As an independent artist, persistence and hard work are key. Luna Shadows is no stranger to either.

The native New Yorker packed it up for the City of Angels when she was just 18 to pursue a degree in Pop Music at USC. After graduation, she stuck around LA to give her half-goth half-bubblegum vision a go. Truly a DIY musician, she’s found her team in The Naked and Famous’ Thom Powers, and and Now Now’s Brad Hale, who help her bring songs to life. She recently headlined sold out shows in NY and LA, and with a debut album just waiting to be heard, 2018 could be a big year for Echo Park’s indie princess.
Interview and Photography by Andy Gorel

Andy: So you went to USC for Pop music. How do you think this degree contributed to Luna Shadows?

Luna: The biggest lesson I got from the program was not getting in. I didn’t get in when I first applied. I decided to take another stab at it. I went to the head of the program and was basically like, “Give me another chance. I’m serious about being a musician, and a singer-songwriter.” He gave me six weeks to prepare for a second audition. He was moved by how much effort I put into it, and decided to give me a shot.

That was my first lesson I took to the real world – persistence. Like anything else, there’s a lot of great stuff you can learn in the pop program, but then the real world application is the harder part. I do think I enjoyed school and got a lot of great stuff from it, but I took the first lesson of getting closed out thinking, “Ok I need to work harder. I need something else that distinguishes me. I need to push more and more and more, until I’m in a position to prove myself.” I took that very seriously, and I think that’s the most important thing I got from the program.

Andy: So were you undecided at first?

Luna: I was a theater major, which I did continue as well.

Andy: You’re originally from New York, what prompted the move to LA?

Luna: I always wanted to live in LA, even from the time I was a kid. I had never been to LA, but I was always drawn to it through photographs and art. There’s something about the endless summer thing that I loved. The nature, the weather, I’m really heavily influenced by my environment. I have seasonal depression in New York. I would just end up feeling really bummed out like I was missing my creativity and wanted to hibernate. I also wanted a change of scenery.

Andy: Last summer you told me you met your collaborators The Naked and Famous when you were out for tacos. So LA is an environment that you feel nurtures creativity for you?

Luna: Yeah. I’ve described it before as the room of requirement in Harry Potter, for me personally. You go in the room and whatever you need appears. I’m not saying there wasn’t hard work leading up to finding people to work with, but if you keep working hard enough, those people are here. Everyone who’s the best in their hometown comes to LA. If you’re working hard enough and taking those steps.. Not just on a superficial level of being in the right room. If you’re persistent, you end up finding a lot of great people. I had to go through many collaborators that weren’t the right fit to get to the point where I found the right teammates. I think LA is very constructive for that right now, there is something in the air for sure.

“I always wanted to live in LA, even from the time I was a kid. I had never been to LA, but I was always drawn to it through photographs and art. There’s something about the endless summer thing that I loved.”

Andy: How integral do you feel LA is to your project?

Luna: I’m just extremely grateful to be here. I don’t take it for granted. I think it’s entirely responsible for a lot of my successes as an indie musician so far. I don’t think I could have accomplished a lot of my goals without being in Los Angeles specifically. Maybe there are a few other places that it would have been possible but the specificity of what I was trying to do I really needed to be here to do it. I think it’s hugely influential for me personally, being here.

Andy: How long had you been working on your first batch of songs before you released them?

Luna: Me Brad and Thom started working together as a group back in 2014. I released my first EP in 2016, so some of those songs, like “Cherry”, I think Thom and I wrote that in November of 2014, and it didn’t come out for another year and a half. So some of them I sat on for a long time just because I wanted to be strategic about the rollout. I’ve had an album done for about a year now.

“I figured I’d be lucky if 1,000 people heard it and on the first day it got 10,000 streams. Within the first month I was on New Music Friday on Spotify. I’m really grateful I was given that platform so quickly.”

Andy: Were you expecting them to take off like they did?

Luna: No. I had high hopes. I’m really ambitious so I can say “yes” to the extent that I wasn’t going to quit until I did something that was notable, but no when it comes to the specifics. “Cry Wolf” was the first thing I put out, and when I went to upload it to SoundCloud I was literally shaking. I was so nervous. I didn’t know if anyone was going to like it. I figured I’d be lucky if 1,000 people heard it and on the first day it got 10,000 streams. Within the first month I was on New Music Friday on Spotify. I’m really grateful I was given that platform so quickly.

