MusicsWeek: How did you get started in music?
ELK MOON: Songwriters Luke and Drew both found a love of music at a young age singing in choir. Luke grew up in a musical family but truly fell in love with the craft in high school when a friend plugged in an electric guitar at a party and started playing some blues riffs. From then on he was hooked. When Drew found his uncle's collection of classic rock vinyl, specifically The Who, he became interested in writing pop-rock songs.
MusicsWeek: What inspired you to become a musician?
LUKE: I was obsessed with the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix in high school. Even more than their virtuosity, I was struck with how they seemed to be such important cultural figures and I dreamed of making some sort of contribution on that scale.
DREW: I liked the idea of being able to produce something into existence, from nothing. Songwriters can play a few chords, or a riff, and conjure up something other people are interested in, maybe even moved by.
MusicsWeek: What genre of music do you identify with, and why?
LUKE: I have played a lot of different genres, but I probably identify the most with Hard Rock. I have always loved the primal intensity of it. It somehow feels like it taps into our roots as humans, back when we were not inundated with comfort and survival meant digging deep within yourself.
DREW: Growing up, I was really drawn to alternative rock. I liked how much freedom of creativity that genre offered, especially in the late nineties and early aughts. There was a little bit of everything -- electronic beats, fuzzy power chords, sampled bass -- all in one big tent.
MusicsWeek: How would you describe your musical style?
ELK MOON: Alternative Hard Rock. Our music is high energy and riff-based, with lyrics ranging from philosophy to current events.
MusicsWeek: Can you tell us a bit about your background and upbringing?
LUKE: I grew up in the San Joaquin Valley of California. It was a huge agricultural area, but we were equidistant from the mountains and the beach. My family loved to hunt and fish and I was the happiest if I was camping or swimming in the ocean.
DREW: I grew up in the woods of New Hampshire. My town had two traffic lights. We didn't have cable till I almost had graduated. As soon as I did, I moved to Boston to study at Berklee College of Music, where I met Luke.
MusicsWeek: What's your favorite memory related to music?
LUKE: Drew and I once played a show at a bar with one person in the audience. We had practiced really hard for it and no one was there and when it came time to play my solo I played the most ridiculous and audacious thing that I have ever played on an instrument. I couldn’t recreate it if I tried. We could barely get through the song because we were laughing so hard.
DREW: One time, Luke and I played at this rickety church in the middle of nowhere. A bunch of people showed up, and I guess there was live painting based on the music... But the crowd started painting US while we played. It was a pretty killer show!
MusicsWeek: Do you have a favorite album or artist that influences your work?
LUKE: I am hugely influenced by Muse. The album that first jumps to my mind is Black Holes and Revelations. Those songs have an urgency to them that perfectly captured a time in my life and when I first heard the lyrics to some of them it felt like someone had read my mind.
DREW: My go-to album, only for special occasions, is In Rainbows. It still sounds amazing in headphones, but it's probably best on a late-night drive, turned up real loud.
MusicsWeek: What's the most important thing to you when creating new music?
LUKE: The music needs to say something or have a purpose. The lyrics are the hardest part for me because they mean the most. I don’t like thinking of music as entertainment; that feels cheap to me. I think it is so much more powerful than that. I see it as a source of inspiration and motivation and a tool to bring about change in the world and cut through the mundanity of modern society.
DREW: I think each song should have a point since people are being expected to give it some of their limited attention. Ideally, every song should have some kind of reward for the listener, for sticking around and listening.
MusicsWeek: Do you have a favorite song to write, and why?
ELK MOON: Anything that gets the crowd moving and the listener thinking.
MusicsWeek: Do you have a favorite instrument or instrument family (e.g. guitar, piano)?
LUKE: Guitar will probably always be my favorite instrument to play. Although if my parents had let me I might have been a drummer. I like instruments like guitar and piano though because they are ideal for writing.
DREW: I've mostly been a guitarist. I'm actually a guitar tech for a pretty big guitar company, but in my secret double life, now I slap-a-da bass.
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