The Big Moon is making waves – and not just in terms of the tide.
This retro-rock four piece broke onto the scene with songs ‘Sucker’ and ‘Eureka Moment’, and recently released 2016 album The Road. Girl-gang-like and effortlessly cool, these ladies are changing the face of pop-flavoured alt-rock.
The Edge got a chance to chat with Celia, Fern, Jules and Soph about beginnings, futures, popcorn and Ribena.
For anyone who hasn’t heard of you, can you describe yourselves in 3 words?
Jules: Ratty guitar pop.
Celia: Solid good times.
How did you form?
J: I was in a dead-end waitressing job with no prospects and wondering what to do about it, so I decided I may as well have a go at being a rockstar. I put a poster up and started asking around for band members – whether they could actually play instruments or not wasn’t that important – and then loads of magical stuff happened, and keeps happening!
C: We all basically had nothing to do at the same time. It was so so unbelievably lucky!
Is there any story behind why you chose the name The Big Moon?
J: It controls the tides, is probably the reason why life on earth exists and is this giant sort of full stop that everyone on Earth’s eyes rest on when they look up at night. And it’s like a giant, legendary, revelatory flash of an arse cheek. I’m not saying that we are like any of those things, but what a thing to be named after.
C: It took a really long time. Coming up with a band name was probably the most difficult problem we faced when starting the band. At one point Fern just ducked out of the whole process because she couldn’t take the stress any more.
What inspires you to write music and do you have a particular process?
J: All sorts of things inspire me. I like focussing on the mundane bits of life and putting them next to the most volcanic, emotional bits of life – and that contrast always gets into the music too, it’s loud/quiet, hard/soft, harmonic/clashy. Like sweet and salty popcorn.
C: Mmmm. Sweet and salty popcorn.
What has been the highlight of your careers so far?
Fern: Walking past Jon Snow, former Lord Commander of the Nights Watch, in a bar after a gig.
C: For me it’s the smaller moments, like when we all work together to make something happen or support each other in making difficult decisions. Or being on tour together for weeks, having one day off and still being excited to see each other again the next day. Big things always have so much pressure on them to be exciting or fulfilling but really there are so many tiny experiences that happen between us that nobody sees that make me so happy to be in this band.
Have you ever had to deal with negative publicity or pushy media, and how do you deal with it?
J: Yeah we had a troll once. I just printed out all the messages onto A4 paper and put the paper up my bum.
You’ve just finished your first headline tour. How was that? Were there any tour highlights?
F: Hull was mental and the last night in London was pretty special.
C: Hull was amazing! And I loved Glasgow. Actually all of the nights were great. It’s still exciting to see actual humans you’ve never met before in the crowd singing along to your songs.
Do you have any tour essentials?
F: Coffee.
C: Tubular Bells, Lynne Tillman, Bob’s Burgers, Captain Morgans, Ribena.
Soph: Coconut water is really doing it for me when I’m hungover. I think it’s psychological but until that wears off I’m going with it.
What else have you got lined up for the year?
F: Gigs, probably.
C: We’re gonna finally make a fucking album, guys, and it’s going to blow your minds!
Finally; do any of you want to go to the moon?
J: I’ve already been, but my phone died and I couldn’t take pictures and no one believes me.
C: Yes! Imagine seeing the earth from the outside?! Although space is obvs terrifying.
S: No thank you, but I’d love to look at the pics!
