Photo: Brian Dukes

 

Luna Blue
New Single: Tropical
Release Date: 2nd January 2019

 

Hailing from Brighton, Luna Blue are an indie pop-rock band who bring a breath of fresh air. After releasing their debut EP “Nightjar” in 2017 with two singles which featured on the EP, they are ready to show us what they have been working on since their last release.

The quartet have just released their new single “Tropical”. The song has such an appealing funky sound even though it has a slight sentimental feel. They created their new music even more positively whilst sticking to their conventional sound. It is a perfect song for any occasion where you can move your feet.

 

Last week, we asked the band to talk to us while they were still buzzing right after the BBC Introducing live session. And Ryan the guitarist sat down and answered our questions. Get to know Luna Blue!

Very excited to talk to you today! First of all, could you introduce yourself and the band?

Hey! I’m Ryan and I play guitar in the band. The other members are Tom, vocals and rhythm guitar, Nick the bassist and backing vocals and Seb on drums and backing vocals.

Last time I saw you guys was… hmmm June? Time flies! 

Wow, it’s been a while! 

How have you been since? You seem to have had a busy year with some exciting stuff!

We’ve been great thanks! Since June, we’ve covered loads of ground. We have been working really hard at our socials, planning a 2019 tour, written and recorded four new singles! The first of which being Tropical! …and playing live on our local BBC Introducing twice!

Sounds fantastic!

Hopefully we’ll see you again at the Tropical Launch gig on 12^th January at The Prince Albert in Brighton!

It would be great!
So, you are just about to release new single “Tropical”. Well, it will be released by the time this interview is published! Could you describe the song?

Tropical is definitely our most ‘commercial’ track. We wanted to write something catchy, upbeat and as summery as we possibly could. The perfect setting for this song would be with a Pina Colada on the beach partying for sure, perfect to beat away those post-Christmas blues!

Nice! The song definitely gives a beach holiday feel. Does this single lead to the second EP or an album?

Although we actually have 4 new songs written, we’ve chosen to release them as individual singles. We worked really hard on these four tracks and we wanted to give each one an equal amount of exposure. So, we are releasing them as four singles. It means that we can really focus on doing something exciting with every release for our fans!

Super! Where can we find the song for streaming or downloading?

The song will be available on all major streaming services; Spotify, Apple music, Amazon Music, Bandcamp etc. We will always release our music on streaming services as we want everyone to be able to enjoy our music. But of course we always appreciate anyone that wants to purchase our music or merchandise!

For sure. Could you tell us how you all met up and became a band?

It all started with Tom actually coming to my dorm in our first year at university to play some music for fun. We did write a couple of tracks together and released them. We both really enjoyed playing together, but felt we needed something more to really explore our writing, which eventually lead to the four piece rock band you see today!

Fantastic! How did you decide on Luna Blue as your band name?

I was in a band at college with our drummer Seb. We were called Luna Blue back then, and we really liked the name. So it stuck! It actually came to our original guitarist in a dream! We did have some horrific names before hand. I think we were originally called Deep Wave, which makes us sound like a corny 70s Prog Rock band!
(laughs)

Haha, mind you, Deep Wave could mean something about surfing?! Who are your influences? Does everyone listen to similar music or musicians?

Luna Blue is a big melting pot of different genres. I was hugely influenced by Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Jimi Hendrix and Foals. Tom by Jeff Buckley and Ben Howard, Nick by Prog Metal bands such as Periphery, Animals as Leaders and Seb by similar bands like Tool and Karnivool. We all seem to find a middle ground with indie and it seems to work, but we all like to try to inject some of our sounds into the final product!

Oh that’s quite surprising! Though you can tell from your sound that you are not influenced by just one type of music.  How do you normally go about writing your songs?

One of us will have some kind of chord sequence we really like and take it to the band. Recently we have been writing everything on recording software. We’ve found this to be amazing because we can hear all of the different parts and how they gel together. It will usually take us about 1 month to totally finish a track after rewriting it several times. Sometimes a track can be scrapped after weeks of work, but we have an endless backlog of little riffs, licks and ideas to go back to!

Okay. Do you meet up for a band practice every week like most bands do?

We meet up once a week to focus on social media and marketing the band and once again to rehearse as a band. If we need to meet up more, then we make the time. We’ve recently been preparing lots for Tropical’s release, so have been meeting up almost every night after work for about the last two months!!

Really?! might be better living together!
Will you have a special show for the release? Any other shows already planned?

We are playing at Prince Albert on the 12^th of January for Tropical‘s single launch. I don’t want to give too much away, but we have loads of special things in store. I hope you like palm trees and bananas… and musical surprises too! (smiles)

Wow, sounds great to me!
Could you tell gig goers what to expect from your shows?

High energy, dancing, partying, banter and an overall great night! We really like to involve the audience as much as we can and make sure everyone is having a great time at our shows. But we also hope that our music speaks for itself too!

It did for me! Is there anything else you would like to say?

We would like to take the time to say thank you for taking the time to involve us in your blog!

You are welcome!

Also, get down to the Prince Albert in Brighton on the 12^th of January. First 15 people through the door get a special party bag! Everything in the bag is going to be available at the gig only!

Exciting stuff!

You can purchase tickets through the page on our website: https://www.lunablueofficial.com/events/tropical-single-launch

Good luck with your release and thank you for your time! See you again very soon hopefully!

Thanks!

Teri Morris
* Content photo: Alan High Photography

 

 

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