The Year According To Moths and Giraffes: 2022
Every year is a brilliant year for music. It’s been an exciting one for Moths and Giraffes too! We gave away albums by Chandeen and Maya Hawke, curated a Spotify playlist with Lines Of Flight, and we saw lots of gigs, including some we reviewed. M&G hosted its first album premiere and multiple music video premieres, plus we had our words printed in album artwork for the first time ever!
I was personally interviewed by Shoutout LA and The Band Bible in April to talk about my journey and experience with this website. We also completed our largest article yet, a career retrospective two years in the making. We celebrated debut singles, debut albums, triumphant returns and much more in between. This is The Year According To Moths and Giraffes: 2022.
‘I love that moment when I hear a piece of music for the first time and instantly feel the melody and the words swelling up inside. If I can be still enough to hear it (and have the microphone beside me) then I can capture it. This is how I wrote most of the vocals for our album.’ – Karen Vogt
In our first article of 2022, we wrote about the debut album from composers GALÁN / VOGT entitled ‘The Sweet Wait’. Released towards the end of 2021, the ambient duo invited visual collaborators to make individually stylistic music videos for each of the album’s nine songs. Moths and Giraffes had the privilege to premiere the video for ‘Nothing Is Under Control’ featuring exclusive commentary from filmmaker Elska and field-recordist Patricia Wolf, in addition to our Q&A with Pepo Galán and Karen Vogt.
‘I had a gig in March of 2019 and we were gonna be playing the track as an acoustic break in the set. We were rehearsing the track and when we got to verse two I started singing completely different lyrics, they kind of just flowed out. I had to stop us halfway through because I wanted to write it down before I forgot. That’s when it properly clicked, everything felt like it was finally where it wanted to be.’ – Ysabel Bain
In January, Ysabel Bain shared her latest single, ‘Harmonics’. The track had been on a long journey, beginning with guitarist Scott Reynolds, the two writers shaping the outcome of the single which is passionately sung by Bain. ‘Harmonics’ is taken from a larger forthcoming body of work called ‘The Grief Stories’, hinted at by Ysabel in our Q&A.
“‘Nightfall’ was inspired by dark thoughts and depression coming to the surface at night time. When the day is done, and you finally have alone time for your mind to wander. The idea of really fearing being alone with your thoughts, ‘I am holding on when night falls, for my life’.” – Maya Lakhani
Led by the release of her latest single ‘Nightfall’, we wrote about the journey of songwriter and producer Maya Lakhani so far. Maya’s music is a self-produced home studio affair with a massive sound – big guitar tones and pounding drums. Our piece includes reviews of her first two singles, ‘The Line’ and ‘Walk Alone’, plus a Q&A that dives into her production set-up, wider career and her songwriting roots.
‘I like the lyric to be consistent so I like getting the world clear before I polish or redraft the song. For this one, me and my cowriter established the sort of relationship our characters had, and decided – after the initial idea dump – the different phases we would capture.’ - Luce
After writing about her debut single ‘Shoulder’ in 2021, we caught up with singer/songwriter Luce to review the work she’d done since. This included her follow-up single ‘Paper Notes’, her collaboration with R2J called ‘Gentle’, and her latest single, ‘Lamplight’. The latter would be released on her debut EP in the summer of 2022, entitled ‘Observational Writing’.
‘The TCC’s directory and socials are a crucial cog in a bigger machine. I envision it going beyond music, arts and film. There are gender nonconforming lawyers, educators and more. Today’s showcase is the foundation for that future.’ - Nelly Rodrigues
In early February, we attended the first event put on by a newly established Trans Creative Collective. The event held at Ten87 Studios featured talks across multiple creative disciplines, including real-time reviews of audio and visual work submitted by trans artists. Their most recent success includes pairing with Years & Years vocalist Olly Alexander and Trans Voices to form The Absolut Choir, an ad campaign for Absolut Vodka. The campaign utilised the TCC directory, placing members both in front and behind the camera to shoot the video.
