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Interview | Tamara and Jonny from Me And The Moon

Interview | Tamara and Jonny from Me And The Moon

In a homecoming of sorts, the Portsmouth and Guildford based band Me And The Moon are headlining the Edge of the Wedge on February 21st. The band consists of Tamara Grzegorzek (vocals), Jonny Elstone (guitar) and Alex Archer (drums). The trio will be joined on the night with Jerry Williams and Callum Linttot. I have caught up with Jonny and Tamara to find out more about the band and what you can expect at the upcoming show.

Could you tell me about how you initially got involved with music and who influenced you most? 
Jonny: I have quite a classical background with both my parents being music teachers, I started out in choirs and orchestras and things like that. I went ‘off’ the violin and started playing guitar in jazz bands and other bits at school until my sister’s boyfriend (now my brother-in-law) introduced me into bands like The Smiths, The Stone Roses and really started getting me into that 80s guitar sound.

For those who are new to your music which three tracks would you encourage them to check out first and why?
Jonny and Tamara: ‘Standing Still‘ is our most recent single, it’s our shortest track by far and I think sums up what we’re going for sonically quite well – it’s got some catchy bits, dance bits and all the rest.

Get Away‘ probably second, it’s maybe our ‘rockier’ song. I think recording this one has some really good memories in particular and I think we’ve all got quite a strong connection to it.

Run With Wolves‘ was our first release, so still has that sentimental value to us. I think we’ve developed a lot since then but I think you’ll still hear the similar ideas that we’re going for with the newer stuff.

How do you feel when you share your music for the first time? Do you prefer to share new music live where you can see the crowd’s reaction first hand or online perhaps?
It’s a scary and exciting experience. We always play new songs live before we record them. It’s nice to see an audience reaction and it gives us a good idea as to how people feel about it and whether or not we enjoy playing it live! We’ve got a few new ones on the go at the moment so we’re excited to get a chance to play them at our upcoming shows

What bands and artists are you currently listening to and how are they inspiring you to explore and implement new ideas with your music?
Jonny: We’re big Bombay Bicycle Club fans – we’ve been playing around with synths and samplers. Creating some different more exciting and interesting textures. Their last album is really cool the way they kind of mash up all the samples and live sounds and I think that’s definitely we’re playing with and looking at more. Rae Morris‘s new singles are really awesome. Cool catchy pop but with lots of real feelings and meanings behind it. We saw her over at The Boileroom in Guildford back in the summer and she was amazing.

Tamara: Matthew and The Atlas are really cool as it’s like a blend of Pop, Folk and Indie Guitars with a mix of strings and horns. The 2nd Album especially is crazy clever how it mashes up so many ideas and genres with amazing harmonies. We’ve always focused on harmonies but I think we draw influence from so many places that it’s important to work out how they all slot together nicely to make something a little bit different which is what we’re focussing on right now.

What can those fortunate enough to have tickets expect from your live show?
Tamara: We’ve taken the last 2 months pretty much off gigs and just focussing on writing some new songs which are almost ready to get out there so I think this tour is going to be where we introduce these into the set. And our Portsmouth show is the first in our tour, so we’re super excited for you guys to be the first to hear them!

You are being supported by Jerry Williams and Callum Linttot, can you tell us a little bit about what we can expect from them?
Jonny: Jerry is main support for the night which is gonna be awesome. She’s playing a solo set on the night which is gonna be really nice as we’ve only seen her full band before back when we went to review the Fickle Friends in Southampton so we’re looking forward to listening to her songs stripped back with a focus on just Jerry. Calum is great, he’s super busy with loads of gigs in the next few weeks, we’ve not seen him live before so we’re excited for the night and honoured to have such great people playing with us!

What does the rest of 2018 have in store for you?
Tamara: We’re releasing our next single Its Alright on 6th Feb so just before the start of the tour. We’re so excited to put it out we’ve been working on this one for a little while now. Then we’re gonna be back in the studio in spring working on some new tunes so hopefully its gonna be a busy year. Starting to get booked up for an exciting festival season too so yeah we can’t wait for 2018.

If you would like to be there then you can buy your tickets for £5 each at The Wedgewood Rooms box office or online at www.wedgewood-rooms.co.uk.

Me And The Moon. Shot in Stoke Park by Rob Blackham

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