Where can we find you right now and what are you up to?
Physically you can find us in Silverlake, Los Angeles if you follow the sound from the studio...Digitally we are on Spotify, Instagram, TikTok and everywhere else pretty much! Currently we are making an album, recording some covers of songs we love, and also building our organization called PARASOL. And like 8 other things that I didn't mention, haha. We're always doing a ton.
Tell us a bit about your favorite artists and how they influenced your sound.
Some of our favorite artists are Fleetwood Mac, Joni Mitchell, The Beach Boys, 2000-2010s indie bands like The Shins, Death Cab, The Flaming Lips and more. We're always listening to older music so we're definitely reaching back when it comes to our songs as well, but at the same time letting them exist in a more current soundscape. It's a blend of things that we like and often goes a bit cinematic as well since Martin is also a composer.
How did you decide to pursue a career in music?
I (Martin/Moji) began my career in music about 12 years ago when I got a job at music production house in Stockholm, Sweden. I was essentially an employee with a monthly salary, making music for big brands and TV commercials. It was a great learning experience working on big projects and dealing with clients. And in recent years I've gotten closer and closer to my own artistry, and going back to the roots of my creativity.
Grace got into it in more recent years with her solo project Nolo Grace, but the love for music has obviously always been very strong, and she always wanted to make music and sing since she was little. So Grace & Moji is an important act of coming together in creativity and love, for us.
Can you share any insights into your recording and production process when making new music?
Of course! We have an interesting process which is something we have been thinking about breaking down more on social media. Every song is born out of a concept idea rather than just jamming, and often there is an old voice note of me playing guitar or piano that we use as the foundation. Then Grace usually start by just free writing a ton of loose lyric ideas while listening to the music. Just whatever comes to her within the framework of the concept. When she's ready to share them with me, I tend to immediately get ideas for melodies and lyric combinations, how the song should start etc. It's a pretty magical process that we love because it's always inspired. As long as you have interesting material to work with the melodies will just flow.
We record everything in our home studio and produce everything ourselves. So far no one else has been part of the process and we'll see if anything ever changes, but I think that the main strength of not involving a 3rd songwriter is that the songs are VERY us. We just kind of let it all come out in the way that it wants to.
Could you describe what the process of shooting the music video for "Sad Times" was like?
It was so much fun! Our director John Frost came up with this whole concept of a surrealist dream world, a pink convertible, a man in a strange mask, a room made out of blue fur, and extremely trippy camera effects. John is definitely a creative genius and so ambitious. He built the room in his house and had this 360 camera that he got some mind bending shots with. We did it all in one day across a few different locations throughout LA.
What's your opinion on the current state of the music industry and its future with AI-created songs?
The music industry is super weird right now. The labels are signing new acts from viral TikTok videos and then drop them almost immediately when the momentum is lost due to the next song not blowing up online. AI is going to make it even weirder and I believe that now more than ever it's becoming increasingly important to really, truly do your own thing and have your own expression. Our humanity is the one thing that can't be replaced so we have to lean into it more than ever before. Exactly how things will play out I can't say but AI music will absolutely sound amazing very soon. There's also a positive side to it which is that more people can mess around with the AI music making tools without the steep learning curve, but at the same time it also means a further saturated market where it's already very hard to cut through the noise.
What are your plans for the future as artists?
More music across multiple projects, and we're also building something called Parasol Music which is a music label and community oriented creative agency.
Tell us a bit about "Sad Times".
Sad Times is a song about looking for healing in the form of plant medicine, which is usually a pretty dark and deep topic, so we made a really upbeat fun song about it instead. The song was inspired by us getting tired of being stuck in the same cycles over and over, and looking deeper for a way to break the patterns. Essentially the song is about the healing properties of ayahuasca and the hope and determination to change your life.