Draft:Lucas Levy

Lucas Levy
Background information
Born	(1995-05-09) May 9, 1995
Occupation(s)	musician, record label owner, student
Instrument(s)	guitar, kalimba, synthesizer
Years active	2017-present
Labels	Cutie Patooties Records
Member of	Ghosts Of Dharma, God Of Delusion

Lucas Levy is a multi-instrumental musician from Long Island, New York who has been releasing music since 2017. He began releasing music under his name, but began using the moniker, Ghosts Of Dharma, in 2020. The following year Lucas created God Of Delusions to release music that didn't fit Ghosts Of Dharma's style. He now uses God of Delusions for all his solo work, but intends to still use Ghosts of Dharma in a collaborative capacity.

His music spans many genres and is mainly instrumental. Cogitamus Ergo Sumus is his first album which is a vaporwave-esque ambient album. Ahura Mazda samples old computer games and draws heavily from tribal and IDM music. Hell Has Honey is a folktronica album that also delves into ambient pop, tribal, hindustani music, african flute music, and synthwave. Be Quiet The Spheres Are Talking, his most recent release, is considered neo-psychedelia and folktronica.

Personal history

Lucas’ Family

His grandma, Lefco Georgan (1934-2016) and grandfather, Tony Georgan, (1929-2017) had four daughters: Dimitria (Thomas), Ann (James), Denise (Robert) and Nicole (Thomas), who had 17 grandchildren including Lucas. Tony Georgan was a beloved teacher at Bethpage High School in the 70s and Martin Van Buren HS in the 60s. Seen as a mentor, “Mr. "G"” was a compassionate man who said "Go at Life with Purpose and Passion.. but always with Compassion for others" and.. "Just Do It!". He also was the founder, owner, and treasurer of The Merrick Theater, a nonprofit formerly known as The Stage.

Mitch Levy was Lucas’ father who died in April of 2020. “[They] had a complicated relationship. His death left [Lucas] with a lot to ponder. Some of the songs on this album explore our relationship a bit further. [Lucas likes] to think he is now at peace and one with the eternal mind.”

Trivia

Lucas’ great grandfather, originally Nikolaos Georgakis(1899-1985), changed his family name to Georgan since he thought his original name sounded too similar to jackass. He worked as a tightrope walker for a circus before it became known as Barnum Bailey Circus.

Early Life & Mental Health Journey

Lucas revealed some details about his childhood with the release of his album There are Monsters in This House.

• When he was very young Lucas lived in Pennsylvania briefly. He had this to say about his song Keystone State “Some of the best memories I have with my father were fishing at a lake by out apartment there. We caught lots of catfish and saw bats pass overhead from time to time. It is a time I look back at fondly.”
• The song There are Monsters in This House is a reference to the literal monsters Lucas felt the presence of in his house while growing up due to undiagnosed mental illness. It also is inspired by “the many monsters that [his] father was battling internally, and the monster he became at times when he was drunk and frustrated.”
• Lucas used to feel like demons would watch him sleep as a child and plot against him. The Demon's Gaze was made with this sensation in mind.
• He created Doom because when he was 4 he used to play it on the PlayStation with his dad. It was one of the first video games he ever played. They also played other games including Resident Evil. Lucas even taught himself how to read by the time he was 4 using video game subtitles.
• Lilith is named after “possibly [his] favorite dog ever.” Lucas said “Lilly was an amazing pup and I'm glad she spent her life with [his] family. [They] had her since [he] was around 5 and she died when [Lucas was] in high school. [He hopes] she's enjoying being one with the eternal mind.” It is also a reference to the biblical character Lilith.
• They’ve Passed is the conclusion of the album There are Monsters in This House. It is about processing his past feelings and moving past them. And he was acknowledging that he is capable of moving on and making a better future for himself.

In Lucas' own words he "suffers from schizoaffective disorder and started teaching himself how to make and produce music in the summer of 2017 while unknowingly suffering from his first manic episode. Though that episode didn't end well for him, making music now serves as one of the primary coping mechanisms for his severe schizophrenic and bipolar symptoms. The episode also resulted in the creation of his first album". Lucas Levy has been very open about his mental health journey and even posted on his Facebook in February of 2019, this was met with overwhelming support.

He said "If you are struggling with your mental health even a little please seek help. For almost a decade I suffered in silence because I didn't think what I was experiencing was bad enough to warrant concern and I didn't want to tell people something might be wrong with me. After my first full blown psychotic break from reality over a year ago I was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder which means I have symptoms of schizophrenia but also symptoms of a mood disorder (bipolar disorder in my case). Since taking my mental health seriously and actually getting help from medical professionals I have been doing far better than I ever thought possible. The mental health system in America is nowhere near perfect but there are people out there who are willing and able to help you. Mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of and the first step to getting better is admitting that there is a problem. If anyone is ever going through something and feels like they have no one to talk to I'll always be willing to listen, even if we have never spoken before. We need to end the stigma of mental illness."

