Q&A: Luna Day Talks Relationships, Inspiration, and Infatuation Following the Release of Her New Single, “Somebody Else”
WRITTEN BY RAFFAELLA VOGT
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Are you a hopeless romantic? LA-based singer-songwriter Luna Day has just the right music for you. Written for the sentimental and lovesick, her music hits the core of what it means to love another person and how feelings manifest.
Her newest single, “Somebody Else,” dives deep into the magnetic obsession that comes with having a crush that pushes you past the point of no return. Through her singles, Luna Day is setting the stage with vintage aesthetics drenched in ruby-red and inky-black palettes, where infatuation and madness meet.
Life On Jupiter caught up with Luna Day before the release of “Somebody Else” to talk about the new single, what drives her music, her future plans, and more.
LIFE ON JUPITER: For our writers who may be unfamiliar with you and your music, could you give an introduction and explain what you want to achieve through your music?
LUNA DAY: Well, I’m a singer-songwriter, and I started writing songs when I was 12. Initially, I was actually planning on going to art school for painting, so I’ve been painting my entire life.
Throughout my life, I never really considered myself a musician, but I was always an avid music lover. When I was 12 years old, my dad introduced me to The Smiths and Queen and all of these larger-than-life artists. It made me realize that I wanted to write music that could impact people. I did not have a lot of friends in middle school growing up, so I wanted to make music for people who were going through the same thing, and my music could serve as company.
I just love writing music to make people feel less alone. I really just see it as art, not only sonically but visually as well.
“Somebody Else” is coming out soon. Are you excited?
LUNA DAY: I’m ecstatic because I actually wrote this song years ago, and I didn’t plan on releasing it. As I started writing the project, it just hit me in the face that this is 1000% the sixth chapter. It took a few years because of scheduling and getting the other songs engineered, but I knew the placement of when I wanted it to be released. It’s very intentional.
To have it out now is amazing, and especially to be playing it live; there’s this whole other element to it now that wasn’t there when it was written. Seeing people resonate with it and memorize the lyrics before it’s even out and assigning their own meanings to the song, now that it’s coming to fruition and getting to release the studio version, is a big deal.
When you started writing “Somebody Else,” what was your mission with the lyrics and vision for how it would come out and what it would mean to your listeners?
LUNA DAY: This song was honestly just pure energy and fun. I feel like I tapped into this almost unapologetic chaos within the song. I’ve done that throughout the singles, just slowly, and they grow to be more unhinged. I wanted to write about how different relationships can bring out different facets of your own personality.
It’s a sort of continuation of my last single, “Psychosweet”, where I paint the other person as a devil in disguise, so this definitely carries this on and hits you in the face with that theme. I thought it would be interesting to write a song that is framed like a love song, but in reality, it’s about obsession and temptation and feeling like something is wrong, but wanting to go that path anyway. I really just wanted this song to be a ball of energy.
You mentioned all of your singles build off each other. In terms of a narrative or sonic approach to your music, what’s the storyline you’re building off of your singles, and will they build up to an album?
LUNA DAY: 100%. I’m definitely an album artist. When I was writing the songs, for example, “Say It Back”, the first single, everyone thought it was this fun love song. In reality, when people listen to the lyrics, there’s a lot of anger in them, and there’s a lot of resentment. I wanted the songs to be less about the other person and more about how those relationships frame the one with yourself. The songs are about relationships, not necessarily romantic relationships, but the relationships with yourself and how other people can impact that. There’s this theme of making monsters out of people and making monsters out of yourself. There’s this kind of feeling of getting on edge and then spilling over it. I feel like this project is about feeling a little bit like a monster, a little inadequate, and like you’re not enough for people or yourself.
That’s where the theme of obsession versus love really came into play. Throughout the project, a lot of the songs are framed around other people, but the songs that are going to be coming out within the album aren’t about other people; they’re about yourself. These songs are setting that up and hook you with “this is like a love song”, and when you look at the lyrics, it becomes more about the relationship with yourself. There are a lot of monster themes within the romance, so I’m very excited for that to be unearthed.
