Not so long ago it appeared that Luxury was destined to be one of those bands that burned bright but quickly faded away. A pair of records with Seattle's Tooth and Nail Records won great critical praise and a small but intensely loyal fan base, but sales were poor and word soon surfaced that band and label were becoming mutually disenchanted. Label troubles are often enough to spell the end of a band but add to that an intense personal tragedy -- in this case a horrific car wreck that left several band members and friends severely injured including lead singer Lee Bozeman having his rib cage crushed and lungs collapsed when a rolling van settled on his chest -- and the future seemed clear enough. In the months that followed stories of the individual members' slow road to recovery were followed by reports of several new acts rising out of the Luxury camp and the message was obvious. Luxury was finished and the band members had gone on to pursue individual projects. And so a great deal of surprise and an equal level of anticipation met the original announcement from the small Velvet Blue Music label's announcement that they had a new Luxury EP in the works. Anticipation heightened even further when initial reports of the quality of the new material leaked out, then even higher when it was learned that the new Luxury project would in fact be a third full length record coming out through Georgia's Bulletproof Music.

"Luxury is actually the side project right now. Glenn is in The Treehouse Orchestra; Jamey is in The Canary Islands, and Chris is in Fay Ray. I have a 4 track recorder," explains front man Lee Bozeman. "We were at a Joy Electric show and Ronnie [Martin] and Jeff [Cloud] simply stated various reasons why Luxury should continue recording. Obviously, the reasons were very compelling," he says wryly. "The band talked it over and decided that we were mutually interested in recording another album, and the obvious choice for a record label was Cloud's Velvet Blue Music. However, since we are not a Ôreal band' we needed a considerable amount of time to record, and Velvet Blue's proposed budget just didn't allow for that kind of time. We were then offered a deal with Bulletproof, so with Jeff Cloud's blessing, we went with them."

Far from being a nostalgia trip for the band, Luxury's new self-titled record is easily the band's most powerful to date. Lush arrangements and highly poetic lyrics come together with a power the earlier discs flirted with but never achieved consistently. "Our friend Matt Goldman recorded and produced the album. He was generous enough to allow us three months worth of weekends to record, rather than the six full days and nights it has taken us to complete previous recordings. The difference is undeniable. We wanted to create a sound we could never recreate live. Our previous records were written in a much more live context, while this one contained mostly Ônice' songs which I had written that were not yet destroyed by rock n roll. The album was really intended to be much more cohesive and album-like, rather than a strange mishmash of emotion. We really wanted it all to fit together." Acknowledging his literary approach to writing, Bozeman explains, "In Ôreal life' I am an English teacher. I am, fortunately, always reading and discussing literature. As far as this record is concerned, I had been reading a lot of T.S. Eliot, Dante, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. These authors create such vivid pictures with their written word, and that was what was influential. I had also been writing a good amount of poetry which tends to influence my lyrics most profoundly."

The difference between this record and earlier offerings is undeniable. The band has a stronger focus than ever before, they seem more poised and -- one hesitates to use the word -- mature. Though it seems clichéd, it has to be asked. How did the brush with death affect Luxury? "As a band, it just made for an interesting story and some neat scars. Personally, it helped me understand the fragility of life and the importance of knowing WHAT is important. Music doesn't matter, money doesn't matter, the color of your hair doesn't matter. The only thing that really matters to me is that I love, and I am loved. I've grown up a lot since ÔPink Revenge.' Things that matter to me today may not have interested me five years ago. I think I cared a lot more about my rock posture then, whereas now, I don't give a damn about most of those issues. I only intended to write honestly and earnestly and to deal with topics that are relevant today." Life, death, faith and love. It doesn't get any more relevant than that.