‘It was definitely tough in lockdown with not even being able to see each other as friends, never mind play music. Having that long term goal of Kendal Calling definitely helped, as did social media – we discovered a whole army of music fans that supported us and many other artists.’ – Revivalry
Also in February, we wrote about the rise of Revivalry, a teenage trio formed of vocalist and bassist Connie Miles, guitarist and vocalist Ben Townsend and drummer Lewis Hubbert. We wrote about their singles ‘Shame On You’, ‘Regret You’ and their latest single at the time called ‘Pieces’. The band’s Q&A discussed their range of influences from rock, metal, indie and pop, appearing on TV and the second Brits & Pieces compilation. Revivalry look forward to releasing new music in 2023 as a duo while Connie Miles takes a break from performing.
‘I've always been really interested in making sounds that people can't immediately place, whether through cutting up, reversing, stretching or heavily processing. I love that surprise that comes from finding out something isn't what you think it is. I think my favourite part is making interesting sounds and getting them to hang together cohesively with each other, whether through mixing, sound design or arrangement.’ – Alice Mary
Upon the release of her single ‘Wrong’, we went back and reviewed the music of Alice Mary, concluding the story we began with her single ‘Too Much’ in May 2021. The other songs released during this era were ‘Mystery’, ‘Surgeon’ and a reworking of her earlier single, ‘Everything To Everyone’. Our Q&A dives into Alice Mary’s writing and production techniques, as well as the mesmerising stop-motion video for ‘Wrong’.
‘I created this character to represent myself outside of myself, as all of these songs are an expression of my identity. Blue, because it’s my favourite colour, and the dress came out of me exploring my identity and my womanhood throughout many of the themes of these songs – also, I just like dresses.’ – Evie Asio
In 2022, we returned to the music of Evie Asio by reviewing her sensational single ‘Turning Time’. We’d previously written about ‘The Girl In The Blue Dress’ in 2021, with both articles containing tracks from her recently released debut album, ‘Contending & Contention’. In her writing style, Evie Asio effortlessly blends soul and pop, driving it home with her passionate vocal and lyrical delivery.
‘When I originally started thinking about a video, I had some vague thoughts in my head that were all quite nebulous; I wanted to be in a setting that reflected the religious aspect of the song, but most importantly I wanted the video to be simple, honest and raw - no frills.’ – Lucy Hall
After we reviewed Lucy Hall’s ‘Lines’ EP and release party in 2021, Lucy was back to share the music video for the EP’s title track. Our piece featured exclusive commentary from both Lucy and filmmaker Taylor Torr, who explained the process of shooting the video. Hall also described the origins of the song, about ‘drawing a line under a relationship where the other person wasn't entirely comfortable with their sexuality.’
‘I went to New York to do a Broadway play. And I was in New York for almost nine months, and it’s there that the freestyle/making music just took off. So I had a little tape recorder and I would just be in the back of taxicabs, non-stop freestyling. Like people thought I had- like I thought I had singing Tourette’s, you know?’ – Jena Malone
‘My relationship with Jena, both musically and friendship-wise is hard to explain. It really does blur the lines between life and art, as corny as that sounds. I think when I first met her and we were trying to figure out what this was, she always had this attitude of, it doesn’t matter, let’s just do it, let’s just hang out and jam all night in my garage or on the side of a hill while ants were eating our legs. It’s really not a band to me, ha, even though she calls me her band husband. It’s something we just naturally do together. She sings and spews out words and I catch them and chase and hold them with my piano.’ – Lem Jay Ignacio
In our most extensive piece so far, almost two years in the making, we wrote about the music of Jena Malone and Lem Jay Ignacio. We chart their story from Malone’s first musical inklings as Jena Malone and Her Bloodstains beginning in 2006, through to her work with Ignacio as The Shoe up to 2021. This article features a Zoom interview with Jena, a Q&A with Lem Jay and an archive videoed freestyle by The Shoe, released here for the first time.
