The A-side Sessions presents: The Moondrops

For our second A-side Session this year, local Bay Area band, The Moondrops, joined us for what naturally feels like our best session yet. Their dreamy riffs and cosmic vocals perfectly matched the night sky and garden lights, transcending us right back to the feeling of shows we long for. 

Join us for The Moondrops’ performance followed by an interview with our Managing Editor Natalie Gott as they chat about Drake Bell, concert horror stories, and what’s coming up next for the group. 

Natalie Gott: Welcome back to another A-side Session. This week we’ve got The Moondrops, a local favorite that we’ve all been excited for. We just had a great set from you guys. How did it feel to play live for the first time in a year?

Craig Lager: It honestly felt so great. It’s been way too long. 

Hussain Khan: Super nice feeling, definitely. 

Alex Bru: Super exciting. I honestly felt kind of nervous. I haven’t felt nervous for a show in a long time. 

CL: We were talking while we were setting up and we didn’t really know where things were supposed to be placed. It was definitely something that was second nature a year ago, and now, we just don’t really know what we’re doing. It’s just been so long, you know. 

HK: It’s a nice feeling. Still a little stressful, but still nice. 

NG: I’m sure you guys miss shows. Do you guys have any favorite show memories you want to share with us?

Photo by Lyle Kahney

CL: Well, we were talking about, obviously not this most recent summer, but usually every summer, we’ll meet up with all of our friends from the hometown that we grew up in. There’s a lot of really talented musicians that we all know and love. One of our best friends, Christian Lofaso hosted this festival in his backyard. All of our friends will just come by, people we’ve known since elementary school and friends we’ve made in like high school. Shoutout to Christian Lofaso. 

HK: Good time to plug some other artists. We’ve got Dave, Outside, you can find him on Spotify. 

AB: We’ve got Carpool Tunnel–

NG: Oh, we’re gonna have them in two weeks! Super excited. 

HK: They just got signed to Pure Noise. Congrats to those boys. 

CL: I think our first time playing with them was at Summer of Love like two years ago. 

HK: And then Urban Nation also plays there, Bianca. 

CL: The Plates. 

AB: Lots of other kinds of special acts, too. Sometimes people will put together a band just for that show and then they won’t play a show after that. 

HK: Craig did his solo project there one time.

Photo by Lyle Kahney

CL: Yeah, I did that one year. My sister will also do the graphic design for the poster and stuff. It’s really fun. 

HK: She’s super talented. Mel Lager. You can look her up on instagram, @mellager. 

AB: She did all of our art too for our new singles. 

NG: How does it feel to be involved in a project like that, that’s so connected to home and your roots?

CL: It’s something that I think I’ve missed most of all in terms of being able to play music. Just being able to play music together again means so much, especially in these difficult times. 

HK: It’s like group therapy. 

CL: Even prior to that, being able to play with all of our friends and stuff and being able to see all of these personalities come out, and the art that everyone is making. It’s just really inspiring, humbling, and really fun to be a part of every single time. It’s amazing that Christian can put that together. 

HK: Totally. It gets better every year, too. He has just figured out the formula slowly. We even had porta-potties last time. 

NG: Really coming up. Where are these hosted? 

AB: In San Ramon. That’s where we grew up. Or at least, some of us. 

HK: Luke is from Dublin. 

NG: What role did music play for all of you growing up?

AB: Music, for me, my dad raised me on all of the music that he has liked. Which is, you know, all the classic rock and stuff that dads like. But music was always just so comforting for me. Listening to music growing up, and then when I started playing music and learning instruments, it was just so apparent that it was my favorite thing to do. 

Luke Clingerman: I feel like I come from a very similar background. I inherited all of my parents’ records growing up. I remember coming home from school and sitting and listening to records and stuff, and going through it as I grew up and being like, man, this stuff is old. I felt like from there I was always looking for something new and that was unique to me.

Photo by Lyle Kahney

HK: I was pretty into music as a kid. I got really into music in the third grade, when I got really into Green Day and then Linkin Park, and things like that. I got really into that music. I would listen to it all the time. Then I got into all sorts of music. I got into heavy metal in middle school, my whole angsty phase. I got really into rap music in high school, like all sorts of 90s rap. And all that kind of stuff combined into one. Now, I like all sorts of music. I love everything — I’m really into every single type of music. Which I feel is my favorite part of music, which is that each different genre has me feeling such a different type of way. I love how each one makes me feel. 

