Q&A: Luna Shadows Shares A New Side of Herself With ‘Gutspill’

MusicQ&A

Sep 5

INTERVIEW

THERE IS A NEED FOR A POP-PUNK RESURGENCE—and Luna Shadows is delivering just that. “Gutspill” is the latest track from Shadows to come out in a time where music seems to be going back in time to an era of cutting edge pieces without the need to overdo them. With this track marking a new era for Shadows’ career, it’s easy to see she’s carving out a spot for herself in the pop world today.

Like many independent artists, Shadows is taking a creative leap of faith from producing to directing. “Gutspill” is her love letter to the creation of music itself. Having drawn inspiration from pop-punk legends like Hayley WIlliams and Avril Lavigne it’s easy to see how Shadows is making her own space while still having a nostalgic feel.

With new music on the way, “Gutspill” is a step in the next innovative world that is Luna Shadows. Read Luna’s conversation with the artist below to discover the inspiration behind “Gutspill” and what’s next for Shadows.

LUNA: You've described yourself as someone who wants to be in a constant state of evolution as an artist. What's something about your artistry today that has surprised you?

SHADOWS: Well, to your point about artistic evolution—I'm an artist, but what has made me want to be an artist is that I love art, which might seem obvious, but, really, that's the thing that just keeps me moving forward. I see other people's art, and art that I love, and I'm constantly being reactive and reflective about it, and that includes my own art—I feel like [that] every time I make something. It's so quick—for instance with “Gutspill,” I'm already thinking, “I just did something upbeat and fun, so how do I react to that?” Now I want to do the opposite. I want to show that I could do the opposite.

So, in terms of surprising myself, I'm always reactive to the last thing that I've done. And it's not running away from something because I don't like it, it's more of, “Okay I did that, my flag is in the sand, now what else can I do?” So, I'm not sure that I have one specific thing that surprised me. I'll say, it's good to know that I don't have to be in a box, and that I can change. I can keep exploring, keep growing and hopefully, my voice is the thing that runs through everything. So it's always authentic. I'm never just trying things to copy anybody or to jump on a trend. I'm doing it because I love art so much, I love so many different styles of music and I just want to stick my paws in everything.

LUNA: Like a Pokémon evolution, where you just grow with time.

SHADOWS: Yes, like an evolution one hundred percent!

LUNA: You've been very hands-on with every part of your work, from songwriting to production. We even saw some of this creativity with you helping make the cover art for “Gutspill.” How important is it for you to have that level of creative control in your artistic style?

SHADOWS: For me, it's really important. I like being involved in everything. To be honest, some of it started when I started this project, out of necessity, because it's not always easy to find people that can execute the vision that you want—or maybe you don't have the funding to do so.

I had a friend who once told me that there's a triangle, and it's time, money and people. You need two out of three at all times, so you either need money and people, and then you don't need a lot of time, because you can get things done quickly. Maybe you don't have a lot of money, so you have people and time, and you can really take as much time as you need to make something happen, but you'll need more time, maybe, if you don't have the funding to push it across the line soon. I think a lot about that a lot of the time. For me, it's having other collaborators and time on my hands. Those are the things that I rely on, because I'm an independent artist, so I don't have a major label funding [my work] or anything like that.

In terms of having a hand in everything, it's just practical, and nobody is gonna care more than me about getting this over the finish line. In the case of “Gutspill,” there's a music video for it, which I directed and produced, which means there's a scene in it where there's a soccer field. I went to every soccer field that I could find in LA, and location scouted. People might not realize it, but that’s something that took me two days just to find a soccer field to shoot in.

There's a scene where all these stars [are] hanging. We found those stars, chose the colors, chose the texture and cut them up so they weren't all perfect. Everything takes so much time. I'm super grateful [for] anybody that collaborated with me on this. As far as my interest in having a hand in everything, I've grown to love doing all these different things, but a lot of it started just because I needed to find a way. I'm an artist that tries to find a way to do things.

LUNA: When life gives you lemons, you're making lemonade!

SHADOWS: Exactly!

LUNA: “Gutspill” has been described as taking a swing at modern nostalgia while bringing together pop-punk and that early 2000s influence. What is it about that particular era in sound that you wanted to revisit, and how have you made it unique to Luna Shadows?

SHADOWS: I loved so many different genres of music and jumped all across everything as a kid growing up. I studied classical, musical theater and jazz. My interest in music is not limited to any one thing. That said, as a teenager I absolutely loved emo, I loved pop-punk. It's such a special time and a place in my life.

Hayley Williams is a huge influence in pop-punk in general, and that's something that my fans know I love. I haven't necessarily injected it into my music super clearly until this point. I’ve done [a] little taste of it here and there, but I thought, “Maybe it's time for me to have my little emo moment.”

But I didn’t just want to do something that's totally derivative, so how [could] I update the sound a little bit? It does have a very intentionally nostalgic, pop-punk, early 2000s/mid-2000s feel, but then my way of updating it. I'm kind of known for my vocal production. It's super dreamy, it's very modern, there's layers and big reverbs. Even right now, it's a lot of screaming, yelling and it's very aggressive vocals. My vocals lay back a little bit. I'm almost whispering at certain points over the track. It's about combining a more aggressive rock sound, with a sweet and dreamy vocal sound. While adding in some electronic stuff as well. I call it “ethereal emo.” I made it up.

