Interview with Jeremiah Moon: ‘The next songs are similar to the ones on ‘Sputnik’ but I’m trying to push out in every direction’

Seattle-based singer songwriter and cellist Jeremiah Moon brought out his debut EP ‘Sputnik’ last month, fusing soothing, wistful vocals with restrained rhythms and chamber pop string progressions.

‘Sputnik’ consists of five tracks that are very much interconnected, according to Moon: ‘All the songs came from a similar place,’ he said. ‘I felt a sense of stirring a pot (laughs). I called it ‘Sputnik’ because I really like the word and how it sounds and looks separate to its context of “person and path”. It’s catchy, you have the sense of travels, of connections between people and places, a sense of gravity, it’s primal, naturalistic and inevitable.’

My favourite track is ‘Housesitting’ and it turns out to be his as well, opening with a captivating cello melody set against his wistful, mellow vocals: ‘It’s sort of about a fictional relationship and a prior relationship of mine,’ he said. ‘It’s about having a deep connection but sensing a crack, a seismic crack, that weird limbo you’re in when things are changing but haven’t properly changed yet.’

‘The original inspiration came from scanning radio frequencies late at night‘

Another track, ‘Kinds of Light,’ has a very different provenance and sonic feel, with more experimental layers that are harder to unpick: ‘With the intro, there was a lot of experimentation,’ he said. ‘My producer Adam and I played with the filters a lot. The original inspiration came from scanning radio frequencies late at night. We’ve added synths and vocal samples – we threw a lot of stuff at it!’

Moon was exposed to classical music at an early age thanks to his mother, who is a violinist: ‘It was important to my mom that we tried to learn an instrument. She didn’t teach us herself, which was wise (laughs). It’s tough if your parent is your teacher, you build up habits. She noticed I had big hands and said “You’ll be a good cellist”.’ He cites Dvořák’s Cello Concerto (in B minor, Op. 104, B. 191) as ‘being a huge milestone’: ‘It’s been a slow simmer, I love chamber music,’ he said.

Other songs, such as ‘Sugarbrain’, have been inspired by darker places: ”Sugarbrain’ is a word from the back of my brain, a tic to hold onto when the lights go out,’ he said. ‘It came from a place of isolation and loneliness. I wrote it a few years ago but it’s very applicable to now. There have been moments in my life where things felt like they might keep getting worse without ever turning around. So far, luckily, that fear has been found hollow every time. This song was written to myself as a way to reckon with that feeling when it swings back around.’

‘I had an awakening in high school when I was 14-15’

Moon’s music bears the mark of the musicians that inspired it, channeling the energy of a diverse list of influences that range from Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Nick Drake, Sufjan Stevens, Debussy, Mahler and Dvorak, as well as the poetry of Christian Wiman. He started taking cello lessons at the age of 7, playing music – solo, chamber music, and in the orchestra – throughout high school. ‘Growing up, I had an awakening in high school when I was 14-15,’ he said. ‘I met some friends who said to listen to Wilco (an alt-rock band from Chicago) and Radiohead – I thought it was strange at first! Then I heard Grizzly Bear (a New York rock band), they were one of my first ones. And I love Andrew Bird (an American indie rock multi-instrumentalist),  his last album (My Finest Work Yet, 2019) was amazing.’ I tell him I’m also a fan, particularly of Bird’s incredible whistling. ‘I know, right?! I don’t know how he does all that – I can’t loop music, whistle and play the cello! Laurie Spiegel (from Oxford) is very cool, too – she’s an electronic musician, her stuff holds up so well – the timbres, counterpoint, the rhythms. Blake Mills (a Californian singer and guitarist), he’s incredible.’ Locally, he is a big fan of band Deep Sea Diver: ‘They’re alt indie rock, very guitar heavy,’ he said. ‘Their live shows have been a big inspiration.’

After graduating high school, he studied the cello at Boston University and started writing his first songs on the summer breaks at university. ‘Normally, when I write songs, it’s the music that comes first,’ he said. ‘I’m drawn to the musicality of the phrase, that’ll hook me first but I don’t want it to just be about that. I want there to be some poetry and it has to sound good. You learn the way of shaping a musical phrase. I play a little bit of double bass and I’m getting better at playing keys, which I like as a writing tool.’

In 2013, he moved to Seattle and started accompanying guitarists for live shows and recording sessions, as well as working on his illustration skills and building a portfolio of his own: ‘I started seriously working on songwriting in 2018 after being challenged by a friend to take myself more seriously as an artist,’ he said. ‘The five songs on my EP were a direct result of the momentum from this burst of inspiration. I’m working on a new set of songs and am asking myself do I want to make individual pieces and puzzle them together?,’ he said. ‘The next songs are similar to the ones on ‘Sputnik’ but I’m trying to push out in every direction. I’ve started programming beats myself and some weird jazz polytonal things (laughs). I’m thinking about different ways of using synths and designing sounds. I have a big stack of songs I’m trying to finish.’

His siblings are also musical: ‘I have three sisters, one older, two younger,’ he said. ‘Esther and Rebecca play the violin, my older sister plays the viola. We were a string quartet for a while (laughs). My mom and I still play together.’

‘Hearing that was one of the most transcendent musical moments for me’

He is a huge fan of Austrian composer and conductor Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) and we chat for a while about how beautiful his fifth symphony is: ‘Hearing that was one of the most transcendent musical moments for me,’ he said. ‘The orchestration makes the clear harmonics stand out. Music with a bit of melancholy like this is more melodic, isn’t it? That’s why I love The Magnetic Fields (a Boston rock band), they have the saddest lyrics but they pair them with this really upbeat music.’

His dream line up is a thing of beauty: ‘ We’re going to have Coleman Hawkins (an American jazz tenor saxophonist), Sidney Bechet (an American jazz saxophonist and clarinetist), Roy Orbison and Tina Turner! It’s a weird line-up, I don’t know how you’re going to sell this!,’ he said laughing. ‘Oh and Muddy Waters (an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist), basically, all these people I didn’t get to see. To finish, Nick Drake.’ I say I am a huge fan of Nick Drake and he gets very animated: ‘I love him so much,’ he said. ‘His voice, his lyrics, the melodies, everything. Did you know that his mother was a singer?’ I say that I did and that I’ve heard a few of her songs. ‘I think you can clearly hear her influences in his songs,’ he said. ‘If I had to pick a favourite song of his, I think I’d say ‘Harvest Breed’, it’s so beautiful.’