Lukie P’s latest album is a gentle dream

“Some Golden Dream” is a testament to focus and perseverance.

Lukie P’s Some Golden Dream, released March 1, begins with a simple count-off, implicitly building a level of anticipation for the music to follow. The opening track, “Nowhere Go,” is emblematic of the album as a whole: a compelling slice of singer-songwriter tenderness as intent on taking listeners on a journey as it is about telling a story. Soft tones, lush guitar figures, and acutely-calibrated atmospherics descend on the track, imbuing “Nowhere Go” with a gentle wistfulness that permeates throughout the album’s remainder. It’s utterly absorbing. And listeners interested in how the record translates to a live setting won’t have to wait long: Some Golden Dream‘s release show will take place on Saturday, March 23 at The Bur Oak.

Lukie P project mastermind Luke Peters (he/they) may be most familiar to some in Madison as a founding member of the eccentric, stylistically chameleonic act The Earthlings. Peters’ departure from The Earthlings coincided with the band’s shift from the more traditional rock n’ roll leanings of the band’s first four records—Peters left after that run to focus on their solo work—to freely explorative, funk-forward, psychedelic-leaning work. Still, Peters remains linked to The Earthlings, and Some Golden Dream’s production credits list The Earthlings’ Noah Gilfillan on both mixing (for roughly half the songs) and mastering.

Where the other half of the record’s mixing came from is notable. Jay Som‘s Melina Duterte—an exceptional audio engineer and a member of Boygenius’ touring group—was tapped by Peters to mix the songs on Some Golden Dream that used a full-band setup. On the topic of the mixing split, Peters explains: “It just felt natural to go to Melina [Duterte] for those [full-band tracks with drums],” while noting it felt similarly natural to go to former bandmate Gilfillan to handle the quieter tracks. “It fit with the vibe of the other songs being so different,” says Peters. And while there is a push-and-pull between the bigger- and smaller-sounding moments across Some Golden Dream, the sound never feels anything less than completely cohesive. 

In minute detail and in grand scope, Peters operates across the album from a deeply contemplative, frequently introspective vantage point. When “You Said It Once” kicks out of its snare build into a rolling mid-tempo, mandolin-inflected rocker, Peters’ vocals are still at a relative hush. “I can’t control my social anxieties / Everything in this fucked up society / You said it once / And now I can’t ever forget it / It runs over in my mind,” sings Peters, beginning to chip away at a quiet internal conflict that becomes external across the course of the album. Peters mentions the influence of Elliott Smith in Some Golden Dream’s Bandcamp notes, and that comes through in the unflinching lyrics.

Musically, Peters recalls a wide swath of other similarly distinct acts here, from the unassuming tenderness of Mutual Benefit to the urgent desolation of Bon Iver’s early work to a hint of Band Of Horses‘ haunted rural lyricism to a host of laid-back, twee-leaning, blog-buzz-era indie-pop acts (Noah & The Whale, Bishop Allen, Shout Out Louds, etc). All of those seemingly disparate stylistic elements are in play on “Dragonfly” alone. And yet, everything fits snugly, managing to evoke some refreshment in its roundabout familiarity. Grandiose indie-rock, winsome indie-pop, and ambient indie-folk all coexist harmoniously, with no one particular style ever fully overtaking the others.

By the time Some Golden Dream winds to a close with the quiet one-two punch of “Domino” and the instrumental “Reprise,” Peters’ tapestry proves comforting. Even at its most fraught and nervous (“Images,” “Seventeen“), the album exudes an empathetic warmth. Buried within Peters’ exploration of psyche and impulse, deceptively complex, beautifully layered instrumentation acts as a counterweight. When the record ends, the work feels truly considered, and above all complete, which is fundamentally at odds with emergent trends in modern music releases. 

Following LP (2015) and Never Been Surfin‘ (2017)—Peters’ first two solo records—the songwriter’s zest for musical collaboration was rekindled after working with partner Nikki Peters in the surf-indebted slacker-rock trio Smelling Melons. “Having worked on these songs [on my own] for so long, I was feeling like, ‘Are they done? Do I like what I have?’ And needing feedback [on] how to finish it off,” says Peters. This realization wound up being the impetus for Peters to bring more musicians to Some Golden Dream‘s proverbial table after beginning work on the album three years ago, following the release of Smelling Melons’ Bored.

Lily Foster (backing vocals), Felix Seifert (kalimba, violin), The Earthlings’ Elliott Gilfillan (slide guitar), and Peters’ partner Nikki (drums) were the assembled musicians that helped see Some Golden Dream through to completion, heightening that sense of collaboration.

Looking for more intensive guidance, Peters enrolled in the School of Song songwriting workshop led by Palehound frontperson El Kempner (who co-fronts indie-rock act Bachelor alongside Duterte and who Peters lists as a songwriting favorite). They cite that as a turning point, noting a few instructive points that helped shape the album:

“Lyrically, specifically, was where I felt like I got a lot out of the class. Like, ‘What is the song about,’ instead of a lot of times [in the past where I would] maybe would go for something more abstract. [The class was] kind of pushing me to tell a story and make that story come across. Like, I can have a story in my head, but it should come through in the end. And if I keep it too abstract, then I lose some of the impact. El is really good at just getting to the bare bone of ‘What are we doing here? What’s the story?’ Getting to the heart of that,” says Peters.

Being able to work through musical approach with Kempner and then get Duterte on board to mix a portion of Some Golden Dream was “a dream come true” itself, says Peters, who notes they feel “super lucky to have gotten [Duterte to mix]” some of the record.

As collaborative as Some Golden Dream is, Peters did the bulk of the heavy lifting. In 2020, Peters moved from Madison to Denver, before returning here in November 2023. While in Denver, Peters expanded a working demo studio into a modest home studio, using guidance from Ryan Wong (Supreme Joy, Cool Ghouls) to maximize the use of the recording equipment at their disposal and their past experience as a DIY audio engineer. From there, Peters leaned further into self-recording, running the sessions into a Tascam DP-24SD, a digital 24-track portastudio.

Peters explains: “I [would] do a rough mix for myself, but I [was] giving the raw files to Melina which really set it free for me recording, because I could just focus on mic placement and performance. I [didn’t] have to fiddle around with EQ or compression or anything. When you’re writing the songs, you’re writing the lyrics, you’re arranging the songs. Performing the drums. That’s part of why it took me so long. [It] was [a matter of] feeling confident to get the songs over the finish line.”

During Peters’ time in Denver, the songwriter asked Wong to assess the Some Golden Dream demos. Wong assured Peters the demos were exceedingly strong and encouraged them to keep working through those recordings. The two never formally set up a recording session, because there was never a need for the sessions to go further than the self-recordings Peters had managed in their loft space. 

In that way, Some Golden Dream is a testament to individual focus and perseverance, even when factoring in the various outlets of communal collaboration. Peters’ relentless quest to shape the album to a specific vision paid off, and the end result is a genuine stunner. 

Beyond the realm of the nine tracks that constitute Some Golden Dream, “There was a whole album that I made kind of in between [starting and completing this record],” Peters says. With any luck, Peters will keep a few of those in tow and eventually hammer those tracks out into a future release or two. Some Golden Dream is a title that ultimately feels apt, especially in the sense that once it’s over, those who have experienced it can’t help but long for a return.