Brooklyn to Austin, Walker Lukens has traveled a long way. His newest record "Devoted" is out today. The video for "Dear Someone" (streaming below) is a refreshing take on music videos. It is a charming stop motion polaroid love story. I asked Walker about the making of it and he explained that there were in between 400-500 polaroids taken to create the stop motion. What does one do with that many polaroids? Currently they are stored in an Impossible Film tote bag at Lukens’ studio and for everyone who orders a 7” through his website a polaroid gets thrown in.
One of the characters in the video is Louis the Lion who is Lukens “travel-gnome/Sancho Panza.” Walker had a lion logo before he met Louis but when he found him in a trash can he knew it was fate. “I’m walking home from work. (I should have gotten on the subway but ended up procrastinating and walking three miles home.) I see this lion statue, lawn ornament, super-gauche living room decoration sitting in a trash can on the corner of Avenue A and East 4th. I took photos of him all along the way in bars, on benches, on the subway, and in the street.” Thus starting his side hobby of photographing Louis who is expected to be in future videos.
"Devoted" was written while spending much of last year traveling, visiting family and touring. Lukens confessed to a few obsessive habits while on the road. “If I’m driving I listen to an inordinate amount of This American Life. If I’m flying or sitting on a train, I read a lot of fiction. In both cases, I drink a lot of coffee. It seems like such a waste to sleep when you’ve got all of this uninterrupted alone time.”
The release show for the new record is set for this Saturday April, 6th at The ND. Doors open at 10pm and the show begins at 10:30. You can stream all 10 songs on Devoted via his website. – Courtney Pierce