‘It all started at my 50th birthday party in 2019. Tim was there and we got chatting about songs and what we were writing. We drunkenly agreed to swap some stuff with each other and work on it. We’d actually said this to each other a few times before over the preceding 20 years, but life just seemed to get in the way and we both had a lot of commitments.’ – Sice Rowbottom (The Boo Radleys)
In March, we welcomed the new album by The Boo Radleys, their first since 1998’s ‘Kingsize’ entitled ‘Keep On With Falling’. The reformed three-piece of Sice Rowbottom, Tim Brown and Rob Cieka had recently completed their first UK tour since their return, previewing some of their new music. Our full album review concludes with a Q&A from vocalist and guitarist Sice, who speaks about the origins of their reunion and how different making this record was compared with their classic material in the 90’s.
‘When I got back into songwriting in 2020 there were a couple recent musical trends that I was particularly enjoying. One was retrowave and the other was the lofi/chillhop/study beats phenomenon. I enjoy the moods and textures used in a lot of that music, but most of it is instrumental and I'm partial to vocal driven music. So I wanted to try taking those sounds and incorporating them into pop songs with vocals.’ – Michael Maas (Blue Nagoon)
Composer and dedicated music fan Michael Maas, under his Blue Nagoon moniker released his album ‘Crestfallen’ in 2022. Mostly exploring the genre of retrowave in his previous music, his debut album featured vocalist Alyssa Fischer and it turned out to be a match made in heaven. Our piece features exclusive commentary from Fischer on her role in making the album, plus a Q&A from Blue Nagoon on his other collaborators and wider career.
‘On a plane, the autopilot setting doesn’t lock onto one course and cruise along, it’s on course 5-10% of the time and 90-95% of the time its correcting its deviation. I think it’s beautiful the idea of constantly making adjustments and not expecting to be perfectly on course, welcoming mistakes, change, and being human, so that’s what autopilot means to me now.’ – TS Autopilot
During the first TCC social, artists were invited to submit their work for live review. One of these artists was TS Autopilot, a songwriter and producer with a grand style that hit us on the first listen with their single ‘Want To Stay’. Influenced by the works of Hans Zimmer, Pink Floyd and Hope Sandoval’s music with Massive Attack and Mazzy Star, we also reviewed TS Autopilot’s collaboration with Stan.Doe and their follow-up single ‘Until Today’.
‘I’ve found a few times that things can end up working out but not necessarily in the way we expect. A lot of the work of being a musician and actor, or any type of freelancer I think, is ticking off tasks that don’t feel like they are achieving much in the moment but that allow something to fall into place later down the line.’ – Robert Lane
In this industry, there are creative powerhouses capable of multiple disciplines. We were fortunate to speak to one such individual by the name of Robert Lane back in April. Though much of his work is in the realm of acting, he’s also an accomplished musician, demonstrated by his production work on his single and music video, ‘Pass The Day’. The single would later be released on his ‘Homeworking’ album in October.
‘The song lyrics were written a few years ago. They basically dealt with thoughts I was having at the time about giving up writing music. Of course this didn’t happen, and I found more inspiration after writing them. I unearthed those lyrics and reworked them into a more recent piece of music and the outcome is Exit Scene.’ - Sapienn
Leaving our emails open for artists to submit their own work often yields surprising results, as it did when Sapienn sent us his single ‘Exit Scene’. Full of beautiful harmonies, great acoustic work and guitar and bass runs that remind us of Stevie Wonder, Sapienn was on hand to tell us more about ‘Exit Scene’ and the exploration of his own sound.
