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Off the Record features interviews with local and national musicians as aired on WKNC 88.1 FM HD-1/HD-2.
DJ Crush 0:00
DJ, Hello, dear listeners, I'm your not so devilish host. DJ, crush, and you're listening to WKNC 88.1 FM HD-1, Raleigh. This is the witching hour a WKNC run podcast where we interview local and national musicians alike. Today, I have the distinct pleasure of interviewing the one, the only, the incomparable. Fiona Moon child, Hello, how you doing?
Fiona Moonchild 0:28
I'm doing wonderful. How are you doing?
DJ Crush 0:30
Fantastic, perfect. Glad to hear it. Could you give us a quick introduction for any unfortunate soul who does not know of you?
Fiona Moonchild 0:38
Well, my name is Fiona Moon child. I'm a musician from originating from Seattle, Washington, living in LA the past few years. And,
you know, we, we sail boats. We we ride bikes, we go on adventures. We, we sail the seas. We, we rock. We rock in the free world, you know
DJ Crush 1:02
exactly, if I may ask, is Fiona Moon child a stage name? That is a stage name? If so, what inspired it
Fiona Moonchild 1:10
It came to me in a dream and, yeah, and a particular sort of obsession with tides and the cycle of the moon and the reflection of the moon off of the ocean when you're out at sea late at night in a in a clear sky.
DJ Crush 1:34
I love that. I feel like it immediately kind of conjures the a very particular image, which I feel like you definitely embody in your work.
Fiona Moonchild 1:42
Well, that's good. Keep it consistent.
DJ Crush 1:45
So again, for any unfortunately uneducated listeners out there today, how would you Elevator Pitch your music?
Fiona Moonchild 1:53
Liminal space rock, acid, Dream rock.
DJ Crush 2:01
And last question in our little introductory section, how long have you been making music? I know that Fiona Moon child as an act is not actually your first one.
Fiona Moonchild 2:10
For sure. You know, I think I've been a musician my whole life, and
my original instrument was the clarinet in elementary school, and I used to try to write songs with them, a little auto harp that I had as a child, and and try to force my parents and and friends to perform things with me, but They would often get too embarrassed to do so so I just, I don't know, I think it's something that's always been in me.
DJ Crush 2:49
I love to hear it, especially with other people getting embarrassed, whereas you have actually fearless.
Fiona Moonchild 2:55
Yeah, I've never, I've never had any issues getting on stage and getting in front of people. In fact, one of the, one of the very first times I tried to start a band as a teenager.
my friends moms would got together and were talking about me, and they wouldn't let their children associate with me because I was, I was too punk and kind of a, kind of a bad influence, but I think I was a good influence. I was just trying to play music.
DJ Crush 3:39
I suggest that you wear that as a badge of honor to be labeled as a bad influence, exactly,
Fiona Moonchild 3:47
you know, some punk street cred. Now, as for the music itself, who would you label as some of your biggest influences, both musically and in general esthetics,
I've always been a really big fan of St Vincent's stage show and esthetic sort of taste. I think musically, I've always been drawn to more weird stuff, like like avant jazz. And I grew up listening to a lot of Frank Zappa and guitar music like that, some Prague adjacent things. But at the end of the day, I really just like to make people want to dance. And so I want to play some sort of, like, fast punky thing that that has a groove to it. I would definitely have some, have some, you know, some stranger things in there.
DJ Crush 4:47
I feel like, again, that is such a well curated esthetic that I personally absolutely adore. So speaking of all of that, let's go ahead and talk about your 2021, album.
Sweets of reasons.
Fiona Moonchild 5:00
Sure.
DJ Crush 5:01
Fun fact for any dear listeners out there, when we are recording this, this is actually the three year anniversary of its release on September 3.
Fiona Moonchild 5:08
Wow, you're right. I didn't even think about that. That's incredible.
DJ Crush 5:12
I do my research.
So without getting into the actual music itself, sure, let's talk about the title and the cover art.
