Looking back, what were some of your earliest entries into music appreciation? And music production?

Personally, I (Harry) was around 9 when my dad introduced me to Athlete’s debut album, which I still love now – My dad is a fantastic guitarist and would take me to shows for the few years that followed that – This was all very inspiring. Production-wise, my first ventures were recording a few terrible home demos with a makeshift setup and using voice notes on my phone to record vocals haha.

 

Take us through your songwriting process. Are there any particular steps you take when putting music together?

The songwriting process actually changes up quite a lot. A lot of the time I’ll write and demo a song with some very basic bass and drums; send it to everyone and if they like it we’ll jam it/re-work it together. Sometimes it’s as simple as someone coming up with a part and we’ll craft the song around that in a rehearsal room together. Recently I wrote a chorus that I thought was catchy, but couldn’t figure out any verses at home, took it to the guys and within an hour we had a full song that is now one of our favourites to play live (coming this summer). We don’t have any particular set of steps we follow for the writing process – we’re trying to make writing more collaborative, as the early days of Stay Lunar consisted of bringing my bedroom demos to life. Our best stuff seems to come when we all work together, which I think is a testament to us as a group.

What gets your creative juices flowing?

Each other! When we’re jamming together or the studio together, we come up with all sorts that we definitely wouldn’t if we were alone. I’m also very inspired by watching bands live, it’s rare that I get home after a gig and don’t immediately pick up my guitar and see what I come up with.

As a musician, it becomes apparent that there is a huge difference between the art and the business. Is there anything about the music scene that you would personally change?

More female representation in all aspects of the music industry, and cutting down on pay-to-play style promo. I guess those things are fairly self-explanatory, but it upset us seeing a huge lack of female representation on festival lineups, etc. Being 5 white males we feel we should be talking about this as much as possible and doing whatever we can to help inequality in the music world.
Studio work and music creation or performing and interacting with a live audience, which do you prefer?
We’d all agree that performing live is the most fun, but we absolutely love our time in the studio with our producers at Sugar House – it’s a like a little creative holiday, and the excitement of recording a new track that everyone will get to hear soon is a great feeling. Nothing quite beats the feeling of performing live, though.

What is the most memorable response you have had to your music?

I had an older man come up to me after a charity festival we played last year, and he said “I love your guitar-work, great stuff”, then walked off. About 2 minutes later he came back over and said “the last person I complimented on their guitar-work was Robert Smith of The Cure in 1979”, and just walked off before I could say anything.That was a surreal moment!

What’s on your current playlist?

We’re currently spinning some wonderful female artists: Snarls new album is amazing, as well as Soccer Mommy, pinkpirate, Molly Payton and Ratboys. I know that Charlie is addicted to the Tame Impala album too.

Breakdown the news for us: what can we expect from you in the near future?

After the release of the new single ‘Dreaming That I’m Not In Love’ we’ll be focused on gigging as much as possible and getting ready for our next release, which should be in early June. We’re not sure what to expect from 2020, but whatever happens, we’ll be busy working hard and taking our music as far and wide as possible. Our biggest ever headline show is on 28th March to accompany the new track, we’re really excited about that.

Famous last words?

Check us out, you might not regret it!