A Conversation With Moonsville Collective.
Last Saturday, December 9th, Moonsville Collective held their fourth EP release show this year. Seeing Moonsville perform was such an honor and we’re so excited to witness what other endeavors they’ll accomplish in 2018. We met up with Corey Adams, Matt McQueen, Seth Richardson, and Kyle Schafer before the start of the show.
Enjoy our conversation with Moonsville Collective, musicians who write and perform from the depths of their soul — Musicians who take the American experience and create perfectly orchestrated numbers for us to enjoy.
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So tonight we’re celebrating your fourth EP of the year, congratulations! What made Moonsville release four separate EP’s as opposed to one or two full-length albums?
Corey: It was planned — There’s a lot of guys in the band, a lot of energy and a lot of opinions. The first two records that we did as a band were both 10 songs and it always ended up taking us a little bit longer to do it then we liked. We had this idea to push ourselves to be a little more prolific and spontaneous instead of calculated. You can either get excited about 10 songs for two years or 20 songs. Aside from the music, there’s more artwork, emails, and communication. All that kind of led us to do things a little outside the box. Doing the 20 songs forced us to keep writing.
Matt: The only thing I would add is that we had a lot of songs that Corey and Ryan had written that hadn’t been recorded yet and so the only logical way for us to put them out was to do them in 4 or 5 song chunks instead of one 20 song chunk or two 10 song chunks. Logistically, that’s just the way it worked out.
Seth: We were able to pull out older songs that Corey and Ryan wrote that we hadn’t even recorded yet and were also able to create brand new songs that we wrote straight in the studio.
Matt: There are probably four or five songs that we wrote while as we were also recording.
So out of the year, how many months were you in the studio recording?
Matt: Every quarter we’d be in the studio for one or two weeks.
Seth: A lot of studio time!
How did you go about prioritizing obligations outside of your music life?
Seth: It was psycho.
Corey: We just signed up, put it on the calendar, and when it was time to be there, we were. For better or for worse, you’ve just gotta be there.
Seth: We knew for sure that there was going to be a weekend where we’d all be there together and then after that everyone would be doing different parts.
What was a typical day in the studio for Moonsville?
Matt: We’d walk in around 9:30 am, whatever part needed to be done first would get done, and we’d get out of there around 10:30- 11:00 pm.
Corey: Yeah, they’d be around 10 hour days.
Seth: And the days would consist of a lot of pizza and a lot of King Taco. [laughs]
Corey: Beers would be open at 10:00 am.
Matt: Yes. A lot of AM beers.
What kind of beers would you start off the morning with?
Corey: Oh, man. It depends. If Seth was on he’d bring really tasty ones like a nice pale ale, or an IPA, maybe Lagunitas. If it was a cheapskate it’d be some Budweiser and Coors. No, but in all reality, we were surprisingly organized. We worked with a producer this time named, Peter Genta, and he’s out of Long Beach. Peter owns his own studio, Sanctus Sound. He’s a real DIY guy, he’s a craftsman, a recording artist, and a phenomenal musician. Peter kept us on point.
With your experience as recording musicians, do you think there has to be a choice between creating the sort of music you want to create vs. creating the sort of music that will ‘make it’?
Matt: That’s a great question. Ideally, in the perfect world, you would do something that you believed in and that you also thought would make it. One of the good things about Moonsville is that we lead with what we like and what we believe in. If it ‘makes it’ then great! But if not, then that’s okay too. We’re going to have 20 songs that we’ve released this year. They are going to be on a CD that we’ll be able to pass down to our grandkids. It’s stuff that we’ve worked hard on and we think is good. I think that’s the first motivation for what we’re doing.
Seth: On the first EP, there was pressure. We did want to produce it a little more in order to make it sound a little more polished. But after the first, we just let each EP go where it wanted to.
Corey: We definitely chose songs that would work well with each other — Songs that had good content and hook. The band has a very natural filter with that, it wasn’t super strategic.
How much compromising was done in the studio?
Seth: Compromising is definitely done when you’re recording an album, but we work very well together.
