Art is a process of openness, of self-exploration, of taking risks. It’s a creative experience musician Josephine Luhman understands intimately.
“You’re supposed to be vulnerable,” she said. “You’re supposed to get out of your comfort zone because that’s the only way you grow and the only way it really touches people.”
On Luhman’s debut EP, “Leaning,” she marks her most vulnerable moment yet. The crisp indie rock record is also a dissection of a romantic breakup, one Luhman feels she may not have been able to process without the songwriting process.
Like many musicians, Luhman grew up around music. She recalled her father always playing lots of old ’80s and ’90s music, including bands like No Doubt. Many years were spent in the church, where Luhman’s mother was a pastor. Alone in the empty church, Luhman gravitated to the piano, her first instrument.
“I think I just wanted to play around,” Luhman said.
Soon, that initial music interest turned into piano lessons, community theater and her own experiments. In high school, she began playing around with the guitar and GarageBand, learning how to produce music. Alone with her software, Luhman was able to turn the songs in her head into “the real thing.”
However, a move to Chicago to study film at Columbia College truly changed the course of Luhman’s creative life. With a keen interest in city life, Chicago’s vast number of opportunities, venues and events piqued her interest. “It was the biggest pool I could dive into and I think that was really exciting,” Luhman said. During this time, she took music production more seriously and began playing DIY shows, too. Her creative purpose finally clicked into place. “I was like, ‘Oh yeah. This is definitely what I was meant to do,’” she recalled.
Yet it took some time for Luhman to make the music she actually wanted to create. During those early years, Luhman often worked with a producer to write more pop and electronic-forward music, but in the back of her mind, she felt a pull toward the indie rock world.
“I wanted to have a live band. I wanted to have real instruments,” began Luhman. “All the songs I write start with guitar.”
The lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic were a turning point for Luhman. She began searching for a live band to play with and wanted to take herself more seriously. A chance meeting with an engineer from her pop music days turned into an introduction to other musicians. Soon after, things began to roll. These musicians, who soon became Luhman’s backing band, helped her record her initial three singles, the basis of her new EP.
“Leaning” is an emotionally transparent collection of songs. Inspired by a breakup Luhman went through around two years ago, “Leaning” sharply and honestly taps into the insecurities of heartbreak. It is an EP that is as true as any can be about the feelings of young heartbreak.
“How I Love You,” the EP’s opener, was actually written during the last month of Luhman’s relationship. And although it wasn’t intended to be a breakup song, Luhman’s haunting vocals and the track’s contemplative instrumentation sound like a foreshadowing of what was to come.
Luhman went into a writing frenzy in the weeks and months after her break up. “That’s how I have to get over things,” she said. Luhman crafted the EP’s tracks alone and was nervous to hear them in their entirety. Yet, she still brought them to her band members, who helped her flesh out the tracks and truly bring them to life.
“I think it helped to bring them to the band and get them off my chest and get them out in the world, so they’re not mine anymore to deal with,” Luhman said. “If it’s something that you write and you think, ‘Oh, this is too weird or this is too much,’ or you think people are going to judge you for it, that’s probably what’s the best. You’re probably getting something special there.”
Since writing these songs, Luhman has tried to focus on pushing past the apprehension that comes with vulnerability. It is that same vulnerability that listeners can relate to, understand and ultimately appreciate. Rather than avoid those feelings, she is beginning to trust them.
“Those are probably the golden parts of the song,” she said.
Britt Julious is a freelance critic.
8 p.m. May 11 at Beat Kitchen, 2100 W. Belmont Ave.; tickets are $15 at beatkitchen.com
