What are your full names?
We got the name of our group from our surnames – Jaime April and Jason Moon. People think there’s some kind of deeper meaning to APRIL MOON, but that’s it I’m afraid. Lack of imagination gave us our name!
What is your band’s genre?
When people ask us how to describe our music, we always answer “cosmic pub rock”. I think it sums us up in a way. Our favourite thing to do on any night off is to visit pubs with live entertainment and just take it in – whatever the style, folk, blues, tribute acts, classic rock covers, it doesn’t matter. We feel that our recorded music has been greatly influenced by the live pub scene and you can hear that in the tracks on “The Sun, the Moon, and the Truth”. There’s folk in there, and blues and pop as well. Plus something that Jaime calls gypsy music, whatever that is!
Give us a little bio of the band and you guys as individuals.
Well, we’re from Canada, we met as actors doing Shakespeare plays and dinner theatres. We used to jam at cast parties with all the other actors that could string a few chords together, and then we started getting paying gigs. Turns out that you can make more in one month as a starving musician than you can make in a year as a starving actor, so we made the career switch and came over to England to do our writing and recording. Then we fell in love with the place and never left.
Who does what in the band?
On stage we both play guitar. I sing lead vocal, and Jaime does harmonies. In the studio I play drums, guitar, bass, and keyboards, while Jaime plays guitar and all kinds of crazy percussion instruments – many of which she makes herself. I seem to recall a wine bottle filled with macaroni at one point! We both write the songs, usually separately, though sometimes we’ll collaborate – one writing the music and the other the lyrics, etc. We have a very cool process. For Jaime’s tunes, she will usually bring me a song that she’s been working on, with a page of lyrics, and she’ll play it for me. Then I’ll try to play it a couple of times, and we’ll record a quick version of it on one of our phones. Then we leave it alone for a few days so that it can get itself into our heads. My songs on the other hand are usually dreamed in their entirety while I’m asleep. I wake up with the whole song so I have to get up even if it’s 4 in the morning and record it otherwise it will be gone the way of all dreams. They’re probably all stolen from somewhere – how else do you explain it?
Are You signed?
No, who in their right minds would sign US? If we’re going to make a living doing music, the opportunities will have to be provided by us I’m afraid. Actually, I think I prefer it that way, but never say never I suppose.
Who are your influences?
We both love the Beatles, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, Bowie, Queen, The Doors, The Kinks, The Stones. I think our favourite band is Fleetwood Mac – all the versions of it that include Christine McVie anyway. I like Peter Green alright but Christine is like a songwriting goddess or something. Stevie and Lindsay aren’t bad either!
How did music come in to your lives and when did you start doing it?
I started playing drums in school when I was 14. It’s still my favourite instrument to play. There’s a video on YouTube showing me recording a drum track for one of our songs in the studio, and I’m clearly having the time of my life. I switched to guitar because I learned the chords to “Ballad Of John and Yoko” for some reason, and I loved the idea that I could sit and play a song all by myself – as a drummer you always need people to jam with, but I could do THIS on my own. Jaime studied piano, trumpet, and learned singing and dancing in musical theatre, but she became a guitar player a few years ago when she was on her way to live in China for a couple years. She learned a few chords before she went so she’d have something to amuse herself over there. When she came back, she was really quite good!
When will you be releasing new material?
Our album, “The Sun, the Moon, and the Truth” came out on July 22, 2014. We perform about nine of the eleven tracks live and we have written quite a few songs for a new album. We aren’t playing them live yet, but very soon we will be trying out the new stuff.
How do you get inspiration to write songs?
Well, for this album I think we were inspired just by being here, in this country, among these amazing people in the North West. Everything about living here – the air, the green leaves, the constant music everywhere, the buildings – all of it is a source of constant inspiration. I love Canada as the place where I’m from, but I love the UK as the place I want to be for the rest of my life. It was all such a change for us – coming here to live – that I think the songs just flowed out of us. Jaime wrote one called “Southport” after we’d been here just a few days. It’s about the idea of seeing everything anew and re-inventing yourself in a place that previously you had only read about or looked at pictures of. The idea of being part of a great adventure shows up in a lot of our songs.
Where do you see the band in 2-5 years time?
We will still be playing and recording I think. More people will know who we are, just because we constantly travel and play live, and I can’t see that changing. We would like to do a U.S. tour someday – we’ve toured in Europe and Canada, but never the U.S. That would be sweet. I don’t know, we’re very happy right now. If we’re this happy in a few years then I can’t ask for any more than that.
Where would your dream place be to perform?
Wembley of course. Anyone who says they don’t want to play Wembley is a dirty liar. A dirty liar!
If you could do collaboration with anyone who would it be?
I’d be too scared to collaborate with any of my idols. What if I farted in front of them or something? There’d be nothing left to do but crawl into a closet and wait to die! Seriously, I’d want to collaborate with the best musicians in the UK that you haven’t heard of yet. People like Adrian Gautrey, the best guitarist and pedal steel player I’ve ever heard. Actually we already collaborated with him – he’s on two tracks on the album! But I would work with him again, anytime, anywhere. Also Sinead Savage, an Irish singer that we love and are friends with. There are Liverpool musicians like Paul Kappa and Paul Everett and those guys from the band The Real People – it would be an honor to record with any of those folks.
If you weren’t doing music, what would you be doing?
I would be famous for my chicken wing recipe. Seriously, it’s the best thing in the world. If music doesn’t pan out, I’ve always got my chicken wings. Jaime says she would live in the forest with her pet moose. I know it sounds like she’s joking, but I’ve seen her out in the forest with twigs in her hair, climbing trees. She looked very much at home to me, so I’m not ruling it out.
If you got asked by a tv show or film to have your music played on, which show or film would it be?
Actually some of my music has already been used in films – there’s a 2014 film called “Mohawk Midnight Runners” that I scored that is currently making the rounds of the film festival circuit in North America. But if we’re talking about APRIL MOON music, it definitely should have been on “Sons Of Anarchy”, but that show is winding up this season so we’re too late. If Quentin Tarantino asked us to use some of our music I wouldn’t say no. His films have the best music, hands down.
Do you have a website, social media pages and music pages for your fans?
People can find us at www.aprilmoonband.com and on facebook of course. Our YouTube channel has videos of lots of the things we talked about today – even Jaime climbing one of those trees! Check it out folks! You won’t be disappointed.
