Q&A: The Moonlight Years

The Moonlight Years are a band from Vancouver, Canada. On the 14th of April they released their self-titled debut album, which is now available to stream on Spotify. The band’s lineup are Etienne Tremblay, Randy Kramer, Nick Colebrook, Carlos Hernandez, Daryl Lieffering, and Miguel Hurtado. Four singles from the album, “Miscommunication”, “That Way”, “Forest Thumping”, and “Why’d She Do That” came out earlier this year. There’s a variety of different sounds inspired by classic rock, but overall the album has a chill, mellow vibe. The first two tracks, “That Way” and “Miscommunication” have a cosmic folk meets psych sound. “Through This Gate” has a more R&B vibe. “Forest Thumping” has a more raga rock vibe. My favourite tracks are “Forest Thumping”, “Why’d She Do That”, and “You Got Us In Trouble”. The last track on the album “Forever Under” has a really nice instrumental jam on it – another highlight of the album.

We have Randy Kramer from the band here with us for a Q&A. He also engineered and mixed the album.

Angie: How would you describe your music to a new listener?

Randy: Our music is psych but I think that word has lost all definition when it comes to the music we play, to me music is psychedelic in general and takes you to alternate world other then the meat space we live in. So I’d just say its music with tones reminiscent of the 60’s and 70’s with interesting melodies and grooves, one thing we stand by is using vintage instruments and tones, we’re not afraid to be catchy and also not afraid to experiment.

Angie: How did the band get started?

Randy: I’ve known Etienne, Nick and Daryl since forever, maybe 18 years, I lost count, and Miguel and Kanu are from Mexico. Vancouver is a small place and we all use to play in different groups around the same time but we always wanted to play together, its been a long time coming but it all came together.

Angie: How popular is psychedelic rock music in Canada?

Randy: If you’re referring to the 60’s definition of psychedelic music, I’d say it’s pretty rare to find a band doing strictly that, I find Vancouver to be either punk, metal or country, but I’d say metal is psych too? Country can be psych also, haha.

Angie: How did you get into classic rock?

Randy: Story has probably been told by many millennials but yeah, you go into your dads record collection, and you put on Zeppelin and it changes your outlook on life and music.

Angie: What albums influenced your sound the most?

Randy: Personally its constant revolving door of some contemporary artists like Tame Impala’s Innerspeaker and Lonerism, all of Sam Evian’s albums, all of Cut Worms albums. And if I’m in writers block I always goto the Beatles.

Angie: What have you been listening to lately?

Randy: Spotify’s algorithms haha, joking aside I still cant get enough of Sam Evians tones and melodies, he does great recordings. Oh and I put on some Goat recently. I forgot how awesome they are.

Angie: What was writing and recording your debut album like?

Randy: The writing process is years but the recording process is a fraction of that, me and Etienne work on stuff together fine-tuning tunes of the past, I think one song on the album I wrote when I was 20. Parts are all mixed, mashed from different periods in our lives. We also recorded live in my house onto 4 track tape.

Angie: What are your favourite songs on the album?

Randy: I can’t really say…. they change day to day, but as I write this my favourite is probably… Got Us in Trouble.

Angie: What are your goals for the year?

Randy: What are our goals for the year? We’re gonna record a double LP since we have another 20+ songs and it keeps adding up and we need to get our ideas down before they become lost.

Angie: Any words for your fans?

Randy: Stay Humble.

You can follow The Moonlight Years on Facebook, Instagram, and Bandcamp.

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