Artist Joseph Luca chatted about his single “My Best Dancing Shoes” and his new EP.
He also discussed being an artist in the digital age, and shared his music and songwriting inspirations.
How did “My Best Dancing Shoes” come about?
Unrequited love! I fell in love with someone I never expected to and it forced me to dive deeper into who I was in ways I wasn’t ready for at the time. It ended up revealing the duality of my sexual fluidity.
Wearing your best dancing shoes is a metaphor for falling in love as your truest self ready for the dance that is love itself.
What inspires your music and songwriting?
Genuine and profound life experience that presents itself to the individual as a revelation (not necessarily religious). The same way you would be inspired to tell your best friend about some wild stuff that just happened in your life is the same way I choose to write songs.
Seeing the audience as my closest confidants and peers. Music is simply the most immediate way for me to share such profound experiences in such a short and precise way.
How did you approach the song selection process of your new EP?
There is a series of three EP’s and each EP encapsulates a new theme. Life, Death, and Rebirth. The second EP is of Death (more precisely Ego Death).
Every song on this EP represents the death of my optimistic and naive nature.
What is your personal favorite song on there and why?
My Best Dancing Shoes is my favorite song I’ve ever written. To be honest, I genuinely don’t believe I “wrote” it. I just lived it and had to tell the story.
How does it feel to be an artist in the digital age? (Now with streaming, technology, and social media being so prevalent)
It is equally daunting as it is liberating. There is just as much opportunity as there is over saturation and it’s very easy to get lost in it all if you’re not tapped into yourself.
What do your plans for the future include?
Releasing more music, living more life, and finding more love.
Which artists would you like to do a dream collaboration with and why?
Steve Lacy, Caroline Polachek, Omar Apollo, and Christine and the Queens. Every artist previously listed has pushed culture forward in a way that is both brace and exciting, fulfilling in my opinion an artist’s true duty.
What does the word success mean to you?
Success is something we all already are at our best. Just being human and surviving already is success. To be calm, collected, worthy, and in tune is the ultimate goal. We all tend to forget this time and time again.
If we have lived long enough we all should have enough perspective to make something magical happen with our life experience (regardless of the hand that life has dealt us).
Success within the individual vs. success determined by outsiders are two different things. When I see a truly successful person I imagine that they are basing almost all of their decisions from a place of authenticity and self assurance.
The result in the eyes of the observer is that they became successful. My belief is that they already were before the results came in.
What would you like to tell our readers about your new single and EP? (What’s the one thing you want them to get out of it).
I hope the new single helps people step into a more authentic version of themselves and I hope the EP helps the audience find the vulnerability and humility it takes to let go of past versions of themselves to become more than they thought they ever could be.
“My Best Dancing Shoes” is available on Apple Music.
To learn more about Joseph Luca, follow him on Instagram.
