hat makes a youngster choose rock and roll as an adult career path? Some cases might lean towards nature – the kid was just born with creativity in his blood, and he had no choice but to heed the call of the songwriting wild. Empirical evidence might prove other individuals to be influenced more by nature – their family was already rooted in showmanship, and it was all too easy to follow aesthetic suit. Then there’ s Luke Spiller, the makeup-sporting, androgynous-costumed lead singer for Britain’ s great new glam-trashy outfit The Struts, whose recent‘ 70s-retro debut Everybody Wants is easily one of the most exuberant albums of the year. For him, it was a bit of both. And he can now clearly trace his own surreal genesis in retrospect.

Born into a Christian family in Bristol, England – Spiller always knew he marched to the beat of a different drum. As his family moved often, he acquired a chameleonesque ability to blend in to his new surroundings, no matter how initially daunting.“ I wasn’ t necessarily a misfit or anything-- I learned from a very young age how to fully reinvent myself, with every new class that I went into,” he recalls.“ So I became very socially aware, and I was kind of friends with everyone. And I had this ability to get people to

accept me for who I was, so I was always comfortable in my own skin. And, uh, I guess that kind of shows now, huh?”

Indeed. The guy simply possesses that ephemeral It Factor in coliseum-grandiose spades. And his stage presence is a perfect storm of all of his arcane influences colliding, like Night at the Opera-vintage Queen starting a Rocky Horror Picture Show Time Warp dance-off with members of Slade, Sweet, and Thin Lizzy, with Suzi Quatro and Jeff Lynne presiding as judges. That’ s how irresistibly great the Wants anthems are, from the opening stomper“ Roll Up”( in which Spiller states his raison d’ etre with“ So now whatever I wear is gonna have flair so you people can stare / And I’ ll catch your eye when I walk on by, nobody will stop me”), through the crescendo-chorused“ Could Have Been Me”(“ Don’ t wanna wake up on a Monday morning / The thought of work is getting my skin crawling / I wanna taste love and pain / Wanna feel pride and shame / And never look back and say It could have been me”), a chugging“ Young Stars”(“ I never gave up, I never gave in / I kept on running because I’ d win / Because I was born for it, I was ready to go”), and the wah-oohed monster singalong“ These Times Are Changing,” an autobiographical rundown of the vocalist’ s achievements(“ I’ ve been

to New York City, I’ ve met The Rolling Stones.” for starters). Spiller even has an arch, idiosyncratic way of delivering his lines, rolling every R with capricious, cartoon-villain glee.

“ I’ ve been wanting to do the same thing sonically – and honestly – ever since my teens,” swears Spiller, who also possesses the requisite angular features, shag haircut, and prominent cheekbones of a classic rock star, which his model girlfriend Laura Cartier Millon accents by carefully applying his MAC-based makeup before every Struts gig.“ So I’ ve carried that, and kept my eye on the ball, and I’ ve always wanted to do a career in music.” But early one, he laid out some hard and fast ground rules.“ And one thing that I was clear on with myself was that if I am going to do this, then I’ m going to do it on my terms. I’ m going to sing the songs that I’ m proud of writing, which sound a certain way because that’ s the way I want to sound. And anyone who’ s really with me can come along for the ride. But anyone who’ s thinking I should be more contemporary? They can find someone else who they can fucking do that with.”

Then came the nurture portion of the lad’ s existence. Today, he truly believes in the uplifting, even redemptive power of music, and that a great song playing on the

radio on a day when depression might seem indomitable can actually save a listener’ s life. His faith in rock is that steadfast, unyielding.” And that became clear to me at the age when I had the album Off the Wall by Michael Jackson,” he explains. Yes, he’ s serious. Michael Jackson.“ I just listened to it so much that I got obsessed with it, and I completely wore that CD out. I’ d take it everywhere – when I was going to school, or into different rooms of the house. It took up a lot of my time, so I guess it all started with him.” That was at age seven. Later, he discovered the operatic Justin Hawkins and his old-school metal combo The Darkness. Again, he was mesmerized.

“ The Darkness came at a really important time in my life, where I was coming out of Nu Metal and a kind of a rapping stage that was going on in the United States,” chuckles Spiller, slightly embarrassed.“ I didn’ t find a lot of U. K.-based rock really inspiring, and they just burst onto the scene. So sonically, I thought The Darkness was fantastic – his voice and the sheer energy of the songs. I just felt like I could really relate to it at the time – it was literally the soundtrack to my mid-teens.” Naturally, he enrolled in theater courses and developed a fascination with makeup and costuming, including women’ s

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22 illinoisentertainer. com july 2016