nightclub 101, I never played it either one, but a lot of my friends that live out here suggested Union Pool. I think I made a good decision going there because one, the show was on a Saturday, and two, the room is the perfect kind of size to where if you’re not selling it out it still feels full, and a bunch of friends come out. It went great. And my friend Haylie Davis opened and she sounded incredible. It was really fun.
How did you initially connect with Jonathan Wilson and Shooter?
When I met my A&R Mark Williams at Concord I’d put some songs out before when I was younger, but it wasn’t anything serious really. So he was trying to help curate the vibe and the experience of these first recordings that I would put out. And my A&R was close with Shooter and with Jonathan, they both worked with other artists from the label and stuff. Mark had introduced me to Shooter months before we ever recorded anything and Shooter and I kind of formed a friendship just from hanging out. And he brought my band into a studio just to record demos for free so I could hear what my songs sound like that we’d been playing live.
Jonathan I had also met prior to working with him because he lives and works out of Topanga Canyon, and I have a bunch of friends there, and Jonathan will do like jams at his house and little parties and stuff, so I’d been to a couple of those. So by the time we got to recording, which we also did most of at Jonathan’s studio, I had a good relationship with the two of them. They had always wanted to work together but never got to. Everyone was just stoked to be hanging out and working on some music together, and it was very easy flowing. Everyone had ideas and was able to share them, and I felt like I had a voice in the studio even though I was still being guided by the two of them. It was a great experience.
What impact did growing up in a musical household have on you?
My dad is a musician. He writes songs and he sings since he was my age and still does. And both my parents are just huge music lovers, just music always being played in the car, in the house. And so I was always surrounded by it. I think I just found music, it felt like I found it on my own and pursued learning an instrument through my own kind of inspiration. My parents put me in piano lessons when I was a little kid and I think they viewed learning an instrument as just being a good thing for a child to try and do. But it was never because my dad also had played music or because they thought I should be a musician. I did a bunch of things. I played sports and music and I liked to draw a lot when I was younger. But when I got into middle school, that’s when I joined music classes that I chose to do, and l was in orchestra playing percussion and I got super into drums, which was my first instrument. I kind of just took it from there and kept doing that in high school, doing choir, being in the band and then forming my own bands and then picking up guitar halfway through high school so that I could start writing more and singing more.
In addition to your own career, you’ve been playing guitar in Malcolm Todd’s band. How do you balance the two roles?
It’s honestly great because they’re such different jobs. And he’s doing really well. So obviously the pay doing that with him is great and that just helps me do my own thing. The main thing for me with balancing the two is just making sure that I utilize all my time when I’m not doing that as much as I can doing my own thing. Being in his band helps with it too, like gaining fans through being in his group. And I would ideally like to do the two of them as long as I can.
You played “The Tonight Show” with Malcolm last month. How was that experience?
Yeah, that was amazing. It was incredible. We did Jimmy Kimmel last year and so this was our second TV performance with Fallon, and it was different because with Kimmel there’s not a live audience watching the band when you perform. With Fallon, it kind of felt a little bit more like a performance in that way. And we never actually got to meet Jimmy Kimmel, unfortunately, but Fallon came into our dressing room before and we had a bunch of instruments in there, so we were singing “Hey Jude” with him, and he sang the whole song perfectly because he’s actually a really good musician and singer. He was just super sweet and welcoming and the performance went great and it was a great experience.
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