Luca Williams is an energetic and passionate young artist from Cape Town who dreams big, and despite being affiliated with Cruel Section and Straight Feels, has already put into motion his plan to start his own record label. “Sonecy is basically the world that I place my music in and it’s a record label that I just started. The problem I’ve always had was that I’m not sure people understand the extent to which I want to take things and how wild and weird my ideas would be. I want to take responsibility for my vision,” Luca Williams says excitedly.
Unpacking the name gives more sense to the world he envisions. “Sonic Prophecy. What the future is going to sound like. That’s the type of music I’ve been trying to make lately.” Taking inspiration from the groundbreaking French comic Métal Hurlant which influenced Bladerunner and Akira amongst others, Luca Williams imagines Sonecy as a bright world, filled with neon lights, where sound is synesthetic and music has colour. It is in this futuristic world that he creates his music.
With two EPs under his belt, ‘Just So You Know’ and ‘Someone, Somewhere’, his sound has been described as R&B, although that was never his intention. He would rather be able to define his own genre so that he can set terms and manage expectations. “If I say I make trap, you’ll say this isn’t Migos, this isn’t Lil Uzi. But if I tell you this is just nuance, that’s the genre I subscribe to. Nuance is anything that can fit into Sonecy, that lives in Sonecy. So it doesn’t have to be my music.”
He has spent the last year working on his third release ‘Just So You Know 2’ and while the process has been challenging and frustrating at times, he believes dumping and reworking tracks is necessary in order for him to achieve what he is looking for sonically. “My mission in life is to make work that becomes referential. That’s what this year’s been about. I’ve been honest enough with myself to say that this is not going to become referential.”
The upcoming release sees a slight sonic shift with elements of house alongside soul and R&B but maintains his futuristic outlook. “When people ask me what does it sound like I say it sounds like what I think the future will sound like.” Determined to make music on his own terms, Luca Williams is approaching the industry from an angle most artists don’t take, and won’t stop until he has made his mark on it. “That’s the one thing I see as one of my greatest purposes. To provide a certain sonic palette that is immersive.”