Biography

In the past couple of years, Sydney rock trio MY FUTURE LIES has firmly established itself as one of Australia’s most popular unsigned bands.

With over a million MySpace plays to their credit, plus a brilliant debut album, several singles, plus two self-funded live DVDs, MY FUTURE LIES is the epitome of what it means to be a highly successful, truly independent band in this modern music age.

One of the hardest working young outfits in the country, MY FUTURE LIES have performed hundreds of live shows right around Australia, forging an ever-growing loyal fanbase in every port of call.

The band’s MySpace success has also seen the trio’s popularity begin to be replicated in Europe, even though they’ve yet to set foot on the Continent. Incredibly, MY FUTURE LIES have sold almost as many records in Europe as they have here at home.

Although the earliest incarnation of MY FUTURE LIES was playing shows together as early as 2006 under the banner of Acid Eyeliner, it’s only been in the past year that the band has solidified its line-up and only in 2008 that the trio adopted its new name.

The name-change coincided with the release of MY FUTURE LIES’ self-titled, selfproduced, self-funded debut album. Since then, on the back of the debut album’s success, the trio has toured more intensely than ever, travelling and playing as far and wide as Adelaide, Rockhampton, Bell’s Beach outside Melbourne and Uluru in Alice Springs.

In 2009 the group released the single, ‘Just One Chance’, which marked a major step up in sound and commerciability. Released as a four-track EP, “Just One Chance” presented melody, energy and exhibited the group’s readiness to step up and be embraced by the mainstream.

There hasn’t been much time to rest since releasing ‘Just One Chance’ – 2009 saw the group shoot a video for the single; they toured WA with Rock The Schools Tour and appeared in episode 8 of The Apprentice. The band’s schedule has not slowed down in 2010; January saw the boys perform in front of a 15,000 strong audience at the closing ceremony of the Australian Scout Jamboree and in March they received the Musicoz People’s Choice Award.

The driving force behind MY FUTURE LIES is the band’s frontman, guitarist and lyricist, Lukey Lukess and with professional management in place, MY FUTURE LIES is now preparing for the launch of their fan-funded sophmore album, ‘Chasing the Moon’, which showcases the maturity of the band and their new direction. “Songs such as a 'Rocket Fuel' and 'Chasing the Moon' state our move away from the more pop punk influence into a much deeper rock genre,” says frontman Lukey Lukess. ‘Chasing the Moon’ is a huge step forward for the band and features a 4-track collaboration with celebrated composer and musical director, Chong Lim (“Dancing with the Stars) “I have really enjoyed working with MFL. They have written some great songs together with some excellent performances. This is a very exciting album and I am happy to have made a little contribution to their album”, said Lim. The album was recorded and mixed at Electric Sun studios, Lim’s strings arrangement was recorded at Studios 301.

It’s been four years and a lot has changed – In January 2006 Lukey’s party band decided to include a couple of originals in its set during a show at the legendary Twin Towns Services Club in Tweed Heads. The reaction was nothing short of phenomenal and career-changing.

“We had 400 or 500 kids, a really holiday crowd in there, and they really enjoyed the original stuff,” Lukey recalls. “It wasn’t until we got back to Sydney after that first show that we suddenly had 500 hits on MySpace and friends were adding us. So overnight, from that one show, from 400 kids seeing us, we got home and there was 500 hits on our site, and then there was 1000, all spreading the word from that show. There were people who had commuted from Sydney, so suddenly we had people saying, ‘When are you going to play in Sydney?’ So the ball started rolling really quickly after that.”

The band immediately recorded those two original songs in a home studio, and one of those first two songs, the cheekily titled “Penny Lane”, was immediately picked up by Nova in Sydney as part of the radio station’s unsigned campaign. It led to the release of the band’s first EP, which led to the video of “Penny Lane” getting national plays on TV, and another massive spike in hits on the band’s website. They ended up performing an extraordinary 126 shows in that first year alone.

The following year, 2007, saw the ball keep rolling in a big way. Highlights included regular appearances on MTV, as well as a massive support slot on The Veronicas’ show at the Hodern Pavilion in Sydney. (The band has since shared bills with the likes of The Living End, MCFLY, Dragon, Choir Boys and Mental As Anything.) Towards the end of the year, the band released a new single, “Kissing In The Driveway”, which went on to top Triple J’s Unearthed Charts and remains one of MY FUTURE LIES’ most popular songs to this day.

2008 saw the name change, the release of their debut album, a second live DVD, more singles and many more live shows. By the end of the year, the performance count had ticked over 350.

Since then, MY FUTURE LIES’ MySpace page has gone ballistic, with over 500,000 hits in that past year alone. Lukey Lukess puts his band’s success so far down to a few simple things: great musicianship, hard work and the simple truthfulness in his songs which have connected with so many people.

“The thing I try to do most in my music is to be really honest,” Lukey says. “The lyrics are simple but convey the message really well, which is usually a message about love.“

“I am not at all interested in being the latest fad,” the singer says. “I want our gigs to be places where people come because they really love our songs".

“We want to make music. We want to make another five or six records in the next six or seven years, and hopefully more after that. It’s a long-term thing for us.”