‘When Natasha Sophia and I were producing the EP, we did it at a fairly slow pace to accommodate for our chronic illness needs. This gave me a lot of time to sit with the songs. There was something that felt wrong about the title track, A Tyrant’s Demise, and I couldn’t figure out what it was, so I ended up cutting it from the EP.’ – Tarquin Alexandra
It was a pleasure to do a deep dive into the work of singer/songwriter Tarquin Alexandra, particularly her EP ‘A Tyrant’s Demise’ and its accompanying standalone title-track. Co-producer Natasha Sophia provides additional commentary on the making of the EP, and Tarquin gives detailed answers about her creativity and recording music while suffering with a chronic illness.
‘It’s weird because we had already come to realise that the theme of the album was light coming out of darkness. Our music feels simultaneously melancholy and uplifting and for obvious reasons that still feels very relevant, in fact probably even more so now.’ – Blue Violet
This year, Blue Violet released their debut album ‘Late Night Calls’, a record that sucked us in from the first listen with lush instrumentation and with no lyric out of place. Of the album’s ten tracks, ‘Rabbit Hole’, ‘Asylum’ and ‘Poster Girl’ were among our favourites. In our Q&A, we ask the duo of Blue Violet, Sarah and Sam Gotley about the environmental issues raised in their ‘White Beaches’ video and living at Middle Farm Studios while recording their album.
‘My latest single What Have You Done For Me Lately? is possibly my all-time favourite release… Fun fact, this song actually features zero guitar. What you hear is all bass guitar. It’s layers upon layers of heavy, distorted bass with those trashy drums that are such a staple in garage rock. It’s being played on tour, and hearing it in rehearsals blew us away - it’s so heavy! It’s definitely a highlight in the set for me.’ – Emma Blackery
In May, we revisited the music of Emma Blackery to celebrate her return to touring after four years. This article was our first ‘Top Ten’, showcasing our personal favourites in Blackery’s catalogue, with exclusive commentary from Emma on each of the songs. The tracks we chose range from her earliest EP, ‘Distance’, up to her latest single at the time, ‘What Have You Done For Me Lately?’
‘The story behind the lyrics is quite exceptional. The very first idea came from my daughter, who was wondering about the source of her unusual dreams and came up with the concept of a dream producing company. As the idea was so insightful, I wrote it down, and with time the idea started living its own life.’ – Pauliina (Eenian Dreams)
Where do our dreams come from? The Finnish duo of Eenian Dreams has a theory. Made up of instrumentalist and producer T.C. Newman with vocalist Pauliina, we review their singles ‘Someone Like You’ and ‘Dream Producer’ and revel in their dynamic electronic arrangements. We ask them about their recording set-up, as well as their special single ‘Hiljainen tienoo’, released in support of The Finnish Red Cross for the people of Ukraine.
‘Clone came first, just before the first wave of the pandemic. And it’s really just about relationships with friends and others that break down due to a lack of truth being told. Fake worlds came during the pandemic. I just found myself on my phone or laptop way too much, like everyone else at the time really, and using it as a way to speak to people and I just hated it.’ – Sam Harrison
At the end of May we wrote about the double A-side from guitarist and vocalist Sam Harrison entitled ‘Clone/Fake Worlds’. The beauty in these songs is how Harrison builds them, layering guitar and bass upon drummer Iain Cross’ performances, complete with impassioned lead vocals in a well-rounded production that draws the listener in. Our Q&A dives into how these songs were made, and Sam tells us what they’ve been listening to in 2022.
‘I use Cubase 5 which is antiquated I know but I got it free and I know how to use it, just about. I can record pretty much everything except drums which is why we do them at Boxyard. I’ve been toying with the idea of getting a Tascam because I know it’ll sound so much better – I always do at least parts of our demos through a crappy one-track tape recorder and I love that tapey sound roughing it up a bit, the demos sound better to me than our finished recordings but there’s no way I could get them up to radio quality.’ – Richey (Furrowed Brow)
In 2022 we returned to the music of Manchester’s Furrowed Brow for their single ‘I Threw The Bathwater Out’. Our piece takes a look at the production of the released version, plus the demo included on the band’s cassette compilation, ‘What Good’s A Hat Without A Mirror?’ We ask the band questions about the possibility of mounting a tour and the set they recorded at their local venue The Peer Hat. Explore the music of Furrowed Brow further by checking out their earlier single, ‘Punctual Punk’.
