Minnesota-based singer-songwriter Luke LeBlanc recently released his fourth full album. Entitled Fugue State, the album was produced by musician and producer Erik Koskinen at Koskinen’s home studio in Cleveland, Minnesota. 

Luke LeBlanc and his band recently visited the Radio Heartland studio for a session hosted by Mike Pengra.

Watch and listen to the full session above, and read a transcript below.

Interview Transcript

Edited for clarity.

Mike Pengra: Live music in the studio today from Luke LeBlanc and his band, the new album Fugue State is just out now. And Luke is in the studio with me, Luke, that was fabulous.

Luke LeBlanc: Thank you.

Mike Pengra: The song is called "Take Your Mind Off It," and I'm trying to figure out what the song is about. I mean, when I took some notes, it's about the troubles of the world. Maybe relationship problems, but there's seems like there's a light at the end of the tunnel perhaps?

Luke LeBlanc: Yeah, I think... I mean, I don't have to think, obviously, in the world, there's a lot going on. And I think because of that, there's a lot going on in my mind, and I assume there's a lot going on in everybody else's mind. And when I was in high school, somebody came up to me once and said, "You know, you look like you're thinking about something really deeply." I'm like, "Well, you look like you're thinking about something, too," you know. But it for me, I mean, personally, it can be challenging just to think about nothing or just focus on one thing, and those moments where, I don't know, you're with some people or you're so into some show on Netflix where that's just the only thing on your mind. It's a golden feeling. And if "Take Your Mind Off It" helps others do that exact thing, then that's a win.

Mike Pengra: That's perfect. That's perfect. This is your... We just mentioned that this is your fourth full album, and you've been doing it for a while now, but you're still in your mid 20s. How does this album feel now that it's out? Are you proud of it?

Luke LeBlanc: I am. I'm very proud of it. It feels really good. It's got... I think it's got a lot of nice textures and layers. And I think the structures of the songs, the folks who played on it. They all, they're meshing together really nicely, but they also stick out in their own really nice way. So, yeah, I'm really proud of it. And it was a, it was a fun process to make. And it was a thoughtful process to make; Erik Koskinen produced it, and we put a lot of thought into some stuff. And for some stuff, we didn't put any thought, and that's, that's great when it organically, you know, happens without thought. So, yeah, a lot, a lot of all that mixed together. So very proud of it.

Mike Pengra: When you write the song, do you have the structure in mind already? Or do you, does that come as the song is being written?

Luke LeBlanc: Yeah, I just, I just kind of, I just kind of put my songwriting antenna up and let, let it kind of happen. Sometimes it'll be just a lick that I'll hear and build off of that. Sometimes it'll be just a line that's been stuck in my head for a while, and I just kind of build it around there. I don't really sit down and say, I'm gonna write a song about this, or I'm gonna write a song about that. And I think Fugue State kind of has a collective theme, but I think it's just the songs I was writing at the at the time. We also, I also like to fab about seven or eight songs together, like to start recording, but I like to leave three or four songs, you know, blank spaces for three or four songs. Because Koskinen's studio is down in Cleveland, Minnesota, so it's about an-hour-15-minute drive. And when we recorded my Only Human album last year, I noticed I'd get song ideas on the drive down.

Mike Pengra: Yeah!

Luke LeBlanc: It's beautiful country, but I mean, it's cornfields.

Mike Pengra: And you're in that thought process about recording.

Luke LeBlanc: Yeah, exactly. My, my car is kind of loud, you know? So it's, like, you come up with songs in your head. So I left some space open for that and it worked out

Mike Pengra: Any of these songs on Fugue State written on the way down?

Luke LeBlanc: Yeah. "Come Clean." The verse about — I had that song almost written. I mean, it was done, and I was gonna record it. But then the verse about Washington, "there'll be a party in Washington," that kind of came on the way down. And so I wrote it in my head and remembered it, got in the door and said, "Hey, let's do this song."

Mike Pengra: I love it.

Luke LeBlanc: Yeah.

Mike Pengra: I'm talking with Luke LeBlanc in the studio about his new record, Fugue State, which is just out now. And this is album number two that you worked with Erik Koskinen, is that right?

Luke LeBlanc: Correct.

Mike Pengra: Yeah. He's an experienced producer and songwriter. What kind of stuff do you get from him, as far as tips or advice?

Luke LeBlanc: Sure. I've learned how to, like, slow down, I think. Like in terms of I try to multitask too much and I think I think about too many things at one time. And watching Erik work, he just gets this laser, patient focus on this one thing he's hearing, and he kind of will block everything else out, even even something I'm talking about; he just blocks it out and goes after a certain sound. So I've learned how to try to just, you know, focus on one thing at a time. And he has really a an ear, an ear for music, like like no other.

Mike Pengra: It's true. 

