No stranger to an experiment, Luke November proves his versatility yet again with new single ‘Queen Bee’ – an ode to love in its purest form. A musical journey from start to finish, Luke seamlessly adds his own deep vocals with a feminine set layered over a drill beat and soulful sound.

Originally from East London, Luke is constantly evolving, telling a story through his growth as well as his visuals. “Queen Bee” saw the likes of multi-award-winning videographer, Dego Visionz working on the project, taking the form of an intergalactic love story. “Missing this song is like missing your birthday…Why on earth would you want to miss it,” the artist said.

That’s not all; Luke was discovered by Kanye West’s management team after his track “Call Me Bad” was released. He was later sampled on “Tell The Vision”, a collaboration with Pop Smoke and Pusha T, featured on Kanye West’s critically acclaimed album DONDA as well as Pop Smoke’s album Faith. With his forthcoming EP being released later this year, Luke November is not one to miss.

We caught up with the artist to talk DONDA, East London and growing up on Michael Jackson.

Hey Luke! How are you? How has this past year been?
Hello, I’m well thank you, this past year has been very exciting with many things coming into fruition as well as elevating in my musical ability and journey.

With everything that happened last year, was your creativity affected in anyway?
My creativity was excelled last year due to everything that was happening, because it gave me time to be at home and work on myself for months on end. I didn’t feel as though I was missing out on anything so my mind was completely focused on everything that needed focusing on and I grew within myself and my musical pathway

How did you first get into music, what sparked the interest?
I first got into music when while doing an internship in youth work and I felt as though I was being drawn to the music industry and I began exploring it.

You’re from east London which is a melting pot of music, do you think your area impacted your sound in anyway?
I don’t think the area in London that I live in has impacted my sound directly, however, I grew up listening to Grime which I feel has influenced my style of rap. When I go into the melodic side of music I don’t see where my inspiration derives from other than what I come up with when writing, however, I grew up listening to a lot of RnB and Pop from the likes of Michael Jackson, Usher, Justin Timberlake, Blue and more

You were recently sampled on Pop Smoke’s and Kanye Wests tracks, what was this experience like?
The experience of being sampled by Kanye was very unexpected but something I knew wasn’t impossible. As an artist it’s important to believe in yourself and dream big even if it seems too big so something like this was always a possibility in my mind but the opportunity happening when it did catch me by surprise and I was very grateful and overwhelmed.

And now you’ve just released “Queen Bee”, what was your mindset going into it! Talk us through your creative process?
My mindset going into ‘Queen Bee’ was all or nothing! I wanted to ensure that we attempted things with this release that we have attempted before as a sense of trial and error but more so to see what works for us. Queen Bee was a special release, and we didn’t want it to be a wasted one, so we put our all into it from the production, to the visuals, to the promotion and marketing; we wanted to go all out as much as we could within our means to ensure the best possible result.

What do you want people to take away from your music?
When I created ‘Queen Bee’ I wanted to capture the concept of pursuit. I wanted to metaphorically demonstrate what it looks like when a man pursues a woman he is interested in, the same way bees follow their queen’s wherever they go or whatever they do. I wanted to make it as close to reality as possible with a hint of that fairytale fantasy that we all envision in the honeymoon stage of love. Visually we wanted to represent how it feels to be completely in love to the point where you feel like you and that person are the only two on earth and that’s all you focus on. We wanted to show how the character in ‘Queen Bee’ was building the ‘perfect’ woman based on a memory of the perfect love he’d once experienced. Upon his endeavors she was found and their love was rekindled! And that was the intergalactic love tale in a nutshell. I wanted people to take away an enjoyable experience when listening to my music while being encouraged and inspired by an unadulterated love that is experienced but not really expressed in the culture of modern music. Sex and lavish living is nice but I wanted to go a bit deeper and be a bit more vulnerable. I want people to be able to feel comfortable to go against the grain and be true to themselves, as well as being given a different message with sounds that are loved and accepted in today’s music culture.

Who are your inspirations?
My inspirations are Santan Dave and Trippie Redd.

What are you most excited for?
I’m most excited for learning more about myself as an artist, seeing what doors open for me and collaborating with artists I really like who are up and coming.