Luke Friend’s sound sits somewhere in-between Fleetwood Mac and John Mayer with his pensive storytelling, raw emotional impact of his vocals and acoustically driven music being a compelling combination. He’s not afraid to experiment either with him previously releasing synth pop orientated music but he has always felt most at home with guitar as he demonstrates in his most personal and emotional single to date Wonder which deals with the loss of a close friend to suicide.
“‘Wonder’ was actually something I had no intention of writing initially, it sort of just fell out on to the page,” Luke Friend explains. “Every time this has happened in the past, the songs have always remained my favourite ever since, there’s something beautiful in that, a song been written with no effort. You know exactly what you want to say. Wonder is my most personal and one of the most important songs I’ve written to date. ‘Wonder‘ express’s my emotion and how I felt after losing a dear friend to suicide, I wasn’t coping well at all, this song being written was the therapy I needed. Music does have the power to heal, I feel that this song could resonate with so many others and I hope people find comfort in the words written, I struggled with losing a friend and this lead me on the road to healing.”
You can feel the pain within Friend’s voice as he sings the poignant lyrics about not only his loss but the other friends and family as well and the different coping mechanisms they’re using to deal with the loss. It’s a raw track where every raspy note making the story seem all the more emotionally impactful with the acoustic guitar adding a layer of intimacy to the piece that makes it feel like Friend is in your living room opening his heart to you about his pain. It’s a touching song as well as a beautiful tribute.