Luis Vasquez, the man behind dark wave electronic project The Soft Moon, will visit Miami for the first time this Saturday, January 16th. He and his band will play a show at Gramps in support of his new album, Deeper.
Deeper is his most revealing and introspective record so far, it explores the corners of dance, EBM, rock, and industrial, mixed with very pure and anxious atmospheres through his vocals, tape recordings, and guttural sounds.
I had a chance to talk to Luis while he was in Berlin. After the conversation, I was able to understand better where his music comes from, what lies behind the sounds and concepts of his songs, the evolution that he experienced through his records, and what he wants to express with The Soft Moon.
I hope you feel the same…
When I was 11 or 12 years old I got my first guitar, my uncle bought it for me from prison actually. He gave money to my grandfather so he would buy it for me for Christmas. At that time I didn’t have much to do because I was leaving in the desert and I didn’t have many friends there because we moved from L.A. So I stayed in my room playing the guitar every day all day.
At that time, when I got my guitar I was into punk rock, before that I was into pop music… Michael Jackson, Madonna.
I feel that The Soft Moon is more than a music project, for me it’s an art project. So for me it is important to have more than one element to stimulate the listener and the viewer as deeply as possible. So for me is important to create a world that people can be a part of.
At the time when I stopped making music in a way, I have lost hope in becoming successful as a musician. At that time I kind of wanted to explore the world and I actually moved to Bueno Aires, I was living in Abasto and then I moved to San Francisco for the first time. I took a break because I was just exploring, I was searching for something different. I took my focus back to art and I was a graphic designer when I moved to San Francisco, I got a job doing graphic design for a corporate company. I was very involved with that, there wasn’t enough time to think about music or even make music. After a while, I started getting burned out with the job and I needed to return to me again so I started writing and that’s when all the shit happened.
So with the first record, it was more about curiosity and finding my sound. It was the first time as a songwriter that I let go and I just left whatever came out happen naturally. It seemed like the music that I was writing for that first album was more about my childhood. I was kind of returning back to nostalgia, that record was mostly about that. Then with Zeros, I wrote it when I was touring for the first time around the world and my life was kind of strange, I was going through some difficult times and Zeros was more about frustration so it’s probably a more angrier record. At the time I didn’t have too much confidence in myself because there is also that pressure… people wait for that second record to see whether the band will last or not so I had that pressure that was always in the back of my mind so a lot of confusion and frustration and feeling lost for Zeros. And then with Deeper, a couple of years had passed and I traveled more and more and more and I grew older. I feel that in this record there is a lot more confidence, I have a lot more confidence in myself and I feel I’ve gotten a better understanding of who I am. So for this record I was willing to dive even deeper into myself and express more of myself to the world, I had the confidence and I think I accomplished it with this record.
Yes definitely, I noticed it when I came up with my first record that a lot of other people kind of surfaced and since then it’s still growing so I do think that there is a kind of comeback with this kind of music but what was strange for me is that I wasn’t really listening to that kind of music growing up it’s just the music that I create, it comes out naturally so maybe these bands existed before … it’s something that I’m not sure but to me, it seems like all these bands emerged and there is some sort of come back even though I don’t really pay attention to it too much, I’m focusing on my own music.
My bed (laughs), I miss my room, friends… there is this bar that I like to hang out downstairs, my good friend is the owner and it’s nice to come back, these people don’t know much about my life and that’s what I like about it so when I come back from a tour it’s like I’m around people that we are all just the same. When I’m on tour I get treated a little bit differently you know, there is a little bit of fame that I experience and I’m not used to it, I’m not super comfortable with it so it’s nice to come back and hang out with people that don’t really know what I’m doing when I’m not at the bar.
I‘ll have the live band for sure. I think it would be boring if it was just me. Even in the very beginning, I knew when I got signed and the record label wanted me to tour … because I wasn’t ready at the time, I didn’t even think that this project was going to get to the point where it is now, but when I knew I was going to start playing shows I knew right away that I was going to play with band members. I really like a good show myself so I want to also give a good show in return and having more members and being powerful is important to me.
The main thing for me is that I always need to get inside the music. To transform because I can’t perform unless I get inside the music so that’s my personal thing which I do accomplish most of the time and I get frustrated when, for some reason, I can’t get inside the music and express the emotions of the actual songs. What I want people to see is this, I want them to see the truth honesty and how real the music is, and how powerful it can be.
You know what’s crazy… I’ve never been to Miami, and you know, my family is from Cuba and it’s so crazy that after all these years I have never been there. My mom used to live there, and my grandfather, my family obviously lived there after leaving Cuba so I’m very excited about that.
Catch The Soft Moon live on January 16th at Gramps along with Jennie Vee and Heavy Drag
Get your tickets here!
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