In Full Bloom

Irish singer-songwriter Luka Bloom – otherwise known as Kevin Barry Moore – is heading back to his “second home” Australia for the 11th time, playing at Byron Bay Bluesfest 2013.

Off the back of his 18th studio record, This New Morning, the 57-year-old artist becomes nostalgic, revisiting stories from his last visit down under, where he spent a large portion of his time touring and working with the Dalai Lama. “This album was, to some extent, influenced by my last visit to Australia,” reveals Moore. Having visited Australia twice in 2011, Moore clarifies that it was his second visit – his invitation to play with the Dalai Lama for a three-week period – that ignited his drive to write new material.

“It was an amazing experience [working with the Dalai Lama], and when I got home from that I just felt really fired up. So I wrote like crazy for about six months. At the end of that I knew I had strong material for a new record and decided to make a bit of a production, and invite a lot of friends, singers, musicians to join with me, and we ended up with this new one.”

The record taps into personal, historical and universal narratives that Moore has either witnessed or been affected by, including the political and economic state of Ireland. “I feel strongly about all the issues that are spoken about on the record. You know, it's what's happening. I mean, living in Ireland where there's often economic sovereignty, where people are going hungry, where too many people are having to emigrate again – and we thought emigration was behind us! You know, I can't ignore this stuff, I can't live in a bubble of my own sort of romantic dreams and pretend that everything is sweet and lovely.

“The way I try and look at this sort of thing, I don't go and set out to make observations or to have opinions or to have a manifesto or anything. I only really will write about something if it really affects me, because otherwise I think there'll be something hypocritical going on. Do I think that because I'm a singer I can change the world or something? I don't believe any real thing. The only thing I try to be is I try to be honest.”

Moore stumbled upon a notebook that he had written back in the 1980s when Luka Bloom was a mere idea. “I was actually going through a lot of old notebooks this morning, and you know, nothing was happening. I had just become a father and I needed to make a living and I needed to have some success, I needed to pay some bills and I knew there were a couple of things I needed to do. I needed to go to America, I needed to work incredibly hard, I needed to find an audience and I needed to make records.

“And you know what? All those things happened. It's still like a dream, like a miracle to me.”

And the miracle continues as Moore is set to play at this year's Byron Bay Bluesfest alongside some of the greatest legends of our time. His reaction sums it up pretty well: “Oh maaan, what a line-up! I mean, Robert Plant! Rodriguez! I just saw the line-up the other day, you know, it's an incredible line-up this year.”

With such an expansive discography like Luka Bloom's, what can Australian fans expect to hear? “I walk on stage and decide what song I'll sing, then I decide the next one, then I decide the next one… and also, Australian audiences are not afraid to tell you exactly which songs they want to hear.”

Luka Bloom will be playing the following dates:

Friday 8 March - Lizotte's, Kincumber NSW
Sunday 10 March - Lizotte's, Newcastle NSW
Tuesday 12 March - Enmore Theatre, Sydney NSW
Wednesday 13 March - Wollongong City Diggers, Wollongong NSW
Saturday 16 March - Blue Mountains Music Festival, Katoomba NSW
Monday 18 to Wednesday 20 March - Tilley's, Canberra ACT
Saturday 23 March - National Theatre, Melbourne VIC
Monday 25 March - The Tivoli, Brisbane QLD
Thursday 28 March - The J, Noosa QLD
Sunday 31 March - Bluesfest, Byron Bay NSW
Tuesday 2 April - FlyBy Night, Perth WA