Emotional band LUNAR WOODS have been together for a while, having an all new album out soon enough.... The band goes into discussion about the current pandemic, music, and the future ahead.
1. Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.
Lunar Woods is a band from the depth of Russian woods with not a Russian sound at all. The band was founded by Ilya and Alexey inspired by the sound of western music. The band surely has local color and has absorbed a great number of various influences – this is how a unique cocktail of Lunar Woods sound was born.
For a long time, the project existed as a studio one. But recently we are four, and we started to play live actively. This year a second guitar, Andrey Kutyavin, joined us, shortly after the new drummer, Ravil Nizametdinov. With new members Lunar Woods recorded a fresh album which will be released in autumn 2021. Of course, most part of the material and the ideas are contribution of our front man, Ilya. But Lunar Woods is a team of authors, so our music is a fruit of teamwork where each member is engaged.
2. What’s the origin of the band’s name?
At the time when the band was founded, it consisted of Alexey and me only. We were already composing, recording something, working on new songs, but the band did not have a name then. We were looking for a name for no less than a year.
It was a real challenge! Nothing suited us. We were building models of associative series based on things we like, then searching for combinations, rejected what we did not like, and so on. Only a year later we got a new name, Lunar Woods. This is a nice wordplay and the right images. And still today the name reflects what we want to associate our material with.
3. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
All members of the band currently live in Izhevsk. Music scene in Izhevsk is rather diverse. For a long time, the city was known as one of the capitals of Russian electronic music: trip hop started playing here even earlier than in England. Today there are good projects here playing heavier music (Psychosis, Cephalic Impurity), there is still electronic music, there is music with ethnic roots (Kot Kubitz, Post-Dukes, etc.), punk rock scene.
Many musicians play in cover bands at various parties and events. It is a sad observation that recently more and more musicians go to cover band industry. It’s not bad by itself, people need this. But I am more about other side. I would like to hear more new material from musicians who definitely have something to say. It just seems to me that if you are not composing, you die as a musician. But unfortunately, music industry in Russia forces to search for alternative ways to earn money, including re-playing someone else’s material. I would like to see more powerful festivals, with top-level organization and developed industry comfortable for the listener and for the musician.
4. How would you describe your style?
Hard question for us! It always seemed to us that defining a style is a prerogative of the listener. Seriously speaking, we may say we play something like Post-Grunge with elements of Progressive Metal and Stoner Metal. In general, our style is being transformed album to album, and the sound of last album may be called heavier and more progressive.
5. What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your works?
One can become acquainted with our discography if listens to a compilation of several albums which is called Across The Lunar Woods. A couple of years ago changes happened in our line-up: our drummer changed. There was a small pause in the life of our band, and then we decided that is was time to work on new album. We recorded and mixed a disc with a total duration of more than 70 minutes called Pain No More which will be released in autumn 2021.
Work on the album took around 2 years, and approach to composing was rather different from previous one. We worked on draft versions all together until each element of a track satisfied all participants. That is why we were putting some tracks together again and again while changing speed, structure and lyrics.
By September 2021 we have already released 4 singles from future album, and several videos. The album is not long in coming!
6. Do you have any new music in the works?
As already mentioned, a new album is about to come, but we always work on new music. Now we are making a small acoustic album with already released songs of the band re-arranged for acoustic sound (Dead End, Welcome, A Brand New Story), as well as totally new songs that we are making from scratch. Then, I am sure, we will devote ourselves to a new full-scale album. No stopping!
7. How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out?
In pandemic time it is rather hard to plan a band tour. However, in 2022 we are targeting to have a small tour around Europe, to make a presentation of a new album and to tour around Russian cities with new material in the nearest future.
8. What plans do you have for the future as a band?
We are definitely not planning to stop. We have a whole lot of plans. These are performances, filming video, and, of course, recording new material. Work in the studio for us is a way to develop and to discover other side of ourselves. This process is the most inspiring, yet difficult at times. We are seriously targeting to film a video to support the album, and we’re now looking for a director. So, we are full of enthusiasm and inspired by upcoming plans.
9. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
One can listen to our music on almost all popular platforms such as Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music, Bandcamp, Yandex.Music and others. You can also buy a disc or other merch on our website https://lunarwoods.band/. By the way, we are planning to make new merch occasioned with the release. That is why it is worth subscribing us in social media to be sure you do not miss novelties.
10. What is it you’d like a listener to remember the most when hearing your music for the first time?
You never know what track will catch the listener and why exactly. We can only make assumptions. But we usually hear that listeners are caught by our peculiar mysterious atmosphere. Many people highlight melodic solos or unique vocal. There are listeners paying special attention to lyrics: it’s also a result of thoughtful work, there is something to be caught by indeed!
A lot depends on the mood and presentation. In general people usually like listening to live music at music gigs. The picture is important. This is the way a person gets to know the material better and gets imbued with it. We just hope to hit the mood of the listener, and then a track will surely be to listener’s taste.
