Iona Luke is an artist of contrasts, one who possesses the broad appeal and credibility of Florence + The Machine but with the emotional intensity of PJ Harvey and a flair for drama that echoes Tori Amos. Just 21-years old, she is a rare proposition who writes the kind of songs that can fire her to the upper echelons of the album charts, yet with a personal-meets-oblique quality that will inspire cult-like devotion.

Of course, life rarely pans out in such a linear fashion. Instead, her path was circuitous, starting when lockdown inspired this already self-accepted overthinker to dig into her emotional turmoil and relative isolation to delve far deeper into songwriting. The biggest moment came towards the end of her time with the Capital Children’s Choir, when she performed a solo verse in their cover of Lana Del Rey’s ‘Bel-Air’. Lana herself discovered it, and posted a video of her singing along with Iona on TikTok. “I used to be so anti-TikTok, I thought it was so uncool,” laughs Iona, noting that she was at the time an angst-ridden, black-lipsticked teenager. “But I saw that and cried for like three days. I felt it was a sign that I was going to be doing music for the rest of my life.’

Now Iona Luke is preparing to make a statement with her first run of releases. The contenders for her debut single vary stylistically, but they’re united by her gift for finding the sweet spot between beguiling beauty and almost gothic imagery. ‘Cowboy Boots’ is a prime example, a Tarantino-inspired murder ballad in which revenge passes through the generations, while ‘Seventeen’ addresses the panic of feeling dislocated from where you should be in life, set to a crashing cavalcade of sonic contrasts. ‘Violence’ continues that unpredictability, leaning into grandstanding Americana in a tale of escaping a relationship that possesses a dangerous magnetic allure.

As you’d expect from her background, Iona often takes intriguing conversational detours into all manner of concepts: the nature of what an artist should share with their audience and what they should hold back for themselves; the idea that striving for a broad audience is more punk than gatekeeping elitism; and an interest in applying synaesthesia to the visual aesthetic around her music. But there’s nothing complicated about her ambitions.

“In the short term I want to find an audience that likes my music and connect to what I’m saying,” she concludes. “And in the long-term, again, it’s all about reaching lots of people. Because music has had such a big effect on my life, I’m really interested to see if my music can do that for anyone else. It’s difficult to think like that, because music is a part of you, and you’re always wondering if you’re good enough to achieve that.”

“A singer who definitely has a very bright future ahead of her.”

Scottish Music Network