The three-song EP was released earlier this month, and will be celebrated with an intimate free show Dec. 20 at Duo Home, a furniture store at 149 W. Jefferson St., Springfield. The release show will feature special guest Sunset Combs, a Dayton singer-songwriter, and a psychedelic liquid light show by Yesteronics Lightcraft.
Originally from Indiana, Hummel attended Wittenberg University in Springfield where he studied philosophy. They decided to make a home in Springfield. They played jazz band throughout middle and high school and even did a little acting in college. But it wasn’t until watching Oliver Stone’s 1991 film “The Doors” that they thought they’d write and perform original music on stage.
“If these four losers can come together out of just complete obscurity and try to make something happen,” Hummel said, “perhaps I could, as well.”
The first song they wrote was about not fitting in, about being a loser. Hummel wrote three songs over fall break their senior year, in a cluttered apartment romanticized in the music.
“Those songs were almost magical. They were very authentic,” they said. “Just for myself, trying to make myself feel better about where I was in life. And I think those are probably the most authentic songs I’ve written yet, in terms of just, like, pure emotion. It was exactly channeling whatever was inside me into just cowboy chords”
Most songwriters eventually settle into familiar patterns — even John Lennon had his go-to chord changes. But as Hummel hovers around their two-year mark as a songsmith, their lyrics and chords still maintain that fresh naivety that many tend to grow out of. In this case, the innocence serves the songs that are both vulnerable and sincere.
They describe their music as cosmic folk, which is a product of their Indiana upbringing — amongst the bluegrass, folk and country — and their “psychedelic” outlook on life.
“I love making noise. And I love repetition and building up to a climax within that repetition,” Hummel said. “I like using volume and dynamics as more of an instrument on top of the guitar to try and communicate emotions.”
They recently started a trio with two friends, saying the collaboration has made them a more creatively open person; the band’s sound attracts them because of the possibilities.
When they first played out the songs on “dysphoria,” Hummel said they didn’t connect with the audience. It was a completely new sound for them, and they were concerned about the perception.
The EP opens with the song “woman,” which deals with gender dysphoria from a first-person perspective. “Air dry clay” is the angriest and most negative of the three songs, written just before the 2024 election about their existence and rights as a gender queer person.
“These are songs that, at this moment in time, are going to be very touchy for people,” Hummel said. “It was huge being that vulnerable, and communicating to myself that I can be that vulnerable. When I previewed [the EP] for social media, that’s when it hit that it’s very relatable. When I got that first song out, it was like lifting a stone off of my chest.”
Elliott Smith’s debut album “Roman Candle” (1994) was a massive inspiration for Hummel’s third EP. “Dysphoria” is riddled with ambitiously raw songs; Smith’s album permeated Hummel’s approach three decades later.
“The DIY mentality is who I am as a person,” Hummel said. “But it was also a necessity. I felt like I could be most vulnerable if it was just me and a recorder.”
Brandon Berry covers the music and arts scene in Dayton and Southwest Ohio. Reach him at branberry100@gmail.com.
HOW TO GO
What: Luke Hummel’s “dysphoria” EP release
When: 7 p.m. Dec. 20
Where: Duo Home, 149 W. Jefferson St., Springfield
Cost: Free
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