by Aleisha Flores
November 14, 2024
Lucas Geniza, better known as Lukey, is the definition of chill as he sits at a table at Càphê Roasters, a Vietnamese coffee shop in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood. Sporting a simple blue and white button-down, black jeans, and Docs, and sipping on a cup of tea – at first glance one would never guess the 28 year old is the creative mastermind behind a colorful, musical universe that has over 65,000 Spotify listeners and millions of streams.
Lukey’s musical and visual arts career started in 2016 when he released his first song, “FINER THINGS,” but his love of music dates back to his early childhood. Born in the Philippines, Lukey and his family first moved to Minnesota, then Pittsburgh, before eventually settling in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia that he jokingly calls “bumblefuck.” He grew up surrounded by music – his family was musically active in their Filipino community’s church and his dad would play '70s rock bands and '90s soft rock in the car and around the house.
As an adult, Lukey has combined his experiences and life lessons into his latest studio album, Spaceboy, which shows him leaving Earth and rediscovering his love for life and music. YOUR NAME MAGAZINE got to sit down with Lukey to learn more about his main character development arc and what he’s up to next.
YN: How does your background play a role in your creativity and inspiration?
LUKEY: When we moved to the U.S. in 1997, I just remember hearing music all the time. My parents were super into music, my dad especially. We were involved with our church and they were always playing guitar and leading the worship, that type of stuff. I was also always a creative kid. Before music, I was kind of a video game nerd. I played PS2 and GameCube a lot. I was also an internet kid and I learned how to program very early on. I was also doing a lot of EDM stuff back in high school, DJing. That's kind of made its way into how I approach creating music and all the art stuff that I do. I was always into creative stuff and music was always just there, but I didn't really start taking it seriously until early college.
YN: Who is Lucas vs. Lukey?
LUKEY: In all my social circles there's always a distinction of people who call me Lukey vs. Lucas. “Lukey” started becoming a thing in 2019 when I was starting to release solo material. Lukey is just this exaggerated version of myself that very much revolves around someone who's always searching for something. As fake deep and corny as it sounds, I feel like it's my outlet and who I always aspire to be.
Lucas is just me, the person operating Lukey. Lukey is a character I use as a vehicle to convey ideas and things that I want to say that Lucas otherwise can't. Whether it's insecurity, if it's fear of being perceived in a specific way, Lukey is a character and a kind of mask that I put on to be able to say and perform certain things.
YN: Let’s talk Spaceboy. How did you come up with the concept and what went into putting the album together?
LUKEY: Spaceboy as the concept has existed since 2015 or 2016, when I was navigating a lot of change. It's been an on-and-off project that has undergone different names. Before it was called “Chicco,” which was my nickname growing up. Then it was called “Illusory,” which is a word I’ve always liked. It describes things that feel surreal and not tethered to reality, which encapsulates how I’ve felt in the years post-COVID.
Spaceboy was also an ode to an old project called Spaceboy Zoom that never saw the light of day. I also always liked sci-fi growing up and the idea of intergalactic, fun, cosmic space. Eventually, all those ideas found their way to Spaceboy where the Lukey character is navigating the surreal, weird, and uncertain times of the mid-to-late 20s. The narrative of escaping Earth is an allegory for the undying desire to be somewhere else at this age, whether it's physically, spiritually or financially, it's an escape.
YN: I noticed that a few of the songs have been released before. Can you explain a little more about that “throughline” and how everything connects to it?
LUKEY: Most of the songs on the album are from a hard drive I lost in 2018. There are a lot of themes of full circles and reclaiming what you lost, right? That process was reclaiming songs that were legitimately gone. Now with more life experience and technical musical knowledge, I was able to re-explore those ideas. I had the tools now to finish and close the chapter.
YN: If you could choose one song from Spaceboy that encapsulates who you are as an artist, which would you choose?
LUKEY: “JUNEBUG” fully represents me. It’s reflecting on the loss of failed relationships and flings and coming to terms with that. And it's the center of the album but it's the moment in the project where all the turmoil preceding it kind of builds up. Lyrically the song is inspired by a nuclear fallout. You're reflecting on a time that is now inaccessible because society has kind of collapsed – not trying to be doomsday about it but I was trying to paint this longing for people that you know may not have reciprocated it.
YN: You’ve collaborated with people all across genres. How did these come about?
LUKEY: The whole Lukey thing is bringing all these great friends and ideas together to make something fun and something to look back on as a time capsule. My good friends Andrew Mala, Joshua Bastion, and Evan Sakuni were very involved in the record. A lot of the artists featured on Spaceboy like Echo Huang, F.N. and Emi Choi are people I’ve discovered through TikTok and the online Asian music scene.
juhye is another good friend of mine who is on “DAKOTA.” We’ve been working closely since 2022, but it's all been virtual. I've never met her! I've always wanted juhye to be involved with a song of mine. “DAKOTA” was perfect because it's the perfect blend of our styles. I'm very experimental, and she was just super down with the vision of that song.
YN: I saw that there is a Lukey RPG. You mentioned being really into video games as a kid – what was the thought process behind building the game?
LUKEY: In 2022, I taught myself how to program again. I learned a lot of it super fast since it wasn't my first time doing video game development. Being a computer kid, I was making my own games. It was just drag and drop, but it led into what was eventually the Spaceboy minigame. I programmed, developed, and designed it from scratch as an interactive form of media that I embedded on my website as a way for people to peer into the wider visual world of Spaceboy. It goes back to the whole idea of healing the inner child even more and circling back to what I used to love doing.
YN: You mention a lot of local Philly and Pennsylvania businesses in your songs – how has living in Philly influenced your artistry?
LUKEY: Every Sunday we would drive 45 minutes to Northeast Philly for a Filipino church. So, I got a small taste of Philly, but not in the way that a Philly native will have. Going here for college opened and liberated my way of thinking of how to do music and art. Having had that opportunity to learn is a privilege. All the creatives I've met out here are some of the most forward-thinking and underrated talents, in the underground fashion scene.
YN: What’s next for you?
LUKEY: I’m already working on album three. I'm not going to spoil too much, but there is a Spaceboy Deluxe. I don't know when it's going to come out yet, but it exists. The album is also within what I call the trilogy of what I'm doing. That one is more like indie-folk. If you like Phoebe Bridgers, Clairo or Mk.gee, that's very much that album.I'm in a place in my life where I'm going to take whatever life gives me and enjoy it as much as I can. I love where I'm at. I'm the happiest and most full and whole and unapologetic I've ever been. And I hope that shows on the project.
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