Half Moon Run: Perfectionism, Dish Washing and Life on the Road

Over a year after it first saw the light of day in their native Canada, Half Moon Run will release their debut album Dark Eyes through Communion on 01 July, which, appropriately enough, is Canada Day.

The Montreal based band head to the UK this week for a run of shows including a performance on the Park Stage at Glastonbury on Friday. When he was touring the UK last year, Patrick Watson tipped them as his favourite act in Montreal. Since then they’ve been on what seems like a non-stop tour, playing shows with Metric, Of Monsters and Men, Mumford and Sons and Watson himself along the way. We caught up with Devon from the band as they travelled to Colombus, Ohio last month.

Although the band formed and are based in Montreal, you originally hail from Comox, BC and Ottawa. What bought you to Montreal, and how did the band get together?

Basically everyone came for different reasons. I had a job lined up and the other guys came for school. None of us knew each other – even though the other guys all went to the same high school and stuff they were in different years. We all met through a mutual friend basically, except me. I met through Craigslist. Our first jam was actually the first time we all met each other. It was pretty magical.

Do you remember what the Craigslist advert was?

They were looking for a bassist or a drummer. And I’m neither of those things but the writing and the influences were so compelling that I wrote to them saying “I’m neither of these but we should make something happen”…and they went for it. Dylan who was originally going to play piano took drums after a ten year break. So we shifted everyone around so I could sing and play guitar.

The band got picked up after just a few live shows, right?

Well, we didn’t play live for a long time. Indica signed us around our 10th show which is fairly early. We did a little Ontario tour of 5 dates and everything was pretty green. Then they wanted to break us in so we flew out to the west coast and cut our teeth. We recorded the album in which took 7 months and was very grueling: out west at first and then back in Montreal. It came out as a soft release in May 2012 in Canada.

In what way was the process gruelling?

I guess we were so obsessed with making it as good as we could that we kept having to redo stuff and rearrange parts. We were all working full or part time at the time so we would go into the studio at 6pm and go through till 2am, then do our jobs all day then go back and do it again. The scheduling was pretty grueling in that respect.

So, an elongated broken up process in combination with perfectionism?

Yeah. And dishwashing jobs.

It will be almost 13 months later that the album finally hits UK stores – does it seem strange to be starting to tour a ‘new record’ that you have been playing for over a year?

Comparatively it seems weird but I have no frame of reference really, and neither do any of us. It was a soft release in May last year so it took a while for things to pick up momentum wise. We maybe started really touring last September. But all said and done we will be doing two and a half/ three years on this record.

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Does that mean you have got a backlog of new material? You recently released a live video of a song called ‘Unofferable’ for WatchListenTell that wasn’t on the album?

We’ve been playing some new material. We have a ton of ideas but we don’t have time to develop them. We don’t have the time-we are booked up till February next year. We’re ready as soon as we get the time off we’ll be into the studio to work on it. As for ‘Unoffereable’, that is a new song we wrote in a maximum pressure moment. We actually put it on this new release of Dark Eyes.

You have a pretty packed schedule. Is it a strange feeling to have your whole life booked up so far in advance?

It totally is. I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining but I do sometimes miss the days when I woke up and didn’t know anything that was going to happen that day or for the rest of my life. It was a bit scary but I liked that. This is the dream though, I guess.

You don’t seem 100% convinced?

Oh I am… I’d just like to be a bit healthier I guess. We tour in a small van so we’re all in close promixity all the time. Occasionaly we get to do a bit of skateboarding but other than that it can be a lot of long haul drives. Like tonight after the show we drive all night from Columbus to Arkansas in the mountains to get to our 1pm festival show …with no sleep. …But really we’re all pretty solid- we just laugh every day. Jimmy from Metric said that when touring is good it’s fun, and if it’s bad than it’s funny. You just have to laugh when shit goes wrong.

You signed to Communion Records in the UK, and played a number of shows with Mumford and Sons- how did the relationship come about?

Well, we did this crazy thing last July- we flew from Montreal to London for two days in between this crazy North American tour schedule. And those two shows basically built that whole relationship. It happened that Daniel Glass from Glassnote was in town and word got to him, and then Ben Lovett from Mumfords and Communion came out. Then they were both interested in signing us so we made an amalgamation. Communion for UK, Glassnote the rest of the world minus Canada and Australia. It was outrageous. At the time I remember not wanting to do it all but it turned out to be one of the best decisions we’ve ever made.

How was touring with the likes of Mumfords and Metric and playing to the huge crowds?

It was totally addictive and incredible. We played early a lot but the venues were already full. To play to 20,000 a night – it’s outrageous. I can’t really digest it fully onstage because I’m trying to focus but afterwards the rush is incredible. Looking up and seeing the crowd enjoying it, you know… The Metric crowd were more party orientated. Mumfords was a bit younger and music lovers. But they all seemed to react to the fast and furious songs, as one does initially. I think now that we’ve played the record 200 and some times its become much wilder and more passionate. We try and keep things dynamic- sometimes its super chill and sometimes its full of energy. The Metric crowd were more party orientated. Mumfords had younger and music lovers. But they all seemed to react to the fast and furious songs, as one does initially.

How did it compare to the reactions when touring in Canada?

We’ve actually toured more outside Canada. But we’ve done a ton in Quebec. People go to shows. Big Time. We can do 20-30 dates just in that province in all these little towns and the whole town will come out. We’ve also toured Ontario a little bit and out west.

Quebec really seems to support its own…

Yeah. Especially if you are French language. People are more connected culturally there than any other place I’ve ever seen. People trust the local promoters. If you are in a small town and the promoter puts on a show even if you’ve never heard the band you will still go. But you can be huge there and not be known anywhere else. Quebec accounts for half the cd sales in Canada. It’s a neat place.

Have you found touring outside Canada has helped your progress back home?

It’s definitely a status update – people are more interested to see what you are doing. Yeah – it’s really picked up in that way – every time we come back to cities the audience has grown.

You are coming over for Glastonbury, Latitude and Green Man. Have you got any particular festival memories?

To be honest I live these days one day at a time. Glastonbury seems like a big looming thing I’m pretty excited about but other than that I’m trying to keep it in perspective. Other than that we had a great time at Festival D’Ete in Quebec City. Woodford Folk Festival in Australia was amazing. We were there for 5 days – we played four times. There was almost no booze on site, so it was a really chilled festival for us. It starts on 26 December and goes over New Years. Flying from North America we spent Christmas Day on the plane. In fact we crossed the dateline and went from 24th to 26th so I think we avoided the whole day.

Finally…Who would play with you at your dream festival?

That’s a tough one. I wouldn’t want to look bad. Probably Sepalcure…not to be confused with Sepultura. They are this Brooklyn producer duo. Portishead…Atoms for Peace…Django Reinhardt… I’d want to see those two fingers make it happen!

Half Moon Run will play the following live dates:

June
25 – London, UK / Village Underground
26 – Brighton, UK / The Haunt
28 – Pilton-Somerset, UK / Glastonbury Festival
29 – Pilton-Somerset, UK / Glastonbury Festival

July
02 – Manchester, UK / The Deaf Institute