Returning for his first album in three years, singer-songwriter Luke Sital-Singh reappears with lush new album Dressing Like a Stranger.  Taking more of a hands-on approach with production, Dressing is already shaping up to be one of Luke’s strongest albums yet.  Damian Robinson caught up with Luke to talk about the album and his upcoming show at The Cluny 2.

Hi Luke, the new album feels like one of your strongest to date, could you tell us a little bit about it please?

Thank you, I appreciate that.  It’s not a pandemic album by any stretch of the imagination but certainly the pandemic shaped how the album was made.  Lockdown meant I couldn’t default to my usual practice of going to the studio and working through ideas so this felt like more of a DIY album in the sense that to make this happen I needed to take the leap of faith and take more control than usual.

The production on the album is really impressive, there’s a strong song writing touch with nice layers of sounds.  You’ve done a great job if this is your first experience of production.

I realised I needed some help, so as lock down started to lift I was able to work with Dan Croll on production, so this isn’t all of my production.  But between us I think we did a good job, and Dan has a great ear, so he really helped shape the sound.  Lockdown also meant that the song writing was perhaps slower than it had been in the past and I think that also helped take me to new places and look for new sounds.

The album’s a real combination of different sounds and textures, are you planning to tour with a band?

It’ll just be me on the tour, I was looking at working with a band but scheduling conflicts as a result of lock down meant we were in different places.  So this will be a solo tour, which is the approach I’ve used for a number of years, but perhaps in the future we’ll be able to tour as a band.  That would be nice though there’s something about performing solo which brings out the best in me, due to the pressure I put on myself, so that’s also something that I think adds to the show when I perform solo.

You’ll be coming to the Cluny as part of the tour

Yeah, one of my favourite ever shows was at the Cluny, it was really early in my performing when I was a support act, and there was something about the venue and the crowd that really clicked that night.  I’ve always enjoyed playing up North and The Cluny, in particular, is a venue I really enjoy.

Dressing like a Stranger is out on 2 September.  Luke will play Newcastle Cluny 2 on 6 October.