Keyboardist to the stars Luke Smith joins the Aston family
Luke Smith moved to London from Manchester when he was 22 to play keyboards in the West End musical ‘Mama I Wanna Sing’, with Chaka Khan in the lead role. He would later become Musical Director for the show, which he describes as ‘Dreamgirls on steroids’. His playing won him plenty of attention from the many musicinas who came to see the show and opened the door to a phenomenal career in which he has played with artists like George Michael, Amy WInehouse, BB King and many more.
Able to be selective about his live work, he runs a production company with 7 time Grammy winner Commissioner Gordon, from their recording facility in South London, which is fully equipped with Aston microphones.
“I’ve got the full set of Aston mics I’m loving them.” Luke told us.
He favours the Spirit for vocals, and recently used a Stealth/Starlight combination to capture the trumpet playing of Mo Pleasure (Ray Charles, Michael Jackson, Earth Wind & Fire).
“I’m getting all that breathy stuff from the Starlight and the warmth from the Stealth [on the ‘D’ setting] and it works well, it gave me a really big sound.”
Luke is busy with the release of his debut solo project, with the first single out on May 15th.
Read all about Luke’s career as keyboardist to the stars, including his work with Amy Winehouse and his sessions with BB King, in our exclusive interview.
