Premiere: Francie Moon is Back! New Song/Video “Going Through My Head” – Interview

by Ed Magdziak • June 9, 2022 • Arts & Entertainment, MusicComments (0)450

We have been covering Francie Moon for nearly a decade now. From the first time we saw her at a Bloomfield basement show all those years ago, we have been absolutely blown away by both her ferocious guitar skills as well as her unique and powerful vocal delivery. Moon’s style of combining garage, psych, blues and punk creates a sound that is both evocative and compelling. Basically, as my friend musician John Cozz said of her recently, “she rips.” That is why we are beyond thrilled to premiere Moon’s new single/video “Going Through My Head” today.

The new song has all the earmarks of a classic Francie Moon song — The fuzzed out vocals, the combination of multiple genes that she blends together so well, tempo changes and a glorious, blistering outro. Moon may have not released much in the past few years but she hasn’t lost her edge. If anything, this is among the best work of her career. The video is a perfect accompaniment to a song about friendship rescuing one from ennui and despair. Haven’t we all not wanted to get out of bed a few times in the recent past? The song couldn’t be more relatable than today. It’s a vital message.

After a show a few years ago Moon told me that whenever I photograph her live I always seem to catch her when she is smiling. Trust me when I say you haven’t listen to her yet (what’s wrong with you??) do so immediately. I can guarantee that you too will be smiling before long.

“Going Through My Head” will be on Moon’s long-awaiting new LP What Are We Really Even Doing? out June 22nd on Halfshell Records & Sifter Grim. You can pre-order it here.

We asked Moon, aka Melissa Lucciola, a few questions.

So, what’s been going through your head lately?

Well to keep it simple I’ve been thinking a lot about getting this record out into the world!! Also, I’m coming home from a tour soon so I’m thinking about what life will look like again when I get back (been on the road since March with Gustaf). And usually I’m always thinking of some sort of weird stuff like aliens and dreams and dumb dad jokes to tell my friends.

You haven’t released a full-length album in almost 3 years. Are you excited about the release?

Yes, of course!! It always feels good to finally let something go into the wild and see what happens. I’m excited about this one especially cause the whole process took a lot longer than I expected so I’m very ready for it to be out. But I think the timing ended up being perfect anyway so it all worked out in the end!!

How do you think you’ve changed since All the Same?

In some ways I have changed a lot! Obviously the pandemic happened and that shifted things for all of us. But on top of that I had some of my own crazy hard challenges the last few years that really changed my perspective on a few things. I’m not sure if you’ll hear those changes on this record quite yet but definitely in the future. Musically I’m still making stuff all the time how ever I can, whether it’s just recording something small on my phone or jamming with weird robot computer instruments while on tour. So that part of me hasn’t changed at all :).

Photo: Meriel O’Connell

You end the video with words about friendship. How important is friendship to you?

My friend Matt Canals who filmed and edited the video put those words there and I thought it was a nice way to sum up the whole point of the video. The two people in the video are Nicole Abbott (my best friend since high school) and Ryan Smith (my boyfriend/great friend before that for over a decade) who both have been with me through the worst and best times of my life. I wanted to give a nice big nod to them to show how grateful I am for them being in my life via this little video. They both have literally and figuratively dragged me out of bed and back into myself again so many times. Also Matt who made the video saved my butt once when I was stuck camping alone on a hill in California in the cold rain for 2 weeks with no phone, no ride and no warm clothes (yikes haha). Long story short, Matt and his crew (UHSE!) made me dinners and lent me their camp gear so I could literally live!! The whole point is our friendships are so valuable, sometimes more than we realize…and sometimes it takes going through some real crap to truly understand how much they pull us through. Often times our friends have the strength or foresight or wisdom that we don’t have to help us do something that we couldn’t alone.

How has it been drumming for Gustaf the past few years?

Oh my goodness it has been ridiculously fun! It has been keeping me very busy and I’ve been having a great time. I joined in 2019 and had no clue that all the stuff that happened was going to happen! We got to go on some awesome tours and open for some of my favorite bands so I feel super lucky. I’m checking off so many boxes of things I’ve always wanted to do with music which has been surreal and I’m super grateful I get to do them. I’m currently on tour with them right now and we are heading to Paris to play a show, the second to last show of a 6 week tour over here. The music is super fun to play and my favorite part is it makes people smile. Other perks are my arms are getting pretty strong (no I don’t want to fight you or anyone, I’ve been asked too much these days haha) and I understand every drummer joke now so I feel like I will never give a drummer crap again for the rest of my life!!

What’s the secret to staying positive in these trying times?

I try to remind myself that I don’t think humans are supposed to know everything going on in the world all at once. Maybe it’s a silly way or not the best way to do things but the only way I can cope with the endless crazy is to remind myself that I can only deal with what’s around me right now. I’m usually pretty sensitive to other people’s feelings so if someone is sad, I get sad too…so something that helps me during crazy times is a question this lady Tabitha taught me — “Is this my feeling or someone else’s?” Usually I find out I’m feeling someone else’s feeling and then I try to tune into what is happening within me. And if I have an issue or am sad about something I try to write about it or sing about it or talk about it and that usually helps. I think for a while people were feeling weird about making art and music while “the world is burning” but I think it’s an important thing to do especially if everything is so intense…people can either feel understood, cheered up, or get to go nuts to music or do whatever they wanna do with what you put out there.



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