The Luka State have released the title track of their upcoming album, More Than This, due out on March 10th, 2023 via Thirty Tigers. The powerful track arrives alongside a music video, which features electrifying live footage from the band’s recent North American headline tour. Watch it now below.
Speaking on the song, the band’s singer and lead songwriter Conrad Ellis said, “‘More Than This’ is a song about the tragedy of a young single mum I was delivering food parcels to during lockdown. She did everything she could for her boys, working 2 jobs a week to put food on the table, but she was let down by the system.”
And speaking on the video, Ellis recalls “Our record label gave us a budget for the video but we thought it would be more fitting to donate towards The Trussell Trust, the largest food bank charity in the UK. It’s a subject that’s very close to our hearts so we want to put our money where our mouth is and donate. The little lad in the video and on our album cover is from our home town Winsford. We wanted to show the reality of working class towns like ours so we photographed him in front of one of the permanently shut shops on one of the estates.”
The Trussell Trust supports a nationwide network of food banks, provides emergency food and support to people locked in poverty, and campaigns for change to end the need for food banks in the UK. At present, an emergency food parcel is handed out every 13 seconds and for the first time ever, food banks are giving out more food than is being donated. The Luka State are also hosting a fundraiser for The Trussell Trust. Please see HERE for more details and to donate.
The “More Than This” video captures a snapshot of a nation in crisis, with footage that depicts the blunt reality of unhoused people across the land. But you don’t have to be homeless to be struggling. The innocence of the young boy shown in the video stands in stark contrast to the permanently closed shops on an estate in the band’s hometown of Winsford, Cheshire – ironically just north of the prosperous Alderley Edge, home to several players from both Manchester football teams. The video was directed by the band’s regular collaborator, Jim de Whalley.
The Luka State recorded their forthcoming album with producers Dan Austin (Biffy Clyro, You Me At Six, Pixies) and the GRAMMY Award-winning Adrian Bushby (Foo Fighters, Muse, U2) at Liverpool’s Motor Museum (The 1975, Bring Me the Horizon) and EVE, near Manchester. The band is thrilled to announce details of a tour of the U.K. and European Union, beginning in March 2023. Dates below.
The Luka State ‘23 UK/EU Tour Dates:
03/23/23 – Birmingham, Rainbow
03/24/23 – Bristol, Crofters
03/25/23 – Southampton, Heartbreakers
03/31/23 – Leeds, Hyde Park Book Club
04/06/23 – Aberdeen, Tunnels
04/07/23 – Dundee, Church
04/08/23 – Glasgow, King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut
04/12/23 – Hamburg, Hakken
04/13/23 – Cologne, Helios37
04/14/23 – Berlin, Maschinenhaus
04/15/23 – Amsterdam, Paradise Bitterzoet
04/21/23 – Manchester, Academy 3