The Act: MOON PANDA

The Release: ‘VACATIONER’

The Format: DIGITAL SINGLE

The Release Date: WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 13TH 2021

The Truth: coming from the mythically mellow lands of Copenhagen and California, Moon Panda is a worldly wise unit fronted up by songwriter/singer/bassist Maddy Myers (she be the young American) and guitarist Gustav Moltke (he be the great Dane). ‘Vacationer’ is their brand new single, and the first track to be taken from their debut album, ‘What On Earth’, which we are delighted to say will be released on fierce panda on March 4th 2022. 'Vacationer' is also fierce panda's 501st single release.

If ‘Vacationer’ sounds sumptuously pretty and vacant then regular Panda fandas will be heartily unsurprised, because Moon Panda proffer a lushly laconic sound which has drawn comparisons to Beach House, Lana Del Ray, Mazzy Star, Warpaint, Jerry Burns, Tame Impala, Daughter and a very, very stoned Raveonettes. Yet behind that casually fragrant demeanor lurks a fierce Moon Panda work ethic, as Maddy explains:

“We wrote ‘Vacationer’ right after what I think we all consider a pretty pivotal point in our lives. We had all flown out to the US to play SXSW 2020 and as soon as we landed, we read that they had banned all international flights and that SXSW was cancelled! We were all feeling a little lost and buzzing with all this energy we had built up for the festival. So, we drove our rented van around to all these national parks, hiked around, and made makeshift studios everywhere we went.

“We’d stopped rehearsing and started jamming. It changed the way I thought about music and making music. All of us just hunched over our instruments, sitting on a cheap shag carpet, losing our minds and our worries in the music. It was like being in a trance. We ended up making an epic adventure from a really scary time. ‘Vacationer’ is about that adventure. Writing this whole album was basically a tool for self-soothing all of our anxious minds. I guess that’s what music usually does though, huh? This time it just felt…monumental, maybe because the entire world was going through something together.”

So in so many ways through lockdown Moon Panda never stopped believing: their amiably melancholic ‘Make Well’ EP meandered out in June ‘21, followed by a suitably casual cover of The Strokes’ ‘Call It Fate, Call It Karma’ which slunk out as part of fierce panda’s Covid Version Sessions. Another wee corona-shaped hole was filled by the stand alone springtime single ‘Visions’. Along the way, as love from Lauren Laverne on BBC 6music grew, Moon Panda realised they were accidentally indulging in a spot of public service broadcasting: as the streaming figures multiplied, so did the messages of thanks from the lockdowned masses across the globe who were using Moon Panda’s music to transport themselves out of their locked down discomfort zones.

Go unleash your cosmic loveliness at these shows here:

OCTOBER 22ND COPENHAGEN VEGA
OCTOBER 26TH BRIGHTON PRINCE ALBERT
OCTOBER 27TH ST ALBANS THE HORN
OCTOBER 28TH LONDON KINGS CROSS THE LEXINGTON
NOVEMBER 2ND BIRMINGHAM ACTRESS & BISHOP
NOVEMBER 4TH GUILDFORD BOILEROOM
NOVEMBER 6TH NORWICH VOODOO DADDY’S

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