Musical history

2017-2020

His first album is Cogitamus Ergo Sumus in 2017, it is ambient and vaporwave. Lucas made this album while vacationing in upstate New York during his first manic episode, though he didn't know it at the time. It led to psychoses and a diagnosis of severe schizoaffective disorder with bipolar symptoms. Lucas uses his music as a coping method and therapeutic outlet.

Synthetic Worlds was made in Ableton, it heavily used the Helm plugin. And Alien Pop is the last album Lucas worked on before actually learning about music. He recorded this in 2020 but was not released until 2021.

2021

Resonance was made mostly in Ableton, using MIDI Synthesizers, his own sampled vocals, a kalimba for the instrumentation, and the Ableton 808 Core Kit for the drums.

My Mind Ain't Right is an electro-acoustic improv album.

Prisoner in My Skull is a concept album about Lucas' severe mental illness. He attempted to capture what it feels like to be him. Lucas made roughly half of it with a kalimba edited in audacity and the other half with Ableton. He even provided all the vocals used and the cover is a picture of himself. Lucas explained that "This album is me trying to express what it's like to be me. It may not be the most pleasant experience and it deals with some serious themes."

Revolution is a atonal, noise, power electronic album with heavy use of field recordings.

Lake Baikal is a electronic, shoegaze, ambient, folktronica, post-rock album that came to Lucas in a dream. He started making this album because of a project with some online friends that never came to fruition. The concept was to create a new genre, Lucas decided to make some tribal apocalyptic shoegaze. And even though Lucas doesn't practice Christianity, religion is an interest so "the aesthetic of the album was influenced by the biblical apocalypse and a theoretical interpretation that the apocalypse is a great revealing of truth that will bring peace on earth."

Transitus was made to represent Lucas' journey to acquire a more positive outlook on life. The album tells the story of him "beginning to feel better, then feeling doubt and apprehension about these feelings. After that, [he] begin thinking deeply about [his] situation in life, and finally accepting it" with it culminating in a triumphant reflection. Transitus is a collection of grand piano compositions recorded in Ableton Live.

Lucas worked on There are Monster in This House for a few months. Starting as mostly a sound design project he used Xfer Serum Wavetable Synth. Lucas designed all the wavetables and synths used on the album himself. Lucas decided this project would be a good opportunity to deal with some feelings about his childhood and the death of his father.

Lucas created Ahura Mazda is after exploring philosophies and religions out of curiosity and the pursuit of truth His studies found a pattern of intriguing ideas across different schools of thought. They were all influenced in some way to some degree by Zoroastrianism.

Ahura Mazda is listed as a ambient, drone, electronic, folktronica album. In some online communities it has been called tribal IDM.

2022

Do Not Listen To This At Full Volume You WILL Get Tinnitus is a noise pop EP he made while experimenting with distortion and compression.

Hell Has Honey was created in a more stable mindset than his previous works. After devoting himself to learning and creating music in 2021 he took some time to reflect and explore music instead of making any. In the beginning of May he started creating again with better equipment and improved mindset. For two and a half weeks Lucas made this album and spent the next 20ish days making the cover art and naming songs with his girlfriend.It has been recognized as folktronica, ambient pop, tribal, hindustani, african flute music, and synthwave.

Some More Stuff is shoegaze, ambient and neo-psychedelic electronic. This album is actually a compilation of songs that Lucas never finished or songs made from projects he never finished. These were made around mid/late 2021.

2023

I Know You Know is a shoegaze single heavily influenced by the voices in Lucas' head "who constantly tells [him they] are the messiah. This single is off the album Don't Forget Your Cap, a neo-psychedelic electronic album made at the end of 2022. Which was a stressful time for Lucas which resulted in his schizophrenic symptoms severely worsening. "Luckily, I have a fantastic support system and I was able to focus on getting better. As a result I am currently in a good place, and I have this album I made to help me through it."

Tea Time At Evening Lake is a two song single that preceded Be Quiet, The Spheres are Talking, a neo-psychedelic folktronica album. In fall of 2023 Lucas started attending college full time again and "the transition back to a full time student got stressful at times, but [he] used music as an outlet throughout the semester. The results were this album, and straight As."

Trivia

• The cover of Lucas’ first album Cogitamus Ergo Sumus is a self portrait he painted and digitally edited while heavily medicated soon after a psychotic episode.

