Moon Honey’s theatrics – Baton Rouge art-rock band returns with new name, first full-length album

In the courtyard of Garden District Coffee, a thick stand of tall bamboo is vibrating with the activity of dozens of finches. It’s created a constant racket of chirps and shaking branches that has everyone sitting around it equally enchanted and intimidated.

The same goes for guitarist Andrew Martin and vocalist Jessica Ramsey of the band Moon Honey, who have just sat down for an interview and are worried they won’t be able to compete with the chaos above.

“Maybe we should try to get up to their level,” Ramsey jokes.

If anything, the music they make along with drummer Jermaine Butler and keyboardist/bassist Jeffrey Livingston can readily compete with the avian theatrics. Baton Rougeans first knew them as Twin Killers, prog-rockers who had only officially released a four-track EP in 2010 before setting out on tour and turning local shows at places like the Manship Theatre into, well, theater, with dancers, light shows, a host of backup singers and more.

Their last local performance before hunkering down to record the full-length Hand-Painted Dream Photographs—out Dec. 3—was a sold-out multimedia spectacle inside the Planetarium at Louisiana Art & Science Museum in December 2012.

The band reemerged after a year with plans for an album release show at Hartley/Vey Theatres this month and a West Coast tour to follow.

“I don’t think we knew how long it would take to finish the album,” Ramsey says. “It’s been a year and a half since the release of that first song.”

Martin says the process was grueling—writing one song, setting up the recording equipment, taking it down after recording the track, and then moving on to the next song.

“I don’t think we’ll do it that way again,” Ramsey chimes in.

Next came figuring out who to trust to turn it into one cohesive album. “We spent so much time and put so much heart into this music, I thought, ‘Why not get the best person around [to mix it]?'” Martin says. Greg Saunier, drummer for San Francisco-based experimental band Deerhoof, took on the task, mixing it while riddling Martin with quirky ideas on how to make certain tracks sound “sticky and dark.”

“And I’d say, ‘Yeah, I want that sound. I want it to stick to my ribs!’ Just saying things that didn’t really make sense,” Martin laughs.

A sound that then might have been hard to describe resulted in an ambitious expansion of their art-rock sensibilities, each track swirling around jangling guitars and Ramsey’s acrobatic vocals, never landing exactly where you think it will.

At times, Ramsey’s fluttering voice is akin to birdsong, and though she’s modest about her abilities, she likens it to trying to reach the level of her bandmates’ swirling music. “All I wanted to do was put what they had written into English,” she says.

Martin says the combination of a name change and fleshing out new tracks with Saunier and Steve Fallone—who mastered albums for The Strokes, TV on the Radio and others—helped the band grow up from its louder prog-rock start. “We were able to play inside all the dark, soft corners that we missed out on as a younger band,” he says.

Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra’s Dave Hinson provided strings on the album, and England in 1819’s Andrew Callaway helped out as well, adding to the textured sound.

On Jan. 18, the band will show it all off in Baton Rouge at Hartley/Vey, the smaller space attached to the Manship Theatre. “We wanted people to be able to stand up close to us and for it to be intimate so they can be almost part of the show with us,” Martin says. “It’s going to be an insane show.” Local electronic rock band England in 1819 will also perform that night.

While the band was still sorting out the details at press time, expect lots of chaotic, orchestral music against a backdrop of dueling video projections Ramsey created splicing old 16-milimeter films. “We’ve got these crazy projections and you’ve got two completely different storylines that merge into our storylines with the music,” Martin explains.

Looks like they’re managing to match that chaotic, interweaving birdsong from above just fine. moonhoneyband.com

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect a date change for Moon Honey’s Baton Rouge show, originally scheduled for Nov. 16 but now set for Jan. 18.