Moon Unit
Interview Laura Martin
Photography David Ellison
Berlin and Belfast seem like an unlikely musical alliance, but the space and distance between them have only worked in electro duo Moon Unit’s favor. With Paul Mogg (synths/machines) living amongst it in Germany, and Ros Blair (vocals) based in Northern Ireland, they’ve closed the chasm between these two countries with their progressive, dark electro rock band born out of a track created over the internet last year. One track turned into several, and the band was born.
Their intense live shows – with Ros as a sultry and passionate frontwoman combined with Paul as the solid electronica figure at the back of the stage – had the The Times music editor hailing them as a band to watch in 2009, and DFA snapping up Paul’s Supersoul record label. Through the deal, DFA released the entire label and Moon Unit’s back catalog for worldwide distribution. With their last single “Connections” not only remixed by Ewan Pearson, but also featuring in Mixmag’s April covermount CD, it seems Moon Unit are definitely on the right trajectory to stellar success.
On a stopover in London – where they supported Who Made Who at King’s Cross venue The Scala – ’SUP met up with the guys to nurse their hangovers with a well-placed cup of coffee or two to chat about where the punk ethos has gone wrong.
With you both based in different countries, how did you meet?
Paul: I was working with Xaver [Naudascher, friend and sometime producer of Moon Unit] running the Supersoul label and we were doing music together. Ros sang on our first song. We met through my ex-girlfriend.
Was this in Berlin, where you’re based?
Ros: No, it was in London like 2002 or 2003. I was at St. Martin’s and so was his girlfriend and we were hanging out with the same crowd. We were always saying, ‘We gotta do some music together.’
Paul: This went on for a couple of years.
Ros: I remember I was with you in Paris in 2005 and we still hadn’t done it. We were like, ‘We gotta do that band we were talking about.’
Were you in bands already at this point?
Ros: Yeah, I was singing in other little bands, like Duchampions, an art band, and nothing was really happening. It was just fun. I always thought I’d like to work with Paul but I couldn’t really think about what we could do together. Then it turned out when we started working together we liked all the same stuff, and had all the same ideas about music.
When was the point that you were actually like, ‘Right, lets do this’?
Ros: It was really gradual because he’s based in Berlin and I’m in Belfast, so he would send stuff to me on the Internet and I would listen to it and send recorded vocals back. Then it was like that for a while, but really informal.
Did you set out to create a particular sound?
Paul: No, not at all.
Ros: It was the least contrived music I’ve ever made. There was no ‘Oh, we want to position ourselves to sound like this or these influences.’ I think that was because it was so casual, and we were just doing it for fun really. But then it turned out so great and it was so different to anything that we thought it was gonna be, so we thought we’d release it. We put a single out on Supersoul called “Moon Unit Part”, which was in a series that Paul was already working on.
Were you singing on the previous parts?
Ros: No I was just on “Part 4”. We just kept writing more tracks then we got a call from DFA and they said, ‘We want to release everything Supersoul’s ever put out.’ They’ve got Death From Abroad set up now. It helped spread the word around Europe about the 12-inches that were cool.
How did you feel when DFA approached you?
Ros: It felt like the most natural thing in the world. Paul was already best mates with Tim, so he was already sort of in the circle. It was really exciting, and good because their reputation is so amazing at this stage.
Are any of the tracks being released in America then, or is it just Europe?
Ros: The whole album got released worldwide. It got really big, for people who like that sort of music. It was really weird for us though as it was a bit of an underground thing.
Were you thinking about the tracks going to a wider audience or was it still just a bit of fun?
Paul: We always wanted to release the stuff, but only in a really underground way.
Ros: We’re really lucid about the definition of success. Like Paul does his own label. Even now we do everything ourselves. There’s like a hundred other bands that are like in that middle class, who rise on their own steam but think ‘Yeah, we’re gonna be like fucking Basement Jaxx.’ It’s ridiculous. It doesn’t work like that.
How would you describe the music you’re doing at the moment?
Ros: I think that after we did “Moon Unit Part 4”, which I thought was— (pauses) I don’t want to say like all of these genres, but it’s definitely krautrock and old Italo disco, because Xaver’s half-Italian and was brought up in Milan.
Yeah, the Italo disco scene in London got massive in the past year.
Paul: It’s the same in Berlin.
Ros: It’s a complete coincidence. Whenever Xaver was doing the production of the tracks, it was like a natural thing for him as he was like, from Milan and going to clubs when he was fucking 14 years old when that scene was breaking (laughs)!
You’re a pretty intense performer on stage. Is there some kind of zone you get into when you’re singing?
Ros: It took a really long time before I had the balls to get up in front of an audience. I’ve always been into punk rock – it was my first touchstone for music – but I never once believed that old punk rock axiom that anyone can do it. It’s complete bollocks. It’s quite elitist, but I don’t think everyone should be in a band. Absolutely not. But these days everybody is in a band, so you’ve got this weird imbalance where you’ve got the appreciation of the punk ethic, where people are like, ‘Oh we’re doing it, we don’t care.’ But that doesn’t play out because if you look at the big punk bands like Sonic Youth, they’re completely unique. They’ve been around for 20 years. Not anyone could do that or all these bands would still be around. I think you come to a gradual realization of what you’re capable of, and once you’re completely lucid about it, that’s when you find your good performance.
Are you at home now on the stage?
Ros: Yeah, because for a long time I did not do it, but thought about doing it. And I didn’t get up until I was absolutely fucking sure I could pull it off. Of course there’s the early shows when you spaz out or whatever, but there wasn’t some assumed natural right to get up and do it. I thought about it for a long time: ‘Am I really good enough to do this? Or am I fucking wasting everybody’s time? Would I be happier if I got another job?’ So I think there should be a bit more careful consideration like that from artists!
How did Ewan Pearson come to remix your track “Connection”?
Paul: Well, he lives in Berlin and he’s quite a good friend of mine. His studio’s just ‘round the corner from ours so it just happened from there, really.
What are you guys working on at the moment?
Paul: Well, we’ve got to work out where we are at the moment, where our next shows are and we’re talking to agents about that. It’s all up in the air, but we’ve got a lot of plans.
Ros: It’s all good, the order things are happening in. We’re always trying to push things all the time and we’re really self-motivated about making things happen. I think it’s just going to get busier and busier.
