interview: Moaning
Have I told you lately how much I love Moaning? It's true and if you haven't started listening to this band on repeat now is the time. The trio will release their self-titled Sub Pop debut on March 2, but before that they were kind enough to answer a few of our questions.
The Grey Estates: How did Moaning come together? And do you remember what your first practice or show was like? How have you changed since then?
The 3 of us played in different bands together since high school. Our first show as Moaning was at the Bootleg in Los Angeles. Over the years our performance became more confident and the music became more dynamic. We found ways to fill out the sound of a 3 piece by incorporating electronics.
What are some of the highlights on this upcoming album? Is there a song you really love?
"Artificial" came out really well on the record. "Does This Work For You" is an interesting one and the end has some noise elements that were really fun to record.
What was the creative process like for this album? How long did it take to write and record? Is there a place or setting that you like to be in to create?
Normally Pascal or I will bring in chords or melodies and then the 3 of us will arrange songs together. We do most of our writing in our practice space in Echo Park. It took us about a year to write the album and we spent about a month recording and mixing.
Your videos are all really creative! Who comes up with the idea for them and do you have like any dream ideas? Is there a movie or tv series that you'd wanna recreate for a video?
We come up with a lot of the ideas ourselves. We'd love if our videos felt like an episode of the X-Files or the Twilight Zone.
You released those two tracks before, so how has the band changed since then? And when you started did you ever consider that you'd one day be signed? Was that something you always had the intention of doing?
We've been taking the band a lot more seriously since we recorded our original demos. We weren't sure we would ever get signed but we use to joke about being on Sub Pop as if it was completely unattainable.
Use like 5 emojis to describe the album.
How did you first meet? And what if any influence did LA have on you?
I met Pascal in high school. We went to Taft in the valley. We met Andrew because he was coming to see our old bands play. Because of living in LA we had access to a lot of great all ages venues like The Smell and Pehrspace. Those spaces helped us experiment musically in a live setting.
What were some of your influences for this album? It can be artistically, musicals or snack foods that you ate during the recording.
Gummy bears, Claritin-D, Seinfeld bass line
What would the title of the Moaning Netflix documentary be?
Some Kind of Monster 2