An Interview with Lukas Allnut
Unplugged
April 7, 2023
LP: Could you tell me how you got into music?
Lukas: I was always really surrounded by it. My mom was a singer in a band through the 80s and kind of into the 90s, and my dad was a drummer in a cover band. So they always surrounded me with good music. My mom gave me Prince and David Bowie. She got me into hair metal like Warrant and Slaughter and Bon Jovi. And my dad really got me into the heavier stuff like Van Halen, Coheed And Cambria. He also got me into some alternative stuff like Jack Johnson and John Mayer and things like that.
So my influence is kind of all over the place, but it really started out with my parents.
My friend from here in high school and I were in Atchison at a guitar store called Muddy River Guitars and I was just walking through there. I was like, “Ohh, a guitar store - I'm gonna check that out.”
I was walking through and they're like, “Hey, we do open mics” and I was like “Shoot, there we go. I'm gonna play. I'm gonna play gigs.”
So I called my friend and he had super strict parents; he couldn't ever get out of the house. He was a senior and I was a freshman. He was getting ready to go on a mission trip to New York for four years. So I was trying to find every excuse to be able to hang out before he left. We've been playing around the idea. He just learned how to play guitar and I barely knew how to do anything. I just taught myself to sing and play and I was like, “We got to do this.”
So we worked it out by sneaking out, so we could go to Atchison. We had a certain amount of time to play this show and get him back to his house.
And with the show, I don’t even know how many people through it. . .With the adrenaline from being in front of an audience playing and the fact that everyone there was so supportive, it just really made me want to do it more, so I started going back there. At the time I lived in Easton and I drove from there to Atchison like once or twice a month to go play at their open mic.
And that kind of got me started, but I didn't really start playing anything like legitimate until I found Unplugged. This place really just was the kickoff that I needed to start my career. I'm so thankful for this place because of all the people I've met here who just kind of got me to the next step and the next step and the next step. And I've learned so much and made so many good friends here.
That’s kind of how I started. And just up to this point, I've been managing myself and doing all my promoting, graphic design, set making and and everything.
It's been a really cool journey. I've got to do a lot of really cool things, playing festivals and magazine interviews and everything, and this interview too. This is awesome. There's so much to be thankful for, and I'm really excited to see where the rest of it takes me.
LP: How do you feel about tonight since it's the re-opening night of Unplugged?
Lukas: The first time that I ever played here, I had driven by it before. But at the time, I was like 16 and I just couldn't go to a bar. But I was like, “It’s a music bar, it’s gonna be cool.”
I had figured out that I can get in for the all ages thing. I walked in, and it turned out that it was the grand reopening after COVID. So, it was the first time that everybody was able to get together every day, and, of course, we've all been locked up in our houses for months, and so we're all just like chomping at the bit to see other human people in person.
It was really just like tonight, like I got the same kind of feeling all over again of walking into that room. That whole house is packed all the way back to the bar. Every seat is full, and everybody's just in the zone, like having a good time and it was really just kind of like that all over again. Kind of being, like, reborn and everything. It’s kind of cool with it being around Easter time, kind of like a rebirth or resurrection thing with it. It’s really cool being able to come back here, and especially getting to be an opener for the thing.
LP: And you're like the first act, basically when they reopen.
Lukas: Yeah, it's wild and whenever they did close, I wasn't able to make it here for like the closing party thing. So I was really bummed about that.
And I was having my throat surgery, leading up to Christmas time. My voice was going out. I had planned these Hurricane Relief concerts, and as we were doing them, my voice was just kind of giving up. The one that we played here in St. Joe, Jason [Johnson] was in it. I told him before the show, I was like, “Dude” because I had gotten COVID and then a week later I had the surgery. In between that, we had the show.
So I was recovering from COVID and then I had the show and my surgery. I managed to pull through for that show before that my voice really just went out on stage and it was scary.
I was really scared going into this year because I had no idea how anything was going to turn out and I was really discouraged for the first couple of months just being like burnt out; it's such a constant grind with social media and reaching out to venues. I'll send 200 emails and get two back. And I’m driving all the way to Overland Park.
But, you know, it’s every opportunity that I get, I try to take it. It’s a lot, but I’m starting to get back into the swing of it. I’m starting to get comfortable again. I’m happy that I learned how to use my voice because there’s certain things that I did before that I can’t do now.
Everything happens for a reason and I'm just trying to figure out the best way to figure it out.
LP: In the context of COVID, with the music industry still rebuilding itself, what are your goals for this year?
Lukas: Thankfully, from COVID, it did make it a lot easier to be an independent artist and it made people more open-eyed to the fact that original artists and independent artists can actually make quality things that you will want to purchase and that you will want to listen to again. Apps like TikTok make it easier.
But it’s also, like I said, it’s just such a grind on social media to continuously put out content, influence, and then being a person who wants to create good things, it’s hard to balance between making content necessary that you want to make or that you feel is high quality and keeping up with that consistency. Because if you don’t match that, then they stop sharing your stuff up at the top of your feed and you kind of miss out on stuff.
