Photo courtesy of Justin Greene

Senior Luke Pierce talks about the inspirations behind his new album and his plans for the future

BY MONICA ECHOLS, CULTURE EDITOR

Mason is home to many talented musicians, and senior music major Luke Pierce is no exception. You might have seen him perform at various events on campus, usually playing the saxophone. However, Pierce, who goes by Lu Alex as his stage name, recently took his music career to the next level by releasing his second album, “Simple Complex,” on Aug. 19, 2018. The album is available on Apple Music, Tidal and Spotify.

Photo courtesy of Luke Pierce

Pierce began writing ideas for “Simple Complex” a year ago, but it wasn’t until last semester when he started working with his friend David Erinle that he started to get serious about it. Erinle, who has a collective called Blackburn Sound, helped Pierce with the engineering, mixing and production of the album until the middle of the summer.

From there, Pierce began working on it himself while balancing other jobs. “I was working from like 2-11 at Walmart and I would go home and work on [the music] until like 6 a.m.,” Pierce said. “It was definitely a lot, but I love it, so it wasn’t really work. I would do it again.”

According to Pierce, most of the process of creating the album took place late at night. “I’m pretty nocturnal, so most of the time it would be like 2 am or midnight and I would be writing stuff,”  Pierce said.

The album is based on Pierce’s life and mindset within the past year. “Life in general, but specifically this last year, was pretty rough,” Pierce said. “ So I wrote about everything and I wrote about the rollercoaster of emotions that I went through.

The title of the album, “Simple Complex,” is also supposed to represent “a reflection of life.” “In life, things seem really complex when you’re going through it, but when you look back, it’s a simple answer,” Pierce said. “It was complicated while I was going through it and I didn’t know how I was going to get through it, but now looking back, it’s simple in its conclusion… It’s just constant change and adaptation to life.”

Pierce has always loved music, first getting into music at a young age when he started playing the drums at church. He started producing music in middle school, and he is now studying music technology at Mason to continue learning all he can about music.

However, although Pierce has always had a passion for music, like many students, he didn’t always know how he wanted to use that passion. “It changes all the time,” Pierce said. “It started off I just knew I wanted to do music, but I didn’t really know what. I wanted to be a performer and go to Juilliard and play in people’s orchestras, but now it’s like I want to make my own visions and ideas come to fruition.”

So what’s next for Pierce? “After college is over, I just want to tour,” Pierce said. “That’s the dream, but it’s going to look a lot more like reality as time goes on,” he said.

He also has other plans for his music career as well, including making movie soundtracks and performing around the world. He’s open to trying out acting and learning how to dance, but music will always remain his number one passion.

“There’s so much I want to learn how to do, but music is definitely at the forefront,” Pierce said. “It’s really all I want to do forever.”