“A lot of people think we’re putting out a shoegaze album… They’re like, ‘Yes! Lunar Vacation going shoegaze!” the Georgia indie rock outfit jokes with me during a recent phone chat. They’re referring to “Set the Stage,” the lead single off of Lunar Vacation’s sophomore LP, Everything Matters, Everything’s Fire, which hits shelves September 13th via Keeled Scales (home of our buddies Sun June and Tenci), where they’ve been dropping music since 2021 debut full-length Inside Every Fig is a Dead Wasp.
I’m chatting with co-founder/lyricist/vocalist/guitarist Gep Repasky, co-founder/guitarist/vocalist Maggie Geeslin (who I First spoke with in March of last year), and keyboardist/percussionist Matteo DeLurgio from the front porch of the band’s shared house in Decatur, which they moved into after about four solid years of touring and shortly before Maggie and I’s last chat, which they tell me is going better than they could have expected: “To still be living together feels really good. This situation could have definitely ended in kind of a different way [laughs]. But, luckily, we’ve just gotten closer, rather than the other way around.”
Lunar Vacation seem to be quite amused by fans’ excitement about this new “shoegaze” direction, but they also seem quite anxious to turn the tables on fans’ expectations in the very near future: “We’re releasing a song next week that’s not shoegaze at all [laughs].” “We haven’t toured yet, so it’s hard to tell how fans really feel. The release date is just us waking up and going on YouTube to post the video and then going back to check the comments a few hours later [laughs],” they explain of pre-tour/pre-album singles.
Everything Matters, Everything’s Fire’s title is a reference to Lunar Vacation’s state of mind while recording the follow-up to Inside Every Fig is a Dead Wasp. While they consider their first album to be very produced, on their sophomore effort they took a more organic approach, with a lot more live tracking, embracing the songs as they happened to emerge, although they admit that transforming their approach wasn’t always easy: “Sophomore records can be notorious, so just the fact that we finished it feels like such an accomplishment.”
Most previous releases (including IEFIADW) were produced by Grouplove’s Daniel Gleason, a longtime friend of the group, but for EMEF they enlisted Drew Vandenber, known for his work with PHILTHY phavorites Faye Webster, S.G. Goodman, and Kristine Leschper (who Lunar Vacation loves). “We recorded with Drew Vandenberg in Athens, and he really, really pushed me vocally, which I’ve never had with a producer before… He really emphasized being more performance heavy, which I’m not used to, which pushed me,” Gep tells me.
The band also say that the time in between their debut and follow-up would seem to play a significant role in the album’s sound. “There was a significant time chunk between the first one and this one. With the first album, we were writing when we were around 19/20, so it had that early twenties misery,” they joke, going on to say of their new LP, “I feel like it’s more mature in ways.”
Although the songs of Everything Matters, Everything’s Fire may not be entirely new to fans. When I spoke to Maggie in March of last year, the band was on a run of dates supporting art pop connoisseurs Rubblebucket (featuring a stop at our own Brooklyn Bowl), which included a handful of new songs. “With the tour we did with Rubblebucket, these songs are pretty road tested. We’ve been playing them for about a year,” they tell me of the material.
By that point, Lunar Vacation had become more-or-less regulars in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection, with three shows here just the previous year, including a date opening for The Beths at Underground Arts in February, a June stop at PhilaMOCA with The Slaps, and a performance at The Front Bottoms’ annual year-ending Champagne Jam at The Fillmore, alongside PHILTHY phriends Slothrust and Kevin Devine. However, when I ask them about their memories of the city, they recall a significantly less glamorous appearance: “The first time we ever played there, we played a house show, at Yum Yum Kitchen, which sounds like a restaurant, but no… We were in a basement next to the washing machine.”
Later this month Lunar Vacation kick off a week of dates with Australian indie rockers Vacations (with Alex Lahey handling opening duties solo acoustic), which will hit Union Transfer on Sunday, July 28th. When I ask what can be expected of these dates, they joke, “We’re gonna be throwing up onstage, crying, screaming, not playing any songs…” before promising that that will not be the case.
The group does, however, admit that the bands they tour with (which vary to a significant degree) do impact how they approach performances. Following this trek; they’ll do a handful of headlining dates throughout September, October, and November; before taking on an opening slot for Manchester Orchestra and Thrice’s November dates: “We did a run with Manchester Orchestra a few years ago and definitely wanted to bring on the heavy songs. And then with Rubblebucket, who put on just an amazing show, we wanted to be as fun as them.” But they tell me that there is one aspect of Lunar Vacation shows that will never change: “At the end of the day, we don’t play anything we don’t want to. I mean, we’ll be like, ‘We don’t wanna play that old song, so we’re gonna play a new song [laughs].’”
*Get your tickets here.
