A Chat with Luna Waves (28.11.22)
The brainchild of singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Rob Muir, Luna Waves draws together elements of psychedelic rock, shoegaze, indie-rock, indie-folk, and many other genres in his inimitable sound. We speak with Luna Waves about his new album Bruised Gold, binge-watching TV shows, discovering new music and future plans.
OSR: What inspired you to become a musician?
Luna Waves: I think like a lot of people it stems from falling in love with music and specific bands at an early stage. I started to get heavily into rock/grunge in the early to mid-nineties in my teens, which led to me starting to learn guitar at around age 13. In addition to that, my Dad is a musician and a guitar teacher, so I was exposed to a lot of different types of music pretty much from birth.
OSR: What does music mean to you?
Luna Waves: For me, music has been the constant in my life that I have always turned to, I love music just as much when I am happy or sad. I also tend to tie significant life moments and events to particular albums and songs and I am a firm believer that music is a soundtrack to our lives. For me music is a healer and a cathartic experience all at once, it is my outlet and my way of expressing myself and my creativity. I think life would be soulless without music.
OSR: What can you tell us about your album Bruised Gold? Is there a backstory or theme to the album?
Luna Waves: Sometimes I will create a theme and then write the music around that theme, which is what I did when writing my previous album Blood Moon but for Bruised Gold, the theme only started to emerge along the way. Bruised Gold is a more focused and concise record which explores the bittersweet nature of life’s ups and downs – in many ways, it’s an album of contradictions and the themes bounce between hope, nostalgia and sadness. It is intended as a sort of companion piece to Blood Moon as they contain overlapping musical and lyrical themes.
OSR: If you could change one thing about Bruised Gold, what would it be?
Luna Waves: I am really proud of the album and I think it contains some of my best work to date but I am also very self-critical and never fully satisfied. In some ways I think that’s good because it makes me push myself harder, that said, I tried not to overthink this album, which is why I set myself the goal of releasing two albums in one calendar year. I am still learning in terms of recording techniques and this is an area I will be working on more in the future.
OSR: What do you hope people take from your music?
Luna Waves: Ultimately music is a very personal experience and all I can really hope for is that my music moves people in some way or that they might find something relatable in the lyrics. Mostly I hope that people can immerse themselves in the album as a whole and complete listening experience as this is how I interact with music. I’m not really a fan of singles or the disposable nature of how music is consumed now. I miss the 90s and listening to tapes in my room for hours on end. I hope some people still do that!
OSR: If you could describe Luna Waves in three words, what would they be?
Luna Waves: Dreamy, spacey and cinematic…maybe!
OSR: If you were to binge-watch a television show, what show would it be and why?
Luna Waves: I have quite a few favourites and I am quite a big TV and movie fan but at the moment my favourite TV shows are: Stranger Things, it’s full of nostalgic references so it’s perfect for me! I have also been really enjoying Succession, Sex Education, Kobra Kai, Bad Sisters, Hacks and Upright and would highly recommend those. That’s way too many, I know!
OSR: What do you think is the best way to discover new music?
Luna Waves: I think the best way for me personally is to read articles or follow specific radio shows/podcasts. I get a lot of recommendations from Paste magazine and I enjoy watching unknown artists to me on Tiny Desk and KEXP. It’s hard to answer in a way because the consumer experience is always changing but I still love buying vinyl and browsing record shops. Also watching live music and seeing support bands you haven’t heard of is always a good way to discover something new.
OSR: What is the best advice you have ever received?
Luna Waves: Don’t do music if you want to make money! Jokes aside, in a musical sense it was probably just to keep working on your craft and to keep trying to learn something new and push yourself outside of your comfort zone as much as possible…I’m still working on that last bit!
OSR: Do you have future plans for Luna Waves?
Luna Waves: I have a few ideas moving forward. I have a lot of extra material from the sessions for my last two albums, so I might release some form of B-Sides collection in 2023. I will also be working towards recording my 4th album but I would like to change up my recording routine/environment and make it a different experience for me. I will probably look into renting a barn or something on AirBNB and record the whole record in a really short space of time. Watch this space I guess.
Many thanks to Rob Muir for speaking with us. For more from Luna Waves check out his official website, Facebook, Instagram and Spotify.
This artist was discovered via Musosoup #sustainablecurator
