ARTIST INTERVIEW: MOONTOWER

MOONTOWER'S FOUNDATION

Moontower: a name that is common knowledge to USC students, and spreading like fire through a network of schools in Southern California and across the world, with their first single hitting over 100,000 plays in its first two weeks. Booking shows left and right, these three talented young musicians have had quite the atypical college semester - playing shows on boats in the San Diego harbor, booking numerous festivals, and attending record label meetings instead of studying for finals. However, as with most successful bands, there's a team behind the scenes making the rest of the magic happen. As Moontower always says, "There are three members in the band, but five members of Moontower".

To most, Moontower is just a catchy band that makes their feet move, but what many don't know are the ways the entire team is pushing the boundaries of what live music, and what being a band really means. These student's passions have ignited an augmented reality company, short films, and interactive stages… just the beginning of what is to come from Moontower.

THE BAND

Tom, a once a signed DJ who cultivates catchy electronic beats, met Devan - a Juilliard level flutist with long flowing brown hair - during their first week at USC. They started producing and writing music, eventually catching the eye, and friendship, of Jake. A catalyst for the creation of Moontower was a Lemaitre concert they attended together. Standing in awe within the crowd, the three said to each other that they wanted to create indie dance music that made others feel the way they felt in that moment. In the fragmentation stages over summer, Moontower's grounding was built by the hands of numerous USC students. A few notable names out of the many are Rocky (Racquel) Levia who helped with their creative direction - making their first logo and artwork - and Jamie Haberman who helped them get their ducks in a row in the ideation phase. This was the start of a trend for Moontower. As their network at USC grew, a slew of young, talented, and passionate students took on the project of Moontower and made it more than just a band, challenging what is expected from musicians.

Carina Glastris: Manager

"Shut up and stop worrying" is what the band recites as what Carina always tells them, because in their words "when she says she will do something - she does it … and when it gets done it's always better than we hoped it would be". Carina Glastris is a recent graduate of USC with a burning passion for her work and a radiant energy that ignites that passion in those lucky enough to be around her. Her involvement with Moontower began as help with branding, but during the initial meeting she started rattling off ideas and the band realized she contained the passion and drive they were looking for. Her initial mood boards she made for them blew the band away, leading them to take her on as creative direction. However, when she took on Moontower as a project, the band quickly started to see the dedication and knowledge she had push them forward in the music industry, leading them to increase her role to manager. Her housemates from this past year have become accustomed to Carina leaving the house regularly for Moontower meetings reaching past 1am, ordering 20 Amazon boxes to find "the perfect prop for the video", and daily screams of joy when Spotify updates Willam's play count. The band praises Carina's humble ability to understand what she doesn't know, and striving to gain that knowledge from those around her and surrounding herself with people who can help. "She knows how to be the coach, without being the quarterback", Tom said with a smile.

William Holywood: ???

William is one of the band's roommates who has been highlighted in "Pilot", a hilariously confusing psychedelic video to Moontower's song Marathon. William has moved many times in his life from places ranging from Czechoslovakia to middle-class suburbs. After starting his studies at USC, he ended up living with the band, but as he says, he simply "lives amongst them", mostly doing his own thing. The band was at first writing songs about William without his consent and took footage of him for Marathon by stalking him, which created a lot of animosity between him and the band. However, recently he has felt like their newer music speaks to him so has taken control of the videos - a hopeful bridge between a shaky relationship. William's next video in partnership with Moontower tells the true story of his nextdoor neighbor that he loves, or maybe he doesn't love.

Jacob Fishman: Production & Tour Manager, Director of Live Experience, Head of Touring and Product at Mercive

Jacob, better known as Fish, has been with the band from its creation, a consistent thread through their growth. He was living in Portland when Rocky called asking for help building a stage. Intrigued, Fish drove back to Los Angeles to work on the stage that day. He came back the next day to help, and then the next day... and has been back every day since. As a child, Fish was heavily involved in competitive robotics. He strived with physical creation of mechanical objects, yet a heavy influence to music and art pushed him towards live music experiences. The full stage that Moontower plays with, including the modular stage and lights, were built by him and Rocky. He also handles all the logistics of playing other venues, from unloading and loading the gear to mixing their music live. When he graduates, Fish dreams of packing his belongings into a single backpack, and hitting the road with Moontower to continue to restructure the current box live music is within.

Cam Lindsay: CEO of Mercive, partnership with Moontower

Fish remembers the moment when Cam had the idea to bring augmented reality into live music, excitedly asking how it would work, Cam replied, "Well, that's about all I've got right now". The idea was brought to life when Cam attended one of Moontower's shows and was blown away by its professionalism. For Cam, that show began to blur the line of what a professional was, and inspire him to work with Moontower as the starting point to creating his vision. The initial meetings consisted of conjuring up Fish and Cam's dream live performance, bursting the seams of current life music experiences. Reeling back their lofty ideas, they settled upon creating a 8ft by 10ft pod where two people could stand inside wearing a Mira Augmented Reality headset and Beats headphones to experience a three minute augmented reality experience catered to Moontower's song Marathon. The vast majority of people who entered had never experienced AR - not more than Pokemon Go - and their responses were overwhelmingly positive. Mercive has continued to expand their clientele, and has been accepted to be part of the Advanced Game Project at USC. Check out Mercive's experience at Moontower's show here.

Give Moontower's first single that is sweeping the world a listen on Spotify here.

Photo credits: Jacob Fishman, Carina Glastris, Anastasia Velicescu, Brittany Harper