‘Working at home gives you a lot more freedom in how you can work. When you go into a studio it’s usually a scheduled thing and you have x amount of hours to like get stuff done. At home, it’s so much easier to get lost in things and really see ideas through. I hope to do a lot more home recording in the future. But also I think going into more professional spaces like Electric Lady in NYC is really important too because you can get a new perspective on what you’ve been doing.’ – Olive Faber (Sunflower Bean)
Having been a fan since 2017, it was a great honour to write about the latest album from Sunflower Bean entitled ‘Headful Of Sugar’, featuring exclusive accompanying commentary on the songs from the band. Guitarist and vocalist Nick Kivlen tells us more about his guitar sound on this record and gives us insight into working with producer Jacob Portrait. Drummer Olive Faber also helped engineer parts of the record in the band’s home studio, we asked if there were studio comforts that were missed when making the album. Finally, bassist and vocalist Julia Cumming tells us about the origins of the dance track ‘Post Love’ with a story of DJ’ing in New York City pre-pandemic. Our favourites from this album include ‘Who Put You Up To This?’, ‘In Flight’, ‘Roll The Dice’ and ‘Post Love’.
“The amount of times I threw my hands up in the air and said ‘I don't even know what I'm listening to anymore!’ was endless it seemed. Luckily, I have an amazing group of musician friends who were happy to lend an ear and be honest with me about what I was hearing or what I thought I heard. I definitely had a moment with myself when I had to say ‘Art is always changing. These songs will never be the same twice. At some point, you have to make the choice of where they will be frozen in time.’” – Brittany Danielle
In 2022, Moths and Giraffes did its first album premiere for the brilliantly versatile Brittany Danielle. Her debut album, ‘Hindsight’ is ten songs spread across influences of pop, soul and jazz. A talented pianist, Danielle covers all the other keyboard instruments on the album, as well as battling through Covid-19 herself to make her voice heard. Our personal favourites from this album include the opener ‘Liquid Drugs’, ‘Don’t’ and lead single ‘Fondly’.
In the summer, we set out to review the annual concerts at Kent’s historic Rochester Castle. We laid out the initial line-up in ‘Planned Assault’, but with a line-up change and the addition of support acts, we updated our piece in ‘Revised Assault’. We reviewed the first evening with The Human League, featuring support from Blancmange and Altered Images. Moths and Giraffes returned for the third night, taking in a dynamic set from Al McKay’s Earth, Wind & Fire Experience, this time with support from Third World and The Dualers. Both gig reviews feature excellent photography from Mark Thompson (mstmusic.co.uk) and Peter Willson (petetakesphotos.com).
‘Some songs have started off with an acoustic guitar - like the bare bones of a track then someone will bring it to the rehearsal room and we'll add to it and adapt it as a band. Some songs we'll write all together at practice and end up writing all the lyrics together, or singing nonsense lines to each other and turning it into a riff or a melody. There isn't really a set way we'll go about it, but we'll always go through the song section by section and think of it structurally and how it's going to fit into the next section.’ – Rachel Williams (Peaness)
After sitting on the record since before the pandemic, 2022 at last saw the release of the debut album from Chester trio Peaness, entitled ‘World Full Of Worry’. Made up of Carleia “Balla” Balbenta on guitar and vocals, bassist and vocalist Jessica Branney and Rachel Williams on drums, Rachel answers our Q&A on the band’s writing process and the talent contest video for ‘irl’. Our favourite tracks from ‘World Full Of Worry’ include ‘How I’m Feeling’, ‘Girl Just Relax’ and ‘Worry’.
