Kissed by the Moon

Was the music scene better in New York City twenty years ago? This is a question we can ask ourselves directly because when we immigrated to the United States in April 2001, we lived on the Lower East Side, and “indie sleaze” was happening right there in our neighborhood. In 2004, we moved to an apartment on Suffolk Street, and a venue called “Rothko” opened across the street. Our building manager happened to book shows there and claimed that he was close to inviting The Strokes for a show. Unfortunately, that never happened because the place needed to close for good due to structural problems. But the vibe was buzzing, and we felt like we had arrived at the right place.

Admittedly, otherwise, we were mostly oblivious to what was happening around us in our first years. We were used to looking for other places for exciting music when we lived in Munich; it was hard to wrap our minds around the fact that great artists would play in venues smaller than Madison Square Garden or at least Irving Plaza.

After we moved to Brooklyn in the 2010s, we started to dig local bands. Williamsburg featured an exciting density of small venues that enjoyed popularity beyond Brooklyn. The CMJ Music Marathon 2015 –the last one before it faltered for good– was maybe the most exciting festival I’ve ever attended, with local and international bands playing all around the area between Bedford Avenue and Kent Avenue.

These times are definitely gone! Not only have almost all those venues closed, but the way people find, access, and listen to music is also very different now. Do local scenes matter as much as they did 10 to 20 years ago? Do fans care where the music comes from that they can enjoy in a constantly changing, infinite stream presented on their phones?

On the other hand, plenty of fantastic artists still call New York City their home. One is the synth-pop trip Moon Kissed, which will release its third album tomorrow. Drummer Elijah was so kind to answer a few questions about the band and their new album.

Q&A with Moon Kissed

When you met, you were all involved in making music for other projects. Could you briefly introduce yourself and recall the moment that eventually led to playing music together?

Hi! I’m Elijah, I play drums in Moon Kissed. We met each other at a mutual friend’s New Year’s Eve party and booked a rehearsal that night to play together.

The glory days of the New York Music scene seem to be in the past (at least for the moment). Do you still see value in living and working here as musicians, or are you just stuck here due to other circumstances?

I think the New York music scene is still going pretty strong! I see value in living and working here professionally, but more than that is that I find the community here to be really supportive. It feels like everyone is rooting for one another and I find it easy to meet people who are into similar things that I am.

It seems that there are fewer band formations around now than there were a decade ago. We see it at glamglare, where we feature more solo artists than ever. Some of these bands are more or less loose collectives around a single mastermind. What does it mean to you to play together in a band?

I think playing in a band is about giving yourself over to a common goal. There’s a lot to learn from it about dropping your ego to serve a song or a sound, and it’s a lot about figuring out where you fit into something rather than expression being something that comes solely from yourself.

What does your songwriting process look like? Do you jam together, send each other audio files, or both?

Often times one of us will have an initial idea, whether it’s a chord progression or a melodic theme or a whole song form, and we’ll send it to the others to layer things on top of or tweak and develop.

You have named references for your music, for example, Grimes in “Do You Miss Me Yet?” However, your music evades an easy classification. How did the sound of Moon Kissed come together?

We have a lot of different influences I’d say. We talk a lot about texture in music. I often find in this group that I think about music more visually, almost like a painting, than I do in other circumstances.

I’ll See You in New York is your third album. Did you want to do anything different for this new record?

We always said that the first album was Khaya’s, the second album was Em’s, and the third album is mine (Eli’s). I think this album leans more intimate, introspective, and reflective than our first two albums. Our songwriting has developed a lot since we first started, and I think these songs have more emotionally sophisticated arcs.

What is next for Moon Kissed? Do you, for example, have any shows planned? Where can we see you?

We don’t have any shows planned currently. However, if you put the album on in your room and turn off all of your lights and say “Moon Kissed” three times, we might appear.

Thank you, Elijah, for giving us insight into the world of Moon Kissed. We may try out your advice tomorrow when the album comes out!

glamglare favorites

Listen to glamglare favorites on Spotify or below on YouTube.

We have not only a Moon Kissed Q&A but also witnessed a full moon and a lunar eclipse this week. So, let’s celebrate Earth’s companion some more with five songs that have something to do with the moon, if only loosely.

Lebanon band Sandmoon is a favorite of mine, and Angel may be their best song. “Silver Moon” by David Sylvian I may have played more than any other track from my iTunes library. The song has an irresistibly nocturnal, melancholic atmosphere that gets me every time. “Clouds Across the Moon” by Rah Band is also about a sad story, albeit wrapped in a charming and cheesy 80s synth-pop production. Elke and I love it both. We could not miss “Harvest Moon” on this list. However, for the vibe’s sake, it is the gorgeous cover by Poolside. Finally, the old classic “Walking on the Moon” reminds us that one cannot listen too much to The Police.

Song Pick of the Day

Listen to/watch all seven songs on YouTube. Follow our daily updated playlists on YouTube and Spotify for the 50 latest Song Pick of the Day features or subscribe here to receive them into your mailbox in real-time. Thank you for following us and sharing the excitement.

• sadplanet - walk
• Divine Sweater - A Time For Everything
• Shealagh Rose - Radio Silence
• Daryl Johns - I’m So Serious
• aimei 媚 - Dark Arts
• Tears For Fears - The Girl That I Call Home
• Carlita - Wish You Knew

New Albums Out This Week

Tomorrow will be a busy fall release day again. Aside from the already mentioned new Moon Kissed album I’ll See You in New York, we’re looking forward those new records:

• Lea Thomas releases a “naturalistic” album Cosmos Forever with seven slow-burning tracks inspired by walks in the outdoors. Don’t expect mediation music, though: the guitars become pretty loud and go even into Pink Floyd territory at some point.
• Bay Area shoegazer Tanukichan releases a moody EP Circles, the followup to last year’s album Gizmo.
• The London-based artist Kaeto releases her new album INTRO on Polydor Records, no less. We love all four published songs so far, and four more will come tomorrow.

Nine Photos

Inspired by Oliver’s musings about New York’s music scene and our particularly fantastic experience at CMJ 2015, please enjoy here some impressions (shot on the iPhone) of that festival.