Fiona Moonchild 5:23
The cover art was done by my friend Jason goul, currently based in Connecticut. At the time he was based in Florida. His art has a lot of sort of nautical themes to it, and sort of, I had this idea of wanting it to be sort of like beach side overlooking a burning sunset, and because I've always been drawn to the sea, but I was a little off the sea at the time, and then I got on the Sea for a lot of the process of this album, in the making of it, and the title suites of reason is just sort of like a little allusion to knowledge gain and gained and growth and
DJ Crush 6:17
at risk of sounding like a broken record here, I feel like the album art really conveys a dark yet glamorous esthetic, which, yeah, I think, is probably the
the two things that I love most in life,
Fiona Moonchild 6:32
that's beautiful and that's very intentional,
DJ Crush 6:35
speaking of darkly glamorous, let's talk about your music video for the song. Nervous sister, sure, for you, dear listeners at home, is actually a coming up performance.
So talk me through the creative process for that,
Fiona Moonchild 6:49
I made the video with a Seattle based artist named Lauren Rodriguez, and we kind of had this idea of a sort of outer self, chasing the inner self and sort of chasing the the ideas of identity and and paranoia and self doubt that kind of come come with trying to self actualize,
DJ Crush 7:22
at risk of revealing a little bit too much about myself. Here again, I love the dark and glamorous, so the second that I watched the nervous sister music video was the moment that I realized I definitely need to have these people on.
Fiona Moonchild 7:33
Hell yeah, you seem like my type of people.
DJ Crush 7:38
So I do have a question regarding the album, sure, what would you say is the track that you are most proud of making onit?
it?
Fiona Moonchild 7:46
I think my favorite
track that kind of came out of it was the song utopia, that riff and some key parts of it can kind of be traced back to a very long time ago, and definitely a past form of myself that was written with a friend of mine who had passed and I felt very, very proud to finally be able to finish it and find, like, a completed form, for it to be out into the world to kind of keep him alive and in some sort of way
DJ Crush 8:30
that is very beautiful, especially with this, as you described it, new form, you know, combining the old and the new. Yeah, absolutely adore.
So let's briefly talk about cruising records
Fiona Moonchild 8:43
Sure,
DJ Crush 8:43
actually not very familiar as somebody who is both blessed and cursed to live on the east coast, please tell me a little bit about them and how that kind of collaboration came to be.
Speaker 1 8:52
be.
Fiona Moonchild 8:52
I've known Clyde Peterson from that record label for quite a few years, and we had always talked about doing something together with Cruz in who is like a Seattle slash New Orleans based queer record label, and they put out a lot of fantastic artists, including my guitar player on This tour, Scott Yoder, who is to my left,
DJ Crush 9:22
feel free to introduce yourself, Scott.
Scott Yoder 9:24
Hey, what's up guys?
The incomparable Scott Yoder, that's me.
DJ Crush 9:31
So again, at risk of overstepping. Are there any future projects that we can look forward to?
Yeah, I think my second record is going to feature a lot more like orchestral orchestration and a clarinet, bass clarinet and horns.
Fiona Moonchild 9:49
It is hard to put into words how excited I am for an cool it's it's sort of nebulous in my brain right now, but it's forming.
DJ Crush 9:58
Just know that I am eagerly looking forward to it.
Fiona Moonchild 10:00
Fantastic.
DJ Crush 10:01
Now, as a brief little intermission, I'm going to go ahead and introduce our very first song of the evening. This is abstract flight.
Fiona Moonchild 10:18
Me a choice.
Lee, leave
behind
all of your belongings you no longer need the line to the past.
You
to
the past has been
has become untethered, has become untied.
I will shine burn so bright, reach out from inside to carry my body marvelous sight and through the door
on abstract flight. You
I will,
I will find a way
to lead the
cross the vast support with compassion and love.
