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Interview with
LUKE STEELE & JARRAD ROGERS
from
H3000

(17 September 2021)

Interview by Loki Fowler

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H3000 is a new creative project from world-renowned musicians, Luke Steele and Jarrad Rogers. The Australian-born duo merge deep emotional states with advanced technologies to create transcendental works of music and art, unlike anything fans have experienced before. H3000 will see Steele and Rogers transformed into LUKE 18 and MSTR ROGERS, respectively, for a boundary-breaking visual experience. Both Steele and Rogers have enjoyed major critical and commercial success with their past musical projects. Steele is well known as the dynamic front man for the multi-platinum selling act, Empire Of The Sun, while Rogers has written and produced for chart-topping artists including Charli XCX, Rita Ora, Lana Del Rey and Avicii, to name a few. H3000 will release their self-titled debut album on September 17, 2021.

H3000 is distributed by EMI/Astralwerks and represented by United Talent Agency and Activist Artists Management.

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Loki: Cheers… Alright
Jarrad: I’ll take my screen off man just so you don’t have to look at my face

Loki: Go for it, that’s entirely your call, my man
Jarrad: (Laughs) yeah

Loki: So first one I’ve got for you is: How did you guys meet, and how did the band H3000 come to be, given that you’re coming from separate projects?
Jarrad: Yeah, well um, it was like a chance meeting. When Luke and Daniel were finishing up the dreams project at the Hansen Studio in LA, I was living in LA at the time, and a mutual friend (in Phases) Luke had asked him to come in to add some production to help out. And he called me up out of the blue and said ‘hey do you wanna come in as well’ and I was like ‘yeah sure absolutely I’d love to come and meet those guys. And we spent a day working on bits and bobs, and Luke and Daniel seemed to really like what I’d contributed. It was pretty random because we were put in this— it was like a smaller room, separate to where Luke and Daniel were working in the main room, and I didn’t have much in way of instruments or anything, so I used a couple of pencils and notebooks, sampled some stuff and made something sound a bit like Bjork and thought you know, may as well go for something weird and see if it spricks up their interest. And from there we just became mates. Finished the dreams record over in Luke’s studio at his place, and just kind of hung out more, and a friendship formed, and that spilled into sharing a bit of music and him sharing a bit of ideas, and kind of came around that way, pretty organically actually.

Loki: Yeah, a good way to do it. So you mentioned it happened in LA. Was this before COVID or during? Did you have any difficulties creating the album?
Jarrad: It was way before COVID, so yeah.

Loki: Alright, that’s an easy fix then.
Jarrad; But we actually did create it like we were in COVID though (laughs). It was before COVID, we were in the same town together, but we barely went in the same studio together. We kind of did it all online, sharing ideas, and jumping on phone calls, jumping on Zoom or breezing FaceTime. And when we got into the studio together, it was mainly hanging out. It wasn’t really doing a huge amount of work, we did all the work when we were apart, and hung out as mates when we were together, which is kind of a nice way of doing it.

Loki: So the album drops on the seventeenth. Can you describe the sort of sound and tone for audiences?
Luke: I don’t know, it kind of has hints of hyper kind of pop, you know, but I’ve always thought it sounded quite liquid and quite Icelandic or something. So, yeah.

Loki: Alright
Jarrad: Pretty expansive I guess. We created a pretty big sonic pallet with it. But it, you know, it explores a lot of different influences, doesn’t it? You know. A lot of different ideas.
Luke: Yeah

Loki: Speaking of the influences, do you care to expand where you both drew inspiration from for the writing process?
Luke: I love, like, the Jonsi stuff he did apart from Sigur Ros — obviously Sigur Ros — but there was a couple Jonsi tracks I just was always referencing. They’re quite heavenly and ethereal. But he also does these kind of strange techniques that we kind of tried that. And like Bon Iver and Sufjan Stevens and stuff. You know, we also like some pretty hardcore hip-hop stuff, and I know we’re always referencing real sonic kind of records and things.
Jarrad: Yeah, stuff that was— we went from that to pretty hard-hitting stuff as well. I think when you’re making a record like this, you try to put as many things as you enjoy into it as possible. It starts from a place of total narcissism really, where we’re just enjoying it ourselves, and it’s selfish, you know? And hopefully that—

Loki: And that’s why you do it.
Jarrad: translates to other people yeah. You do it because you wanna get in there and keep making this magic you think is magic and without any real thought to anyone else, really, because it’s just us two getting inspired. But yeah, there’s a lot of different influences. You know, some glitch, electronic kind of stuff, some Skrillex, there’s a bunch in there.

