Three years after the release of their debut Agents Of The Empire album, Lluther are back with a new single, ‘In The Dollhouse’, which is already causing major MySpace interest.
The Gerry Owens-fronted outfit are releasing two tracks a month until September. These are all culled from Rise Of The Reptile King, an album and film, which includes Pink Floyd’s The Wall, Moulin Rouge, Fight Club, David Lynch and Quentin Tarantino among its influences.
“Because of the way that the music industry has changed over the past few years, we spent a long time going through the various options we had for the album,” Gerry Owens explains. “We looked at releasing …Reptile King through a major or various mini majors, but given the changes that have happened to the industry – downloads, 360 deals, internet distribution etc. – it just felt like the wrong approach for Lluther. Instead, we’ve decided to bring out the album through our own 383 Music label in conjunction with our partners in EMI Publishing who’ve been very helpful and encouraging in this respect.
“Starting this month we're going to release a song from the album on the 10th and 20th of every month until September,” he continues. “They’ll be available as both a free www.lluther.com download, and as a high quality version from iTunes and similar digital distribution points.
”Why are we giving two years of work away for free? Well, the way that music is both found and valued has changed significantly. It used to be that videos/touring etc. were devices to support and promote a band’s album – now the roles have reversed. The album has become a device to promote the live show. Different people have different opinions on the downloading/piracy thing. Record companies have a much bigger problem with it than artists generally. Personally it’s made me aware of a lot more new and old music, which can only be a good thing. So love it or hate it, illegal downloading is now a fact of life. We've opted to both give it away and to sell it. As I mentioned, each free download that’s released will also be available in high quality format and with the relevant graphics/images, so if you like the song and you can afford it, please spend the 99c on the high quality version.”
The band, whose ranks used to include former JJ72 bassist Sarah Fox, are also planning to tour extensively throughout Europe.