Luke LeBlanc: Yeah, just a pleasure to work with. I don't know if I have the pick. Do I have the pick on me anymore? I had it. Well, he gave me one of his guitar picks. It's an orange Erik Koskinen pick. And I like to tell him the story: When I was 15 years old, my dad would take me out to the bars and whatnot after my homework was done.  Yeah, of course! I didn't drink; it was just to play music, you know? And we saw him at the Aster Cafe about — yeah, I was 15 — so 11 years ago, and I said hi, and he was very gracious and gave me one of his orange Erik Koskinen guitar picks. I still have it in my little collection of, you know, music mementos. I don't know; I think I lost track of the question. How he, you know, how he influences the songs and, and stuff like that. Yeah, he is all about, it's all about serving, serving the song, you know, and that's, that's my mindset too. And the folks who played on the album and the guys that were in the studio today playing, they've all really got the same mindset of like just serving the song, whatever the song needs, and coming in and playing a lick or solo when it serves the song, and when it doesn't, laying back. So, yeah, I'm really, really thankful for the folks I get to play with.

Mike Pengra: You should be. The next track we're going to hear is called "Come Clean," the one you just mentioned about writing on the way down to the studio. Introduce this song for me. Where'd it come from? 

Luke LeBlanc: Sure. That... so I think, "Come Clean" has the strongest vein into what the album as a whole is about. I mean, an album is about a lot of things depending on who's listening to it, what your perspective is. But “fugue state,” as a term, as a psychology term, like if somebody's under an extreme amount of stress, or maybe trauma, they might disassociate and forget their identity, you know, temporarily and lose track of who they are. And I think — and I don't think I'm the only person that thinks this — I think as a country, we're kind of going through that collectively, right now. Social reckoning, really deep political and cultural divide. I think we're in a moment right now where the only way to move forward is for us to step back and say, "OK, what are we? What were we? What are we now? What are we going to be going forward?" And I think, for me, it's I don't know the answer, and I'm not going to claim to know the answer. But for me, music is a place to process, just process the emotions and process what's happening before, you know, figuring out what to do. So "Come Clean" is, for me, it's that; it's saying, you know, without any filters, what are we? What do we believe? That's all I got to say on that one.

Mike Pengra: Amen. Here's Luke LeBlanc and his band and "Come Clean" on Radio Heartland. Luke LeBlanc and his band are live in the studio on Radio Heartland today, and that was called "Come Clean." It's one of the songs from the Fugue State record which just came out recently. And Luke had the album release party and everything went well, and this album sounds great I have to say.

Luke LeBlanc: Thank you.

Mike Pengra: You should be proud of it. I read in your various biographies that you started playing guitar when you were 11.

Luke LeBlanc: Yep.

Mike Pengra: And then you entered a contest when you were 13; the "Zimmy Contest," the Bob Dylan song writing contest. Tell me about that.

Luke LeBlanc: Yeah. So I started playing the guitar when I was about 11, and it bugged me that I could listen to music and not play music myself. So I'm like, "OK, I'm gonna learn the guitar." And then when I started playing the guitar, it bugged me that I could play other people's songs, but I couldn't play my own. So I started writing songs. And yeah, it started with listening to a lot of Johnny Cash. I really wanted to get that boom-chicka-boom beat; I tried putting the dollar bill in the guitar frets and stuff, and then somebody gave me like a Bob Dylan greatest hits album and told me, "Did you know that Bob Dylan's from Minnesota?" And that blew my mind. I'm like, "Here?" you know. So anyways, yeah, we heard about this singer-songwriter contest in Hibbing, Minnesota, where Dylan grew up, at Zimmy's Bar, which is no longer around. But they had they had all sorts of Dylan memorabilia on the wall; photos you had never seen on the internet before; signed copies of whatever. And they held a contest every year, a national singer-songwriter contest, like 29 people would play. You'd play one song of your own and then one Bob Dylan song. And on November, I think it was November 8 —  whatever Election Day was in 2008 — Bob Dylan was playing at the Northrop Auditorium at the U of M, you know, and my dad came up with this idea; he doesn't play music himself, but he's got a good ear for music. He came up with this idea. He's like, "You know, what if we put a, get a big," we went to the like Dollar Tree or something, we got this really big cardboard sign. And we wrote, "Luke wants to play with you tonight. Give him a chance." We knew Bob Dylan was a big Johnny Cash fan. So he said, "Johnny Cash would be proud." You know, if the first part didn't get him, the second part would get him, you know? So we found, we went where his tour bus was in the back. We weren't invasive or anything; we stayed behind the line. And we just held up the sign thinking maybe he'd let me, you know, play on stage; I had my guitar, I was ready. And his is band, you know, like the guy who played drums with him gave me a thumbs up and stuff, and, and I did get to see Dylan walk out of the tour bus and into the Northrop. He kind of looked over at all the hubbub that was going on, but didn't, he didn't let me on stage but that's fair.