Following their 2018 reunion, Soft Cell continued to work together to create a new album during lockdown, their first since 2002 entitled ‘*Happiness not included’. Moths and Giraffes dives deep into the record, with accompanying quotes from Marc Almond and Dave Ball taken from their YouTube series on the making of the album. Highlights from this record include ‘Nighthawks’, the album’s title track and their collaboration with the Pet Shop Boys, ‘Purple Zone’.
‘Consent was the penultimate song to be written for the album, and to be honest I was in two minds as to whether to write at all because of the subject matter. I’m not usually one for shying away from controversial topics, but the events that inspired it still felt raw to me. In the end it became a song of necessity because I was struggling to crystallise my thoughts and feelings around these events, and the moment I finally gave myself permission to sit down and write in the summer of 2020, the whole thing came tumbling out.’ - Rookes
In September, we wrote about the first single from Rookes’ debut album, ‘POPNOTPOP’ entitled ‘Consent’. Our review called the single, ‘an excellent pop production’ and ‘easily imaginable on an arena stage’, praising Rookes’ voice and the mix co-created with Katie Tavini. In our Q&A, we asked Rookes about her wider career including 2% Rising, a Facebook group for women and gender minorities working in the music industry as producers and engineers.
‘We did it all within 4 hours one evening. With help from our small but amazing team, we set up the space and then we filmed 4 live takes. I think the third one made the final cut. Singing in a chapel like St Katharine is a very inspiring experience, the sound gets huge. My performance definitely benefited from the atmosphere that we created, and of course from the magic of the golden hour at twilight. The spirits were definitely with us.’ – Paul Shine (Dead Writers)
Having seen Dead Writers perform the previous December, we reviewed the new version of their single ‘Among Spirits’. This new rendition is subtitled ‘A Piano Prayer’ and was recorded in the chapel of The Royal Foundation of St Katharine in London, featuring vocalist Paul Shine taking the piece to their grand piano. Our Q&A with Paul dives into the logistics of filming in a retreat centre, plus the writing of the original piece and the search for new band members. Dead Writers have closed out their year by winning ‘Track Of The Week’ in Classic Rock Magazine for their latest single ‘Lisa’.
‘To have a career in music, I still get imposter syndrome about that sometimes or I can’t quite believe it’s happening. You know it still feels like something that will happen but I make all my living from music now. Yeah, I feel very lucky to be doing that, but it often catches me off guard where I realise that’s what’s happening.’ – Maxie Cheer
During a break from performing with Bimini and on the eve of a UK support tour with MUNA, we interviewed session drummer Maxie Cheer via Zoom. We spoke at length about their career, including working with Tony Visconti, imagining the soundtrack for the BBC’s ‘Guilt’ series and mentoring his own pupils. Our interview includes much laughter and stories going back to their teenage years, right up to September this year.
‘It began with a nice little riff that Alex was born with. The title had come to me in a waking dream, and while walking through Hampstead it became obvious that Keats - who died at twenty five - had to feature. How lucky we are to be alive (90% of the time).’ – Ash Burt (Slender Pins)
Is it possible to be happy 100% of the time? We asked this question in relation to the Slender Pins single, ‘So Happy (90% Of The Time)’. We previously covered their track ‘Dancing Mania (I want to want to dance)’ in 2021, and their latest has more of the up-tempo energy we’ve come to expect from this band. Alex, Ash and Ed answer our Q&A on escaping the city to record this song in the Kentish village of Newington.
“I am a fan of Henrik's works for cello and strings. When Sam at Ambientologist invited me to contribute to the new 'Sustain Series' compilation, I directly checked if Henrik had any tracks I could rework. The dramatic and gloomy cello atmosphere inspired me to try something new with my voice. I decided to create a contrast between Henrik's beautiful and majestic cello line and an otherworldly vocal part and harmonies, enriched by little distortions.” – Jolanda Moletta
At the end of September, we participated in our first music video premiere for Amsterdam record label Ambientologist. Having contributed to the third volume of their compilation, ‘Sustain Series’, Jolanda Moletta reworked the music of Henrik Meierkord to create ‘Incanto’. The accompanying music video was also created by and featured Moletta, who provides exclusive commentary for our premiere.
