Artist Spotlight: Elk Moon
In this conversation, Luke and Drew share insights into their backgrounds, the challenges they've faced in their musical journeys, their creative processes and how they stay true to themselves amid evolving artistic landscapes. From their inspirations and songwriting secrets to their unique promotional ideas and thoughts on the music industry, get to know these artists beyond the stage and discover what drives their passion for music. Let's dive in!
SXSW Pop: Can you tell us a bit about your background and upbringing?
Luke: I was raised in a musical family, but I was actually resistant to it until I got into high school. I think that when I was really young I didn’t realize I could make music like the songs that I listened to on the radio. I thought that the only option was to sing Kumbaya or something. Anyway, my sophomore year of high school I joined choir (mostly because my friends were in it). Luckily our choir teacher was really amazing and he took me under his wing. At the same time, one of my good friends was really into the blues, so I started going over to his house and jamming on the weekend. A few years later I auditioned to Berklee College of Music in Boston and got in. That’s where Drew and I met. We bonded over our shared musical interest of rock as well as our disdain for rules and establishments (so much so that we both convinced each other to drop out). I did go back later and finish at Berklee though.
Drew: I grew up in rural New Hampshire, and I think because there's nothing to do there I just kinda started singing songs. Melodies just came to me easily, and before long I was playing in my first band at 15.
SXSW Pop: What challenges did you face early in your career, and how did you overcome them?
SXSW Pop: What challenges did you face early in your career, and how did you overcome them?
Luke: A challenge that I faced early on, and still face, is that I am a perfectionist. I was never even in a band before I went to Berklee because I figured if I wasn’t as good as Jimmy Page yet, then what’s the point? But that type of mentality holds you back and keeps you from learning (and if you are a producer, it will straight up drive you mad). There’s only so much growth that can come from practicing at home by yourself. The first time you get on stage you realize, oh my God! What is going on?! This isn’t like being in my bedroom at all! I have had to learn to let go, get out of my own way, and trust that my ability will carry me through. Also, it helps to realize that what is barely passing to me is far beyond what most people expect anyway.
SXSW Pop: What do you enjoy doing when you’re not making music?
Luke: What is your favorite food to eat when you’re not eating? I’m not entirely sure I understand the question.
SXSW Pop: How do you stay true to yourself while evolving as an artist?
SXSW Pop: How do you stay true to yourself while evolving as an artist?
Luke: This is probably the hardest thing about going to a music school. I was always worried that I was going to lose myself and become one of those people who can play a million notes per second and yet somehow still manage to make it sound super boring like they have nothing to say other than, “hey, look how good I am”. Ironically, I think that as long as you are concerned about that happening then it won’t happen.
At the end of the day, you have to remember why you got into music in the first place, and that goes for anything in life that takes a tremendous amount of effort. For me it has always been about being able to write better songs, or compositions that move people. Even if I am going through a phase where I am practicing for hours every day, it is never about getting better just for the sake of being better. Although I do have to admit that I find the physical challenge of it to be meditative.
SXSW Pop: Where do you find inspiration for your lyrics and melodies?
Drew: I find that melodies tend to come first for me. Then the melody and chord progression evokes a feeling, maybe a riff, and the lyrics are based on that vibe. I almost never write lyrics first.
Luke: Most of my lyrics come from my observations of society. I do have some songs that are quite personal, but really from a young age I have just always been bewildered (and frustrated) by the way our society functions. It seems like things have not made sense for such a long time that we forgot that it isn’t normal. We have been at war for almost my entire life. We have entire industries devoted to crushing people both physically and spiritually. We put trust in people whose jobs are to lie to us. We all know how stupid that is, so why don’t we just not do it anymore? The people in these industries come up with such complicated reasons for things needing to be this way when it is so painfully obvious and simple that the bottom line is that they just want to make money. Then the rest of us come up with complicated reasons to justify it being this way because it’s easier than doing something about it. It’s insulting what we are expected to believe. They come up with some complex trigonometry equation to explain why 2+2=5 when anyone with more than one finger on each hand can tell you why that’s not true, provided that they have the courage to actually say it. It’s like our entire world is being run by the scientists from the Alien movies and all of us are like hey, we really don’t want them to create this terrifying alien that is going to kill everyone, but they said that they have to do it, and they know best so I guess we have to go along with it! Or we could all just collectively grow a spine and not go along with it… That is where my lyrics come from. My melodies happen because I’m not a rapper, so I need some way to deliver the lyrics!
SXSW Pop: Have you ever had a dream to inspire a song or an album?
SXSW Pop: Have you ever had a dream to inspire a song or an album?
Drew: Only once, but it ended up not being that good of a tune!
