There’s something wholesome and all-American about Luke Edwards and his band. Originally a solo project for the songwriter, Edwards gradually brought in brothers Jay on guitar and Jerry on drums. All three sing, harmonise beautifully, and over the course of three albums have carved out a niche somewhere between the gritty heartland rock of Tom Petty and the late-60s feel of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and Jackson Browne.
Pie Town, their fourth album, was released in July, its title a nod to the Edwards’ home town of Julian, Southern California.
“It’s a very small mountain town, about a thousand people in the mountains upside of San Diego. It’s an old mining town originally, but now it’s known for its apple pies,” Luke says, smiling. “One of my childhood friends, his family owns a pie business up there. We have apple days around harvest time. And they go into the pies.”
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See what we mean about wholesome?
He comes from a churchy background
Edwards’ parents were so religiously committed that as teenagers he and his brothers had to sneak rock music into the house.
“We would listen to the secular radio secretly,” he recalls, “and we’d have a cassette tape in the deck, and when a song came on that we’d like we’d record it and make our own mixtapes. It was only when Jay got his driver’s licence we would go and get CDs from the record shop and listen on our headphones.”
They have a Heartbreaker in their corner
One of the biggest influences on Edwards is Tom Petty, and Edwards managed to get Petty’s sometime bassist Ron Blair involved early on – Blair produced the band’s debut album, 2018’s True Blue, and is now an ‘honorary’ member of the band.
“We were in a development deal with his management,” Luke explains. “He lived in the same town near San Diego as us, so we set up a meeting in his house. And we just hit it off right off the bat. We’ve got huge respect for the Heartbreakers camp, they did things on their own terms. Great songs, great band. And Ron took us under his wing and was a mentor to us in all things. Just a masterclass, really, in how to be in a successful and long-lasting band.”
They also have a saucy sideline
Edwards and his wife are entrepreneurs. Before the band took off, the pair developed their own vegan sauce, Bitchin’ Sauce, which they started hawking around local farmers markets.
“There wasn’t that much money coming in from music at the time, no touring or anything,” Luke explains. “And it just kind of grew organically from there. My wife is the CEO of that. We run that day-to-day still from the road, and when we’re at home that’s what we do. We have about eighty employees.”
Then there’s the coffee plantation
The Edwardses bought a coffee plantation in Hawaii – the only place in the US where coffee can grow – a couple of years back.
“We started that during covid too. We’ve also got a mezcal business that we’re trying to start. And now the touring is taking off. So everything is pretty busy right now. And the coffee is very good.”
On the road they travel as one big family
Outside of the band, Luke and his wife work together anyway. So when his kids were doing school virtually during the covid lockdown, he saw an opportunity to present a tour as an adventure for the whole family. Then his brothers started adding their own broods to the entourage.
“It rolls out to over twenty people, which is a pretty large group to be checking in to hotels and getting restaurant reservations. But we always say that it’s harder to be apart than to live this way. We prefer the chaos.”’
But it’s not too stressful
“We have a lot of helpers,” Edwards explains. “The kids are getting to an age where the older ones are watching the younger ones, and at Sauce we have executives who are very, very helpful, and on the music side we have team members who are managing the day-to-day stuff.”
And how does the leader of this multi-faceted family business empire cope with the stress? “I’m trying to lay off the booze a little bit and trying to do healthier activities: green tea, yoga, sleeping… They seem to be working okay.”
Pie Town is out now via Bitchin’ Music Group
