Luke Cuerden

Luke is a session guitarist born in Australia and living in Tokyo.

He played his first gig in a live house at 17 years old and became a professional musician soon afterwards.

As a touring guitarist he has over 20 years’ experience performing all over Australia and in 10 different countries.

He has played the main stage at major festivals such as "Hellfest" France, one of Europe’s biggest metal festivals with around 200,000 attendees. Other artists on the same stage included Kiss, Def Leppard, ZZ Top, Motorhead, Stone Temple Pilots, Steel Panther and Motley Crue. He also played Stone Fest at Sydney Olympic stadium on the same bill as Billy Joel, Aerosmith and Van Halen.  

He is the main writer, guitarist, singer and producer for his own band Red Dragon Blues which he started in Tokyo with session drummer Armin Takeshi-Linzbichler. He's recorded two Red Dragon Blues albums in Australia and Japan, collaborating with musicians from both countries as well as France and America. One Japanese collaborator was Tokyo’s "Queen of funk" Juna Serita. He shot the band's music video for "Bar H" in Tokyo and Nagoya. Living in Japan at that time, he played and sang on music for commercials and independent artists, and played in different bands around Tokyo.

Hard rock is his favourite genre, but he enjoys playing most genres; Pop, J-pop, City-pop, metal, blues, soul, funk, country, rockabilly and alternative/Indie.

From 2006 to 2011 he was an original member of French-Australian hard rock band Koritni, as a guitarist, co-writer and backing vocalist. Based mostly in Paris the band toured European festivals (including Hellfest) and club shows. Again in 2019. The band also supported the Scorpions in Strasbourg. Luke played and co-wrote on three Koritni albums.

In Australia, he worked mainly as a session guitarist, performing in tribute shows, cover bands and solo acoustic shows around the country. He also recorded guitars for several indie artists. He accompanied many famous Australian artists as a member of the in house/touring band for shows produced by Empire Touring, and from 2011 to 2014, he toured nationally and performed on TV with Australian pop star Shannon Noll; the only Australian artist to have had 10 top 10 singles in a row.

Recently, he has been recording from his home studio for independent artists around the world; mostly Japan, America and Singapore. Before moving back to Tokyo, he was a part of "Classic Rock Live"; a tribute to rock classics like G&R and Queen with a 12 piece band and full orchestra in theatres around Australia.

From September 2024 he is living permanently in Tokyo as a session musician and focused on performing live, recording and collaborating with as many Japanese artists as possible. He is also available for pronunciation and English lyric coaching for Japanese vocalists.