My name is Andrew K and my musical project is Lunars. I like making twisted pop sounds. Sometimes these sounds are sweet, sometimes dark. Lunars have just released our debut EP. I don’t sleep much at night.
Tone Deaf: What’s your earliest memory of performing and who inspired you to start?
Andrew K: My earliest memory of performing was probably to no-one, in my living room, playing along to a Nirvana VHS tape.
Nirvana and the whole early ‘90s punk rock/indie band explosion inspired me the most to play music. I was obsessed with that Nirvana video. Ha!
Your debut self-titled EP was released recently, how was the recording process?
The recording process was a big learning curve – somewhat frustrating at times but all good overall. I begun this project with one engineer then finishing IT with another (I might add, no I’m not a diva). This release was recorded in a least four different spaces across Melbourne over the space of about five months.
I went in a little ignorant and unskilled to the process, but now I’ve almost finished recording the second Lunars EP myself. There’s been a lot of late nights and dates with Pro Tools.
Do you enjoy spending time in the studio or can it be distracting?
I have never enjoyed the recording process too much in the past because I can get impatient and it can be a extremely difficult or near impossible to translate what I’m hearing in my head to actual tape, especially when trying to relay this through an engineer or third party. But recently that has all changed, after experimenting a lot and investing in some of my own home studio gear I kind of built up some confidence and I am much more relaxed about the process now.
You can approach recording from a very technical methodical angle or a very experimental angle, I try to balance this. If it gets too methodical it gets boring for me, experimenting with sounds is fun but that can be time consuming, but as long as it sounds good at the end of the day that’s all that matters.
It doesn’t matter how the end result was achieved. So yes, it’s fun and distracting (P.S. the doctor told me I need more vitamin D).
You’re due to release another two EPs in the coming months, are they linked at all or to be treated as separate releases?
They are kind of linked – for me personally – as a series of recording projects before I record and release an album. But the thing that links them the most is the timing of the releases to one another, as opposed to common themes between each recording.
I’m not that into concept albums myself. I am working alongside Melbourne artist Alex Mustakov aka Rosevich who is creating all the artwork for the three releases, but they are to be viewed as individual releases.
The second EP is shaping up to be quite contrasting to the first release, and the third release will have another flavour again, all within the Lunars sound. I guess I’d like to view the EPs as an introduction to Lunars and the different sides/dimensions and sounds you can expect to hear.
How do the recorded songs translate to the live setting?
To be honest we’ll have to wait and see. Lunars was a three-piece band, but recently it’s reverted back to just myself as this project originally begun, it’s going to be a different show; you can expect to see myself, a few loop pedals, guitars, laptops, a couple microphones, drum,s and percussion.
There will be a live band around this project again in the future but for now I’m getting all Liam Finn on people’s butts.
What’s on heavy rotation on your iPod right now?
Frankie Valli, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Charlotte Gainsbourg, New War, Beasties Boys, Best Coast, and Silver Apples.
Because it’s more fun to do things together, which living artist would you most like to collaborate with? Tell us why?
Wow I have no idea… I love a lot of female artists so probably an amazing voice, maybe Hope Sandoval from Mazzy Star. Her voice is amazing and I love her music and the beautiful sounds you can hear throughout her records.
What is your band’s music the best soundtrack for?
Star gazing or midnight wandering.
When can we see Lunars play next?
Lunars is playing Danes Certificate Magic Theatre on Friday 1st March in Brunswick. It’s going to be a awesomely odd evening of musicians and magicians. Plus I just got some cool lights and smoke machines for it.
info & gigs at: facebook.com/Lunarsband
music at: Lunars.bandcamp.com
