The latest album from indie-rock band Lunar Vacation, Everything Matters, Everything’s Fire, is a melodic, curated piece of brilliance, with much more detail than fans may know.
Released in September, the album is not only a labor of love for songwriting and producing, but a physical piece of the band’s relationship. After ending their tour for their first album, the band decided to all move in together. “We go on tour and share a hotel room for a month and then all come back to the same house,” guitarist Maggie Geeslin said in a press release. “We’ve become homemakers together.”
After spending months touring their last album Inside Every Fig is a Dead Wasp, the band learned a lot about themselves and their music. “I think because we did tour [Inside Every Fig is a Dead Wasp] so much, it inspired us to make something more alive-sounding,” Maggie Geeslin told me. She and Gep Repasky were holed up in a hotel room, having just driven from Seattle, Washington to San Francisco, California to open for Manchester Orchestra. Despite the new direction for the album, the essence of the band remains in everything they do.
“I feel like we kept a lot of the subject matter. Subject matters, melodies, lyrics, harmonies, all that I think carried over,” Repasky explained.
“Because this was our second album, it was cool seeing what did carry over,” Geeslin added. “And I feel like those constants are kind of like, ‘Oh, this is kind of our thing. Like, this is a Lunar thing.’ Whether arpeggiating guitar or like, you know, certain bass licks. It was cool to see what stayed the same, too.”
Our dream team is ourselves.
They explained that in writing the album, they wanted it especially curated to be played live. However, that isn’t an exact science and there is still a lot of production that goes into making music, something Geeslin and Repasky speak passionately about. “I feel like there’s some there’s still some songs that we’re trying to get closer to the essence of the recording,” Geeslin admitted. “Because even though we did a lot of live tracking, you know, if you put a subtle distortion over the whole track, you can’t really do that live. You can’t just, like, put an effect over everything. And so there’s some songs that we’re still working out. But there’s other songs that I feel like I love and appreciate even more from playing them.”
However, even with an album designed for a purpose, Repasky didn’t let that objective influence their songwriting. “I try not to censor my feelings and what I write about just because I feel like… I don’t know, the way I want to deliver things – I wanted to be as honest and as raw as possible, you know,” they explained. “To an extent,” they added with a small chuckle.
“We’ve all been so many concerts and usually the words that you’re singing along to – that you’re screaming to – are the very personal ones, you know,” Geeslin added. “And so I feel like even though it is vulnerable, it’s also probably what people relate to the most.”
And those moments, when they are on stage performing and see a fan in the audience singing along, end up being the most special. “We play music for everyone,” Geeslin explained, recounting a story about two girls in the audience singing along to their songs. “And that’s why we’re playing these shows. Because we want to make new fans and connect with new people.”
“But that’s, like- it’s literally the best part,” Repasky added. “Being able to meet all these people and talking to them. It’s crazy. People are so so awesome.”
For music makers who are so genuinely passionate about the entire process, especially producing, it’s easy to see why they want to try and self-produce their next projects. “I think we were really leaning towards self producing our next album, like entirely,” Repasky explained.
“I just feel like,” Geeslin began. “After making two albums and working with two different producers and engineers-.”
“Who work very differently too,” Repasky added.
“I feel like we collected so much experience and now we kind of feel ready to…”
“Do it ourselves,” Repasky added softly, finishing Geeslin’s sentence.
“That’s how we started out. And I think… that’s what’s the most exciting. You know, for the last record, we had a list of producers that we would like love to work with. And there’s people out there that we would love to work with. But it’s kind of, like, our dream team is ourselves,” Geeslin admitted, both her and Repasky smiling.
There is such a clear bond and trust within the band, all of them not only having a deep love for each other but also a deep love for music and the process behind making it. Everything Matters, Everything’s Fire is such a masterful example of what happens when you find your people and bring all your creative ideas together, as Lunar Vacation has done.
Make sure to keep up with the band on Instagram and Substack, as well as checking out their website for merch and tour tickets!