Andy: There’s really no team behind you right? You do most of your production and editing?

Luna: My team is me, Thom, and Brad. Brad’s a starter, and Thom’s a finisher. I’m the line through all of it. Sometimes it’s just me and Thom, or me and Brad. Sometimes it’s all three of us. Sometimes it’s just me.

Andy: You have no manager, no label. What’s it like running pretty much everything yourself?

Luna: I really enjoy it. I know a lot of artists can’t wait to get all those responsibilities off their chests, but I enjoy being involved in every aspect and having creative control. I see Luna Shadows as being an audio-visual project. So being able to participate in the visuals, and music videos, and the Instagram – everything is me. I’m looking forward to having a team. I think that will come with a different set of benefits, but in terms of me being my own boss now, I think I’m both hard on myself, but I get stuff done. I’m not bummed to be doing it all by myself.

“It becomes this physical thing. It’s really special to be on stage. You finally feel a reward.”

Andy: You recently had headline shows in NY and LA. What’s it been like seeing everything come to life?

Luna: It’s really exciting. I don’t think people realize you have this idea that’s just a word in your iPhone notepad, and then the journey it goes through to become a song, then the journey the song goes through to become a recording, then for that recording to be something people recognize. It becomes this physical thing. It’s really special to be on stage. You finally feel a reward. I have to wait several years everytime I put out a song from the time I come up with it. It is a really nice reward to see people singing along, dancing, smiling. It’s just an idea that starts in your head and you’re not sure if anyone’s going to pay attention to it.

Andy: Your debut single “Cry Wolf” just turned two years old. What’s it been like seeing the life of that song be the flagship of your whole project?

Luna: It’s interesting. I put that out first and I almost didn’t put it out at all. I didn’t know if it was a good representation of me. I chose that song to go first because I used to teach music to fund my initial endeavors. I showed my students my songs. They’re young songwriters, about age 10. “I was like which one do you guys like?” and they picked that one. That was the extent of it. I just thought I should listen to the kids.

Andy: The kids always know.

Luna: The kids always know.

Andy: The tunes are for the kids.

Luna: The tunes are for the kids. They just have incredible instincts and know what they like. They don’t have a filter. They liked all the songs, but they were really dancing to “Cry Wolf”. It was memorable for them so I thought maybe I should give it some attention.

“It’s emotional and you can connect with it. “Youth” has a little more character, and a little more sass. More intellectual pop vibes. It’s more character driven and showcases different sides of who I am as an artist.”

Andy: Your most recent EP was “Youth.” It’s really cohesive, where would you say that EP stemmed from?

Luna: I’m really calculated. I actually put that together before the first EP was even out. Pretty much all of those songs were written in a similar timeframe, but then I organized them in a way I could illustrate growth. I think “Summertime” is really immediate. It’s emotional and you can connect with it. “Youth” has a little more character, and a little more sass. More intellectual pop vibes. It’s more character driven and showcases different sides of who I am as an artist. They’re not necessarily the most dancey songs, or Spotify-friendly.

Andy: Is there a direction you feel yourself moving in artistically?

Luna: Yeah, I think both of my EPs represent me really well. I put a lot of time and effort into every aspect of them. I would say the new material is an extension of what I’ve already done. It’s still thoughtful, dark alternative or indie pop – whatever the internet says it is. But it’s a little more thematic.

Andy: If you weren’t doing this moody alternative pop, what kind of project, or genre would you want to be pursuing?

Luna: Oh my god I have so many side project dreams! Yes. I would love to be like goth-folk. You know these really moody folk artists?

Andy: Like..?

Luna: Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers. Stuff like that. I actually have a whole secret side project of songs I’ve written for fun. Surf rock is another, something like Best Coast. Why where do you see me?

Andy: Nowhere specifically, I was just curious. I figured definitely something with guitars. I know you’re into a lot of guitar-driven music.

Luna: Yeah, like Camera Obscura, or Alvvays. Something like that. I just don’t have enough time. I would do all these things. I feel like I have all these musical identities that want to burst out, but I don’t want to dilute my vision. I think this is the most important one right now.