Melbourne-based dream pop and indie folk artist Dean Luke is exploring the darker side of romantic feelings with his new, third release Love Can Be So Cruel.
Exploring how relationships can change both parties and cause hurt as much as bring joy, Dean Luke meditates on how love never really goes away… even long after the breakup.
Dean wants to resonate with lovers of the dream pop genre, and how we can all understand what it feels like to go from being a person’s one-and-only to eventually being unable to stand the sight of them.
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Taking artistic guidance from what he calls “90s dream pop sort of bands,” Dean’s musical touchpoints for the new song were Mazzy Star and Slowdive. He also cites indie folk artists like Elliott Smith and Boy Genius, singers with an ability to draw fantastic harmonies in their song-writing output.
Reflecting on the creative process that drove his own lyrics for the new song, as well as some of the feelings he wanted to convey therein, Dean says, “The song’s just a combination of my own experiences and experiences of people around me regarding breakups and the strange, painful aftermath.”
He pauses for a moment and lets out a small laugh. “That’s pretty much it, really.”
When asked if he could share the person who inspired the song, he admits, “I could, but I wouldn’t! Not particularly,” he clarifies, “It’s not one particular person. I think the experience is always sort of the same. I mean, I think that everyone’s had a breakup before that really stayed with them and changed them in a way, for better or worse…”
He reiterates his previous affirmations that the song is really part of a larger, lived-in experience than one precise inciting incident. “Everyone seems to have the same sort of strange experience, you know? It feels like no one in the world has had the same thing, but a lot of people have. Very odd.”
The abstract nature of the lyrics of Love Can Be So Cruel provides little clue as to the gender of the song’s artistic inspirations. As an LGBTQ+ person myself, I ask Dean if his experiences of love which feed into the song are from a queer or heterosexual framework.
He responds dryly: “I can’t say I profess to being queer, unfortunately, so don’t hold that against me. I’m one of those straight folk who are ruining the world.”
Dean elaborates to say that the experience of love is not one confined by a person’s sexual orientation. “The experiences of love are the same,” he suggests, “the experiences of falling out of love are the same.”
The journey to becoming a musical artist was not one that Dean consciously devised. It was a decision he feels was already made for him, before he was specifically aware of it.
“I think it just, sort of…” he reflects. “I don’t know if I came to a decision, but I think I just came to a realisation that this is who I am, for better or worse. It’s something that I just have to do.”
The challenge faced by any emerging artist today is one of battling an economy of attention, fought for by many content creators and aspiring performers on social media channels. Dean is active himself on Instagram and TikTok, so he is doing all the right things for anyone hoping to catch a break in the music industry.
But he admits his attitudes toward social media have changed at various times. “Right now,” he says, “I’m at the point where a lot of artists describe social media as a necessary evil, but I don’t think social media is necessarily good or bad.
“It’s just about the way that you use it. Being in an age where it’s all about getting people’s attention, my personal experience is just trying to do it as authentically as I can. That’s all I really have to say about it.”
With more music on the horizon, Dean Luke is an artistic voice on the rise and one to listen out for.
Listen to Dean Luke’s new song Love Can Be So Cruel here.
This article was made in partnership with Dean Luke.