‘The song is about infatuation and the object of your desire being unaware of how you feel about them. I think we have all felt like that about someone at some point and the dilemma you face when you're in that situation. Do you let them know how you feel? Will it spoil any relationship you may already have? It's those questions I wanted to explore in this song.’ – Alan Dreezer
After releasing his album ‘H E A L E D’ in 2021, Alan Dreezer returned with the first single, ‘Butterfly’ from his forthcoming third album ‘NOTHING CHANGES IF NOTHING CHANGES’. Our piece reviews the single and music video, co-produced and directed by Elliot Richardson, with exclusive commentary from Alan about the origins of the song and what fans can look forward to in his new music.
‘There's so many aspects to Brian Wilson's life story I found fascinating, from the tragic circumstances of his mental illness, to his fraught relationship with his father, and the abusive conservatorship he suffered under in the 80s - which he was finally rescued from by his family and friends a few years later. And yet to contrast all this tragedy and disaster with the love and beauty in his music is very compelling.’ – Jeremy Warmsley
In October, we took a deep dive into the latest solo album from composer, songwriter, producer and Summer Camp member Jeremy Warmsley. ‘American Daydream’ is unlike any album we’ve reviewed before, taking the evolving styles of The Beach Boys and writing a new album to tell the story of founding member Brian Wilson. For fans of the band, this album holds a treasure trove of easter eggs both musically and lyrically, with Jeremy’s love of Wilson and the Boys radiating too in his Q&A.
‘I wrote this in the pub waiting for some friends to arrive. A few of my friends have started having, or thinking about having, families, so a lot of baby names are flying around. So I wrote the song about a couple envisioning their first child. In the story (which I should stress is fictional), this child is seen as the antidote to their disappointments and solution to their problems. There is an almost menacing insistence on having a child, it being a girl and it being called Violet - and that being 'it' - done, fixed.’ – Alice Grey (Good Childhood)
Having written about the work of singer/songwriter Alice Grey before, she emerged from lockdown as part of the duo Good Childhood with Ben Schrecker. Their debut single ‘Violet’ was released in October with the pair supporting their new music with gigs across London. In our Q&A with Alice, she tells us about how Good Childhood formed, with more music due in 2023.
‘Yearning has always played a big role in my life, yearning to be somewhere else, yearning to be at home. I reckon watching planes has always fulfilled this longing and leaves room for dreaming. If you start thinking about it, it is such an amazing feat to be able to go to an airport, step into a metal tube and step out on a different continent several hours later.’ - Chorusgirl
In 2022, Chorusgirl returned after four years with her new album ‘Colapso Calypso’. Arriving during a time of great change for this artist, the ten-track album explores the upheaval and grief she has experienced, but from a position of optimism and hope. Chorusgirl tells us more about the self-produced album and the circumstances that led to its creation. Our favourite tracks include ‘In The Business Of Dreams’, ‘Three Prayers For Those Without Self-Doubt’ and ‘Look At Everything, Understand Nothing’.
“‘Dark Nights are Setting In’ follows my emotional journey considering climate change and the challenges ahead to fix the environmental damage done to date. While the album ends with a sense of hope, the world events of the last nine months have definitely challenged that hope, but it has also demonstrated the need for transitioning to renewable energy and green technologies as soon as possible.” – Origin ST
Our connection with Ambientologist continued with the release of Origin ST’s music video for ‘Dark Nights are Setting In’. As Origin ST’s album revolves around the subject of climate change, our premiere of the visuals coincided with the eve of COP27, with the video utilising footage from the COP25 marches. A poignant reminder of the futility of such global gatherings, both Ambientologist (who edited the video) and Origin ST provide exclusive commentary on the album and its title track.
