1. The First Record I Bought
Michael Jackson – Dangerous. When that album came out I think I was like five years old. I somehow acquired it on cassette. I fuckin’ thrashed it on the tape deck in our kitchen and would dance and sing my arse off in my socks on the lino floor. Very inspiring at such a young age. I thought he was a god.
2. The Last Record I Bought
Toots and The Maytals – Funky Kingston. I had never owned a copy of this on vinyl, then I saw it in a second hand store and grabbed it. Best Toots record, hands down. It’s got all of my favourites and that early ’70s Jamaican production of the time was fucking spot on. Everything I love about music and recording exists on this album. Heart and soul. The sound of trying hard. The sound of making do with what you’ve got. The sound of people playing together. Grit. Love. Pressure. Happiness. The whole lot.
3. The First Thing I Recorded
I started out as a street busker doing simple covers and songs I’d written when I was still primary school age in New Zealand. My mum gave me her old acoustic guitar and I just kinda learned a few chords and went from there. My first punk rock band started when I was 13 and we did our first recording on an eight-track that belonged to our school. The songs were awful and the sound was awful, but fuck it was fun. It was punk rock!
4. The Last Thing I Recorded
Recently I went to the USA to record my debut solo album as a result of a successful crowdfunding campaign. I wrote and recorded most of the album in under a month. I connected really well with my old friend J Bonner (ex-Aggrolites, currently Jandisc Records) and I ended up recording most of the album in his garage with old analogue gear straight to tape! Ghosts is all set for release on April 21 and it features co-writes and guest appearances from an array of legends including Chris Cheney (The Living End), J Bonner (The Black Emeralds), Dan Smith (ex-Dear & Departed), Marc Orrell (ex-Dropkick Murphys), Scott Abels (Hepcat), Suzi Charmichael, Mark Johnson, Agostino Soldati, Jason Castillo and Salina Cano.
5. The Record That Changed My Life
Rancid – Life Won’t Wait. That album well and truly cemented me in rock’n’roll forever. I loved that it was diverse. It incorporated punk, soul, reggae, dancehall, rockabilly, ska, pop, and hardcore. Definitely the Sandinista of the ’90s for me. I spoke to Tim Armstrong lots about this album and some of the stories from when they were recording it in Jamaica. It made me love it even more. Punx forever!
Ghosts by Luke Yeoward is out Friday April 21 through Half Way Records/Sony.
