INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY KIMBERLY KAPELA ☆
Andrea Calvetti
STACEY RETURNS WITH “UPSIDE DOWN MERRY GO ROUND” — After five years without an original release, STACEY returns with “Upside Down Merry Go Round,” a lush psych-pop offering that finds beauty in the chaos of modernity. Blending the melodic sensibilities of Carole King with the kaleidoscopic psychedelia of Tame Impala, the track captures the emotional whiplash of navigating everyday responsibilities against a world that’s upside down. Between paying bills, logging into Zoom calls, and chasing dreams amid collective uncertainty, STACEY transforms the absurdity of it all into a technicolor soundscape.
“I wanted to encapsulate the disorienting juxtaposition of day-to-day existence against the backdrop of worldly chaos, not only through the lyrics but also through the songwriting and production,” STACEY says. “The drop to half-time in the choruses mirrors the relentless highs and lows of doom-scrolling. The song also has this feel-good quality that sits in contrast with the lyrics — like a rainbow-coloured panic attack.”
For STACEY, the release also opens the door to a visual world shaped by her longstanding love of the 1960s and 70s. From the era’s music and fashion to its architecture, the decades serve as a wellspring of inspiration. Her accompanying music video, filmed on 16mm by director of photography Gus Bendinelli, extends the track’s psychedelic aesthetics into an intentionally handmade surrealist dreamscape. Directed and produced by STACEY herself, the video embraces a maximalist approach to storytelling, drawing from the eccentricity of vintage cinema and the freedom of personal expression.
“Aesthetically, I was loosely going for a 1970s Jodorowsky meets The Love Witch vibe with a sprinkle of Cher, but always myself — mostly letting my Facebook Marketplace prop finds and fashion choices guide the way,” she says.
As STACEY looks toward what comes next, feminine independence emerges as a defining theme.
“What is to come is an overarching sense of feminine independence,” STACEY says to Luna. “I'm a very solitary person. I go to shows alone. I'll go to dinner alone. I do a lot alone. I want to showcase how that can be fun, confident, introspective, spiritual and fulfilling without loneliness. I hope that I can help spread confidence in just being yourself.”
Her time in Los Angeles has further encouraged that freedom of expression. The city's atmosphere has offered her room to experiment with fashion and identity.
“I'm just being my most authentic self in my art,” she says. “In these videos, they're very specific to me, and I'm just letting my freak flag fly. I'm living my weirdest fashion dreams. I feel like I've been given some of that permission living in LA because I always feel like there’s this sense of freedom to wear and be whoever you want, and that's been really liberating. Those are different themes that I like to bring into the project as a whole.”
As STACEY steps into this new chapter, feminine independence and unapologetic self-expression are emerging as the foundation of an evolving artistic identity. With more releases on the horizon, she is creating a space to explore womanhood on her own terms, embracing solitude and eccentricity. Whether through her kaleidoscopic soundscapes, surrealist visuals, or vintage-inspired fashion, STACEY is building a world that is entirely her own.
Andrea Calvetti
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?
STACEY: I am a big lover of all things 60s and 70s. I think that while I am a musician and songwriter first, there's so much more beyond music that inspires my project. I'm really into fashion, film, architecture, design, everything from that era, for whatever reason, just really resonates with me. I think because it was so foreign to me, and I hadn't really heard any music from that era. My family isn't super musical, so when I discovered that music and started to get into it for the first time, it just felt like a treasure trove. I became really obsessed with it. It's an obsession from all things culture from that era.
LUNA: The song captures the emotional whiplash of navigating everyday responsibilities while witnessing a world that often feels like it's unraveling. What personal experiences or observations initially sparked the concept?
STACEY: I started writing it a couple of years ago. Oftentimes, it's the spur of the moment. Whatever's coming to me at that moment. It certainly was a Sunday, and I was dreading Monday. It's nothing too complex. It's just that it was the truth of the moment. Just feeling overwhelmed with a work week ahead, just juggling everything in my life as an artist who's independent. I have my micro responsibilities with the backdrop of the heaviness of everything going on in the world, and it's just such a disorienting feeling, and so it really just came from that. I have a 70s Wurlitzer in my apartment. I love all of the classics like the Carole Kings and the Laura Nyros, and that groove just fell through my fingertips and was matching my feeling in the moment.
LUNA: “Upside Down Merry Go Round” marks your first original release in five years. What inspired you to return to songwriting now, and what made this particular song feel like the right way to reintroduce yourself?
STACEY: I love that question because it's a good opportunity for me to share that I never stopped songwriting. It just takes a while for me to write a collection of songs that I feel are ready to bring to the studio. I've had a whole new set of collaborators in the studio, and so it just naturally has taken this long between people's schedules and finding what the next iteration of my project is. There's always an in-between album that I don't put out, where it's transitional songs, where I'm searching for something but I haven't quite found it. The distance between my last album and this first song is probably another 30 songs that'll never see the light of day, but this is the beginning of where the new collection started to form.
LUNA: After five years without releasing original music, how has your relationship with songwriting evolved? Has your approach to creating music or expressing yourself changed during that time?
