On our 21st playlist of Shoegazers we’re listening to, we featured the rather excellent “Tell Me More Of Your Lies” by Denmark’s Moon Loves Honey. Guitarist/vocalist Jeppe Dengsø and drummer Ludvig Kastberg accepted Step On Magazine’s challenge and answered our invasive questions about music, inspiration, and what the future looks like for them personally and as a band.
Step On Magazine: What are you listening to right now?
Jeppe: I have been listening to a lot of Mazzy Star and Soundgarden lately. Other than that, I’ve recently discovered Anderson Paak. He plays a really cool mixture of rap, jazz and soul.
Ludvig: I’ve been listening to the new Tame Impala album, Currents, a lot lately. It’s quite catchy, you know! I’ve also been spacing out to Washed Out a lot. Also, I recently discovered a Danish band by the name, Kentaur. They made a live-recorded album called “Ode 314”, which I think is the best they made. And it’s really beautiful, very organic, slightly psychedelic and catchy).
What was the first LP/tape/CD you remember owning?
Ludvig: System Of A Down – Toxicity
Jeppe: I think my first CD was a James Brown album. But I don’t remember which one. Probably a compilation album of some sort. I was into funky stuff when I was a kid.
What is your favourite band(s)? OR Who is the most underrated band that you just can’t understand why they weren’t more celebrated (any era)?
Ludvig: Vulfpeck! Everyone in the world should listen to Vulfpeck. Whenever I introduce people to this band it makes them so happy, because it is so groovy and immediate that it’s hard not to like.
Jeppe: I have listened to lots of different styles of music – old and new- which makes it difficult for me to really narrow down who my favorite artists are, but there are some that I regularly revisit without feeling that their music has been outdated for me. Artists such as Pink Floyd, Bill Evans, Alice In Chains, My Bloody Valentine, Beach Boys and Beatles. Newer acts like Kendrick Lamar, Tame Impala and Beach House are artists whose music I expect will stay with me the rest of my life too.
Why do you live where you do?
Jeppe: I live in the second largest city in Denmark, Aarhus. It seemed like the natural next step after finishing high school in a smaller city. Moving to Copenhagen or another country seems like the only options for the next step from where I am now, but I don’t know when I need to take it.
Ludvig: I live in Aarhus because that’s where all my bands are.
What inspired you to take up music/ How did you get into music?
Jeppe: I come from a quite musical home and I began playing guitar at the age of 12, because I started feeling the need to play an acoustic guitar that had been in my room all my life, but I had never touched for some reason. Soon after that, I started playing drums and piano too and started some bands. Whenever I heard something that sounded cool, I wanted to be able to play it. So I just started listening to all kinds of music, letting it enter my head and figuring out how to play it. Music is endlessly fascinating and the mystery and magic of it is what initially inspired me and still inspires me to keep writing, listening and playing.
Ludvig: My mom had a drum kit in our basement that my dad gave to her as a birthday present, and she didn’t really use it, but I did. I had no idea how to do it, but after all it is basically just hitting stuff with sticks, so I felt that I was pretty good at it, so I just kept playing.
What advice should you have taken but didn’t?
Ludvig: My mom wanted med to learn some theoretical stuff, but I really hated it and so I rejected it. Also I didn’t ever practice what my teachers wanted me to practice. And when I think about it, I realize that it would be nice to have some more of those theoretical and technical advances, that I never wanted to practice.
Jeppe: I’m not sure that I’m old and/or wise enough to know yet.
What should everyone shut up about?
Ludvig: Themselves.. Which is quite ironic since I am sitting here writing about myself.
Who’s your ideal dinner guest, living or dead, and what the menu be?
Ludvig: Ghandi and the menu should be salt.
Jeppe: I would love to have a chat with Michael Jackson to find out how much of his music he created himself, and how it felt to be the king of pop, dealing with pressure, expectation and adoration. Talking to Jesus could be interesting too. I’m no religious man, but hopefully he would have some useful advice for life. I’d serve him homemade pizza.
Who is your favourite hero of fiction? What are your favourite films?
Ludvig: Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen is my favourite superhero. He’s beyond space and time! He’s omnipresent! He’s the cleverest and most over-powered man-like being, with a good excuse for his insane powers.
Jeppe: Some of my favorite films are; Up, because of the romance in it. The Truman Show, because of the beauty of it and Full Metal Jacket, because of the intensity and style.
What was the best live gig or music festival you attended?
Jeppe: The best live gig I attended recently was The War On Drugs at Roskilde Festival last summer. The entire show was extremely captivating and had a great flow. Emotional but upbeat. Their songs are great.
Ludvig: The best concert I’ve ever been to is probably Sigur Rós at Roskilde festival 2013. I was in ecstatic trance for one and a half hours.
Name something you consider a mind-altering work of art.
Jeppe: Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys. The harmonies, layers of instrumentation and melodies have not stopped blowing my mind yet, even though I have listened to the album since childhood.
Ludvig: Björk made a music video with a guy by the name Andrew Thomas Huang, which goes so good together with the music that it makes me cry every time I see it. Alex grey, the guy that makes art for Tool, makes very beautiful, visionary art. There’s a whole lot of mind-altering art! Actually I think all art is mind altering in some way or another.
What does the next 6 months look like for you?
Ludvig: I am touring Germany and Holland in May with a band called Captain Casanova. And when I come home in June I will attend some festivals in Denmark and rehearse with my bands. Then in July I’m going to Indonesia with a friend of mine. From September I only have rehearsals scheduled, but I will have to find a job as well.
Jeppe: We will play a couple of shows before summer, and then I think we’ll take a short break during the summer to travel. Then we’ll reconvene and work on new material that we’ll release inside of a year and a half hopefully. We will keep playing shows and hopefully we will be able to go on European tours in not too long.
Thanks Jeppe and Ludvig!
Check out more of Moon Loves Honey on their SoundCloud page!
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