I had the pleasure of speaking with Luis Vasquez, otherwise know as The Soft Moon. He is currently touring Europe in support of the latest album ‘Zeros’ on Captured Tracks.

CB:You recorded “Zeros” while you were on the road, did you have a real sense of urgency to get the songs out?

LV: I did feel a little anxious to get new material out into the world. Mainly because I felt ready to write again after so much time had gone by because of touring but also because writing music is therapy for me and helps me look into myself to learn more about who I am. I initially created The Soft Moon to help reveal my past since iI seemed to have blocked out most of my childhood. So, in a way i’m always excited to write in order to help put together the missing puzzle pieces of my life.

CB: The album opens and ends with the track “It Ends”, tell me about the decision to lead off with this song and close with it as well.

LV: The opening track represents the world ending through my sonic point of view. I wanted the album to conceptually exist after the apocalypse starting with track two and so on. The ending of the opening song with the heartbeat and breathing is me going out of my consciousness and into my sub-conscious while taking the listener with me. The purpose of the reversed version at the end of the album brings both the listener and I back into our own realities.

CB: Ian Curtis said in 1979 that music in the future would be completely dominated by machines, sounds like he has been pretty accurate so far. Where do we go from here?

LV: We start over again from “zero”.

CB: I think originally you didn’t intend to release any of The Soft Moon’s music, what made you change your mind?

LV: Before I signed a record deal I released a single entitled “Breathe the Fire” through Captured Tracks. I’t wasn’t until I noticed that people were really resonating with my music that I felt confident enough to continue the project. I was very weary at first considering I was exposing all my secrets within my music leaving me very vulnerable but my fans have proven me otherwise by relating to everything i’m saying which is incredibly special.

CB: How was it working with producer Monte Vallie for “Zeros”?

LV: Working with an outsider was a very difficult decision for me to make. The Soft Moon is extremely personal and exposes all my vulnerabilities. Luckily Monte made the process comfortable for me and showed a lot of respect for my creative process. Monte’s role was a mixture of different things, an engineer, producer, and some collaboration. We would bounce ideas back and forth and experimented quite a bit. Overall I have to say the experience was fun and I plan to work with him on future projects.

CB: You’ve expanded The Soft Moon into a full band, are you satisfied so far with how the songs are coming out?

LV: I couldn’t be happier. My bandmates are just as eager as i am to perfect our live sound and we’re always excited to try new things. We’ve evolved a lot since the beginning and we will continue to evolve throughout our career pushing as many boundaries as possible. I feel really lucky to have met friends that share the same passion and understand the vision that is The Soft Moon.

CB: You reference John Carpenter in the song “Remember The Future”, has he been a big influence on you?

LV: I’ve always seemed to have been more influenced by film rather than other bands. Not that i intended to reference John Carpenter but i can’t help but be influenced by things i like. My sub-conscious always has a way of storing influences while my consciousness forgets about them.

CB: Can you share with us five albums which have really inspired you?

LV: Slayer – Reign in Blood

Prince – Purple Rain

Pink Floyd – Dark side of the Moon

Guns N Roses – Appetite for Destruction

Duran Duran – Rio

http://thesoftmoon.com/

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capturedtracks.com/artists/thesoftmoon