I have mentioned Lunar Rising in various posts for a while now but I haven’t gone into much detail about the band or why Dom and I started it…  Around the same time that I collaborated with Jacqueline Rolston on the precursor to Henry Spencer Project. I was also working on an acoustic project called Finding Lunar with singer/pianist Rosie Ellen.  Here, we explored the more emotive side to music that I love so much; the idea was to create open, honest music and to tell people things that perhaps you would never normally dare to.  Unfortunately though, our differences were pretty large so after a while we decided to cease collaborating.

This left a huge vacuum in my musical interest and after putting all that hard work in I was sad to see it all come to end.  However, I’m pretty stubborn and didn’t want to close this chapter just yet so I started looking for singers to resurrect the project and to continue work on the songs that I had written (minus vocal melody), namely Back Soon, Who I Am and what is now Late Nights.  I tried out various singers that either proved unreliable or a bit too oddball for what I was looking for.  After a few let-downs I met Dominique Allan through FormingBands.co.uk and things seemed to click into place immediately.  I was stunned that she managed to totally replicate the mood of the songs as I had intended, something that no one else had managed.  Her voice was extremely emotive and once she became more comfortable with me she wasn’t afraid to experiment.  I loved every idea that she had so I just crossed my fingers and hoped that she wouldnt be as unreliable as the rest of the singers I had met.  She turned out to be just as dedicated as myself though so we immediately started work on the songs.

We played a few open mic nights around London for a while, trying to make sure we played one a week but it soon became clear that the only useful thing we were gaining from this was the experience of playing in front of a small audience.  The next logical step would be to form a band and play some bigger venues (which we now do as a matter of routine).  However, I had to warm to this idea as I had much experience in the difficulties of forming a band and keeping it going.  Usually and very frustratingly, even though people dedicate their love to a band this rarely follows with action!  I had originally intended to focus on song-writing and work towards some kind of career in this area but nevertheless I was persuaded and ironically enough our plans seemed to grow and grow…

At first we had no design for what musicians to include in the band, we just wanted instruments.  It happened that the first musician we found was a violin player and we liked this so much that after he had left we continued to look to violin as part of our sound.  Soon after, violinist Alex Tessari became part of our musical furniture.  Her beautifully atmospheric playing and charming character became quite a centre-piece at every gig.  Her relaxed and fearless nature also contributed endlessly to the band’s social atmosphere and her recent departure really made us all very sad.  However, luckily for us she can still fill in at gigs for the time-being, giving us some breathing space to find some one to take over her role…

Bass player Matthew Nellis was the second to join us and is still a central member of the band.  His calm, care-free persona coupled with enviable creativity really helped to set up an atmosphere of fearless experimentation that we rely on so much now.  Matt also takes on much of the hard work and without these efforts the band would just not function!

Mark Wilson joined next on piano but had to leave two years or so later to due work commitments becoming increasingly more important.  This was a very sore blow for us as he had added a depth of sound and pretty backdrop that we had started to base our sound upon.  After a few auditions though, Jaume Fornos filled the void left by Mark’s lamentable departure.  Jaume’s presence became strong right away with his ornamentally elegant playing style and his calm, care-free attitude fitting effortlessly into the group.

Karen Jones was our first drummer and departed around a year later due to her life plans changing focus.  This was actually our first difficult blow as we were just about ready to start pushing things.  Nevertheless, we pushed forward and after quite some time eventually settled on Pavel Stanev.  Pav quickly became the heart of the band with his steadfast nature and soulful, creative flare.

Backing vocals also became quite central to Lunar Rising’s sound and our longest serving backing singer Fay Edwards brought hard work and dedication.  Even after her recent departure (due to the pressures of the PhD she is studying for) her work ethic and high standards continue to fortify the band.  We are also currently looking for Fay’s replacement but we aim to bring some one in that can do more than just sing well…

After all this, it might be easy to say that my initial fears of the band being difficult to upkeep had a lot of truth.  However, the core of the band is actually stronger than ever now even though we are two members down (please do get in touch if you know a violin player or multi-instrumental singer!).  Our plans are more definite, the bonds within the band are getting even stronger and our song-writing is maturing nicely.  We are also creating an atmosphere where members leaving outside of the core of the band wont be such a disastrous blow.  Because of all this, I am far from being worried or frustrated, in fact I am very excited about our future!  The personalities within the band will ensure that our creative journey will never finish and this makes me certain we’ll never stagnate.

Personally, I have various ideas on where I’d like my input to take the band creatively, and these plans are also shared throughout the group to some degree.  My use of various guitar sounds to create atmosphere is only just beginning and synth may also become one of the tools we can use in songs… as well as between them….  And fuelled by the need to be flexible we are also creating an acoustic set that will not need any kind of amplification.  This sees the band messing about with mandolin, Cajon, glockenspiel, various percussive noise-makers and anything else that can make a noise!  Such a setup also begs for audience participation but of course this all needs to be finely tuned and it’s nature explored.

Along these lines, our show will increasingly become part of the band’s creativity.  We want to do more than just play some songs in front of people; we have ideas for the use of visuals and the phrase ‘interpretive dance’ has even been quietly uttered on more than one occasion… although I’m not sure anyone is willing to admit that yet…  In my mind the band will fill a space.  Not just a venue but any space, and we will work towards engulfing this space with musical journeys swelling and subsiding.  Light and physical objects will enhance these journeys and the presence and actions of the audience will do the same.  Maybe we can somehow use the other senses to draw people even further into a Lunar Rising experience…Something apart from the smell of sweaty music fans and the taste of beer…  There will be no space for idle chat but we will pick an interacting audience up at the beginning and carry them through to the end after having an experience that totally washes over them.  Anyway… this is how it looks in my head, and using the crazier ideas or not there will be much work to achieve this…  Even the crazier impulsive thoughts don’t seem so crazy when thinking of the things possible within the band and this excites me no-end….

With You, No Sleep, Back Soon and Rest are all available to download for free at www.Lunar-Rising.co.uk and we are currently making plans to record Just Living, Late Nights as well as the two new songs Embrace and Way We Climb.  Please do go along to the site and sign up to the mailing list if these ideas take your fancy, it would be great to have you along on our musical journey!  …but no whinings of ‘are we there yet??’ as this could be one of those journeys that just keeps on going…