I will shine burn so bright. Reach out from inside to carry my body marvelous aside and through the door
of intense
stalker,
river
dreamers. Shadow south
the
night, the breath,
your inventory of intent.
I will shine burn so bright, reach out from inside to carry my body marvelous sight and through the door
On a strike flight, I
DJ Crush 13:45
if you are just now tuning back in, I am DJ crush with Fiona Moon child, and this is the witching hour. The song you just heard was abstract flight. So quickly, jumping back into our next questions. I want to talk a little bit about your performance style, okay, I unfortunately have never had the opportunity to see you perform live, though that may change.
Fiona Moonchild 14:06
One day may change tonight at Kings,
DJ Crush 14:11
well, you will be performing here at Kings in Raleigh. Have you ever actually played in North Carolina before?
Fiona Moonchild 14:18
Yes, definitely, yes. I have,
DJ Crush 14:22
how do you think the performance atmosphere changes from East Coast to West Coast?
Fiona Moonchild 14:31
It always depends. I don't know. I mean, I don't think there's really any, any strong corollary. I mean, you know west coast,
every show is a show, and every show is kind of in a vacuum, and you just play your hardest you can every night, no matter if you're playing to two people or 200 like you just you give it your all every night and and hopefully connect with someone
DJ Crush 14:59
Definitely makes sense, kind of in that same vein, are there any particularly notable for being either good or particularly bad performances that you've had in your
career?
Fiona Moonchild 15:11
career?
Notable on this tour was an interesting one where we were in the Midwest and the power went out at the venue, and so, you know, you kind of take what you can, and we happen to have a little tiny scale acoustic guitar in the van, so I played a small set sitting on the bar under the light of the emergency lights and cell phone lights to the crowd that was there paying cash only for for drinks in the dark.
DJ Crush 15:48
What is the essence of punk, if not resourcefulness?
put the punk in punctual. You know exactly.
So how do you typically prepare for a performance? Do you have any good luck rituals or anything like that?
Fiona Moonchild 16:02
I mean, doing makeup, changing outfits. I think this being, this being my first tour with this project,
stage wear and and kind of have a little more of a ritual, but this, we're just trying to keep it punk, keep it scrappy, and, you know, fly by the seat of our pants, I suppose.
DJ Crush 16:50
In that vein, if you theoretically had infinite funds, resources, time, what have you What would your ideal stage wear be?
Fiona Moonchild 16:59
Wow. I mean, I've had custom suits made. I think
there's a seamstress based out of LA named Amber Doyle, who I think I would like to have something made by, by them from. They do, like a lot of bigger, bigger names like Shin and clams and stuff, they've done custom stage wear for them, like, almost, almost very, like nudie suit esque, like lots of ornate detail. I think would be cool. But, yeah, I'd love to have my own sort of stage costume built if anyone's listening and wants to reach out.
So how would you generally describe the crowd at your shows,
punks and freaks and everything in between? I mean, I think, I think the the people we must connect with are other queer and trans people, for sure, absolutely, that is definitely the type of people that we like to attract here, absolutely.
DJ Crush 18:06
So we are kindred spirits in that regard. So without further ado, I'm going to go ahead and intro our next song. Beautiful, dreamer.
Fiona Moonchild 18:34
You
the manufactured images of street lights and taxi cabs
warm nights and more homes, I love your friends and then one less stew.
You know you are a beautiful Do
you know
you are
a
beautiful Dream?
Home water and sun kissed to the shell, sunglasses. Talk to demons and spirits. I'll love your friends and then one less two,
you know you are a beautiful
two, you know, you are a beautiful dreamer.
You.
You're
the pillar that keeps the city direct.
Oh, you're
the pillar that keeps the city direct, you're the pillar that keeps the city direct, you're the pillar that keeps the city direct, you're the pillar that keeps The city the city right. Do
Do
you know you are?
