“The eye is the first circle; the horizon which it forms is the second; and throughout nature this primary figure is repeated without end. It is the highest emblem in the cipher of the world.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Following almost 175 years after Emerson’s essay ‘Circles’ with a record bearing the same name and a good smack of its ideology; guitarist Ripley Johnson (also of Wooden Shjips) and collaborator Sanae Yamada make up the backbone of the group Moon Duo, who were formed in 2009 in San Francisco.
Having just released their third LP, along with a rich sling of EPs, remixes, and live recordings; Moon Duo have kept up what might be described as a heroic touring schedule for the past five years, with regular performances across Europe, Asia and the Americas. “To me they’re like two phases of the same greater cycle…” explains Yamada. “One is the more interior phase and one more exterior, and I enjoy them both for the most apart. Touring is really fun and we love to travel…it’s a great experience in general although it gets very exhausting.”
Shadow Of The Sun is Moon Duo’s latest long-playing offering, following the critically acclaimed Mazes (2011) and Circles (2012). Whilst the group have built a reputation for captivating live performance, the writing and recording process remains their focal point and core mission.
“Making the record is the root of everything…making the music. It’s disappearing in to whatever space in your head you need to access and just digging around until you find something you like. Ultimately I feel the recording process can be more rewarding, as you’re actually building something.”
[include_post id=”457464″]With Shadow Of The Sun as with Circles it has been a similar process. Ripley and I build the tracks together…we’ve got a little bit of a system going where he will build the basic beats and rhythm guitars, pass them off to me and I’ll add keyboard, melodies, bass line or synth…then pass back to him to add guitar solos or more vocals…back to me for keyboard sound effects. It’s almost like having a conversation, handing it back and forth to each other.”
Finnish producer Jonas Verwijnen has been a long-time collaborator with Moon Duo, tweaking and mixing from Berlin’s Kaiku Studios. It is a relationship that is very much ingrained in the Moon Duo sound. “We mix all of our stuff with Jonas, we just really lucked out meeting him about four years ago. We have really good chemistry with him and we love his sensibility, he’s been our go-to guy for mixing.”
Recorded in Portland, Oregon (the past albums recorded in San Francisco and Colorado respectively), the making of this record combined a new environment with a rare period of time away from the tour bus, and a touch of that “stir crazy” vibe certainly makes its way to the surface on this most layered and textured album.
“We will usually record more tracks than we need – this can be a down-side of working at home and having as much time and space as you want – you can put down everything in your mind to use or not. So the mixing process becomes an intense decision-making time.”
The challenges of recreating such depth of sound, along with obvious limitations on the gear available in live setting, is something to be considered, but it doesn’t appear to get in the way at all.
“We try not to worry about that at all. We don’t concern ourselves too much with trying to replicate the record when we play live. I always appreciate seeing bands where the live songs sound different to the record, so that’s what we try to do as well. We’ll usually work on a live version of every song, then pick the ones that feel the best. But it’s always about what works when we’re playing together.”
A few of the more colourful arrows in the Moon Duo bow come in the form of their remixed releases. Working with the likes of Sonic Boom, Cave, and Psychic Ills; these offered opportunity for some truly great collaboration and reinterpretation of Moon Duo’s tracks.
“We first had the idea when we finished Mazes and we were asked if we wanted to do something for Record Store Day. We thought let’s do a remix album by people who don’t normally do remixes. So we just went out to some of our favourite people…everyone’s take was so different and so much fun that we did it again with Circles.”
Moon Duo will visit Australia for the third time this summer, and are more than happy to make the long haul down. “The first time we came it was curiosity maybe, we were just thrilled to have the opportunity and had an amazing time. Then we came back a second time which was so fantastic and so now we will always want to come back…some really great cities and the people are terrific…it’s always worth doing for us!”
Australian Tour Dates
Wednesday, 9th December 2015
Brisbane THE ZOO
Tickets: Oztix
Thursday, 10th December 2015
Sydney NEWTOWN SOCIAL CLUB
Tickets: Newtown Social Club | 1300 724 867
Friday, 11th December 2015
Melbourne FRIDAY NIGHTS AT NGV
Tickets: National Gallery of Victoria
Saturday, 12th December 2015
Meredith MEREDITH MUSIC FESTIVAL
Sunday, 13th December 2015
Adelaide JIVE – GOING STEADY FEST
Tickets: Moshtix