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Loki: So you’ve mentioned that the theme behind the whole album and concept of the band H3000 is the year 3000 and what that might look and sound like. Where did that idea come from?
Luke: We were just, you know, a lot of the issues about the issues of the heart, and when you’re looking at what was happening right before the pandemic, things were getting pretty sick, you know. There were some pretty horrible things happening, from the really heavy stuff, from like the shootings and stuff that were happening in America, to the Tindr and all that dating thing. It was just getting— there was stuff happening that was sick, you know and it just… It felt so heavy and, you know, we’re writing about all these different kind of issues. But yeah, that was just like the— I thought like, kind of like an acronym to the H3000.
Jarrad: Yeah. We picked a date, we picked one really far in the future to really start the conversation. No idea what it will look like actually. I think it’s just a— it’s an interesting thought though, and it seems to have got people thinking. But the funny thing is, most people say ‘will we actually get there’. I think that’s the most interesting reaction to have to it. You know, like, well maybe not actually. With the way we’re headed, maybe it’s best we don’t get there (laughs). I say that with a smile, you know.

Loki: Was there any creative disagreements or difficulties between the two of you in the writing and recording process?
Luke: Always. ‘It’s the wrong drum’, ‘change the snare’. Funnily enough, in this one we saw pretty eye to eye, and I think we’ve both done enough records to realise that you’ve gotta let— trust the other person, if they’ve got something they’re passionate about, to let them go.
Jarrad: I think it’s healthy to have disagreements because I think it means someone is being pushed out of their comfort zone, and they’re being stretched, and you’re having to consider another opinion, and I think that, when it’s as good as someone like Luke, you better listen, you know. You don’t argue with that too many times, and if you do, then you better be sure. Yeah, but I try and take that creative process. I reckon when I was younger I didn’t. But I think you need to start that probably, where you fight a bit more for your ideas. But I think as you get a bit more mature in the process, you realise other people’s opinions are good, and you can learn, and that’s what keeps you fresh and current cause you stay open to learning I think, and to taking on other people’s ideas. Especially if they’re bad, they’re just bad. You won’t want to stay in the room for too long with someone who’s just got bad ideas, you know. It’s entered around pretty good ideas most of the time.
(Laughs)

Loki: I think it was you that mentioned, Luke, before, mentioned that the album was about issues of the heart. Is there any specific story or message you hope listeners take away from this album?
Luke: I don’t think so. You know, I think music will find whoever its meant to find. You know, you just want them to enjoy it, really. Experience, soak into the depth of the songs, and hopefully it touches them as much as it did to us. I was talking about this the other day in an interview because it doesn’t always happen when you want it to happen, you know. You think you’ll release a record and people love it. And it doesn’t happen that way. Someone said to me the other day ‘I love that record you did’. And I did this record in 2006, and I was like ‘why didn’t you tell me in 2006?’ (Laughs)
Jarrad: Yeah, so true, so true
Luke: So like, I don’t know, you just have to give love and put everything into it, and hope that it translates. But I like to think there’s so much in this stuff, you know, this deep wisdom that we learned, there’s ___, there’s a lot of things from us. You know, we always put our heart into everything, so yeah.

Loki: So it’s been mentioned that Rest was written about Avicii’s passing a few years ago. Does that song have any special meaning to either of you, given that you’d worked with him previously Jarrad, and that he was just such a big part of the music scene for such a long time?
Jarrad: Yeah, I think it will always have a bit of sombre, not sombre’s the wrong word, but it’ll have that weight to it, I think, because you can get caught up so much in what this industry throws at you, and sometimes people just don’t have the voice to speak about it, or to feel that they can be vulnerable. Yeah, it’s one of those records that has so much meaning behind it, and weight behind it, that it kind of surpasses, transcends what anyone thinks of it. Because it gets to the point where a record like that, it’s like, well, that’s just a record that had to be made, regardless of how many hear it or whatnot. Yeah, it definitely has a special meaning to it because that was so sad. Someone who made such happy music, made everyone so happy, but was so unhappy himself. It’s really sad.
Luke: Yeah, because those issues that go on in an artist’s head is just something that I don’t think anyone other than the creators will understand, because it’s so intense when you’ve conjured up everything that you’ve experience, and then you pour it into this music, and I think we both kind of related to that a bit. About someone like him, you know. It just went past that point and kind of got corrupted. It was heartbreaking.