Luke: It is a blessing and a curse when that happens. Usually I will wake up and think, “Oh wow, that is really good! There is no way I will forget that!” Then if I go back to sleep it is a 100% guarantee that it is gone forever. So I have to decide, is that good enough to justify getting out of bed, figuring out how to play it and then recording it. During the day if I have an idea I can just hum it into a voice memo and figure it out later. But for some reason that doesn’t seem to work very well with a dream.
SXSW Pop: How have your fans responded to your latest release?
Luke: Our latest release is one that Drew wrote called “Back In Hollywood” and I think that people really dig it. I came up with the guitar parts after Drew showed it to me and for some reason I got it in my head that I was going to make the guitar on this song a tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan who is one of my biggest influences. I don’t play in that style as much in this project and I think that people have really enjoyed it.
Drew: Our fans have been hearing this song for a few shows now, but once the recording finally dropped we got a lot of compliments on the track's production and mixing. Luke worked *really* hard to get it as close to radio ready as possible. I think it sounds great too.
SXSW Pop: Were you surprised by any reactions?
Drew: Last weekend we played a show at a kind of old timey western venue, not exactly our music's vibe. But as soon as we started Back in Hollywood, a bunch of people started crowding up front and filming. I guess it made an impression!
Luke: I wasn’t sure what people in Hollywood would think of it because it doesn’t paint the picture that you see in the movies. It is more of an honest take of what Hollywood is like for the average person trying to live there. When Drew showed it to me, I liked that it was not romanticizing Hollywood. Most people in the country probably have no idea what Hollywood is like and this song is kind of saying hey, this is how the average person would probably experience Hollywood if they decided to move here. The Hollywood from the movies doesn’t exist. But actually, people from Hollywood seem to really be able to relate to it as well.
SXSW Pop: How do you plan to promote your latest project? Any unique approaches? What’s the most challenging aspect of being a song artist?
Drew: It's so hard to compete for people's attention nowadays. We will be organizing a flash mob next week at the intersection of Sunset and Vine. Everyone will be wearing gorilla suits and firing silly string while the song plays on 20 different bluetooth speakers. Follow our social media if you'd like to participate.
Luke: We are constantly trying to think of different ways to promote our music. It can certainly be a challenge. On the one hand there are probably more avenues for independent artists to promote themselves than there have ever been. On the other hand, when everyone has a voice and can talk all at once what you end up with is just a bunch of noise and standing out can be a real issue, even if you have something that people might actually be interested in.
The biggest challenge to being an artist for us right now is that artists are expected to do everything on their own. So much emphasis is placed on things that actually have nothing to do with the art, and because of that music is suffering.
An example of what I mean is someone who’s influence cannot be overstated for this band: Jimi Hendrix. People who knew him said that he went to sleep with his guitar and didn’t put it down from the time he got up to the time he went back to bed. Artists like that are not rewarded today. If Hendrix had been born today you probably would never hear of him. People would tell him to put down his guitar and pick up his iphone so he can start promoting himself. He didn’t care about things like that. He didn’t care about likes or followers and that is what made him such an amazing artist.
Hopefully it will change. We think it must, and we would like to be a part of that change. We even have some ideas about how it might happen and what could facilitate it. But for now we have to learn to work with where we are at and find a balance in it somehow. It’s a difficult time for musicians, but I guess good art come from struggle if you can make it through the noise.
Also, apparently there will be a flash mob with silly string?? This is news to me, but I say might as well go all the way and have fully functional space suits. And obviously it goes without saying that there should probably be a couple dozen blue angels flying over for the outro... If anyone has a Blue Angel we can borrow, hit us up!
SXSW Pop: What's the most important thing to you when it comes to creating a sense of atmosphere or mood in your music?
Drew: I believe a song, especially a finished recording, lives and dies on atmosphere. I originally came up with the main hook for this song during my nightly routine of circling my Hollywood neighborhood looking for a single parking space. So I'm hoping the vibe it gives off is kinda late-nite, seedy, a little eerie.
Luke: Personally, I have always gravitated towards music that has intensity. Maybe because of my early childhood and not wanting to sing the Kumbaya songs… I don’t know. But I have no interest in music that is light and fluffy. And intensity doesn’t have to mean heavy metal blast beats. (Although let’s be real, who doesn’t love blast beats?) One of my favorite genres is classical music, particularly classical piano. The intensity in that music is created by the dynamics. A really quiet note can be more intense than a bunch of fast loud notes. It can be intensely beautiful like Claire De Lune, or dark like Chopin’s Funeral March, or any emotion really. I just want it to have a deep human emotion that it is expressing rather than staying on the surface level.
