Moon Days Interview
Q: Moon Days has been around for about eight years. Can you talk about the history of the band?
A: We all went to grade school together. John and Eric got together senior year of high school and started writing songs. That’s actually when we wrote “Day Song” (our oldest song, which we were really psyched to finally record for Shuttle) – we wanted to add something special to it. Jake is originally a drummer, but Eric knewhe also played flute and keyboards. He joined in for the song and decided to stick around – and the flute kind of became our signature. Mitch also went to school with us, and lucky for us came into the picture on bass right after college – about three
years now.
Q: Shuttle is your first LP. What was the process like making the album and can you talk about some of the themes that run through the album?
A: We took a year-and-a-half to do this album, and really did it in a piecemeal fashion over that time. The goal was just to get it perfect. We record with our good friend Mike Britt. We actually recorded the album in a storage bin, but you wouldn’t know that – thanks to Mike’s skills.
We really leaned into space travel for the album‘s theme and artwork but really it’s about finding oneself. We are constantly doing that as a band, for as long as we’ve been together. Here, we’ve found some success by looking inward instead of outward. We mentioned writing “Day Song” so long ago and there are other older songs on the album, so obviously not all the songs were written with this in mind. But sometimes you don’t see the meaning of a song until it comes together and finds its context. Also, the main melody in “Liftoff” ended up becoming a recurring theme throughout the album to make it seem whole.
Q: I really loved the production. Can you talk about some of the technical process such as capturing sounds, mixing, and mastering?
A: Well, we mentioned Mike Britt already, but we can’t stress enough how crucial he is to the production and engineering of the record. We have our vision and Mike has the power to make it a reality on a low budget. We recorded some of the orchestral instruments off-site at Timber Creek High School (our alma mater) and Rowan University, both in South Jersey. Mitch engineered those sessions while Jake produced.
Q: Moon Days has been around for about eight years. Can you talk about the history of the band?
A: We all went to grade school together. John and Eric got together senior year of high school and started writing songs. That’s actually when we wrote “Day Song” (our oldest song, which we were really psyched to finally record for Shuttle) – we wanted to add something special to it. Jake is originally a drummer, but Eric knewhe also played flute and keyboards. He joined in for the song and decided to stick around – and the flute kind of became our signature. Mitch also went to school with us, and lucky for us came into the picture on bass right after college – about three
years now.
Q: Shuttle is your first LP. What was the process like making the album and can you talk about some of the themes that run through the album?
A: We took a year-and-a-half to do this album, and really did it in a piecemeal fashion over that time. The goal was just to get it perfect. We record with our good friend Mike Britt. We actually recorded the album in a storage bin, but you wouldn’t know that – thanks to Mike’s skills.
We really leaned into space travel for the album‘s theme and artwork but really it’s about finding oneself. We are constantly doing that as a band, for as long as we’ve been together. Here, we’ve found some success by looking inward instead of outward. We mentioned writing “Day Song” so long ago and there are other older songs on the album, so obviously not all the songs were written with this in mind. But sometimes you don’t see the meaning of a song until it comes together and finds its context. Also, the main melody in “Liftoff” ended up becoming a recurring theme throughout the album to make it seem whole.
Q: I really loved the production. Can you talk about some of the technical process such as capturing sounds, mixing, and mastering?
A: Well, we mentioned Mike Britt already, but we can’t stress enough how crucial he is to the production and engineering of the record. We have our vision and Mike has the power to make it a reality on a low budget. We recorded some of the orchestral instruments off-site at Timber Creek High School (our alma mater) and Rowan University, both in South Jersey. Mitch engineered those sessions while Jake produced.
Q: I’m particularly interested in some of the orchestral sounds. On the opening track the strings reminded me of what Steven Drozd would implement off the Flaming Lips album The Soft Bulletin. Can you talk a little about that?
A: First of all, that could not have been a more flattering question. Besides The Beatles, the Flaming Lips are without doubt our most influential heroes. We are in awe of both Steven Drozd and Wayne Coyne and love all of their music. Thanks for the comparison. So earlier we mentioned recording some orchestral instrument off site, including various horns, woodwinds and percussion. Our buddy Patrick from a great band called In Different Sounds played the cello, but besides that the rest of the strings are synth. A good mix of fake and real.
Q: How does the album translate live?
A: Well, some songs started as live tracks. “Thought 1,” “Do I Do I Do” and “Before The End” come to mind. Those are pretty much what you get live. Some songs were honestly just ideas before the studio. We’ve never done a live arrangement of the opening track, but we’ve had it written for years. We’ve literally never even played the title track once as a band. “Ollie” was written in the studio and we bumped another track from the album at the last minute. And funny enough, “Ollie” is the song that truly ties together the overall theme of the album.
Honestly, we don’t worry about the live act when we’re writing and recording. We figure that out afterwards – some songs will get rearranged, sometimes we have auxiliary keyboard players with us onstage and some songs probably won’t be played live.
Q: What else should we know about Moon Days?
A: Right now we’re figuring out our next steps and how we want to evolve from here. We’re really proud of this album, and we hope a lot of people get to hear it. Follow @moondaysmusic on social media to keep an eye out for live show announcements and our next EP: a compilation of our various singles with a brand new track (hint: it got bumped from our album).
A: First of all, that could not have been a more flattering question. Besides The Beatles, the Flaming Lips are without doubt our most influential heroes. We are in awe of both Steven Drozd and Wayne Coyne and love all of their music. Thanks for the comparison. So earlier we mentioned recording some orchestral instrument off site, including various horns, woodwinds and percussion. Our buddy Patrick from a great band called In Different Sounds played the cello, but besides that the rest of the strings are synth. A good mix of fake and real.
Q: How does the album translate live?
A: Well, some songs started as live tracks. “Thought 1,” “Do I Do I Do” and “Before The End” come to mind. Those are pretty much what you get live. Some songs were honestly just ideas before the studio. We’ve never done a live arrangement of the opening track, but we’ve had it written for years. We’ve literally never even played the title track once as a band. “Ollie” was written in the studio and we bumped another track from the album at the last minute. And funny enough, “Ollie” is the song that truly ties together the overall theme of the album.
Honestly, we don’t worry about the live act when we’re writing and recording. We figure that out afterwards – some songs will get rearranged, sometimes we have auxiliary keyboard players with us onstage and some songs probably won’t be played live.
Q: What else should we know about Moon Days?
A: Right now we’re figuring out our next steps and how we want to evolve from here. We’re really proud of this album, and we hope a lot of people get to hear it. Follow @moondaysmusic on social media to keep an eye out for live show announcements and our next EP: a compilation of our various singles with a brand new track (hint: it got bumped from our album).