Mike Pengra: It was close though, wasn't it?

Luke LeBlanc: Yeah, anyway, so I wrote a song — long story long — I wrote a song about it called "Song to Bob." And that was the song I played. So we drove up to Hibbing, I played that song. The video is still on YouTube, if you look up "Song to Bob, Luke LeBlanc." And I played that song and "Forever Young" and I was fortunate enough to win the contest.

Mike Pengra: Yeah. So Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash. Who were the other songwriters that influenced your writing? 

Luke LeBlanc: Oh, I mean, The Band; they're my favorite band ever. I was named after the song "The Weight"; "it's just ol' Luke, and he's waitin' on Judgment Day." 

Mike Pengra: Seriously?

Luke LeBlanc: Yeah.

Mike Pengra: Wow.

Luke LeBlanc: Yep. That's yeah, and... 

Mike Pengra: "Luke my friend..."

Luke LeBlanc: Yeah, "ol' Luke my friend,"

Mike Pengra: "What about young Anna Lee?" 

Luke LeBlanc: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. The Band. Brandi Carlile, just listened to so much of that growing, you know, in high school, growing up. There's many more, many more. John Prine, of course.

Mike Pengra: The list is probably growing, too, isn't it? 

Luke LeBlanc: It is growing. There's so much great music. Houndmouth, I love Houndmouth. The Avett Brothers. The list can go on and on and on. 

Mike Pengra: I'm talking with Luke LeBlanc in the studio about his new record, Fugue State, which is just out now. And we got time for one more song. This one, when I heard it on the record, I thought, "What a downer of a song. It's just so sad!" But yet, there's something about it that makes me happy when I hear it, especially when you get to the chorus. I don't know what it is. But tell me about "Down Low."

Luke LeBlanc: Yeah, well, we're all gonna die someday. And I think it is a happy sounding, joyful song, and I I think of it as a joyful song even though it is about you know, "down low," but I think there is a certain level of, of joy, happiness, contentment, they all mix together, you know. There's some contentment and joy with accepting that, I think; accepting, hey, you know, everything is finite. What are you gonna do with that finite time? There's something about that acceptance. And I mean, I'm not the first person in the world to, you know, write a song about death or the end, but something I like to do is — I don't know if you do this, too — but up late at night, Wikipedia reading about I like to read about the universe. And then you know, you click through articles and articles, black holes, the universe, planets, time. It's all amazing stuff. And the fact that all that is out there, and we're just one little dot, that, it blows my mind every time I go on Wikipedia at night to read about it. And that song just kind of melds in with a lot of it and, and Eric Heywood, who played pedal steel throughout the album, we, Erik [Koskinen] and I were trying to brainstorm some pedal steel players, and Ben who played today. He had just had a, you know, child and wasn't available. And Erik was like, "Hey, what about Eric Heywood?" I'm like, "Oh, yeah?" He's like, "Oh, he played on Ray LaMontagne, a couple of his records and Ray LaMontagne's album, God Willing And The Creek Don't Rise, I listened to that over and over and over in high school, like I had the pedal steel parts memorized in my mind. And I was like, "Yeah, absolutely." So it's just such an honor to have him play on the record, and so he really stands out on that song, and he plays it in a joyful way, too, I think.

Mike Pengra: Speaking of the band, let's talk about the guys who are playing with you today.

Luke LeBlanc: Sure. Erin Bekkers was on drums, and he played on the album itself. Ben Lester on pedal steel, filling in for Eric Heywood have played pedal steel on the record. Caz Falen on bass and backup vocals. Koskinen played a lot of the bass on the record itself. I was there; well, and I'm still here again. And then is that everyone? Oh, Erik Koskinen, of course, who produced and played electric guitar. And on the record itself, John Cleve Richardson played keys and sang backup vocals, Casey Frensz on the saxophone. And I think that I've got everybody.

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Mike Pengra: Yeah.

Luke LeBlanc: Yeah.

Mike Pengra: Well, Luke, thanks so much for coming in today. Thanks for bringing in the band and congratulations on the record.

Video segments

00:00:00 Take Your Mind Off It
00:03:22 Interview with host Mike Pengra, part 1
00:12:26 Come Clean
00:17:11 Interview with host Mike Pengra, part 2
00:24:55 Down Low

Band members

Luke LeBlanc - vocals, guitar
Erin Bekker - drums
Caz Falen - bass, backing vocals
Erik Koskinen - electric guitar
Ben Lester - pedal steel

Credits

Guest - Luke LeBlanc
Host - Mike Pengra
Producer - Mike Pengra
Video - Eric Xu Romani
Audio - Evan Clark, Thor Cramer Bornemann
Graphics - Natalia Toledo
Digital Producer - Luke Taylor

External Link

Luke LeBlanc - official site