NEWMOON – Lucky 7

Newmoon – Lucky 7

LUCKY 7 is the feature where we ask artists to name their 6 favourite songs by others, and a lucky 7th song of their own…

Newmoon are described as the “Belgian dream pop five-piece”, mixing lush melodies with fuzzed out guitars that throw out a sound so gorgeous your ears could be tricked into thinking a supergroup was formed by the Smashing Pumpkins and Stone Roses.

Newmoon are also another stunning Velvet Sheep find, that once again points to us being one of the essential places to find the best in new rock and indie music.

Over to New Moon with their Lucky 7…

“We selected six songs that influenced Newmoon in some way or another. As people we have a very diverse taste in music but there’s definitely a common ground in there somewhere. You might not always be able to tell from listening to our ban but these are just some of the songs that we listened to whilst writing our first album ‘Space’. And this is just scratching the surface…”

1. Foo Fighters – ‘Alone + Easy Target’ (Stef)
‘Alone + Easy Target’ is one of my all-time favourite songs from one of my all-time favourite albums. I remember first listening to Foo Fighters when I was around 13 years old and it just changed everything for me. This song in particular. The chorus and build-up at the end just did something to me. It made me want to play music myself. It was one of the first songs I ever learned on guitar but even more so it’s the song that made me want to become a drummer.

2. Pedro The Lion – ‘Options’ (Robby)
It’s nearly impossible for me to pick just one Pedro The Lion/David Bazan song. To me, it’s the perfect opening song on any record ever. It’s the first song on ‘Control’ and just sets the tone so well. You can feel the mix of emotions all radiate through the song. It makes you feel warm and cold, joyful and depressed at the same time. Honestly, just check out the entire ‘Control’ album and then go from there. You will NOT be disappointed.

3. The Smashing Pumpkins – ‘Cherub Rock’ (Philippe)
I’m a sucker for fuzzed out rock and no band does it better than Smashing Pumpkins. I love their early work, especially ‘Siamese Dream’ and ‘Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness’. Cherub Rock was the song that introduced me to the Pumpkins and it really shaped my musical taste and interests. Twenty years later that song still holds up and it still feels brand new every time I hear it.

4. Chopin – ‘Nocturne Op. 9, No 1 B-flat minor’ (Giel)
Picking a ‘favourite’ song is hard for me because it always changes. Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of Chopin so I just went with this. One of the things I look for in music is a kind of fleeting beauty. Songs that can go from beautiful to dark sounding very fast. Songs that can express certain emotions without words or titles. This kind of atmosphere is what inspired a lot of my parts on ‘Space’. I try to get inspired by a certain feeling, more so than a certain type of music.

5. The Cure – ‘Love Song’ (Bert)
The Cure is one of those all-time greats for me. It’s hard to pick a favourite but ‘Love Song’ is definitely up there. I love the stark contrast between the lyrics and the overall vibe of the song. It’s a very dark and brooding sounding song, that is actually about a beautiful feeling. The Cure have had a huge impact our band and my song writing in particular, especially ‘Love Song’.

6. The National – ‘Afraid Of Everyone’ (Bert)
‘High Violet’ is one of those albums that just sucks me in every time I listen to it. I get into periods of listening to nothing but that album on repeat. The weeks leading up to recording ‘Space’ was one of those periods. I really like the way The National is able to layer a song into this huge build-up. ‘Afraid Of Everyone’ is very good example of that and definitely something we tried to implement on some of the tracks on our album.

Lucky 7: Newmoon – ‘Helium’ (Bert)
‘Helium’ was probably one of the hardest songs to write. It took a long time before it felt “right”. I remember reworking the song over and over again. Even in the studio we were still working on some parts of the song. ‘Helium’ is probably the most personal and direct tracks on the album. It’s about being caught in a negative spiral, finding comfort in all the wrong things can be less scary than trying to change things and stepping into the unknown. The lyrics are very open and personal, so we wanted to make sure the song was the absolute best song it could be. And I think we succeeded in that.

Thanks guys!

Newmoon’s debut album ‘Space’ is due October 14 via PIAS.

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