Your new single “State of Mind” is incredible! I’ve had it on repeat for days! What inspired you all to make this new track? And what was the writing process like?
Moontower: Thank you so much! State of Mind was the last track we wrote for our debut album. When we delivered the first cut of the record to our team our manager (Carina Glastris) really challenged us to inject some live energy into the album. We started making the record in quarantine and a lot of that contemplative energy was really at the forefront of the first cut of our album. The music we want to make is the kind that makes you dance at first listen and maybe cry a second or third, we wrote a really beautiful record that might make you shed a tear but it was time to take care of the first part. We kept the songs but re-produced a lot of our record after that but before we did we wrote State of Mind and that became kind of our North Star for the rest of the record going forward. That some came together in about 15 min. I was almost frustrated sitting down at the piano, I was tired of feeling stuck and I wrote this tongue-in-cheek song about waking up to find everyone had gone to heaven without you and finally having the freedom to let yourself be exactly the person you wanted. I think for me the undertones of this song are about coming to terms with the confusion around my own gender identity & expression but more broadly it's about giving yourself permission to be selfish as long as you are kind and take care of others.
How did you all meet? And what led to you making music together?
Moontower: We met at USC (University of Southern California). Tom and Devan were producing music for our friend Thad, and then Thad and I started writing together. All of a sudden the three of us (Tom, Dev, and I) found ourselves sitting in the studio working on Thad's music and this wonderful creative partnership started to emerge. After that, it was countless late late night working on music at Tom and Dev's apartment. We started writing for other people but slowly we found ourselves happier just working with each other. We are family, it's so easy for us to be ourselves around each other and we have such different things we bring to the table. Starting a band was never the plan we just kind of found ourselves with all this music and at a school that was really friendly towards house shows/parties so we saw a place for ourselves to see if anybody would like what we were making.
You guys always have such amazing visuals at your shows that I’d love to check out in person one day! Do you have a dream venue, anywhere in the world, that you hope to bring your vision to eventually?
Moontower: I hope you are able to! You're welcome anytime :) Hmmm I know Dev really wants to play Slane Castle, Tom would love to headline Del Mar Hall in St. Louis. It would be a very full-circle moment for me to play Coachella one day...but we really just love any show we get to do. Something about getting to see the world the way we do makes you feel at home no matter where we are, it makes the world feel small. We absolutely have aspirations of being one of the biggest bands in the world, of headlining arenas around the world, but we know that may take time and will be a lot of work so we're doing our best to enjoy every step along the way. We're living the dreams of our younger selves and isn't that always the goal?
How is your tour going so far?! I was checking out the videos and pics on your Instagram and it looks like such an amazing time!
Moontower: We're having the time of our lives out here. We did a really big US Support tour with The Driver Era in Nov/Dev playing to 2000 to 5000 people every night and almost all of those people had never heard of us before. Now we're still opening but half the room knows every word to our songs and the other half is singing and dancing with us by the time the show is over. We feel a real community being built that has the power to do some incredible things together. People are so ready to spread love and acceptance and make people feel like they can let loose and be themselves.
If you guys could collab with any artist, who would you pick and why?
Moontower: I think we'd all die to make a record with Daft Punk...Brian Eno...We always talk about our music trying to be the middle point between Daft Punk and Coldplay or Daft Punk and The Strokes. We have a deep love and respect for French House, that's a lot of what Tom brings to the table, a deep knowledge of and passion for house music, especially in the rhythm and bass. Devan is a huge Coldplay & U2 fan and that's where the inspiration for a lot of our harmony/instrumentation comes from. So working with Daft Punk or Brian Eno who produced some of our favorite records would just be the top of the mountain for us.
What can we expect from you the rest of the year? I can’t wait to hear the new album!
Moontower: It's gonna be a busy year. Debut album, our first headline run, hopefully some more support tours, an album film, a filmed live show experience for the album...we've built a world for this music and we're excited for everyone to see it unfold.
Interviewed By Sarah Curry
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