I noticed at the beginning of this year, I was really just posting stuff to post stuff. I was like, I want to post it and at least have some information or meaning with it, something that will help people or get people engaged and interested.
So I kind of took a step back from the daily posting and tried to make it a little more organized. I still have a lot to figure out.
But speaking on COVID, it did make it a lot easier, and people are more likely to be like, “Hey, this person doesn’t have a record deal, but, man, they made a really cool song and I dig it.”
The stations, like the one that you do with The Grapevine, you guys are awesome. Every single one of you guys who do stuff like that, it really means the world to me and it means the world to all of my friends, too, that they get the chance. It’s just so cool to be able to say, like I know a radio host, and I know people who are in the industry.
It’s just awesome. Anybody that can hear anything and support.
I’ve been such an appreciator of radio. Whenever I was in high school, I carved out my box spring and I bought this stereo. It was a total fire hazard, but I carved out my box spring and put the stereo in the box spring with the speakers in it, so I could feel the music in my bed while sleeping.
Everybody’s into radio, like they got good taste. They’re charismatic, know how to hold a conversation, and they’re genuinely interested in what you have to say. They also have the platform to help people.
You hear people say that radio is dying, and I’m just like, “Whatever, everybody that’s in a car is listening to the radio.”
I had the privilege to get to meet Kelly Ulrich from 94.9 and his co-host Mackenzie a couple weeks ago. I got lunch with them and they were just such kind people. They’ve been so supportive of me and showed me some cool things.
It’s really cool, and I support radio 100% all the way. Any opportunity that I get to help them, I’ll take it for sure.
LP: You know, I feel like a lot of parts being an artist nowadays, you have to almost learn how to market yourself as well. Like multiple hats, basically with that kind of career.
Lukas: So that was another thing that's kind of stumped me this year.
Like I said, I’ve done all of my marketing, all of my graphic design, all of my booking inquiries. I also just started my own business with clothing, like a vintage clothing resale store.
I kind of intersected the ability to do that, both of those things, and managing those at the same time. I was like, “Whoa, I bit off way more than I can.”
But it’s just continuously trying to find a balance for things and it can get exhausting. As long as you can keep up with it, it’s always worth it to work towards what you want to achieve.
LP: What are your goals as an artist? Like, what do you want to look back and say you’ve made it as an artist?
Lukas: Well, there are a lot of people who will say just the fact of being able to create something and being able to confidently put it out there for people to listen to is an achievement of its own.
And with the way that technology is now, I’m so thankful for that. I don’t have to go hunt down somebody that has a record cutter and get him to make me a 45 that I can go running around town. That would be cool, I’d love to do that.
But just to be able to make something on a computer and post it, it’s really cool.
Getting the opportunities I’ve gotten to play at, like the Record Bar and for the Hurricane Relief stuff, it was really cool to be able to be a part of something that was helping a cause. It was really stressful because of planning it. I did the design for it and everything, but it was worth it.
Some goals for me are just to be able to play bigger shows. I'm really wanting to get a drummer or maybe a band to have behind me because I feel like that I would really want to be able to interact with the audience. I can't really do that when I have to stand behind the microphone, but I could do like the Garth Brooks thing, right, like running around. In a bar, you don’t have the room to do that.
In this documentary I watched, they had David Bowie in it. They were talking to him about why he wanted to be famous and what he wanted it to mean to him. He was like, “I don’t want to be famous. To have access to people like that whenever you’re famous. . .I just want to be able to create.”
I struggle because I don’t have a band. When you’re famous, you can just be like, “Oh, I need a drummer. I need a bass player. I need a saxophone player or somebody who can play a church organ.” You can say that stuff, and they’ll find it for you. You can make it happen. You just have so much creative dexterity they can get just like that, like snap your fingers. That’s selfishly what I would want from them.
But also the fact to be able to have a platform, where what you say can actually make a difference. There’s a lot of pressure with that because you have to say the right thing. But there’s an ability to say the right thing and have it actually mean something to the general public, like being able to influence people to help, like with the Hurricane Relief shows.
To be able to help the community and be able to do something like that, it really means a lot to me. To have a platform where I could just easily be like, “Hey, let’s all donate to the Yellowstone Fund”. Being able to help people would be a really cool thing.
Before when I was in high school, I was really going to school to be a firefighter and EMT, but COVID kind of put a wrench in that.
I’ve always wanted to help people and be able to have a platform where I could help and try to make a difference and people in society would be cool because it becomes more than just music then.
It’s one of the most powerful things, and it’s one of the most magical ways you can connect with someone.
The first time I played here, I played my song “Lovefaller” and that was the first time that I genuinely looked out at the audience while I was singing this song. I saw people listening, and I was playing it all too fast because I was scared. But it was the first time I saw people genuinely connect with something that I had made – like I made it up in my own head, wrote it down, and then sang it.
And it’s just such a beautiful thing to be able to make something and have it make somebody else feel a certain way, especially when you could help people with it. Like, what more could you ask for than that?