Me
DJ Crush 21:00
Me that last song was beautiful Dreamer by our lovely guest, Fiona Moon child, hello again. Jumping right back into the questions. Let's talk about your journey. So as you mentioned, that can mean
Fiona Moonchild 21:17
a lot of different things. So let's see. Let's see where this goes
DJ Crush 21:21
your musical journey. Okay, though, if you want to get into anything personal, that is up to you. So you mentioned as a child, you've always had a knack for performing.
Fiona Moonchild 21:30
Sure, I think that kind of manifested for you how, yes, I I really couldn't tell you, I think, I think it's just,
I think it's just something people are drawn to doing, like making art. It's it can be sometimes an affliction. Sometimes it can be, like just a blessing, but you know, like, I think it's just something people are compelled to do
absolutely. So you started out in Seattle. Am I correct? Yes, yeah. How do you think the music scene in Seattle kind of differs from elsewhere you've been?
From my experience, it's always kind of had peaks and valleys that kind of little scenes pop up and and, I mean, this is probably something that happens everywhere. But, you know, like things, things kind of pop up, and then they fizzle out, and people move and, and bands come and go and, and you just kind of try to keep building up whatever scene you can to support other artists and and keep creating
absolutely
DJ Crush 22:44
you've also moved now to La Correct?
Fiona Moonchild 22:47
Yeah, I'm, I mean, I'm a little more floaty than that. I don't really live anywhere right now, but makes sense, yeah? But for the last five years or so, I've been living in Southern California.
DJ Crush 23:01
What inspired the move?
Fiona Moonchild 23:03
Sort of the pandemic. At
the beginning of that, my bass player spur and I moved down to Southern California. We We lived in trailers in the mountains, and then, and then someone gave me a sailboat. So I actually returned to back to Washington, and then sailed a sailboat down, back down to Southern California, where we were then located. And sort of in that interim time is when I finished tracking vocals and and mixing the record.
DJ Crush 23:39
Wonderful. I knew that you had an affinity for water, but I didn't know that it extended to that. Yeah.
So I read, I guess, on the North Carolina Nardwar aspect of things.
I read that you were the recipient of the crybaby studios musician grant.
Fiona Moonchild 23:58
That's correct, and that's sort of how
so that began, January, 1 of 2020, and I was kind of, I had control of the studio by myself for three months, and I was really just like in a basement studio working on creating this and getting it out into the world that it had become fully formulated in my head and was ready to be birthed and and so I was really just like zoned out down there and barely had any recognition that the world was completely falling apart on the outside.
DJ Crush 24:44
I was about to say that is a very unfortunate time to be given the grant.
Fiona Moonchild 24:49
Yeah, it was a little strange, and it got cut short and I wasn't able to finish tracking the vocals until later in the year. But,
yeah.
I don't know. I
DJ Crush 25:10
Yeah, that makes sense. How do you think that the again at risk of being gauche? How do you think the pandemic influenced the final product of the album?
Fiona Moonchild 25:22
I I'm not really sure, because it was all fully formulated before that. So I mean, other than, other than the delay of it, and sort of how the release of it happened, and having setbacks and wanting to initially doing do a tour right when the album came
then that being completely canceled due to delta variant. So now here we are in 2024 finally giving this record its proper do and its proper cycle, and getting to go perform it in front of people, speaking of this current tour that you were on.
How did this tour come to be?
Well, I think Scott and I were sitting in the tour van earlier this year,
talking somewhere in the middle of nowhere and and and he proposed booking a tour for me, and this is how it was formulated. It's always wonderful to see the fruits of so many years, finally coming together. Definitely couldn't do it without my band.
DJ Crush 26:34
Wonderful. So again, without further ado, I'm going to introduce our next song, a personal favorite of mine from the record nervous Sister.
Fiona Moonchild 27:02
You
You
screams
on a hill. Matches with live
nervous system you
the birds said,
my mind
screams, will I ever
get to sleep?
You love a sister.
