‘New Album’ is where a band or artist answers some questions about their latest release. Up next is Anthony Lander, ex bass player with Moses, with the debut full-length of his new project Moon Lander.

When/where was the new album recorded?
The album was recored in Warwick Donald’s warehouse appartment in Newtown and we started recording it a couple of years back. It took a while to complete because soon after we started recording it, I joined another band (MOSES), and so the project got put on the backburner while I focussed on writing and playing with MOSES.

Who produced/engineered the album? How did the tracks come together in the studio, or at home?
Warwick Donald recorded it, and also acted in the role of co-producer with me. I had some pretty clear ideas of how I wanted the tracks to sound, and I’d made demos of most of the songs before starting to record with Warwick. However, there was still a lot of room for experimenting in the studio with various different guitars, tunings, effects, which was a lot of fun.

How did the songwriting happen? Are there any overall themes within the songs/album?
These are songs which I’d written during the time I was a member of The Blue Onesies. There were three songwriters in The Blue Onesies, which meant that there were always a lot of songs around, and certainly more than we could record. So this left me with plenty of surplus songs and many of them I really loved. When The Blue Onesies broke up in 2014, I decided that I’d like to start my own solo project in order to record and release many of these songs. Working on this album was the first time I’d heard such a large number of my own songs all together, and hearing them like this made me realise that there were some themes that run through the album. One of which is that many of them were written in the time that I did not have a partner, and many of the songs reference how I felt about this. Another theme, weirdly, is being sick. Both Lemon and Honey, and ‘Pseudoephedrine’ are about being sick, as you might be able to gather from the song titles! In contrast with these potentially whiney sounding topics, the album is actually quite upbeat, musically.

Were you going for a different sound/approach on this album?
I was listening to Mac Demarco’s ‘Salad Days’ album around the time I recorded my album, and I liked the feel of that record. So perhaps I was going for that! But it’s certainly different to how The Blue Onesies and MOSES sound. Both of those bands tended to have quite a wall of sound. Perhaps that comes with having six members in your band. With Moon Lander there’s a bit more space. And, ironically, less songs about space!

Was there any specific gear you used to capture that?
Warwick has awesome gear. He’s quite of a collector of interesting microphones, amps, guitars. He had some really good ideas about what to use and when. I think this is particularly evident on the track ‘Oh Lord’. Very old mic. But yeah, recording with Warwick is fun like that because he’s always pulling out some interesting piece of gear. I learned that microphones in the past looked like a variety of different fruits and vegetables.

Is there a particular single/track that you feel captures the essence of the album?
Hmm, perhaps ‘Someone Else’. It’s short, it’s upbeat, it’s jangly, it’s set on the cusp of being awake and being asleep, as many of the songs on the album are. It’s a great song to play live. After playing it live I sometimes wish it was longer than 2 minutes long.

Is there a physical copy available? If not which digital platforms is it available on?
The best place to get a copy is on Bandcamp, as of August the 7th. Spotify will follow in good time. I’ll make some physical copies for live gigs, but making physical copies is not a huge priority for me because not many people listen to CDs anymore. Beside, the world is so full of “stuff” already without making more plastic stuff to fill it up! Go digital!

Are you working on a video/videos for any of the songs?
I’d love to, and I’ve had talks about it, but it’s always about finding the time to do it. Hit me up, dear reader, if you are inspired to make a music video for any of my songs. I will welcome your ideas.