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Q1 What made you decided to be a musician?
Well, it's always been in me. I started playing music at a rediculus young age, started writing my own songs on the piano in our livingroom when I was about 5-6 years old. Music was all around me as a kid. My parents listened to all sorts of great things like Pink Floyd, Supertramp, E.L.O., The Clash - that 70s stuff. And I always put these big headphones on and got into the music. So for me it was easy from the begining - I wanted to be in a band, and later I wanted to be a full-time musician.
Q2 How did you meet Carina?
Carina and I met and fell in love with eachother in 1995. We shared a very similair taste in music, and at first we decided not to be in a band together because we thought that maybe things between us would get ruined. We were playing in different bands at the time, but after a while we started to write songs together - it was totally destined to happen i guess. So from there we went and started Moonbabies.
Q3 Where does the band name The Moonbabies come from?
At the time 1997, we were writing songs mostly at night time and discovered that we had the greatest moments doing music when it was full moon. Not kidding. So we thought, something about the moon, something mystical and romantic. And then our songs are like your little babies. Still like the sound of the name, it's moody and beautiful like our music. |
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Q4 What can you tell us about the album Moonbabies at the Ballroom?
Ballroom is our thrid full-length album - not released in Japan yet by the way! It's definately our most direct album, not as experimental as the previous records. It's more a focused song-oriented album with a easier approach, still it's rich of contrast and athmospheres. When we started working on this album, we deliberately wanted the songs to stand on their own - which to the opposite of the last album "The Orange Billboard" which is very much an "album" - which is tied together carefully. I still love all of our 3 albums, it's hard to pick a favorite cause they're all different.
Q5 What inspires you to create a song?
Movies, books basically. We're huge fans of Paul Auster and older movies with James Stewart, Billy Wilder & Hitchcock, those movies. Like Sunset Boulevard and Philadelphia Story. Also Stanley Kubrick is big influence. |
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War On Sound
-Moonbabies at the Ballroom-
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Q9 Is there an artist who inspires you?
Both me and Carina loves Kate Bush. Everything about her and her music. It's mysterious, beautiful, scary and extremly emotional at the same time. Hounds of Love and The Dreaming or 2 of our all time favorite albums. Other BIG inspirations are My Bloody Valentine & The Beatles.
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Q10 Favorite food and restaurant?
We both love very, very spicy food. Indian, thai, Korean. Favorite Resturant The Garlic Tree, Downtown, Seattle, USA. You should really go there if you're in town.
Q11 Favorite cocktail and where to drink it?
Frozen Margaritas (Mango), at Habanas, New York City (in the Nolita area). Wonderful!
Q12 Japan might be too far away from you, but would you like to come and show? Any aspirations for your future?
It's a life long dream actually. It's been some talk about a Japanese trip for Moonbabies back when "The Orange Billboard" was out in Japan, but unfortuanetly it never happened. Right now we've started writing the next album, and will do some touring in Europe later this year, but yeah we would absolutely love to come to Japan! |
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Take Me to the Ballroom
-Moonbabies at the Ballroom-
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| Since the early 2000's Moonbabies has released a suite of high-quality albums and ep's and toured extensively with sold-out shows in countries like Germany, Sweden and the USA. Carina Johansson and Ola Frick met a late night in Malmö, Sweden, around 10 years ago, and discovered a strikingly similair taste for great pop songs. Five years later, the bands material started to take shape and find its exclusiveness, and in 2001 their debut album 'June and Novas' was released, under the name Moonbabies. Its follow-up, 2004's 'The Orange Billboard' (licensed through Vinyl Junkie in Japan) was a decidedly more pop affair, filled to the weist with razor-sharp classic pop. Moonbabies created their own mini-universe, with a curious hybrid of old 'n' new, and succeded to sneak in influences from Kate Bush and E.L.O. as well as hints of the Flaming Lips and My Bloody Valentine. Moonbabies 3rd full-length album entitled "Moonbabies at the Ballroom", was released 2007, and was an immediate success among fans and critics. The First single "War On Sound" was picked out for a key-scene of the ABC TV-series Grey's Anatomy. Alexandra Patsavas, the series Music Supervisor also selected the song to appear on the best-selling "Grey's Anatomy Soundtrack Vol. 2" (Hollywood Records). |
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Q6 Can you describe your song writing process?
Carina and me either write the songs together or seperatly - but we always do the arrangements and production as a team, just to get the right Moonbabies sound. It's all about contrast, the soft and the hard, the male and female, the clean or the broken. A song often starts by a simple idea with one of us has come up with on piano or guitar, or just waking up in the middle of the night with a great melody line in your head. Then since we're a duo, we start the real songwriting process through recording, and later rerecording things until it's ready.
Q7 What was your early music influences?
For me it was Beatles, Pink Floyd & E.L.O., later in the 80s it was Alice Cooper, Iron Maiden & Mötley Crue all the way for me :). But also I catched a lot of the 80s pop hits like Cyndi Lauper, Nik Kershaw & Paul McCartney, and took it in, which still for me are brilliant songs. |
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Q8 Could you tell us the idea you wear blindfolds in the music video, Take Me To The Ballroom? Is there a concept behind it?
Yeah, there is a story behind the video, but I don't know if it's meant to be explained in detail. Anyways, it's too hard for me to explain here, you should check out the video on Youtube, and maybe you'll get it. |
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