The Ohio-based alternative group Walk The Moon has been going non-stop since the release of their full-length studio album Talking is Hard in 2014. Before their show at Edinburgh’s own Queen’s Hall, The Student caught up with the band to talk touring, upcoming festivals, and new releases.
“Oh, man. It’s a big year”, guitarist Eli Maiman says about what is in store for Walk The Moon in 2016. That is a modest way to summarise touring 22 countries in just the first couple of months of the new year.
“We’re just really getting around”, Maiman continues: “We’ve just come from doing Australia, Japan, Singapore, New Zealand, and now were here [in Europe] for a couple of weeks”. Following that is unchartered territory for the band – a tour of South America. This will include three Lollapalooza festival appearances, in Brazil, Argentina and Chile, respectively.
They have an impressive list of shows planned for the festival season this year, from Germany to Alabama. “We love festivals, we love getting the chance to see other music. When you’re just touring your own shows you’re never going to other shows. Festivals are the best chance for us to sneak over to another stage an see our friends playing music… It’s like a little summer camp for bands”. Their “band romance” with the alt-pop Australian group with The Griswolds is possibly a favourite.
This follows the recent release of a brand-new music video for ‘Work this Body’, the third single off Talking is Hard. Lead singer Nicolas Petriccas gives profound insight as to the song’s meaning: “The song is all about rising above your expectations and what you think are your own limitations… Have the courage to go after your dreams and all that”. Petricca identifies this theme in the new video from the perspective of a young boy in school who is bullied by his classmates, but ends up starting a “sort of revolution”. The boy is inspired by superheroes, played by – guess who? – “yours truly”, the singer reveals. “If you watch the video, you’ll see us in these totally crazy costumes.”
For the future, Petricca says: “We’re always writing new music, and we’ve set aside some time this year to write and record. It’s unclear when we’ll put it out, but we’re eager. We’ve been anxious to put out some new music”. Maiman gives a peek into the band’s production process, starting that: “The intensity [when making music] is often self-imposed… It’s just we have other things to do. We’ve got lives, we wanna go home, we wanna see our girlfriend, ya’know? When we are writing, we are writing, and when we are recording, and when we’re home, we’re thinking about writing and recording… Everyone wants to focus on the task at hand.”
The band is happy to announce the release of its first live album, which was recorded on the last show of the Talking is Hard US tour at the Greek in Los Angeles, titled You Are Not Alone (Live at the Greek). Maiman makes clear how important this album is to the band, as he says Walk The Moon is “a band who puts the live show at the centre of our universe. It’s what we love, it’s where we get to connect with all of the amazing people that we are lucky enough to have our music put out to. It’s a big deal for us.”