• Lilith and Lucifer's Dance samples String Theory and the End of Space and Time with Robbert Dijkgraaf Lucas finds it interesting and recommends people watch it.
• “Enter Heaven samples vocal lines from the game Pajama Sam No Need to Hide When It's Dark Outside.” Lucas endorses both the music and game.
• Waiting Here includes stretched out samples from Putt​-​Putt: Pep's Birthday Surprise Original Soundtrack by The Fat Man and Team Fat. Lucas recommends this album and plans on using it in the future.
• No Fear No Death, and Forms of Terror both use the same sample from the song Lava Ground by I Wayne, who is one of Lucas’ favorite artists.

• Lake Baikal’s cover is an edited picture of Lake Baikal, using GIMP.

Music Influences

Lucas was influenced by many videogame soundtracks like Doom, Resident Evil, and Spyro. Another important game was Yu-Gi-Oh Forbidden Memories. Lucas' music is heavily influenced by Forbidden Memories' soundtrack, the game itself is one of his favorites. Lucas has said that "grinding in it just to not get the card I wanted really taught me that sometimes you can do everything right and work hard towards a goal and still not get what you want." and added "Naoko Ishii, Hiroshi Tanabe, Waichiro Ozaki wherever you are, your music changed my life.”

Lucas created a playlist on his Spotify artist page that he actively adds to called “Influences GoD”. Currently it has music from over 250 artists including; Sophie, Death Grips, CAN, Brittney Spears, Daniel Johnston, Animal Collective, Xiu Xiu, Nine Inch Nails, Bjork, Le Tigre, One Okay Rock, my bloody valentine, My Chemical Romance, Horse The Band, Playboy Carti, FACT, Sonic Youth, Ween, Viper, Bon Iver, Brighter Death Now, Clarence Clarity, Suicide, The Books, 50 Cent, Tears For Fears, Miki Matsubara, The Cure, Barry Manilow, Herby Hancock, Flood of Red, Frank Zappa, Coldplay, Jonas Brothers, Kate Bush, Fall Out Boy, YUI, The Magnetic Fields, Owl City, The Beach Boys, Miniature Tigers, Genghis Tron, The Used, Nina Simone, Ashlee Simpson, Jorge Ben Jor, CHVRCHES, Young Thug, Placebo, TOTO, Chuck Berry, Slowdive, The B-52's, Lana Del Rey, Chumbawamba, The Zombies, Danny Brown, George Harrison, FrankJavCee, New Order, Vanesa Carlton, Weezer, Four Tet, Tenacious D, Yo La Tengo, 100 gecs, and DMX

Music label

Cutie Patootie Records was created in 2022 and currently has 5 active artists/groups.

Active Artists

• God Of Delusion
• Ghosts Of Dharma
• DEAR THUNDERSTORM
• heather knife
• Voyager
• avvay

Discography

God Of Delusions Albums

• Cogitamus Ergo Sumus (2017)
• My Mind Ain't Right (2021)
• Ahura Mazda (2021)
• Lake Baikal (2021)
• Hell Has Honey (2022)
• Some More Stuff (2022)
• Don't Forget Your Cap (2023)
• Be Quiet, The Spheres are Talking (2023)

God Of Delusions Singles

• Revolution (2021)
• I Know You Know (2022)
• Tea Time At Evening Lake (2023)

God Of Delusions EPs

• Synthetic Worlds (2020)
• Do Not Listen To This At Full Volume You WILL Get Tinnitus (2022)

Ghosts Of Dharma & God Of Delusions Albums

• Alien Pop (2021)
• There are Monster in This House (2021)
• Prisoner in My Skull (2021)
• Resonance (2021)

Ghosts Of Dharma & God Of Delusions EPs

• Transitus (2021)

Featured On

• DEAR THUNDERSTORM(2023) by DEAR THUNDERSTORM

Social media attention

Lucas Levy is a relatively small artist so his projects have not received major outlet coverage. Though he does get attention on social media sites and other community websites. He has been featured as Number 57 of best albums of 2022 and Number 47 of top 100 albums of 2023 by a music focused Instagram account (@immaterial_angel). And a large music reviewer and influencer called EARFEEDER (@earfeeder), with over 100k followers, has featured him multiple times. Hell Has Honey by God Of Delusions was number 96 on their Top 100 Albums of 2022 list. He was also included on their albums you've probably never heard of series as well as receiving 7.6/10 for a tribal IDM playlist in October 2021. Lucas' album Hell Has Honey was also reviewed and endorsed by impctjournal (@impctjournal), a Switzerland based music-cinema-literature-art reviewer.

Be Quiet, The Spheres are Talking was featured in ThirdEyePsychRock's Best Psych Music of August 2023. They called this album "a beautiful electronic and neo-psychedelic trip of ten relatively short and colorful tracks." and claimed "All the songs have an electronic krautrock feel that’s calming and meditative."