LUKAS GRAHAM | Multi-Platinum Grammy Award Nominated Artist | We Talk Community & Teaming Up With G-EAZY for New Anthem |‘SHARE THAT LOVE’ !
Lukas Graham is the Grammy Award-nominated multi-Platinum artist Lukas Graham has teamed up with chart-topping rapper G-Eazy for the anthemic new single ‘Share That Love’, which is out now via Warner Records. Produced by long-term producer Rissi (Kygo, Julia Michaels)
The Danish superstar Lukas Graham has exceeded 6 billion streams worldwide following ‘Love Songs’, ‘Scars’ and last year’s ‘Lie’. ‘Love Someone’, from 2018’s ‘3 (The Purple Album)’, has been streamed more than a billion times and has been certified 18 x Platinum across multiple continents.
Lukas Graham made his global debut with his 2016 self-titled album, which featured the huge global hit ‘7 Years’. The track went on to spend five weeks at #1 on the UK’s Official Singles Chart as it amassed over 6 billion streams, 3 billion on Spotify and three Grammy nominations. It became the biggest selling single by a debut artist in 2016.
‘7 Years’ catapulted Lukas to sold-out tours all over the world as he earned critical acclaim from the likes of the New York Times, Rolling Stone and Billboard. It also resulted in performances at the Grammy Awards and the MTV Video Music Awards, where he was also nominated for Best New Artist. The song transformed Lukas’ life into a whirlwind — a world away from his beginnings, born on a couch in Christiania, an impoverished quasi-commune located in the centre of Copenhagen.
First off Lukas, thank you for taking the time with us today. we’ll go straight in with the first question.
There seems to be a community-focus, from your formative experiences in Christiania, to your choice to use the same team and producer for many of your records. Could you tell us To what extent is your community important to you and your work?
Community is very important to us all, whether we know it and understand it or not. A good community makes a lot of things easier, from creative processes to communication. It’s an easy way to create norms and standards for better quality and workflow. But in the end, for me, it’s all about friendship and talent over time, because it makes it fun.
The video for your new single ‘Share that Love’, with G-Eazy, features a time-lapsed lyric video by the Copenhagen street artist Rasmus Balstrøm. Why did you choose Balstrøm?
I’ve known Balstrøm for around half of my life, so again community, haha. So once we settled on a mural depicting SHARE THAT LOVE, I instinctively thought of him and of course, he said yes.
The Grey Hall in Christiania, Denmark is the site you chose of your music video and Balstrøm’s ‘Share the Love’ mural. The venue has seen yourself, Bob Dylan, Metallica, and Rage Against the Machine grace its stage. Tell us about the cultural importance of the venue to the Christiania community and why you chose it as the location for your video.
For me, the Grey Hall was it because of all the music that has blessed us is from there, but also because I used to work there. I’ve stood behind the bar on countless occasions and mainly worked the door. Some of my favorites there have been Patti Smith, Motörhead, The Fugees but the list is endless. I still do charity work there every Christmas, a tradition I started with my father 16 years ago. Christmas dinner is served for about 1500 people who may not have anywhere else to go.
We noticed you shared stencils with fans to recreate the Share that Love message in their own communities. Tell us a little more about this…
Coming from a graffiti/street art heavy neighborhood, we thought it was fun to give people a chance to get creative. As kids, we got crafty with just about anything, from scrap metal to salvaged wood and paint from construction sites, and I’m doing the same with my oldest daughter. Walls are meant for colors and trash is meant to be upcycled if not recycled.
Why did you choose to work with G-Eazy on this song in particular, how did the collaboration happen?
It was a situation of the perfect match falling into my lap actually because I knew G from touring with him for the 2016 Jingle Ball, but I don’t know how he got to hear my song, haha. My manager just called me one day and said, “G-Eazy heard ‘Share That Love’ and liked it, do you want him as a feature on it?” Once I heard his verse I couldn’t unhear it, so here it is my first international feature.
You’ve been vocal about your support for the Black Lives Matter movement and social justice. What do you think the music industry specifically needs to do to help tackle systemic racism?
People right now are so afraid of saying the wrong thing, so they end up saying nothing. By saying nothing, you are agreeing with the atrocities being committed and condoning the human and civil rights being violated. So yes, I was vocal about my support and will continue to be that. But I have to say, that as a white heterosexual male, it is not my place to say what is needed right now. My role right now is to accept that structural racism exists, to speak about that despicable fact especially with people who believe it does not, and to loudly advocate that we listen to and implement what the Black community is saying needs to change.
‘Share that Love’ seems to us to look to a better future and echoes the calls for change in songs like Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, or Get Up, Stand Up, by Bob Marley. How do works like these inspire your writing?
Wow, those are some comparisons! To me, the song speaks more about the intimacy of friendships rather than global politics, but I’ll take the compliment. I never thought of ‘Share That Love’ like that but I can see where you’re coming from. What I always enjoyed about Marley, more than any other singer was the sense of overcoming some big struggle.
‘Share that Love’ has such a focus on the future, living life to the full, and leaving the past behind. It’s in a similar vein to the nostalgia of your hit song ‘7 years’. Is this a conscious or unconscious recurring theme of your work?
It’s not about the future, because the future is just as much out of reach as the past because it has not happened yet, so we come to them now. The only thing that is. The only thing that ever will be. It’s a reminder that whether we have a little or a lot to share, it all has to be now. I love that you find ‘Share That Love’ to be reminiscent of ‘7 Years’, but to me, they’re just two really good songs.
Why do you think this message is so important in the current climate? Why did you choose to write and release this song now?
I grew up in a community where sharing is caring and we still help each other out when it’s needed, even sometimes without being asked. With everything going on in the world it feels right to speak about sharing and compassion. Love is a powerful thing, you can give it away and get more. Pure magic.
How has COVID 19 changed how you have engaged with fans and how has it changed your way of working with your team?
At the height of the Danish lockdown, we had our second child, so it’s actually been nice to not travel and have extended paternity leave. I know a lot of people are suffering right now, losing jobs and closing businesses, but for me on a personal level, I’ve had the time to reset myself. My priorities, dreams, goals and ambitions. Got me into a more creative headspace and sparked thoughts like, why are we, musicians, traveling so much when so many meetings and creative sessions can be done online, with a smaller carbon footprint?
Notably, you’ve raised funds for the World Health Organisation and Global Citizen through your work Why is this so important to you?
Not all countries are as well off as the one I was lucky enough to be born in.
You now have two young daughters; has having children affected your musical choices and direction?
It’s impossible for your life to change that much without your creative outlook changing just a bit. For me, I’ve had the urge to write songs inspired by my girls. It’s just important to always write songs in many different directions otherwise it becomes boring to listen to.
Can you talk about the lyrics ‘When the good times are rollin on me/ I got plenty in my pocket if you’re ever in need’ and how your upbringing influenced the importance of shared wealth, in all senses of the word?
Growing up in a house without a toilet and bathroom makes it easier to understand that sharing is the only way to go. If you want a more peaceful society all you need to do is share the wealth. No matter where in the world I’ve traveled, the highest forms of communal happiness occurs in communities and neighborhoods where sharing wealth comes before hoarding wealth. It’s reflected in many aspects of my personal and professional life.