Interview: Luna Kiss

Luna Kiss is an Alternative Rock band from the City of Coventry, UK. We had a chance to catch up and talk with them about the band’s songwriting processes, work routine, favorite memories from live shows, etc. Enjoy!

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When did you realize that your project/band had the potential to be a career or long-lasting idea?

LK: I think it was when we actually started selling tickets to shows and people were actually buying them haha. Like a moment of realization that maybe if people are willing to spend their hard-earned cash on a ticket to a Luna Kiss show, then this is worth going for. 

When did the first glimpses of your latest release come together?

LK: The first glimpses of our new EP came at the start of the covid outbreak. All live performances were canceled and pretty much the entire country ground to a halt. So, as we weren’t putting on any shows for the foreseeable future, we spent our time writing new material and planning music videos for each release. We tried to make the best of a bad situation. 

What really inspires your music?

LK: Music inspires music, simple as that. Oh and hummus. Oooooh my god, hummus. Do you have any hummus? We could write an entire three-disc concept album on hummus for you if you provide the hummus? Hummus? 

Can you tell us a bit about the lyrical process for a song? How does it normally work?

LK: It varies. We all have our stamp on anything we write and we all write our own parts. Usually, a Chris Butler riff happens first and we build around that. Once we have a general idea of a verse and a chorus, that’s when we put our heads together and throw lyric ideas back and forth. Wil tends to have a narrative he wants to follow and we all take that and try to write our own ideas either silently with pen and paper or just out loud to each other until we find something that tells the story and fits nice and snug. 

What’s the most rewarding moment in your creative process as a band, and why?

LK: Probably the set for the 5 music videos we are releasing throughout this year. As we weren’t able to gig for pretty much an entire year during covid, as well as writing a new EP, we decided to build another room within our rehearsal room. It’s essentially a giant blank room which we transformed into an operating theatre for our first single, Operate. We then painted the operating theatre red to film the video for,  Lust for Blood. After that, we turned it into an apocalyptic wasteland for, All on Me. Currently, we have just finished filming the fourth video for our next single, Something Beautiful, in which we turned our room into a giant toy box. You’ll have to wait and see what we do with the room for our final video for, We Could be Friends…. Mad what you can do with some wood, brackets, and plenty of paint. 

Who produces your music, and what are they like to work with? (If you produce the music yourself, what do you love the most about working that way?)

LK: We produce ourselves throughout the demo stage of recording then it depends on who we think would do a good job of what we have made and also would they want to produce what we’ve done haha. 

Can you give us a couple of personal highlights from your live show? Particular memories that stand out to you?

LK: Haaaaa! Right. We played Loreley festival in Germany. Now, this could be considered our least favorite and also a favorite. We usually go on stage with click tracks on our in-ear monitors, this allows bands to play tighter and is always a good idea, especially at large outdoor events like this. So… we had all of our click tracks pre-recorded onto Wil’s laptop which was to be triggered by James at the start of every track. However, on this occasion, we forgot the laptop. But wait, there’s more… Our saving grace if you can call it that, was that for some reason, James happened to have them on his iPod shuffle. Unfortunately, the iPod shuffle has no screen so we had no idea what click was playing in our ears for whichever track and the iPod shuffle doesn’t even play tracks in order…. It’s a shuffle!!! So we play this show having to guess what song we are going into by judging the tempos of the click tracks so we essentially gave ourselves four beats to gamble on what track we were about to start. It was a level of stress none of us have ever experienced before nor do we want to again! I think we joined the iPod off in the end and played the end of the set bare-back hahaha. Oh yeah and then for some reason, maybe a combination of nerves, scorching summer sun, and beers, James finished the last song of the set and then immediately chucked his guts up at the side of the stage. The poor lad vomited everywhere… Good times. 

What advice would you give to another upcoming band/act?

LK: Be humble and NEVER piss off the sound engineer. 

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