In the run-up to their album release and performance in Whelan’s, Half Moon Run guitarist Conner Molander tells Daniel Ryan about living out his childhood dreams.
Still quite fresh in the music scene, having only formed in 2010, Half Moon Run don’t seem to be caught up in the hype of their newfound success. Conner Molander, Devon Portielje, Dylan Phillips and Isaac Symonds from Montreal, Canada, are on the verge of releasing Sun Leads Me On, their second album as Half Moon Run. The band will begin touring in support of their new album in October and as it happens, will be “playing Ireland on the day it comes out.” Molander spoke to OTwo ahead of the album release and European tour.
The guitarist gives a distinct impression of being very down to earth, and claims to feel “more than ever like [he’s] been learning the lesson you’ve got to be yourself. You’ve got to keep the same motivation that you [had] when you got started. Don’t let it all get to your head. It’s not that hard to do, just the day-to-day life that you live keeps you in check. All that stuff aside, it’s about the music, it’s about the life you live. The rest is very flattering, but it doesn’t change much.” This truly refreshing approach to life inside the music industry only serves to make Half Moon Run seem even more genuine than their music already has.
“It’s about the music, it’s about the life you live. The rest is very flattering, but it doesn’t change much.”
The foursome have come a long way since their 2012 debut album Dark Eyes, and have recently sold out their local venue, Metropolis, on all four show dates, as part of their upcoming tour schedule. “It’s really cool, I’m really, really looking forward to that,” Molander says of this. The enchantment of an individual living out their childhood dream is clear in his tone. Thus far, the band has released three singles from the upcoming album, namely ‘Turn Your love’, ‘Trust’ and ‘Hands In The Garden’, all of which sound like something of a departure from the musical style in the previous Half Moon Run album. In these tracks, they don’t seem as reliant as before on vocal harmonies and percussive focus. Molander assures us that these songs are “anomalies”, and “as far as the rest of the album goes, there’s still a lot of harmony and more folky stuff and a lot of different styles. In some ways, there are some departures, and some stuff got even a little more folky [than before].”
Speaking with Molander, it becomes clear that the band is evolving, albeit in a way that’s staying true to its roots. The four musicians are using what’s happening around them as inspiration. The new songs now transition from their first release with “a little bit less of the love song type stuff on this record”, the subject matter of the songs being, as Molander puts it, “more about the circumstances that we find ourselves in as we get older and a little bit more mature.” Listening to their latest tracks, it’s plain that they haven’t lost their unique identity as a band and have resisted giving in to pop culture and the charts’ temptations: their indie/folk sound is not lost and still has the same romantic vibes to it.
With many music acts nowadays getting involved in other areas of arts and media, Molander expresses his interest in this. “The band happened before I was even ready to think like that. I was nineteen when Half Moon Run started and I’ve been doing it ever since, but I’d love to get into creative projects and collaborations in all types of media, in writing or film. I’m open to anything really and I’d love to branch out.” Half Moon Run, like so many other up and comers, have been introduced to new ways of expressing their creativity almost every day. “We’ve been lucky to get a lot of new stuff. It’s like the childhood dream when you get loads of new gear… We buy a new synthesiser and as soon as you turn [it on], you basically get a free song out of it. You get inspired by this sound, and a little riff comes out. In that way, every time you get a new sound [and] you get to play with it, it’s inspiring to put a voice to it.”
Half Moon Run have toured with numerous different artists in the past few years and Molander doesn’t forget to mention some acts that have inspired and helped the group to become who they are. He cites Patrick Watson and Thus Owls, both fellow Canadian acts, as being amongst their musical influences.
Half Moon Run have been compared to a diverse array of bands, including Fleet Foxes, Daughter and Alt-J. However, they insist on protecting their own individuality and it’s quite evident that they aren’t modeling their artistic image on that of anyone else. Rather, they have an idea of their own and want to pursue that, and to “connect” with people around the world through their own feelings and inspirations.
One of the most charming things about Half Moon Run is their extremely obvious love for and interest in what they do. Molander explains that “it was always a dream to play music all over the world, but I think mainly we would dream about the music we wanted to make. That was the most exciting thing in the beginning – just hearing the sound, and how everybody’s different voice contributed to something unique, something different to the individual. That was inspiring, and then for it to connect with people was really special.”
Sun Leads Me On will be released on 23rd October. Half Moon Run play Whelan’s in Dublin on the same date.
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