Sean Luciw

Biography of Sean Luciw

Sean Luciw, in a bigger nutshell...

Sean Luciw: music is his life. When he found the guitar in junior high with the guidance of his parents, it was an instant connection to the deeper side of things — the fun kind of gift that means something unique to every individual here in this world! 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, Tony Iommi and Metallica. Wide-eyed (wide-eared?) awe of his mentors, complemented by a predisposition for the numerical side of things, resulted in a path of self-learning with endless hours of practice and a hunger for music theory and the understanding it provides. Word spread of his skills and he was invited to join a metal band, at a time when he thought he would never be ready. 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 enabling, and a mad scientist was born. With the ability to document and develop any idea, any time, the recording studio suddenly became a musical instrument of its own. A cosmos in the headphones — PURE BLISS!

Previously a “real instrument” purist, Sean found a larger world and new humbleness in the realm of sampling and electronic music through the guitar-heavy industrial collages of Ministry and the White Zombie remixes, and especially Skinny Puppy’s “Too Dark Park” album. Suddenly it became feasible to spin the trippy sorts of imaginative creations previously experienced only in the visual realm courtesy of Salvador Dali, or Dumbo’s fantastic dream from childhood memories. A new personal direction in sound became more clear than ever: find that which has never been found before. Go within. Find. Bring it back and share it.

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. 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.

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, and Cuyah, just to name a few); learning a few more instruments; starting his own little record label; and becoming the indie recording guy 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...

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 with a new name "Vertex Vortex". An eclectic mix, it was common to hear jazz fusion, metal, classical, and world music blended to gather in ways that blurred the borders. A healthy dose of local talent made its way onto the airwaves, 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. Sean currently teaches guitar, and has a plethora of projects on the go — all labours of love!