CL: When I was younger, I always had a hard time finding my groove, in terms of playing sports and stuff, which I feel is a norm of younger years. I feel like I’m a very nonathletic person, just overall. 

NG: Love the honesty in that. 

CL: Yeah, honestly. I think I started with trumpet in fourth grade, then I moved to guitar in fifth grade. Once I found music and found that it was something that I could be really good at, I could see myself just going further and further into it. Funny enough, one of my early influences that got me to switch from trumpet to guitar was probably Drake and Josh. Seeing them play, I was like, I should get a Les Paul and learn the theme song. I still don’t even own Les Paul at this point. I would be lying if I said that wasn’t a huge influence on why I was playing. 

AB: He was just the coolest guy back then. 

NG: I saw him. I’m embarrassed to say, I think he was actually my last show before COVID-19. 

CL: That’s so funny. 

NG: It was not what I wanted! I wish I could have ended that on a different note, but, you know. 

CL: I think I saw him at Disneyland one time. Well, just the backside of him, but I knew it was him. I was like, that’s Drake Bell!

NG: It’s the red hair, you know. It’s enough. 

HK: You just go up to him and start singing the theme song. He’s just like, leave me alone. 

CL: I’m sure he would love that. 

NG: He’s like, every day. I hear it every day. 

CL: I feel like if you sang it to him, he’d join in. 

NG: He’d tune in. Do you guys have any really memorable stories from a show you could share?

AB: One time, at Cafe Du Nord, in San Francisco — I mean, this was kind of my fault anyways.

Photo by Lyle Kahney.

CL: It was just a wake up call. 

AB: Yeah, it was just a wake up call. 

HK: We were opening up for a bigger band that was going on tour. We didn’t really know these guys at all. We’re really used to the D.I.Y. scene where you share instruments all the time.

AB: I was expecting there to be a backline kit or drum set. So I brought like my snare and my symbols, and I’m talking to the drummer, and I’m like, cool dude, nice drums, blah blah blah, I’m the drummer for the opening band. He was just kind of giving me some weird vibes, then later on he was saying how his kit wasn’t available for me to play unless I wanted to pay a thousand dollars, for like insurance in case I broke his drums. I was just like, this is ridiculous. 

HK: Their manager called us and he was like, this isn’t what we agreed upon. 

CL: Yeah, they were like, you’re going to have to talk to our manager. With this whole thing, we were definitely just intimidated by them. 

HK: We were like, no, what have we done. 

CL: We felt like such small fish compared to them. They were closing out their tour. 

HK: Alex was freaking out, so I was like, get yourself together! Get in the car right now. We’re driving back and getting your drums. We’re not paying a thousand dollars to these people. We just zoomed across town, through Ingleside, where this place was, and just zoomed back. 

AB: We got my drums, we made it. 

HK: We had a really quick sound check. It kind of took the wind out of sails for that show. 

CL: Yeah, we played very off. 

AB: It was a very okay set. 

NG: All of the vibes were ruined. 

HK: Yeah, the show was memorable in all of the wrong ways. 

NG: That’s horrible. That’s so dramatic, I don’t know, that just feels so unnecessary. 

HK: I mean, the last time we played Cafe Du Nord before that, we did it for Heartbreak Fest, which our friend Sophie organized. That was great. We sold it out, had a crazy crowd. 

CL: That’s honestly one of our favorite venues. Everyone that’s working there is so nice to us. Especially in that situation. 

HK: The bartenders were super nice. 

AB: The sound tech was so helpful. 

CL: People definitely had our back there. 

HK: Yeah, she was comforting us as everything was happening. She was like, this is ridiculous. I don’t know why they’re freaking out on you, but you guys are good. 

AB: Lesson learned, though. Ultimately our fault.

Photo by Lyle Kahney

CL: Yeah, we should have been prepared. We should have brought our own drums. 

NG: You live and you learn. It’s okay. So, what is life like with all of you guys together outside of music?

HK: We just kind of crack a lot of jokes. 

AB: Yeah, lots of banter. 

HK: Lots of pop culture references. A lot of references to things like t.v. shows and movies, to the point where if you hung out with us and you didn’t know what we were talking about, you’d probably want to leave. 

