Q&A: On Love and Girlhood: manny moura’s ‘a crush is a creative act’
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY ZARMEEN AKHUND ☆
NO STRANGER TO ILLUSION—folk-pop artist manny moura toes the line between the real and the imagined. Her latest endeavor directs our attention to intimate corners of the heart and mind. Deeply inspired, a crush is a creative act marks a candid exploration of femininity.
Three years in the making and featuring songs like “Object of Desire” and “I Think You Think of Me,” the record conveys identity through the lens of affection, desire and unrequited love. Each song reveals a touch of irony while showcasing moura’s skilled lyricism. Like a lullaby, the artist captures fantasy in the wake of idealized love.
Luna sat down with moura to discuss the intention, craft and creative process leading up to her latest album.
LUNA: Have you always been a daydreamer?
MOURA: Definitely, I think I've always lived in my head way more than I've lived in reality. Which can be good and can be bad. Trying to use it the best I can for my creativity. I think the escape was important as an anxious child.
LUNA: Channeling that into some form of art or music really has a grounding effect.
MOURA: Yeah, it's always been an escape for me, in a good way.
LUNA: What are some ways you choose to push the boundaries of fantasy or narrative sonically?
MOURA: Sonically, I kind of go with my intuition and see what feels right when I'm in the studio. I like to work with my friends so it’s very comfortable and we can experiment. For this album, we really leaned into the dreaminess. We wanted a bunch of guitars layered and bright synths. Because there was this concept of fantasy and delusion. We wanted it to be raw, but also very dreamy. We tried to play with that juxtaposition.
LUNA: The album was born as a way of moving through emotion. One of the tracks, “Lemons and Limerence” marked a pivot for you. Can you tell me more about that?
MOURA:Emotionally I process while I write. When I wrote lemons and limerence, it was because I found the word limerence. And I was like, “Oh, this, this is exactly what I've been talking about.” I knew that it had to be a song. I didn't know that I was writing the album yet, but I knew I had to write this. I knew this was the general idea of what I wanted my project to be. It was the first song that I made with my two producers, Nathan Dies and Fernando Tavares, over a Zoom call. It was so magical. Everything happened really quickly, like they knew exactly what to do, and so did I. The song came together in a few hours.
LUNA: That's awesome. It sounds like everything kind of clicked into place. That's so funny that you say the limerence thing, because I also discovered that word some time back, and it made so much sense. This one-sided longing, in between nothing and something else.
MOURA: Exactly. It’s a state that feels very comfortable and safe because you have full control of this unrequited love. It’s all in your head. You're not actually living it. You're not dealing with any of the actual consequences of being in relationships. It’s like a daydream.
LUNA: Yeah, that daydream offers comfort and it’s one of those things so many people can relate to. I watched the visualizer too. It captures illusion so well. What was it like to make?
MOURA: It was really fun. I made it with my friend Gabriella, and she had this stop motion photography concept. So we went to a park, I did my makeup, dressed up and we brainstormed ideas in the moment. We took a bunch of photos and she edited it in a way that felt really dreamy, which I really loved.
LUNA: “Arriving” is all about in-between moments. When did the idea come to you?
MOURA: I wrote that song in 2022. That idea came to me because there's a line in the first verse where I talk about how I prefer to look for parking instead of going to the party. And that actually happened. I was in the car with friends and I just didn't want to go to the party. I was having more fun in the car. I started thinking about this idea of the in between and how I feel like I'm constantly there because of the daydreaming, obsession and limerence. The in-between is a very nice place to be. Actually, the scrapped album name was The Inbetween. Arriving captures the whole idea of “I never actually want to get there, but I like the process of getting there.”
LUNA: You’ve spoken to some of your artistic influences like Taylor Swift, Maddie, Diaz and Phoebe Bridgers. They all follow tropes and variations of girlhood. What defines girlhood for you right now?
MOURA: I’m really obsessed with the idea of girlhood. Being a teen girl, you can’t really describe it. It’s very specific and it’s why I love pop girls so much. And the community that it brings and how important it was to me growing up. Taylor Swift taught me how to talk about my feelings. It’s very relevant for what I do now. Girlhood, to me, is the vulnerability of being a girl, having these overflowing feelings and not knowing what to do with them. And trying to find things to grab onto, just to hold you.
LUNA: I love that. Finding things to grab onto, just to hold you. That is what we all want. Just to be held and okay in ourselves.
MOURA: Totally. I’m very big on fandoms, and I was also a huge one direction stan when I was a teenager. That was a very big part of my growing up. Feeling that sense of community was so essential.
LUNA: I love the metaphor you use to bring the album to a close, moving to the “Other Side.” What does that represent for you?
MOURA: The “Other Side” was the very last song, and I had been dealing with the limerence situation and an obsessive crush that didn't work out. I then finally had a situation that did work out and that was real. And so the other side is me reaching the conclusion that my fantasy didn't work out, but now I'm here on the other side of something real.
LUNA: There’s a two-fold meaning, a spiritual undertone too.
MOURA: 100 percent. I talk about it in the song, energy and past lives.
LUNA: Any other creative hobbies or fun things you like to do outside of music?
MOURA: I read a lot of novels. Fashion and makeup are definitely hobbies of mine. I go to the movies a lot too, I have AMC A-list so I love going (laughs).
