The sun is coming up on Ok Moon, Australia’s very own supergroup combination of four solo singer-songwriters, all talented in their own right. We sat down with the four-piece to discuss strength in vulnerability, craters on the moon and solar helicopters, as they let us get to know a bit more about them.
Ok Moon is the collaborative project between Dustin Tebbutt, LANKS, Hayden Calnin, and Xavier Dunn, who together have a combined amount of 250 Million streams of their music and counting. The band deals with stories of the heart with a colour and vigor quite lacking in the Australian music scene lately.
You may be thinking, doesn’t everyone deal in matters of the heart? The answer to that is a resounding yes, but Ok Moon take the universal experiences of love, loss, and longing, and weave them through a cinematic spiral of bright and brilliant pop in a way that cannot be ignored.
Ok Moon started off with a single song, and from there grew and grew, as the band’s connections with each other became stronger with time, and the chemistry began to develop. Everyone on Ok Moon ups their game and steps out of their boxes, in such a way that you almost forget that these are four different and unique solo artists coming together to make one beast.
The music of Ok Moon sounds like a well-oiled machine, a band of ten years that knows each other’s ins and outs, some unstoppable force that has itself figured out. It truly is a masterclass in how to establish a band, and you can hear the cohesion in an instant, especially on killer tracks like ‘Hollow Tree’.
Watch the video for ‘Harpoon’ below
Spending two years and multiple trips to Dustin Tebbutt’s studio on the Central Coast, the self-produced album was born. The result is the self-titled be have been blessed with today, with explores a myriad of raw and emotional themes with sonic humility. Lush landscapes dive into seas of intimate pianos, then come up for air with gentle guitars and the odd twist of the electronic knife. Four voices roll into one package, and this is one present you will absolutely adore for the rest of your life.
Tracks like ‘Burn Me Up’ evoke the essences of Matt Corby and Bon Iver and ‘Loved You Right’ hearkens back to the likes of SOHN, but don’t get mistaken, Ok Moon’s debut album has incredible degrees of uniqueness. Moving from highlight to highlight, the band proves that although their influences are clear, they have the staying power to make their own mark on music.
You can now listen to Ok Moon’s stunning self-titled debut album here. We spoke to Dustin Tebbutt of Ok Moon to get to know what makes this cosmic alignment of four solo artists work so well.
Get To Know: Ok Moon
How did your artist name come about?
Names are the hardest things ever… We probably spent about 2 days throwing ideas around just cause we couldn’t agree on anything or if we did it was already a band…haha. In the end, I think we liked how the image sounded interesting, and once Hayden had done a cool hand-drawn graphic of it we were sold.
How would you describe your music to your grandma?
These are the songs that your first love (before you met grandpa) wrote ;)
Tell us about a few of your tracks; their titles and what they’re about?
“Crater On The Moon”- The song started on an old guitar, and the chorus melody came together after that. We spent ages on the lyrics for this one, which look at allowing someone to have flaws and imperfections, and finding strength and support in vulnerability. The really cool thing about this song was how much it kept developing after we had written it. When we went to record the track, it just kept getting lusher, and more colourful. The combination of percussion layers, cello, synths and nylon guitar started to come to life in this song through producing it, and this palette became the reference point for the rest of the record.
“Back To You”- This song is about a shadow in your life that you can’t help but find your way back to, no matter how hard you push away. When creating this one, instead of trying to write a song, we were really letting the music guide us.
Career highlight so far?
I think coming together as 4 solo artists on this one, the creative process in itself will be hard to top… we kinda found this pretty rare groove when we are working where things just seem to flow and everyone covers each other’s creative bases in a way. It was a really exciting record to make.
Fave non-music hobby?
Juggling a soccer ball. We got to 321 one lunchtime.
What’s on your dream rider?
4 Teslas, and maybe a solar helicopter.
Dream music collaboration?
Ok Moon x Boy Genius
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Maybe writing music in a spaceship? That would be cool!
What’s your go-to karaoke song?
Macy Gray – “I Try”
Listen to album highlight ‘Hollow Tree’
OK MOON TOUR DATES
Frday, September 27th
Corner Hotel, Melbourne, VIC
Thursday, October 10th
The Factory, Sydney, NSW
Saturday, November 2nd
Barossa Beer and Cider Festival, Barossa, SA
TICKET INFO AVAILABLE HERE