CL: Yeah, definitely. We’ll just go off on tangents. 

AB: Aw, that’s kind of true. We just kind of nerd out. We’re really into Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. 

HK: These three are obsessed with Star Wars. 

NG: And you’re not? Like, what, you’re into Star Trek?

HK: Not like you guys. I’m way more into Lord of the Rings. 

CL: Oh you’re like, oh we’re all total nerds, but I don’t even like Star Wars. 

AB: You hate on Star Wars. 

HK: I’m a Lord of the Rings nerd. 

CL: I’ve only seen all of the movies a handful of times. I can only recite the opening crawl to like three of the movies. 

HK: That is not true. I haven’t even seen The Mandalorian. 

AB: That’s just — you’re messing up. 

HK: I use that to prove I’m not into Star Wars. 

CL: Yeah, your badge of honor. 

NG: I feel like that has even been a gateway for people who haven’t always been into Star Wars, so if you’re missing that, then oh boy. 

LC: You’re missing out, bro. 

NG: So, what’s brewing up for you guys right now? Anything in the works?

CL: We’ve been releasing singles pretty slowly over the course of this quarantine. 

HK: We’re at a little bit of a halt at the moment with releases, since COVID-19 first hit. But we just dropped our third single of the four that we recorded almost over a year ago. It’s called “Bell Boy.” We played it tonight. 

CL: We recorded it a year ago. It came out last month. 

HK: And then, we’re in the midst of getting this final one mixed up and ready to drop soon. And then after that, we have a bunch of songs in the works, too. Like a bunch. 

NG: Cool, yeah you said that two of the songs that you guys played tonight were written super recently, like in the last couple of weeks. 

CL: Yeah, we’re definitely hoping to get those out. Hopefully it pans out, but we’re trying to make some plans to get a more convenient recording situation to where we can at least track our ideas more and just put more stuff on paper. I feel like a lot of time, especially the years prior to quarantine, we would have a lot of songs that are just in the reserve that slowly fade from memory. Just so many songs that we’ve really enjoyed but —

HK: We’re just bad about releasing songs fast enough or consistently. So after we get this next one out, we’re gonna try to be in charge of our own process and do it as fast as we can more consistently. 

Photo by Lyle Kahney

CL: Hopefully the recordings will be good enough to release in some fashion.

NG: What direction do you guys see yourselves heading in post COVID-19?

AB: Like, musically?

NG: I guess recording-wise, or whatever else really. 

AB: I feel like our sound has shifted. It started out as garage-indie rock, but now it’s going into more of a kind of dreamy sort of dream-pop vibes. 

NG: Is that inspired by any certain bands?

HK: I think in general it is from what we all like to listen to. 

CL: It’s been a direction that we’ve been pushing for for like years and years. We’re definitely starting to get an understanding of some of the equipment for that. Like for example, we’re using some effects on our vocals that we wouldn’t have for really any show prior to this one. 

HK: We got these vocal processors over quarantine because we wanted to hone in on how we want our music to sound because otherwise when you have all these effects on the guitars but your vocals are all dry, it’s kind of a stark contrast. 

CL: But, I think that with that and then trying to add some synthesizers and stuff and layer things in —

AB: Craig has been killing it on the synths lately. 

CL: That’s the one upside from quarantine. I’ve been taking piano classes at SFSU. 

AB: Go gators! 

HK: Us three went there. 

NG: Oh yeah, have you guys graduated?

HK: I graduated last May. 

NG: Congratulations.

AB: I’m about to graduate. 

CL:  I’ve still got a bit more. 

NG: That’s so exciting. What about you, Luke?

LC: I just transferred to the CJC, a jazz school in Berkeley. So, I’ll be there for a few more years. 

HK: Luke’s a killer at jazz.  

NG: Are you doing anything on the side with that?

LC: More or less. Me and Alex played on an album about a year ago. It’s in the final stages of being released. COVID-19 has just made it kind of hard, so besides just studying and practicing, and like preparing for the world to be back to normal again, so. 

NG: Well, it was so great having you guys today. It’s just such a pleasure to be able to watch any form of live music. It brings some life back to this whole industry. We’re really excited to see all that you guys have releasing soon, so everybody stay tuned for that, and yeah, this was awesome, thanks. 

Article by Natalie Gott

Photos by Lyle Kahney