Oh, do
cry walking up a hill. And the animals, they are all sleeping, burning matches on a hill, on a hill in Oviedo, it is you, my friend. It is you, yourself. You are sticky. Mother shall look after me through this green quote, Jelly feeling you
the jigsaw street
winding
and let her sleep In the distance cathedral. Bring
you
all nervous sister. You
you,
nervous, sister.
That last song was nervous, sister. And if you're just now joining us, Hi, I'm DJ crush with Fiona Moon child, and you're listening to the witching hour.
DJ Crush 30:21
So as we're starting to wrap things up, I have a fun little segment for us
Fiona Moonchild 30:27
Sure.
DJ Crush 30:28
I'm going to be doing some rapid fire questions. So
we have 10 questions lined up, all right? I want you to answer them as quickly as you can, okay, I suppose as briefly as you can. Wow. So are you ready?
Fiona Moonchild 30:40
Beautiful
DJ Crush 30:42
Starting off. What is the worst color?
Fiona Moonchild 30:48
No, no, wrong.
DJ Crush 30:52
Would you rather fight two pigeons or one cockroach?
Fiona Moonchild 30:56
One cockroach?
DJ Crush 30:58
If you have the power to renew any canceled series, what would it be?
Fiona Moonchild 31:03
Oh,
wait, that's complicated. Not renew a canceled one, but I would like them to redo the ending of lost.
DJ Crush 31:16
Good choice. Would you rather go to a bar that only serves room temperature drinks or only plays Nickelback.
Fiona Moonchild 31:23
Only plays Nickelback. Good choice.
DJ Crush 31:27
What's your favorite word?
Fiona Moonchild 31:32
No bad words or I mean, there's some bad words, but what's my favorite one? I don't know.
DJ Crush 31:40
Would you rather have a mullet for a year or be bald for six months?
Fiona Moonchild 31:43
I've had a mullet for most of my life. Perfect.
DJ Crush 31:47
How do you think Bluetooth works?
Fiona Moonchild 31:51
Magnets? How do they work?
DJ Crush 31:53
What is your dream collaboration?
Fiona Moonchild 31:56
There are too many to list.
DJ Crush 31:59
Favorite season,
Fiona Moonchild 32:01
Summer, late summer, sort of right now, like how it's you feel fall percolating, but it's still sticky. But I'd rather be hot and insane than cold and grumpy.
DJ Crush 32:15
Ideal place to move if you had infinite resources,
Fiona Moonchild 32:18
I do not know where I belong in this world.
DJ Crush 32:21
Extremely valid answers all across the board. Thank you so very much.
Fiona Moonchild 32:25
Yeah, you're welcome rapid with them.
DJ Crush 32:27
So as we are going to start closing things out, is there anything else that you would like to tell us?
Fiona Moonchild 32:34
Well, I'm on tour across the US with my band in support of my album called sweets of reason. You can find me on Instagram at Fiona moon. Child, also on band camp under Fiona Moonchild
DJ Crush 32:50
wonderful as the bell tolls, dear listeners, the witching hour draws to a close, but don't worry. If you want to hear more from us, you can find interviews like this on wknc.org/podcast,
under off the record, I'm gonna leave you all with one final song. So here is psychic cloud by Fiona moon.
Fiona Moonchild 33:07
Child as always, if I don't see you again, sleep tight. You.
A Psyched cloud moves gray and cold,
the rain will fall and see below.
The sick of more than static drone up from the soil, dysphoria grows
so high.
So high,
and the floats
toward home,
so low. Blow
and a crawl
back home as thunder rolls,
the SAP like blood. It's gonna flow. From branches broken in a stone, the roots are dead, no
longer whole.
Oh, cut it out, and light will glow
so high,
so high,
and a float
so at home,
so low,
so low,
and the crawl back Home
as thunder rolls. As
thunder rose,
the mind to control or
nothing at
all. Does it feel
like home
or nothing at all?
So high and
that floats
to home,
so low, so
low,
and the crawl
back home as the
rose.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai