Fresh tunes from freshman folk singer

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Fresh tunes from freshman folk singer
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Freshman Luke Woltanski has produced three albums | Courtesy

As a musician, Luke Woltanski never fit into a category. His piano teacher once refused to teach him because he was too inventive during lessons. He admits playing “normal music” is difficult for him, but being unconventional has served him well so far.

Woltanski, a freshman studying biology at Hillsdale College, independently recorded three albums in high school and is currently working on two more. While Woltanski said his first two albums, “Prairie Fire” and “Fog Dance,” were “good starters,” his third album, “Constellations,” and his upcoming projects are more closely tied to his artistic vision.

“My first two albums were good, but they are not like what I want to become. I want to make something that sounds full, to make something that people would want to listen to in their cars or pay to go see,” Woltanski said. “‘Constellations’ took literally a year to record. It was 300 percent more work than my prior albums.”

On “Constellations” especially, Woltanski embraces many unique styles of guitar playing, from classical fingerpicking guitar, to slap-guitar, to slide guitar techniques. His songs often have many layers and complex uses of harmonics and tempo.

Woltanski is mostly a self-taught guitar player who fell into recording by chance.

In a brush of what Woltanski calls “fifth grade naiveté,” he decided to pick up guitar in hopes of becoming a bona fide rock star. Rather than taking lessons, he decided to teach himself and learned how to improvise and create his own melodies — almost by mistake.

“I was trying to play a Creedence Clearwater Revival song, and I messed it up really bad,” Woltanski said. “Even though I was playing the song completely wrong, I liked the way it sounded and thought I could write lyrics for it.”

“I wanted to see how far I could go,” Woltanski said. “I can play instruments, and I can write my own music, but that doesn’t  matter if no one hears what I make. When I first decided I wanted to record, I had no clue how I was going to begin, but the hand of providence kind of came down and slapped me across the face.”

Luke Woltanski’s father, Steve Woltanski, encouraged his son to pursue music.

“I always told him, don’t just play guitar,” Steve Woltanski said. “I was pushing Springsteen and Mellencamp, the kinds of musicians who wrote their own songs and a lot of times produced their own albums, so for him to record his own material is great.”

When Luke Woltanski was a sophomore in high school, he met another student who was making records using cdbaby.com, an independent record distribution company which handles licensing and distribution of music. Once Woltanski had a substantial repertoire of songs, he decided he would buy a recorder and sell his music to cdbaby to distribute.

From that point onward, Woltanski has been recording material constantly.

“I was proud of him,” said Tammy Woltanski, Luke’s mother.  “He’s always has been a self-starter…Then when he wanted to record, we thought oh it’s probably not going to happen, but sure enough it did. And each time it gets better and better.”

Writing lyrics is at the core of Woltanski’s evolving creative process.

He has written songs about shipwrecks, ghosts, love, and loss. Some songs are inspired by feelings, and others are inspired by events. The song “Prairie Fire,” which is also the title of his first album, found its inspiration after he and his family were caught between a prairie fire and a tornado while hunting in Kansas.

“In Kansas, they light all of the prairies on fire to fertilize the ground from time to time,” Woltanski said. “We were in the wilderness, and there was this massive tornado to our left and a huge prairie fire to our right. So if you go one way you’d burn, and if you went the other way you’d get sucked up into a tornado. It was really intense. It left an impression on me to say the least.”

The title track for his most recent album, “Constellations,” is his most personal.

“‘Constellations’ came about after my grandmother died, so that was her song,” said Woltanski. “I wanted to write it from the eyes of my grandfather, which was difficult, but it was really cool to do.”

Woltanski said he would like to reach a point where he can travel and perform live for audiences.

“It’s kind of God’s will, but I hope it does happen,” Woltanski said. “I would love to be able to do music for the rest of my life.”

Woltanski’s new album is expected to come out this January. His current  music is available on iTunes, Spotify, and Google Plus.