Corey: We’re not so critical with one another but once in awhile we’ll suggest how to play certain parts or accent certain notes over others, things like that. We care more about each other than we do about perfectionism, that’s probably something that’s very specific to our band. We’d rather just cheer on each other versus having the mentality that our sound has to be a certain way.
Seth: If it’s a good song, it’s a good song.
How long did it take the band to create the full lineup you have now?
Corey: Seth used to throw the best parties in Costa Mesa. He’d have these parties and everyone would go. The night that we met Matt, a couple of us were playing at a bar in Santa Ana, Chapter One. All things considered, if we got along the most then we would play music together. We’re not as strategic in regards to controlling the sound as some other bands might be.
There’s a sense of simplistic beauty in your music. Are there any themes you’d like your listeners to take from it?
Corey: As a musician, you try to tell the truth, then you try to dress up the truth a little bit, and create a little mystery. There are times where Ryan will write a tune and I will never ask him what it’s about because I don’t even what to know. I just want to revel in the mystery. I know it’s his truth and I appreciate that he’s draped it in a certain way. There’s no gimmick, we’re all writing songs having to deal with our experiences.
Matt: There’s been a couple of times where we’ve been playing a song for like 2 or 3 years and I’ll talk to whoever wrote it and I’ll make a comment about it saying, ‘oh it means this’ or ‘oh that’s a funny line’ and whatever that thought that I had is, it wouldn’t have ever occurred to them. Our songs are honest and open to interpretation.
Corey: We’re all fans of Dylan. Bob used to write and he must’ve written about all the things he was experiencing but then he wrote them in such a way. I’m not remotely comparing us to him, but one thing that I took from his book was that someone would give their thoughts on a particular song and he’d say, ‘maybe it is’ because maybe it is! As songwriters, we’re amplifying life experience and maybe they’ll make sense to someone.
Your cover art is quite special too. Who should the credit go to?
Corey: The Welch’s, Ryan and his wife. They have created all the EP artwork. Ryan’s wife is quite an artist and Ryan’s a great artist in his own right. They collaborated on the first few and then she took it. The collage theme was based on taking pieces from each song and then they created the cover off of that.
So let’s talk about tonight. Aside from soundcheck, does Moonsville have any pre-show rituals?
Corey: Probably drink too many beers and sound worse [laughs]
Matt: We really don’t, actually. There’s no big huddle, nothing like that.
Corey: We just spend time together and talk.
Matt: Every now and then before we start playing, we’ll make eye contact and say, “Hey, you good?” but that’s really the extent of that.
Corey: Tonight we’ll take a shot to celebrate the 4 EP’s being done, though.
What gear are you using tonight?
Corey: I use Coors Banquet.
Matt: Not what beer, what gear. [laughs] We all use the same LR Braggs, we have an endorsement with them.
Corey: We probably have like 8 LR Braggs on stage, Ernie Ball strings, Deering Banjos — Deering is the best. I’m a Gibson guy and Matt has a Gibson Mandolin. Seth just bought a brand new Fender bass. Dan always has something new, but for the most part, we all use the same gear.
(Kyle Schafer comes in.)
Corey: When we made the change from old-time Americana, Kyle was an integral part of that. He plays keys and his keys fill out the sustaining sound that the fiddle once did.
Words of Wisdom.
Matt: Creative types generally struggle with having discipline. Be disciplined, block out some time on your calendar, play music, write songs, and it’ll work out. But don’t stop, don’t ever stop.
Corey: In Americana music, the narcissism is much lower than in big rock n’ roll. So in what we do, having a little normalcy in your life is good. There’s been plenty of times with us where we’ve taken the time to be family guys and to honor and respect each other’s boundaries. You can’t just drink and smoke every day unless you’re that good in which case, I’m jealous. But a lot of us aren’t that good and we have a different pace.
Kyle: As far as words of wisdom for musicians, try to figure out which way you want to go first. You have to be honest with yourself because there are many definitions of success.
Socials?
Instagram: @moonsville
Facebook: @MoonsvilleCollective
