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We sat down with Voya the Guitarist/Producer from Sydney band, Bad Moon Born…
Where are you currently based?
Voya: Currently based in Sydney. Predominantly around where the Fat Pizza movie was filmed.
How did you first start playing music?
Voya: One of the most inspiring moments for me was getting to high school, and being taken around on a tour of the facilities.
Once we got to the music room, we saw a senior band covering Toxicity by System Of A Down, which lead to me dropping any other interests I had in life to do the same.
They were cool AF.
Please tell us how Bad Moon Born started:
Voya: Bad Moon Born started after a couple of our previous bands fizzled out through our musical journey, and we wanted to start afresh.
It was also our way of rebranding after doing some pretty cringe-worthy things as a younger band.
Your latest single ‘Light Leaves The Day’ is a step away from your hard rock sound, what influenced the sound and songwriting for this track?
Voya: Just felt like doing something different. We’re into a vast array of music and genres, which is something we wanted to lean into further.
We also wanted to use this track as a way of easing people into what’s to come.
How did you go about writing ‘Light Leaves The Day’?
Voya: I had the chord progression you can hear on the acoustic for a while, and Jordan was really keen on a ballad because he’s a sensitive guy.
My main objective was that I wanted it to be a ballad without sounding like a traditional ballad, if that makes sense. I feel like the style of bass and drumming really help to keep it from falling into that stock ballad territory.
I’m glad we achieved this, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed the song as much. As for the lyrics – that’s all Jordan. The whole singles collection we released is quite personal for him, lyrically.
I feel like this was the perfect touch to end this journey and hopefully, it arouses some curiosity around what we’ll be doing next.
Where and when did you record/produce/master and who with?
Voya: I recorded, produced, and mixed the track at my studio almost a year ago now, I think. The drums (and chair we used to sample the rimshot) were recorded with Chris Blancato (Northlane).
He also mastered this track, as well as the last 3 singles.
How did you approach the recording process?
Voya: Jordan and I demoed the whole song midway through 2020, and sat on it for a while, thinking about what we could add to it. Anything we tried adding caused the track to lose its stark, intimate feel.
When we started to track the song properly, we only ended up re-recording the vocals, guitars, and drums, due to deciding we’d prefer to keep the original synth, bass, and string parts.
So it was a fairly spaced out, and naturally occurring process.
What do you have planned to support the single?
Voya: We’ve just released a video clip for it, and will be doing a live performance of it soon as part of a virtual concert-type thing. We’ve also got the great team over at Beehive handling the PR for the release.
Who are you listening to at the moment?
Voya: Nickelback and Skrillex, exclusively. I’m not even joking.
What do you like to do away from music?
Voya: Every time I’ve been asked this I don’t know what to say, because the deeper I think about it, the more I realize I don’t actually do much else apart from music.
This leads me to wonder what I’d do if I couldn’t do music anymore, which in turn leads me to the deep dark sadness of feeling a sense of shallowness in my life.
That said, one could argue that it’s just an obsessive commitment.
What’s planned for 2022?
Voya: Writing our debut album. Anything else isn’t worth planning at the moment, unless you’re someone who loves covid related postponements and cancellations.
Favourite food and place to hangout?
Voya: Ćevapi. If you don’t know what they are, I highly suggest trying them ASAP.
My favourite place to hang out is at home. I don’t enjoy going out too much because it’s usually full of loud and obnoxious people who want you to share their enthusiasm for ‘being out.’
I’ll stick to my studio, thanks.