‘A running theme for Radio Aftermath has always been inspired by the atomic bomb era, this whole project (the band) was inspired by me coming across J. Robert Oppenheimer’s speech after he’d just seen the destruction of what he invented had caused.’ - Chris Dennett (Radio Aftermath)
Radio Aftermath were among the first artists we wrote about when Moths and Giraffes began in 2020, for their debut single ‘Kiss From A Rebel’. We also covered their second single ‘We Eat The Buffalo’ later that year, but in 2022 the band released their first collection of songs, an apocalyptic and heavy sound from the Leeds quartet. Of the self-titled EP’s eight songs, our favourites were ‘Cup Of Coffee In The Big Time’, ‘You and All Of Us’ and ‘Inert’.
“It was always a Christmas song but I didn’t really plan it, it just kind of came out. I had the ‘always been a dreamer’ lyric from the beginning and that had always felt Christmassy to me. While writing it we talked a lot about how sometimes when you’re an adult life doesn’t feel as magical anymore and sometimes we just need that back.” – Hannah Grace
Some years, you need the majick of Christmas just that little bit more. Hannah Grace returned with a new song in November about that very subject called ‘Always Been A Dreamer’. It’s full of everything we’ve come to expect from Hannah Grace, whose debut album ‘Remedy’ we reviewed in 2020, from the shimmering arrangement to Grace’s dazzling voice. In our Q&A, we asked Hannah about recording the track with producer Ian Barter, her residency at Camden’s Green Note in 2022, and the music that’s to come in the New Year.
‘The last couple of years I’ve spent quite some time in Spain in a small house on a mountainside overlooking the sea. The almond trees there always fascinates me. When they bloom they are so beautiful that they look almost unreal. And when the light pink petals soon after let themselves fall into eternity, they remind me of something I can’t really explain. They look so free which resonates with something deep inside me. I’ve tried to write about that feeling in this song.’ – Roxy Jules
This year, Danish songwriter Roxy Jules put out her first new music since we wrote about her EP ‘Still Falling Through The White’ in 2021. Her latest single is called ‘Light Pink Petals’ and it strikes an interesting balance between a heavy backing track of crunchy guitars with poetic lyrics inspired by being torn between the city and the sea. In our Q&A with Roxy Jules, she tells us about recording with producer Valentin Kruse and the method they used to make up the beat behind this song.
“Funnily enough, my song ‘Restless in Rome’ doesn’t actually have anything to do with Rome at all. Its origins are a little silly—I was in a music practice room late at night and I’d gotten distracted on my phone. I saw someone’s Instagram post captioned ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ and I felt a little indignant about it. Like, hey, don’t tell me I have to put in the time and work! I want everything to suddenly change right now! The lyric ‘I wanna build Rome in a day’ sprung to mind and I started playing around with it.” – Copeland James
And finally, we wrote about the debut single from U.S. songwriter Copeland James. Their track ‘Restless In Rome’ has had great care taken over it, with more than four years in the making, it features piano inspired by Bach, a gorgeous string arrangement, and poetic lyrics from James. Copeland tells us more about their own history in songwriting, their use of Escapril as an inspiration tool and the music they’re due to release in 2023.
A big thank you to all the artists who have granted us interviews this year, to all the PR agents who’ve chased our requests, and to all who’ve sent their music to us to review. Thank you to everyone who has engaged with us on social media, who have listened to our playlists, and who have helped these artists have their music heard.
And of course, thank you to everyone who has read a Moths and Giraffes review, who has given us feedback, who has praised our work and shared it around. It really does mean the world. We hope you have a Happy New Year, and we look forward to doing it all again in 2023!
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We have a Spotify Playlist! Featuring almost every artist we've written about on Moths and Giraffes, find some new music here.
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