Are there any primary inspirations for your visual aesthetic within your music and identity as a performer, and how does that come into play?
LUNA DAY: Visually, what informed my aesthetic growing up was painting and working with color palettes all the time. I would be looking at what colors I was using and the tones within them. I didn’t realize how much that would inform my music because I really do see the songs through the lens of color. Whenever I’m writing a song, I’m really thinking about not only how it sounds, but how it looks visually in my head and how that can fit into the project. All of the songs visually fit very intentionally; it was no coincidence.
I also grew up loving vintage fashion; that was a big thing that my parents instilled in me as well. My dad would give me his old jackets from college, and I would wear them around and start to experiment with my own fashion. Fashion is a big deal for me and how I express myself, so I think that’s where a lot of the aesthetic came from. Also, being in love with anything from the past, anything from the 50s, 60s, 70s. The music I was listening to growing up was all from those eras. I got a lot of my own inspiration from looking through old magazines or wearing my parents' clothes and making my own fashion.
What is your plan for these projects and chapters, and how will they culminate into a body of work?
LUNA DAY: I really do see my projects and career through the lens of albums. I’ve never really been a person to look at numbers in terms of music. I’m the kind of person who will put out a song and not really look at who’s looking at it. I’m more so looking at the messages from people who like it or if it made them feel a certain way. I want to make concept albums and albums that help people process their emotions and mean something. I plan on doing music for the rest of my life. I will be on my deathbed dropping my posthumous album. The plan is just to keep writing albums; I’ve already almost finished the second album. I don’t really see this first album as my debut album because in my head, I’ve been writing albums since I was 12. I have hundreds of songs that I haven’t released. I want to release the right ones to make my mark and flood the internet with my music [laughs]. I’m constantly working on the next thing, so I already have the next project in motion. This one is now ready to go, and I’m so excited to release it.
What has been your favorite single that you’ve worked on?
LUNA DAY: This is such an obvious answer, whatever is newest is what I’m most excited about, so I would say “Somebody Else.” I waited so long for this song to come out, and it means so much to me that it’s out.
If you could describe yourself as any color, what color would it be?
LUNA DAY: This is a great question. I feel like maybe a dark blue, like a cerulean? That’s kind of an undertone within the red and black that I’m seeing.
If you could do any concept, time period, or aesthetic other than the one you’re doing now, what would your dream concept be?
LUNA DAY: I would love to do a record where each track goes through a different decade in time. I’ve thought about that quite a bit. I think it would be cool if each track took influences from different decades. Maybe one day I’ll do that, I think that would be super interesting and fun. There would be something for everybody.
What sound do you envision moving forward into the next chapter of Luna Day?
LUNA DAY: Throughout the current project, in terms of timeline, the songs have just gotten darker in sound and feel. Even in “Somebody Else,” there are so many gritty guitars and synths. We even layered some of my vocals down an octave to give it that monster sound because I wanted to push that theme further with this record. Not to spoil anything, but the next record is definitely more evolved, and I would say it is definitely a little bit darker than album one. It will never be the same thing, but it will always have the core of what it started from.
What are you most excited about with “Somebody Else” coming out, and what do you want your listeners to pay attention to?
LUNA DAY: There are a lot of telephone background vocals in this record that I'm obsessed with, and a lot of panned moments. I would advise everyone to listen to the record with headphones on, first and foremost. I think that is 100% the way to listen to any of my singles, because there’s a lot of engineering. Just give yourself into the energy of the song because it is so violently large and immense and chaotic.
What is a message for new listeners as they’re discovering the single?
LUNA DAY: I want new fans to know that I make music for people to feel less alone. I want to make music for everybody, but especially for people who maybe grew up feeling alone or like they didn’t have someone to keep them company. I would love for my music to make someone else’s day a little bit brighter and give them that sense of company.