Hi, Luna, how has your year been so far? 
It’s been quite a year already! Releasing a song/video a month of my “Ocean Inside Of Me” album has been a wonderful roller coaster – it’s a project that has been with me for over 3 years and knowing that it’s out there now feels great! I’ve also gotten to tour and travel a fair bit which I love doing. I just came back from the last leg of the “Shoulder Tour” with Dom Malin through Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland. Earlier this year I got to tour Poland for the first time with the lovely Celtica Band – that was such a cool experience especially since I usually play alone and traveling with a band is wonderful. I also organized my first songwriters weekend with some fellow creatives which allowed me to write some songs in German, I really enjoy exploring different parts of my creativity and collaborating with others is a great way to do that!

In your own words, how would you describe your sound and style? 
I would say I make honest indie folk/singer-songwriter music that often dives deep into the human experience. I’ve written over 500 songs since [that] I don’t write to release, I write to process life, then I choose my favourite songs to share with the world. So my music is quite open and authentic and as an artist I also try to embody that by showing up as I am. My artist name is my real name, I seldomly wear make-up and I love connecting with the people listening through shared experiences. My sound is a blend of singer-songwriter, indie folk and folk-pop – but I don’t really think of genres when working on my songs, I just follow the song where it takes me. 


Are there any artists or styles that you’d cite as particular influences on your own music?
That’s a tough question since I get obsessed with another artist every other month haha. But I’d definitely say that I’ve consistently loved the indie-folk and singer-songwriter sound and it’s greatly influenced me for sure, and especially my fellow independent artists have been a huge source of inspiration there. People like Thomas Lavine, Dom Malin, Allison Leah, Jory Avner, Ben Greenberg, Dominic Romano, Clouds and Thorns, John Muihead, Lucie Glang, Bay Bryan, Genesis Ritchot, IZAHV…
On the more well known side of things I’m currently very inspired by Andrew Bird’s songwriting, he’s absolutely brilliant. People like Lisa Hannigan, The Staves, The Lumineers, Mumford and Sons, Coldplay and Glen Hansard have been deeply inspiring to me too over the years. 

We understand that you’ve recently released a new album – “Ocean Inside Of Me”.
What meanings or themes does the album and your songwriting have? What was the songwriting process like? 
“Ocean Inside Of Me” is a deeply personal concept album that takes you on a journey from darkness to light inspired by my own experience going through and overcoming depression. Most of these songs were written during that struggle and I’m honestly not sure how I would have made it through that without this creative outlet as a coping method. I wrote over 30 songs that could have made it onto the album during that time, most of them just fell out of my soul onto the paper in less than 30 minutes.

Once I was feeling better and started working on the album concept I went through them together with my producer Dominic Romano to select the 10 songs that would best tell the story. Each song revolves around a different aspect of struggling with depression: the heaviness, the shame, how hard it’s to explain, putting up a facade, self destructive cycles, finding the courage to reach out, learning to accept these parts of oneself without letting them take control, and finally the joy of feeling like oneself again. The final song “Woman In My Mirror” is a love song to myself that emphasizes the importance of self acceptance. I did write a few of the songs during our time working on the project, to fill gaps in the story that I wasn’t able to convey while going through it. Conceptualizing this album as a whole instead of individual songs was a really creative experience and deeply cathartic emotionally. I’m grateful that I found the courage to tell my story through it, it’s a project I’ll always be proud of.

We’ve enjoyed quite a bit of your material: the song “Live It All” is a particular favourite due to its energy positivity. What’s the story behind this song?
Thank you! “Live It All” is the second out of 3 songs I’ve released with the phenomenal songwriter and producer (and my dear friend) Clouds And Thorns. Something we both enjoy conveying through our songwriting is the juxtaposition of darkness and light, to have a little sadness in the happy songs and a little hope in the sad ones. Because ultimately all these emotions are part of life and getting to experience them is kinda wonderful. That’s what “Live It All” is about, taking in life fully with its highs and lows, finding the hope in the cynical – seeing the beauty in its chaos. Having gone through rough patches with my mental health where I felt disconnected, numb and afraid has made me really appreciative of feeling alive, of taking in every moment. I’d rather try and fail than to never give it a go, I’d rather love and be hurt than to never put my heart on the line. This song is an anthem to that, to living fully, to appreciating all the colors of life. 

Clouds and Thorns and I connected online and we’ve never met in person, but working on these songs by sending them back and forth has allowed us to build a lovely friendship. I’m always in awe of his incredible talent for catchy melodies and delightfully anthemic production style. The 3rd song of our collaboration is called “Stars” and has been released recently, on the 23rd of August, I really love that one too!

What have been highlights of your music/artist career so far and do you have any plans for the year ahead that you would like to share with us?
When thinking of highlights I feel like there’s two categories, the numbers and the experiences. In that first category I could name playing gigs in over 10 countries, reaching over 1 million total streams on Spotify with my original songs, raising 17k€ on Kickstarter for my album “Ocean Inside Of Me”, getting sync placements in Hallmark Movies and a Netflix show, being a fulltime indie artist for over 4 years and getting featured on amazing playlists and blogs like Alexrainbird, Indie Folk Central, Indie Music Center… In the second category I’d put things like getting to stream for my amazing Twitch community (especially my two 24 hour streams felt like highlights), getting to write and play music with amazing independent artists (Clouds And Thorns, Dominic Romano, Dom Malin, Jory Avner, Mats Dernand, Thomas Lavine, Pacific K, John Muirhead, HAGNAS, Eric Bay, Celtica Band… just writing out this list makes me feel super grateful), shooting 10 music videos in 5 days in the Latvian wilderness with an incredible crew for the “Ocean Inside Of Me” album, being a part of really cool festivals (Live At Heart, 4daagsefesten…) and songwriting camps (Tiveden Americana), meeting people at my shows that have been moved by my songs and having wonderful conversations with them… 

I absolutely love my job! And I’m excited for what’s to come too. After releasing my album in the first half of the year I’m going to keep up with the monthly releases by sharing a series of collabs with amazing independent artists. It’s a colourful array of releases mixing influences and stories that I’m super excited about. I’m also really looking forward to recording my next EP in California this fall, I’m going to let my audience choose the songs that will be on it, which is something I’ve never done before so that’s super exciting! I’m also playing some shows in Sweden, Germany and England that I’m looking forward to (for more info check out my social media, would love to see you there!). 

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