Sean Luciw

Biography of Sean Luciw

LONG BIO

Sean Luciw - music is his life!

When he found the guitar way back in junior high school with the guidance of his parents, it was an instant and unexpected connection to the deeper side of things - a way of soul expression better than any other.

Learning metal riffs on the acoustic guitar eventually led to his own original compositions recorded on ghetto blasters, especially inspired by the likes of Randy Rhoads, Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, David Gilmour, Black Sabbath, Megadeth and Metallica. It was like, "wow I can actually play some of this stuff, this is awesome!"

Wide-eyed (wide-eared?) awe of his mentors, complemented by a predisposition for the numerical side of things, led to a path of self-guided learning, where every sound and idea became a teacher. Endless hours of practice and a hunger for music theory's power helped bring skills into focus.

Word spread of his chops and he was invited to join a metal band. This happened at a time when he considered himself a novice, and playing in a real band seemed more like a far-off dream. WOW — a dream come true!

After several awesome years of thrashing with Sadistic Humor and the gradually expanded horizons that go hand-in-hand with such an experience, Sean became restless and needed to explore some of the nether-regions of sound that can only be found as a solo artist. Investing in an 8-track recording studio turned out to be extremely liberating, and a mad scientist was born.

With the ability to document and develop any idea, any time, the recording studio suddenly became the ultimate musical instrument unto itself.

A endless cosmos in the headphones — PURE BLISS!

Around this time frame, Sean was invited to join the industrial band Structure. Using the amazing Kurzweil K2000 synthesizer and various other fancy robots, Sean's math geek side suddenly had a new connection to his imagination. JOY! The trio totally "rocked out", to use a hilariously genre-inappropriate term (the guitar ended up staying in the case for awhile). A side project or two during this era gave birth to Sean’s alter-ego Lex Plexus, whose boundless musical freedom is his main attribute, and who proliferates to this day.

Previously a "real instrument" purist, Sean joined the industrial band Structure and found a larger world and new humbleness in the realm of sampling and electronic music through the guitar-heavy industrial stylings of Ministry, Frontline Assembly, White Zombie, Skinny Puppy and Nine Inch Nails.

Suddenly, it became feasible to spin the trippy sorts of imaginative creations previously experienced only in the visual realms of Salvador Dali, or Dumbo’s fantastic drunken dream.

A new personal direction in sound became more clear than ever: find that which has never been found before.

Go within.

Search and find.

Bring it back and share it.

From this point on, things accelerated and expanded to include membership in many bands (Cozy Gelpod, Squeeky Leek, Motherland, Electric Humour, Crushing Complex, Cougar Bait, Cuyah, and Volcano Calculator, just to name a few); learning a few more instruments; starting his own little record label; and becoming one of the indie recording guys around town, recording about a million bands through the years including Swackhammer, Sineater, Pim, Thirsty, M.U.Y.A., The Disfigurenes, Life On Io, Midnight Sun, the Yale County Jug Band, Jacob Bastien and Daz Tha Punk.

Around the turn of the millenium, Sean branched out into a new way of sharing his musical tastes - by DJ'ing his own radio show! "All Over The Map" was his Saturday evening show at the local community station, The X 92.5 FM; the show eventually switched timeslots and found a new name, "Vertex Vortex". An eclectic mix, it was common to hear jazz fusion, metal, classical, and world music blended together in ways that blurred the borders. A healthy dose of local talent made its way into the playlist, too.

Day-jobs eventually became intolerable unless oriented towards artistic creativity. Ditching the false security of working in engineering offices became an ironic survival move.

“Jump and the net will appear.”

Recently his love of music theory resulted in a 6-year book project, “Chaos In Boxes: Twisted Adventures in Music Theory” coming to its published fruition. Other recent creations of note include Accelerando Metronomo, The Accelerating Metronome and The Music Of The Spheres synthesizer.

Sean currently teaches guitar, produces music for himself and other artists, offers various audio and editing services, and dabbles in electronics.