STACEY: That's a good question. I don't think that my approach has necessarily changed. It's always a really sacred experience for me. I love music. I am a student of music, and I will be for the rest of my life. To me, it's something really to be protected, and it's an expression of my thoughts and feelings. It's a really cathartic experience, and so I've approached it similarly. I think just by continuing to practice the art of songwriting, my songwriting has gotten stronger. You're putting in more hours, the stronger you are getting with that work. I will say with this song, I rarely do co-writes, but I will do a co-write with different artists or songwriters who are making things that I can see myself in. I got a little stuck with the song. I had the verse and the pre-choruses, and I was chatting with my friend Suzanne May, who I co-wrote this with. Her project is called Fontaine. She's an amazing, incredible, songwriter performer, and takes inspiration from similar artists and all things 70s. We knocked out the rest in an afternoon, and she was the perfect collaborator, and it flowed out of us.
LUNA: You directed and produced the accompanying music video yourself, extending the song into a handmade surrealist dreamscape. What made you want to take creative control of the visual narrative, and how was your experience filming it?
STACEY: I love this question. As an independent artist, there's not a lot of budget. Over the years, out of necessity, I've just had to make things happen, and my visions are often larger than my resources, and so then the only way to execute against them is to wear many hats. I have a good sense of my own aesthetic and what I like and what I don't like. What is inside of my aesthetic and what's outside of it. I directed and produced the last couple of videos as well. I think that this time around, I honed my taste in so many different ways — aesthetically, and also in terms of songwriting and production — it's now become something that I really enjoy and something that I would continue to do even if resources or a label or support came along, I could just be a little less stressed while I'm doing it. I love it.
I thrive off of finding a Facebook Marketplace prop or a fabric or something that's going to bring the most production value. I always try to have one big production value piece. What's eye grabbing? What can stand out in an algorithm? I have to also mention Gus Bendinelli, who shot it on 16 millimeter. He is a world-renowned cinematographer, and it wouldn't be half the video without him and the rest of the team. I directed and produced it, but of course, it would not be what it is without all the people that worked on it. My makeup artist, Christina Spina, helped make the molds for the chocolate horses that are in there. There's just so many little details, and it also is only achievable with the wonderful collaborators that I have.
LUNA: You cited Alejandro Jodorowsky, The Love Witch and Cher as aesthetic references. What specifically drew you to these influences and how was that translated?
STACEY: My immediate answer is just that I love the styling. I feel really connected to it. It feels like my brain lights up when I see certain things, and so I'm just drawn to them naturally. I think that's maybe the best answer that I can give. The other thing is just that with both of those things, they're very loud, colorful, bright, shiny, vivacious and attention-grabbing. That's also another thing I love about that era. I think that aesthetically, buildings and fashion, everything is really grays and blacks, and I miss the really ornate color explosions of that world via Cher's wardrobe, the Bob Mackie of it all, it’s so fantastic. It’s exhilarating every time you watch a clip of her ripping off a piece of the wardrobe to reveal another, and it's exhilarating. I want to see what elements of that I can borrow that fit into my project in a way that is unique to me.
LUNA: How do you hope listeners — especially your femme audience — can connect with or find power in this new era of music from you? What emotions or messages do you want to leave with them?
STACEY: I want to leave them in this new era. This isn't totally encapsulated within this new single and the video that I've released, but what is to come is an overarching sense of feminine independence. I'm a very solitary person. I go to shows alone. I'll go to dinner alone. I do a lot alone. I want to showcase how that can be fun, confident, introspective, spiritual and fulfilling without loneliness. I hope that I can help spread confidence in just being yourself. I'm just being my most authentic self in my art. In these videos, they're very specific to me, and I'm just letting my freak flag fly. I'm living my weirdest fashion dreams. I feel like I've been given some of that permission living in LA because I always feel like there’s this sense of freedom to wear and be whoever you want, and that's been really liberating. Those are different themes that I like to bring into the project as a whole.
LUNA: What is fueling your fire right now that’s pushing you into this new era of your career?
STACEY: I have new songs coming. I love my catalog. However, I think I've been a slow burn of an artist, and I think that with the upcoming songs, I've really stepped into my own. The gap between who I am and my artistic project is closing, and they're becoming one. I feel really excited about the new chapter and what I'm bringing to the table in terms of songwriting and production. It's also fun to just really build a world. The visual elements have been extremely fun to create. The songs become an opportunity to build a visual world around each of them. That is just fun for me. It's fun to share. What a dream to live in an alternative universe that is joyous and a technicolor explosion.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the upcoming year look like that you would like to share with Luna?
STACEY: Right now, I'm feeling exhausted but determined, just because I'm juggling so much, and then with the flood in my apartment, lots of shows. There are just a lot of spinning plates, but I've never believed in something more. When I had the flood, I was just posting about it on my Instagram. I accepted my loss, and the song that I put on was “Break My Stride.” I feel like that's indicative of this moment in time. The rest of the year is just continuing to finish up the record, and working hard behind the scenes on more visual components, experiences and extra dimensions of the songs.
Andrea Calvetti