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Loki: Um, onto a bit of a happier note hopefully. The album, as you guys have mentioned, has taken inspiration from a few places, and songs like Quicksand in particular make such a wide use of sounds, from the acoustic guitar, to the heavy vocoder, and everything else that’s laid in there. From a production point of view, how do you go about finding that balance and making such a seamless experience?
Jarrad: Aw, it’s nice you say that man. I think you… trust the process maybe is the best way to look at it. Because it’s not something that, I don’t know about Luke, but I didn’t hear the final product in my head on that— Sometimes you do. But on that kind of one— and that’s real marrying of minds. I think, I wouldn’t have been able to make that record on my own, and it’s probably the same with Luke. And it’s this kind of, it’s a real— you can hear the journey that we went on discovering how it was all going to work together. I guess, being a bit gentle with it as you go, not being too heavy-handed. And if something felt right, okay cool, let’s add that element. It wasn’t one where we threw a billion things at the wall and muted everything. It was gently approached I think on that one, for it to feel like it was seamless. Yeah, but it was interesting that you picked that up. Because it’s true, it is a pretty wide pallet of stuff that’s going on in there.

Loki: So the album sounds almost otherworldly, like you’ve mentioned, and it’s almost sonically surreal. But the videos you’ve released, and the visualisers, have played such a massive part as well. Can fans expect to see more of the visuals going hand-in-hand with this moving forward?
Luke: I think so, you know, and I think hopefully we’ll get to tour it, but you don’t really know what that entails in the next couple of years, but. Yeah, that was another side of it which happened so organically, which doesn’t always happen making records. Sometimes, you work with directors, and artists, and… So yeah, I think that’s why we’ve been excited about this project. When things happen, you know it has favour on it, and it’s meant to happen.
Jarrad: I think we’ll always try and have the visuals feel like they’re, like, a visual representation of the music, of what that feels like. I love the fact that Luke comes from such a visual place as well, because he’s able to nail that on the head, and know what feels right and what doesn’t feel right. I love it when the visuals and the sonic project feel like they go hand-in-hand. It just has a bit more depth to it, doesn’t it? It’s cool.

Loki: Um, so this one, I’m not sure if it’ll be a bit of a touchy subject, given COVID has put a bit of a sore in everyone’s side, but are there any plans for upcoming gigs, or live streams, other projects or just more videos that fans can look forward to?
Luke: Yeah
Jarrad: Sore point man, sore point bro (laughs).
Luke: Yeah, who knows, right? We obviously want to get this released in a couple weeks, and see how that goes. But it really is, you know how they always say ‘unprecedented times’ (laughs). Like it really is just unpredictable. So who knows? We could have a really big hit and we end up doing giant live virtual concerts.
Jarrad: It’s so hard to plan isn’t it, because it’s almost harder to un-plan once you’ve planned something important to a vision of something and then have to put it on a shelf. That’s almost harder to do too many times in a row.
Luke: Totally
Jarrad: Sometimes you just go where the river takes you and hopefully we get to— We’d love to do it. There definitely would be a desire to do it, that’s for sure. It’s tricky.

Loki: Yeah. I mean, fingers crossed for you guys, and fingers crossed for all the fans out there that we can get back to normal times.
Jarrad: Yeah, who knows man. Who knows what normal’s gonna be like. What is normal anymore? Have we moved on? Will there ever be a normal again? I think we’ll try, we’ll try and get back to what we thought was normal, but it might change.

Loki: Maybe you guys can define the new normal, who knows?
Jarrad: There you go. Come on man, we’re down (laughs)

Loki: That’s all I’ve got for you today guys, so unless you’ve got anything you wanna add, or anything you wanna ask me, I think I’ll let you go.
Luke: Cool man, thanks for the chat
Jarrad: Yeah, man

Loki: No worries, thank you so much for your time.
Jarrad: Appreciate it man

Loki: No worries, cheers, have a good one
Jarrad: See you soon, bye

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H3000
Tracklisting

1.July Heat
2.Running
3.Flames
4.Human Heart
5.Quicksand
6.Rest
7.Thought You Knew

Vinyl tracklist:

1.July Heat
2.Running
3.Flames
4.Human Heart
5.Quicksand
6.Rest
7.Thought You Knew
8.Stay Looking At Me

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Follow H3000
YouTube – Facebook – Twitter – Instagram

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AMNPLIFY – DB

Press Release 17th September 2021 (below) HERE

The new project from
LUKE STEELE & JARRAD ROGERS
H3000
release self titled album today 

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AMNPLIFY – DB