We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Luke Barstow a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Luke thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
I remember clearly I was about 12 or 13 years old, 8th grade, and I was sneaking into the local teen center to see high school night which consisted of some touring bands, a lot of local bands, and bands that were close to the state of Wisconsin. I got caught going to high school night the week before the show that really wanted to see. I was hanging out with a lot of high schoolers and not a lot of kids my own age. They had been hyping up a certain show for weeks. Since I got caught, the lady that ran the teen center made me volunteer so that I could continue to see shows. The particular show that I wanted to see that also contributed to me creating art and music was a all day show. Bands like Compound Red, Straightforward, lots of local West bends. A band that influenced me greatly from Port Washington, played that night called Secret 7, and most of all the two Illinois bands that played that night were a great influence on me and that was the band Foo and the band Hashbrown. There was something special about that night, all the bands had flyers that they had hand created and the youth center that I had frequented was huge on supporting art and music. So I guess I would say it was a local teen center that influenced me to create.
Luke, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Playing music since 13, and that’s been the core of my being, my living, has been playing music, creating music, & writing music which has led me to multiple forms of artwork, between painting pewter miniatures, dying plastics and leather, silk screen printing, sound & lighting engineer, DJing, poetry, graphic arts, storytelling. All of these different forms of art has helped to form into my current musical project Memory Spector.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
What is driving me or the mission to my journey rather, is something that can’t be stopped or learned. It’s inside of me to create and entertain. Ultimately, I enjoy those things and the opportunities to continuously learn and better myself.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
Accomplishing something that you worked really hard on. Also, the recognition of people relating to or enjoying it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/memoryspector
