IT MARKS A POINT OF US FINDING OUR CREATIVE VOICE A LOT MORE AS A GROUP
A CONVERSATION WITH LA LUNE
If you want a new shoegaze band to fall in love with, then la lune is the band for you. The Vancouver-based band’s new EP everything is an eternal circle and it repeats and repeats itself is a mesmerizing selection of some of the best shoegaze you will hear all year. They describe it as having a more maximalist sound than their debut EP disparity and is influenced by the songwriting of Slint and the production and mixing of They Are Gutting A Body Of Water. Recently, I chatted with members Ethan Rebalkin (guitar, vocals), Olivia Wells (bass, vocals), Taylor Pawsey (drums), and Nima Walker (guitar), who joined the band after the EP was finished, about the new EP, their shoegaze cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams”, and the Vancouver music scene.
“There were a lot of similarities, but there was definitely more studio experimentation on this EP,” reflects Pawsey. “With disparity, it felt like a more organic process just playing the songs a lot, recording them as they are, and then mixing them. With the new EP we did a lot more later in that process that significantly changed the song – we did a lot more with the production… Just tried to broaden the palette a lot on this one – it marks a point of us finding our creative voice a lot more as a group.”
One of the best examples that shows la lune broadening the palette and finding their own creative voice is “falling to”. “We were experimenting with a lot of different things particularly on song form,” comments Pawsey. “There was an original idea and then a lot of work done to it. Through a lot of trial and error and just playing in the room together, I think we all just landed on that.”
EVERYTHING IS AN ETERNAL CIRCLE AND IT REPEATS AND REPEATS ITSELF ALBUM REVIEW
Without a doubt, “expressionless” is one of la lune’s most emotionally vulnerable songs to date. “I wrote that song about my experience with Depersonalization/Derealization Disorder, which I started having when I was 16,” explains Rebalkin. “I think we all in the band have moments of experiencing intense disassociation when things get stressful. If you read the lyrics, it’s pretty cut and dry, like just getting lost in yourself and losing yourself. It was really scary when I first started experiencing it because I genuinely thought I was going through psychosis. It really felt like I had lost my sense of self for a long time. I was reflecting on that and other moments past that when it gets triggered, and I’m in a situation that brings up those feelings again, and I feel like I lose myself.” Since the song is so personable to Rebalkin, playing it live brings up many different feelings. “In some ways, it is cathartic, and in other ways, it’s like, ‘Am I retraumatizing myself or something by singing about this?’ It’s really weird… But ultimately, I’m glad it exists and to be able to share my experience.” Rebalkin shares that “expressionless” went through many iterations. “With us just performing it a ton, it had a few different sections that we ended up cutting out or morphing. A lot of the songs we just end up playing for a long time, and they just naturally develop a ton just out of us playing them. Also, listening to the original demo, it was like 20 BPM slower. It was mad slow and made no sense. I feel like that’s a lot of the demos I bring to the band though, like, ‘Yeah, this is sick. Maybe we try way faster.’”
With “quiet considerations”, la lune delivers a spectacular shoegaze tune. Everything rocks about it, from the haunting vocal melodies between Rebalkin and Wells, the gorgeous atmosphere, the heavily explosive drums, the melodic bass lines and the gnarly head-banging guitar riffs. He had some encouragement from their former guitarist, Ben Lock. “I was just playing the ‘quiet considerations’ riff in my bedroom, and our old guitarist Ben overheard me play it, and he’s like, ‘That’s really sick,’ and we sat down one evening and hashed out the song really quickly; got the chord progression going and wrote all the vocal melodies in one night,” reflects Rebalkin. “We went into our jam space, and I remember us just trying out a whole bunch of different things and messing around with the arrangements as a band.”
The music video for “quiet considerations” has a very cool visual aesthetic. It was directed by Sadie Edney and Mia Teodocio. “The ‘quiet considerations’ music video was so crazy and fun to film,” states Wells. “We worked with Sadie and Mia, who are so great and are geniuses. They just took everything we told them and brought it to life.”
One thing that really stands out in la lune’s music is the dreamy vocal harmonies of Rebalkin and Wells. “It adds that layer of lush vibe,” comments Wells. “It’s just nice and sounds fun.”
PURCHASE TICKETS TO THE MAY 9th EP RELEASE SHOW AT THE RICKSHAW THEATRE HERE
“Ethan and Liv because they both sing so softly, and their voices obviously sound really good together, but they almost blend into one, and sometimes you can’t necessarily tell who’s singing what in certain moments, which I think is super cool,” remarks Walker.
The EP has several compelling instrumental tracks like “new swell”, a stunningly ambient track with fascinatingly catchy guitar riffs, that opens the EP. “I think we are all fans of the classic album format, and a lot of my favorite records will have an opening track that then sets a tone for the other songs to stay on top of,” says Pawsey.
“What’s fun about the instrumental stuff is suddenly we’re like, ‘OK, what can we do inside of this realm that isn’t writing lyrics,’” comments Rebalkin. “We found ourselves sampling street sounds, walking around on gravel, watering flowers in a garden, and be like, ‘This sounds cool’ and put it through a cassette player.”
Chances are you came across la lune from their excellent shoegaze cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” on Musora. It was a very fun experience for them. “There’s a level of it giving us a lot more reach for what we put out creatively, but honestly, more than anything, it’s just a funny thing to talk about,” grins Pawsey. The band share two stories about opening for Cryogeyser and conversing about the video with members Samson Klitsner and Zach CapittiFenton. Pawsey continues, “Samson, who’s in this band that were geeked by, is like, ‘I saw that cover you guys did. It’s really cool.'”
“Zach was like, ‘I was really trying to pinpoint where I recognize you guys from, and then when you were on stage, I was like, holy fuck! It’s that Fleetwood Mac video,'” laughs Wells.
Currently, the music scene in Vancouver is one of the most interesting in Canada, with la lune being among the most exciting ones to watch. The band loves the scene in Vancouver and lists Emma Goldman, Kylie V, PISS, and Scarlet Fever, among many more, as their favorite acts from the city. “Right now is a really crazy time in Vancouver,” smiles Walker. “Vancouver has so much history, but then we came of an age, with things coming to a dead zone and things got kind of stale, but I’m honestly so inspired by where it is at right now. Some of the bands coming out of the city are literally some of my actual favourite bands.”
“Now, more than any other time in my life, it seems like the Vancouver scene is incredible and vibrant,” adds Pawsey.
On May 8th, everything is an eternal circle and it repeats and repeats itself drops and on May 9th, la lune will be playing at the Rickshaw Theatre in Vancouver to celebrate the release. “In some ways, it feels like the ending of the first phase of this band, and in some ways, it feels like a continuation of the first EP in that it was so much of us learning what we want to do and how to write songs,” states Rebalkin. “We’ve developed so much and moving forward, I think it’s gonna be quite a bit different.”
Artist Links
Photo Credit: Gudrun Wai-Gunnarsson
