Q&A: Coral Moons Kick Off New Era With “Made Up My Mind” and ‘Summer of U’ Deluxe Album
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY KIMBERLY KAPELA ☆
FEEL THE HEAT — Fresh off the release of a deluxe version of their celebrated sophomore album summer of u, and with a string of summer tour dates—including sets at Summerfest in Milwaukee and American Music Festival in Chicago—indie-pop rockers Coral Moons are entering an exciting chapter with a renewed energy and boldness.
The single release of “Made Up My Mind,” is the first taste of their highly anticipated new era of music, setting the stage for a sound that feels more self-assured, more electrified, and deeply rooted in the momentum they’ve built through performance.
“Our live show is our bread and butter,” says frontwoman Carly Kraft. “Live tracks are a good representation of us as a band and where we are, and also as a reminder to folks who are listening that we really just love playing live. All of our ideas started in the studio, but they continue and grow every time we step on stage, and that evolution is also a part of us and fun to hear in the songs.”
That energy radiates through the deluxe edition of summer of u, which doesn’t just repackage old material—it reimagines it. With live cuts interlaced into the tracklist and re-recorded moments that feel looser and more vibrant, the band invites listeners into the kinetic world of Coral Moons on stage.
The deluxe release is a celebration of growth. What began as dreamy, retro-tinged indie pop has now matured into something bolder. Coral Moons have honed their identity through countless gigs and late-night jam sessions, and the live recordings offer proof that the band thrives on the synergy between them and their fans, feeding off crowd energy and letting each performance take on a life of its own.
Summer of u (deluxe) is a natural evolution that showcases the band’s passion for playing live.
And this summer, they’re doing just that. With festival slots placing them on stages alongside national acts and a new album on the horizon, Coral Moons are building on their momentum while staying grounded in what makes them special: a love for the live moment, a deep connection to their craft, and the confidence to keep evolving.
LUNA: Thank you for talking to Luna. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. For any readers who aren’t familiar with you yet, what inspires your artistic style and sound?
CARLY: I feel like recently, we've been getting a lot of inspiration from the new Samia record. We're also big fans of Turnstile.
JUSTIN: The Bats and Waxahatchee have also been in my rotation. We’re all over the place.
LUNA: If someone were to have just found Coral Moons and they wanted to listen to one song that encapsulates your voice and vision, what song would it be?
CARLY: “Summer of u” because I feel like there's lots of fun instrumentation going on in that track. I love the singing of the chorus in the higher chorus. Sometimes when I'm singing “summer of u,” I feel like I'm soaring a little.
JUSTIN: It's got that lifted energy. I also feel from a recording perspective, I feel like it's the closest to how we want to be represented live, which is another reason why on the deluxe album, we have a live version of “summer of u” on the deluxe, and every time we listen to it, we just feel just excited that we were able to encapsulate that song live with just a four piece. On the recorded version, there's a bunch of different instrumentation. When we listen back to our shows, we're always really excited and feel the energy of that song, so I feel like it really encapsulates who we are right now in our music for sure.
LUNA: You have recently released the deluxe version of your summer of u record and a huge congratulations is in order! What are you most excited for listeners to experience with the newly released songs?
CARLY: We have an intro track on there which was really fun to make, because it's a mix of birds from our local bird scene, mixed with just like fun, eerie synths.
JUSTIN: It's almost like a medley of all of our songs off of the record that we used for our 2024 tour season as our walkout songs. We were really excited to be able to get that on the deluxe album, because we wanted to have some sort of a transition from the recorded music into the live tracks that are the last five tracks on the deluxe album are from our 2024 touring season. We were excited to craft this transition and bring people into our live show and try to get people to hear the vision of what we're trying to accomplish live. I feel like that is really fun with that intro song. We also collaborated with Sydney Sprague on one of our tunes on the deluxe album, and that was really, really cool, because she's been an inspiration for us for a while, and having her excited to be on the track and sing on that is really special.
CARLY: It was fun to get a different female vocalist on the music, because since I'm the only woman in the band, just having those textures together felt so powerful.
LUNA: What made you want to revisit summer of u and release a deluxe edition?
CARLY: Our live show is our bread and butter. I think we always look forward to playing live music for our audiences, and being able to release the album again with that new song with Sydney Sprague. Live tracks are a good representation of us as a band and where we are, and also as a reminder to folks who are listening that we really just love playing live. Sometimes studio stuff is a way to get to the live shows. All of our ideas started in the studio, but they continue and grow every time we step on stage, and that evolution is also a part of us and fun to hear in the songs. That's a really fun thing to share with people.
LUNA: Looking back at summer of u a year later, how do you feel about the album and its impact?
JUSTIN: I'm really proud of it, even though it's crazy, because we recorded it three years ago and the fact that it still has so much meaning to us as a band, and so much so brings us so much excitement is really great, because as a touring musician, you get sick of your songs pretty quickly. It's just fun that new ideas are coming to the table and we're still finding fun little nuggets that evolve.
LUNA: You have released your newest single “Made Up My Mind” and it enters Coral Moons into a new era of music. What themes or emotions did you want to explore this time around with the single?
CARLY: We're going Ren Faire, cottage-core with this next one, which is really fun. When we were going into the studio, I was in deep fairy smutland, so it's been fun to lean into things that maybe you wouldn't share openly with other people, but leaning into that as a fun tidbit to highlight in music. We're just excited that we don't have to be one kind of music. If our inspiration pulls us in one way that we can follow it and feel inspired to do so I think that's really special, that we all felt like we could go that way with this song.
LUNA: I would love to touch on the creative process behind “Made Up My Mind.” How did the single evolve from its initial idea to its final version?
CARLY: I wrote it on Christmas. There were a lot of seven chords in it, which sometimes makes it feel a little jazzy almost.
JUSTIN: Our process is fun because our band’s in Boston, but we're in upstate New York. We spent a lot of time sending demos back and forth and working remotely. Usually it'll start with Carly, and then we'll put some demos together. I did a drum machine on this one before sending it to our drummer. Everybody added their stuff together, and then once we got in the room together, we started exploring different options and we were just really enjoying the energy of it and being loud. And we kept being
LUNA: As you gear up for album three, fueling your fire right now—musically or personally—that’s pushing you into this next chapter?
CARLY: Going to see live music. We live out in Canandaigua, New York, which is slightly isolating. We live in the woods, which is very inspirational in many ways, but I feel like sometimes it can be hard to go see live shows, and one of our goals this year was to make sure that we're going and seeing a lot of live music. This past weekend, we were at Green River Festival, which we were lucky enough to play, but we hung around a couple of days to see some other really amazing artists. We saw Courtney Barnett headline, so good as a trio, so she was the only person playing guitar. I just left that show wanting to go practice and write, and it was so inspiring. I think for me, fueling my fire is going to see other musicians, probably female musicians, doing cool shit.
LUNA: If you had to describe the new era of Coral Moons in three words, what would they be?
CORAL MOONS: Energetic, brave and bold. I feel like the energy we're definitely just following the things that make us feel energized. I think having exciting music and being able to play energetically is really pushing us into a bolder era of our music.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like that you would like to share with Luna?
CARLY: We have a big tour coming up. We leave the night “Made Up My Mind” releases for a 10 day long tour through the Midwest. We're playing four bands before Third Eye Blind at Summerfest in Milwaukee, so definitely feeling like we're getting some really cool and special opportunities, and we're definitely going to make the most of every moment.