LUNA: The title “Gutspill” immediately suggests something unfiltered and personal. Was there a particular emotion or experience that you needed to get out of yourself when you wrote this song, or did the meaning of the song evolve as you were producing it?

SHADOWS: Yes, my Notes app is my best friend. I don't necessarily write songs every day. I'm very intentional when I sit down and go to write a song. I'm in a session most of the time. I had written down the word “gutspill,” and I liked it as a made-up word. Spilling your guts is the expression of, “I'm gonna let something out.” I just flipped the words around and thought it was cool—“gutspill,” like a noun. That was the origin of it.

As far as the meaning of the song, it's like that moment where you're thinking, “Oh my god I'm in front of that person I have a crush on [and] that thing I want to say, if I don't leave the room right now, is going to fall out of my mouth and I'm going to be in some trouble.”

Then at the end of the song, there's this break in the outro. That's the part where you're embracing the gutspill. You're letting it out, you know what, I'm just gonna do this for the plot. I'm gonna be a little bit messy, whatever that means to you and your life. I like to leave it a little bit open for interpretation, rather than be like, “It was about this exact thing or this person.” It's fundamentally about being a little bit anxious about not being able to speak your mind for whatever reason and then thinking, “You know what, we're on a rock floating through space—let it out.”

LUNA: How did the visual concept of the “Gutspill” cover come to be? And did the artwork reveal anything about this song or its world that you haven't necessarily revealed just yet for your fans?

SHADOWS: Fun thing about the artwork. Usually I make the song, and then I have the art. In this case, the opposite happened, where a whole year before this song was coming out, I was in New Zealand working with this amazing photographer named Frances Carter. She had this idea where she put cellophane out on the table, and threw some water. The position I'm in is actually super uncomfortable—you can tell from the photo—but I knew this was going to look fire. I trusted the vision, I trusted the process.

Then I saw on her monitor what was happening, and I thought, “Oh, that's so cool.” So we did this series of photos, then I want to say two months later, wrote the song “Gutspill.” Immediately in my head, I thought of that picture that Frances took—“That's gotta be the cover for this.” It doesn't have a hidden meaning, but I do like that it's a bit darker, it's a bit moodier. It's emo even while the song is actually pretty upbeat, though lyrically it's tugg[ing] at the heartstrings. I think I liked channeling the darker part of it to counter the song.

LUNA: At this point in your career, it's safe to assume that you know your strengths and have defined a creative identity for yourself. Does that make taking creative risks easier because you know who you are, or harder now that there's an established vision or sound that you feel responsible for?

SHADOWS: Paradoxically, both at the same time. I do care about how people receive my music, in terms of, if I have fans that have come to expect a certain sound or thing from me. I'm not the type of artist that's like “Oh, I don't care at all.” I do care—I think about my favorite artists and I love the ones that evolve, that are always true to themselves. I admire them.

Take Halsey, for example—she has dabbled in different genres. Everything from straight-up dance music, heavy stuff to country-leaning. But, her voice is always there, her songwriting's always there. I like to think that hopefully I can be that type of artist who's not abandoning the sound that I'm known for. I've always had sonic variation in my music from the very first day and have always brought in a lot of different influences.

My fingerprint, so to speak, in my music is my lyrics and my melodies, which I write one hundred percent myself. Even though I've got collaborators where we work on the tracks together and shift the sound. The lyrics and the melodies are always me. I'm always trying to deliver something that's high quality, really thoughtful. As long as I have been true to myself and super thoughtful, it's part of a story that's evolving. I think that gives me the freedom and encouragement I need to shift gears. I'm not afraid to try different things and I'm not afraid to go back to an original sound, either. Like I was saying earlier, I've just done this song that's pop-punk, but now I'm like, “Ugh, but my last record was so dreamy and indie. I want to make more songs like that.” Last week I made one that was like that. So, I'm just always reacting to myself, and hopefully people will join me on that journey.

LUNA: You've spoken in the past about how Avril Lavigne deserves more respect for her penmanship in songwriting craft. Who's another female artist you believe has been overlooked and undervalued in the industry, and what do you think people are missing out about her?

SHADOWS: Adrianne Lenker from Big Thief is probably the best lyricist. The song “Anything” is so amazing, the lyrics are just insane. I say underrated in the way that I was talking about Avril Lavigne. She is obviously super famous, but I just feel like she's always the butt of a joke, I don't know why.

Samia is also an amazing songwriter who definitely has a significant amount of momentum right now, but is not nearly famous enough. Some of the songs that I've been listening to are from her newer record—I love “Fair Game” and “Dare.” I really love Oklou. The song “Blade Bird” was super inspirational to me for the past year. And she's super cool. She's a classically trained cellist [which] I recently discovered on her Triple J performance.

So many underrated artists. We could just keep going. I do have a Spotify playlist called “The Luna Lately” for fans who wanna keep up with what I'm listening to. I tend to post a lot of underrated female artists. I also just put up a new one—it's called “Emo Inspo,” and that's some of the inspiration for “Gutspill.”