LOVE in our surrounding culture is becoming more and more portrayed to be dirty, self seeking, lustful and taking advantage of one another... Guys are thinking its normal to perve on and objectify women and in return girls think they need to degrade themselves to receive love... This isn’t love at all, nor is it normal... This is lust and we need to not get the two confused...

Many of us have been shown this false love in some way from the people we love... Maybe your parents split up... Maybe you got dumped... Maybe you were mistreated by someone close to you who was supposed to love you and it’s left you hurting and broken... I totally feel your pain... This isn’t the way true LOVE was ever meant to be... We need to learn how to love our neighbour as ourselves, and treat others how we would want to be treated... As much as we’re lead to believe, LOVE isn’t just a feeling... LOVE is a daily choice...

Jesus said to LOVE one another, in the same way that He loved us... (John 13:34). He loves you with pure LOVE... He loved you so much that he gave up his own life; he was whipped and died on a cross for all of your sins... ‘Greater LOVE has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends’ (John 15:13).

I’ve put together my own version of what I think is the best definition of LOVE (based on 1 Corinthians 13).

Download the PDF below, print it out, stick it on your wall of your room, in front of your desk, on the back of the toilet door, or at school or work and read it over and over, I hope it will really help you to understand real LOVE like it’s helped me…

My name is Luke and I am the lead singer/songwriter of LUKAS...

1. GROWING UP

I grew up playing our vintage piano at home from the age of 3 stealing songs from the The Chipmunks and saying I wrote them. Then I would do performances for my family and the next door neighbours with two kettles steaming as smoke machines. I'd set up mum and dad's record player under a table and go through their old music collection falling in love with the music of Leo Sayer, Dire Straits, The Cars and a mix of Sesame Street hits. I'd also sit next to the TV every Saturday morning with my tape recorder and tape songs off Video Hits like Cher's "If I Could Turn Back Time" and "The Final Countdown" by Europe.

We always had some kind of band in school that we had formed and because we had such a big rumpus room out the back to practice we'd always have keyboards, drum kits and guitars lying around to put through dad's nice hi-fi system and blow the speakers.

I think my childhood was very influential in my music today, I think I have soaked in everything I've ever seen and heard like a sponge and I can draw from those influences like a super library in my brain.

2. INSPIRATIONS

I love so many artists from the 80's and 90's. In high school I was way into Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Green Day and they taught me how to build music dynamically and take your audience on a journey somewhere exciting.

I remember as a young boy watching Pearl Jam play Rearview Mirror on Letterman and their passion and energy brought me to tears. I also remember lying on the floor in pitch blackness listening to OK Computer by Radiohead when it first came out and it blowing my mind. It's moments like these I knew I was created to make music with my life.

I always wanted to dress like Axel Rose with the tight bike pants and big rock star mullet until I got bagged out at school and the local mall. When Curt Cobain started wearing the ripped jeans I remember grabbing the scissors and ruining a good pair myself.

I used to be in a band called Able and we won Channel [V]'s Leg Up Competition back in '04 which was a pretty cool experience. We broke up shortly after which was a blessing in disguise it seems. We used to be known for repeatedly doing covers of My Hero by Foo Fighters and Miss Jackson by Outkast.

3. YOUR BAND

LUKAS was created out of a frustration of other bands I'd been in breaking up and I decided I didn't want to be in a normal band ever again. I was known previously for playing the drums but I would spend my entire spare time sitting at home writing songs all through the night and decided to record them at a friend's house. I didn't have any money to pay him but we had a vintage mixing desk from 2WS in our garage which I gave him for doing the CD. I put these demos up on a website and got a huge response with over 300,000 downloads since that first demo has been available.

From there I put the band together to play live shows with Troy Munns; my brother on bass who has a musical maturity and wisdom in life beyond his years, Simon Kobler on drums who was a long time friend of mine who is really good at playing the drums, and Chris Whitehall who was playing for another band which had just broken up so I poached him. We've been together for about 2-3 years and we have a strong conviction to do this band long time and pour our whole lives into it.

For me it's all about writing good songs, recording them and playing them live. Then I draw on friends and people who are good at things I'm not to help me make it sound like goodness and to help keep me organised.

4. THE MUSIC YOU MAKE

The music is a sweet blend of explosive folk rock / indie with influences from bands I just can't stop listening to on repeat like Travis, Coldplay, U2, Radiohead, Aqualung, Crowded House, Hot Hot Heat and The Killers. I find I'm drawing from a lot of music from my past as well like the Beatles, David Bowie and The Eagles. My focus is on the melodies first; I can write a song for six months to a year and still be humming it to people with filler lyrics. Then at the last second I panic and write the lyrics based on situations I find myself in, observations, topics floating around in conversation or thoughts I've been having. I always know where the theme of the song is heading but I put the detail in right towards the end.

We've spent the last year and a bit recording the latest CD titled "LUKAS – You & Me EP". I recorded most of it with a good producer/engineer friend of mine Brendan Anthony (INXS, Midnight Oil, Jimmy Barnes, Ian Moss, George, Wheatus) at Studio 301, Sydney and Rockinghorse Studios, Byron Bay and did the final 2 songs with Blair Simmons (Something For Kate, George, Brooke Fraser) up in Gosford at Malt Factory. I went over to Atlanta to record guitars with good friend Michael Guy Chislett who is currently playing for The Academy Is in USA at Butch Walker's Ruby Red Studios.

What really sucked is a business friend of mine who had promised to sponsor us a large amount of money to make this record decided to disappear and become un-contactable without paying the thousands of dollars we had already used in recording and mixing the record. The last 2 years have been us having to painstakingly make every dollar back through shows and pouring our personal incomes directly into it. Everything is looking up now and the CD is actually coming out!!!

5. MUSIC, RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW

The music scene is very much moving online. MySpace and YouTube have taken over the world, and as Radiohead have recently proven by making their CD available exclusively for download on their website it's the age of going independent which we hope to maintain as much as possible. It's all about communication, we all spend hours talking to fans directly on MySpace and it's a great way to build relationship with people; that said MySpace is crap for messaging or informing your fans at large.

I'd like to maintain creative control of what I'm doing in every area; in the music, the film clips etc. We've heard too many horror stories about record companies wanting to change the sound of an artist and therefore alienating the fans from what they were connecting with. It's the era of the independent artist.

The future looks bright for us because no matter what is thrown at us we're not going to give up what we're doing and what we believe in. We take what we are doing really seriously and want to be a positive influence on the world. It breaks my heart to see homeless people living on the streets, and I have a huge passion to help cure cancer in my lifetime as it takes away our loved ones so cruelly and unfairly. I want to write and record albums that sell millions of copies worldwide, do large scale tours and use that influence to help people who don't have a voice.

Other bands who have rocked our socks off are Stone Parade, Planet of the Stereos, Brooke Fraser & Playjerise. We saw Aqualung live at the Enmore and it left us all absolutely stoked – he's definitely one of my heroes. We also got to play with Borne at their album launch and they were pretty cool too and worth checking out.

We've had the awesome privilege of being one of 6 unsigned finalists in the NOKIA Be Heard Competition chosen by 10 music industry judges. We played our new song "Feels Like Home" on MTV last week and I could hardly sing cause of a bad throat infection. We still rocked out our hardest though.