A Musicians Journey: Luke Pigott On How Music Has Guided Him Through Life

Local coffee roaster and musician Luke Pigott discusses how he has been heavily influenced and guided by his career in music

Over the past few years, Luke Pigott has made a name for himself as one of the areas best coffee roasters, but many do not know that Luke is also a musician who has been led on an incredible journey guided by his art.

Luke grew up around music, as his mother was a recording artist. Although he didn’t become heavily interested in music until his teenage years, it was always a part of his life.

“Our home was decorated with instruments,” Luke said. “Even if I didn’t take an active interest in it for a while, music was always there. I just needed to find my own way to it.”

During high school and college, Luke played as an electric guitarist and keyboard player for the worship band of a large church in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

“I was always the most experimental member of the worship group, trying to bring in ideas like screwdrivers stuck in my strings a la Sonic Youth, or sending the sounds of things like toy ray guns through my guitar pickups.”

He eventually left the band due to creative disputes, but the experience ignited his love of creating music. He was soon picked up by a rock band in Hattiesburg called Ellephare to record an album before then joining a bluegrass band where he played the banjo.

In 2011, Luke moved to Philadelphia to attend Villanova University. His career really started to take off as he found like-minded creatives. By 2014 he had recorded his first album (which you can check out here). He made two EP’s soon after with his friend and fellow musician Ashley Hartman. The two went on to join a group called The Chairman Dances with their friend Eric Krewson.

In 2017 Luke moved to Chattanooga, but that didn’t stall his musical career. He went on to contribute to two records by The Chairman Dances. For the album Child of My Sorrow, Krewson actually flew to Chattanooga to record the electric guitar and synthesizer parts of the album with Luke. He then began a project with Hartman but hit a road bump when she moved to Spain. This led to most of the recording being done via email and several other artists becoming involved.

The result of this project was an album collaboration group known as Magic Video (which you can check out here ). Magic Video is still going strong with Luke planning to have it for sale in cassette tape form soon. The group is also working on a full-length, self-produced video album. Luke also has several personal projects in the works, including a solo album.

“My biggest belief as an artist, whether through music or video formats, is that, when you’re lucky, you are tapping into something mystical that’s also the same as the ontological ground for all existence,” Luke said. “You should let the art itself tell you what the art’s own rules are, and then you enter into a dialogue with the art based upon those rules.”

Don’t miss out on any of Luke’s projects by following him on Instagram with the handle, @lukepigott! We also have been given exclusive access to his soon to be released second solo album with a link to the first song here!