Northampton folk-rockers Lunaxis, fronted by Carly Loasby, have had a busy first year and celebrate the milestone with the release of their debut EP, What Good Is Their Love. New Boots caught up with Loasby for the lowdown.
How would you describe your sound to the uninitiated?
This is a question we always struggle to answer! We like to think our music is perfect for big festivals – hence us overusing the phrase ‘festival sound’! Because of all our different influences, we are a mash up of indie-pop, blues, folk and country. We love big vocals with lots of harmonies, and memorable bluesy guitar solos.
Who are your main influences?
As mentioned, we all have our own individual tastes in music. Lunaxis as a whole are influenced by artists such as Arcade Fire, Fleetwood Mac, Lucius and Lorde when it comes to creating the large festival feel we are all about. I am very much into lyrical giants like Bob Dylan, Tracy Chapman and Patti Smith. I enjoy telling a story and using personal experiences as inspiration.
Tell us about the What Good Is Their Love EP.
The EP is a story based on the stages of being the victim of narcissistic abuse in a relationship. It begins with the track ‘Big Love’, which is all about falling very quickly, and deeply in love, so much so that you believe you wouldn’t be anything without that person. As the EP progresses, it reveals more about the reality of that feeling, and how vulnerable it can make you. It describes how the mask slowly slips from the romantic partner, and how the victim keeps trying to put it back into place. Eventually, something so catastrophic happens that there is no coming back from it. The EP ends with the title track, ‘What Good is Their Love’, which is all about the epiphany of realising the person you love is only ever going to keep you in a circle of toxicity. The last poignant lyric is “the only way to win this game is not to play”.
What are your live shows like? Any favourite places to play?
Our live shows are awesome! We have a great time on stage and gel really well with each other. As a new band we are currently building our name in the Northamptonshire area, and are looking to expand from there. There are a few smaller venues we have coming up over the next month, but now it’s festival season. The next festival we have is actually my favourite local event of the year, which is Woodfest at Irchester Country Park. We will be playing on the main stage on Saturday August 12th.
What has been your favourite band moment of this first year?
This has to be at our EP launch [last week] when we finished the set. The crowd cheered and rushed to the stage to buy CDs, it was manic! After six months of hard work with the EP it was such a great feeling to see the positive response we had. It was by far one of our favourite band moments!
What was the last album you bought/streamed?
Howlin’ Wolf – The Absolutely Essential
What is your burning desire for the band to do in the future? What plans do you have?
We want to carry on making great, authentic music. The big dream is to eventually to be playing alongside our hero’s at all the big festivals. Headlining Glastonbury maybe?! Until then we will be putting in the hard work to perfect our art, and focus on getting our name out there. We believe in Lunaxis, and are looking forward to the future!
What Good is Their Love is out now: stream/buy from the usual platforms, or purchase a CD from the band at a show.
