KUST interview with Luke Stene, also known as Luke Makes Music. Stene talked about his upcoming album, “Polyester,” how he makes a song and working from his dorm room studio. (Scout Mason and Casey Eakins/TommieMedia)

St. Thomas sophomore Luke Stene, who produces and records his own music under the name Luke Makes Music, does just that from an unfamiliar location to most artists: his dorm room.

Stene has garnered over 6,000 streams across platforms with only one released song, “Want U 2.” Stene also has an upcoming 10-song album, “Polyester,” the majority of which was produced, mixed, mastered and recorded by Stene in Flynn Hall on St. Thomas’ St. Paul campus.

“I got really good at just getting things down,” Stene said. “(“Polyester”) is something that you can pick up right away, and you hear it, and you like it, and that’s because I didn’t have that much time for it. I didn’t have time to dwindle on songs like I used to.”

Stene admitted that his one released song, “Want U 2,” took eight months for him to finally release as he continually went back to make tweaks.

Stene said he is shy about his roommates hearing him sing, which forces him to work quickly and focus when recording.

“All these songs are pretty quick and pretty focused,” Stene said. “I only had an hour because my roommate went to class, and I was like, 10 o’clock, I had my coffee … and I get working.”

Though Stene tells people he makes indie pop, he doesn’t label his music as one specific genre. He explained that “Polyester” is the product of trying new things.

“It’s an exploration into pop. It’s all these different genres of pop; indie pop, it’s got hyper pop,” Stene said. “I’m not really trying to fit into one genre.”

Stene has learned a lot in the process of making “Polyester,” including not letting a song take over his world.

“I realized it’s so demoralizing when you get too far into a song and you know there’s no recovering it,” Stene said. “One thing I learned from making this project is I just hit delete. I’ll be two hours into something, I’ll hit delete, and I don’t think about it because then you don’t have to look at it.”

Stene took guitar lessons growing up but transitioned into making his own music in high school inside of his closet. Stene said he’s always been motivated by things like Kanye West’s and Odd Future’s ‘do it yourself’ attitudes, which is one reason he’s worked so hard to learn the ins and outs of recording and producing his own music.

“I can’t really afford going to a studio to get it done, so I kind of just picked everything up over the years and I mean, you meet people, so everybody teaches each other. That’s what’s nice about it,” Stene said. “I think as an artist, you just kind of keep getting stuff out and your new stuff is always going to be better than your old.”

St. Thomas sophomore Noah Scott, one of Stene’s best friends and a fellow artist, said he’s been inspired by watching Stene work.

“Everything that you hear when he puts out a song is his. He totally produces all of his own instrumentals,” Scott said. “I kind of learned some things without him even explicitly teaching me.”

Stene spoke about his writing process when making a song, something he says can take him less than an hour to make.

“When I’m writing the lyrics, most of it’s coming off the top of my head. I used to write everything down. And it taught me a lot about writing lyrics and getting feelings across,” Stene said. “I want my lyrics to resonate with me because I know if I’ve probably done something, there’s somebody else that has.”

In the future, Stene wants to continue growing and making his own type of music.

“Who knows what my sound is going to be in five years from now,” Stene said.

No matter what Stene is releasing in the future, Scott believes it will be something that Stene is proud of.

“I think Luke believes in himself more than anyone else does, and I think that is the most important trait that he holds for himself,” Scott said. “Everything that is going to be put out by Luke is going to be something that he’s impressed with and something that he thinks is going to catch a face.”

Scout Mason can be reached at scmason@stthomas.edu.
Casey Eakins can be reached at casey.eakins@stthomas.edu.