Luke Spiller continues the rollout for his debut solo album with the release of his latest track, ‘She’s Just Like California’, out today alongside an accompanying music video via Big Machine Rock. The new single adds an acoustically-driven, indie-pop note to the forthcoming release of Love Will Probably Kill Me Before Cigarettes and Wine, out on April 25th and available now for pre-order.
From the lush opener, ‘Devil In Me’, to the earnest and heartfelt ‘Angel Like You’, the record is an introduction to a vulnerable, and often publicly hidden, side of the flamboyant frontman. Freshly uninhibited and entirely unapologetic, Spiller worked alongside producer Jon Levine (Sabrina Carpenter, Dua Lipa, Drake) and guitarist/producer Jason Falkner (St. Vincent, Air, Beck) on the 10 new tracks that, despite their intimate nature, don’t shy away from bombastic strings and over-the-top orchestration.
“In terms of big sound and theatrics, those come naturally to me,” he says. “That’s the way I’ve always written, and that wasn’t an issue. This was a case of finding great lyrics that told a great story with truth and vulnerability. I really wanted to tell my own story in this record.” And on Love Will Probably Kill Me Before Cigarettes and Wine, he’s done just that.
The genesis for the album came in 2019 when Luke Spiller found himself in a state of self-inquiry. For over a decade, he’d made a name with the formidable British rock band The Struts — enlisting his retro sonic inspirations, singular vocals, and anthemic songwriting to help boost the group to the top of the charts. But three albums and multiple world tours later, Spiller started to wonder what it would be like to shift in his own direction. The dramatic, avant-garde music he’d grown up with and the unbridled, large songs he wanted to write didn’t seem like a fit for his current project. “It’s been a long time in the making,” he says.
Spiller began to dive deeper into his songwriting, turning his typical writing process on its head. Starting with only lyrics and a title, he crafted material written as poetry – self-expression in its purest form. The resulting songs became his forthcoming debut solo record, Love Will Probably Kill Me Before Cigarettes and Wine – an epically cinematic sonic expedition that mirrors a James Bond score and documents all the love, heartbreak, and beauty Spiller first experienced when he moved to Los Angeles.
