Lunarians

Simon- Vocals and programming

Jody- Guitar and programming

Pat- Bass and vocals

Dan- Guitar

Rich- Drums

Beaucoup- Live visuals 

What's the meaning behind the band's name?

Simon- A 'lunarian' is an inhabitant of the moon.

Jody- We really wanted to convey a sense of otherworldliness, something like the moon that is familiar but not mundane seemed perfect.

Simon- Plus we liked the idea of naming ourselves after beings that don't exist.

How the band get started?

Simon- Jody and myself have known each other since school started trying to write music together. It started off with him with a guitar and me trying to sing and gradually became more complicated.

Jody- It took a long time of messing around on computers before we realised it was better if other human beings were also involved. We were lucky to meet Dan, Pat and Rich.

Simon- Sometimes I wonder how bands ever formed before the internet existed.

What's the message you guys want to transmit with your music??

Simon- Many of our songs are about madness and altered states. It is very common, I suspect, for people to feel lost and insane and to numb themselves or seek distraction from it.

If there is a message it is that the madness is there but it doesn’t matter as beneath it we are all eternally alive, spiritual beings.

Rich- We are a religious band.

Dan-  I view what we do as a Kundalian slap in the face.

What's your method at the time of writing a song?

Jody- Hide in wardrobe and whistle. Boot up computer, find bizarre synth sound and lay down the melody. Program funky drums. Send it to band and expect it to get shredded and then reassembled from the gnarly pieces that are left. Then you have a Lunarians song.

Simon- It varies a lot. Musically I tend to work from the beat upwards. I write lyrics mostly while working night-shifts, whacked out on black coffee and caffeine tablets.

Who are your music influences?

Jody- Richard Dawkins

Beaucoup- John Pilger

Rich- Merlin

Dan- Jean Cocteau, Marcello Mastroiani, Man Ray, John Steinbeck, Carlos Castaneda and Aleister Crowley

Simon- Angela Carter and Klaus Kinski. The former for her wonderfully dark and strange imagination. The latter for his mania.

Dan- Oddly none of us like the same kind of music, if we start talking about music we usually get into an argument, hence we avoid the subject.

What plans do you guys have for the future?

Pat- We want to do the festival scene, UK, Europe. There’s a huge Dark Wave scene  in Germany and Denmark ripe for the plunder.

Simon- To get some recordings done that fully convey the energy of our live shows. We know we can improve on our debut E.P. Intraocular. Recording that, in some ways, felt a bit rushed and clinical. Sort of like having sex as a teenager when you know you parents are watching through a spy hole from the next room. You don't quite do it right.

We're also planning to make a music video, partly in a cave.

Jody- Write a song that literally compels people to dance in a haphazard manner. I suspect some kind of non-sonic persuasion may be useful and we're working on such a device.

Which has been the funniest prank you guys have been or took part while on tour or after a show?

Jody- I hate to think what form a Lunarians prank might take. It would probably involve telling one of the band members that their family was dead just to get a really intense look for a band photo. No, don't want to think about this question.

If you guys were stranded in the middle of nowhere after a show or while on tour. The help is 65 miles away from where you guys are, ¿Who would you guys send to look for help? And if while the rest wait, there's no food and the only way to feed yourself is by eating each other, Who would you eat first?

Jody- I watch extreme survival videos at 2am and it gives you a false sense of your survival skills. I'd volunteer to run to help (it's only 65 miles for Christ sake) but I'd end up cowering under a rock and singing to myself about 10 miles in.

Dan- We’d eat Rich because he’s into freaky shit like that.

Pat- We'd send Simon, then he'd come back half an hour later having forgotten something, so we'd send Jody instead because he'd probably still be sober. Whilst Jody was away Simon would eat the rest of us, this would hopefully raise enough money to phone for pizza.

Simon- I'd eat Rich. I suspect because he's the member of the band I'd probably most like to fornicate with. I'd send Beaucoup for help because I suspect he'd have designs on Rich too and I'd want him all to myself. I wouldn't really expect us to be rescued.

Beaucoup- Why go anywhere? Lunarians would thrive in a desert enviroment.

Which country you guys would love to play?

Dan- Cornwell

Jody- Italy, decent ice-cream and coffee (but not in combination with sensitive teeth).

Simon- Wherever people dance most freely.

Pat- I'd love to play in a really seedy Berlin club, I'd finally get to grow a mullet

Rich- Germany for me too because I think we’d appeal to them and because of the kinkiness.

Simon- I've heard that Germans are the best listeners.

With which bands you guys would love to share stage?

Simon- When people come up to us after shows the name that crops up the most, in terms of who we remind them of, is Joy Division. So I guess them so we can see how true it is.

Rich- As long as the stage was Arcadia we wouldn’t not mind who we shared it with.

Are you guys OK, with the direction the band is going actually?

Jody- A little more success would be nice. Don't think you can be happy with your bands direction till you get some real recognition (album, national press) and you have a song that leaves people awe-struck when you dump it on them.

Pat- The variety of influences and style of band backgrounds keeps the musical direction on a knife edge, with compromise leading to innovative solutions to satisfy all the band members (most of the time anyway).

Simon- I'm pretty happy. I feel like we're wolves who've had our first taste of blood and now have a fierce hunger for more.

Come check out more on MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/lunarians