Moon Hound
By Justin Christopher Poulin, Contributor
Photo provided by Paper Moon Records, by Sara Laufer
Meet Moon Hound
Moon Hound is the latest musical venture of singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Ian McNally. McNally is joined by Kathleen Rivera, Daniel Bloch, John Mason, and Timothy Bustle on the colorful and eclectic new EP, Crescent, which released April 15. Moon Hound come together to create a sound that feels firmly in the realm of indie rock and folk, but also accented with bits of chamber and baroque pop.
There’s a timeless appeal to Moon Hound’s style, which is kind of funny to say considering that a good portion of Crescent’s narrative content is rooted in Ancient Greek mythology and a memory of history. Much of the EP was recorded in McNally’s home studio in Ridgewood, NY, where he (remotely) chatted with me about panda bus drivers, collaboration, and learning to love the synthesizer.
Two Truths and a Lie:
In May, I finished up my Master’s in Business Administration at Baruch
I initially went to college to play baseball
I once ate pasta made for 12 people in one sitting without knowing it.
(Answer listed at the bottom.)
Would You Rather:
You're at a bus stop. The bus pulls up and when the door opens, there's a panda bear with a driving cap on behind the wheel. Do you get on the bus?
I’d probably ask the panda a question first, and if it says something, I’d probably get on. You know, because the panda already drove the bus that far, so it’s obviously doing something right.
Both your new EP and another one of your projects, Demeter, nod to Greek mythology. What is it about these stories and that whole world and mythos that inspires you?
When I was younger, until about age 8, which is when I moved from Brooklyn to Westchester, I was really into Greek mythology. I really loved D’Aulaires Book of Greek Myths, and I loved the Odyssey and the Aeneid. The stories are super convoluted because a lot of them are just about hyper masculine feats, which at this point in my life doesn’t speak to me in the same way as when I was like, say, 5. But, I think there are just a lot of beautiful tales and stories and there’s something about mythology that calls to me.
When I was in a similar age range, I was really into Christianity. I wasn’t into the religion, but I was into the Bible stories. So, I’d draw pictures of Jesus coming out of the cave or something, and I called the cross “the magic sword.” In the writing of “Persephone,” I was very much in my head, and the people I was listening to were writing these really beautiful songs about the experiences in their lives and I felt a lot of pressure to do that, and this gave me the opportunity to delve into something that is really important to me, but is not directly connected to my life. It’s something I go to when I’m struggling with a song. I’ll go into another story that I used to love and I write about it from a character’s point of view to get out of my own head and my own specific experience.
I'm struck by the depictions of nature and level of introspection in the lyrics from the singles to have come out so far. Where do you think would be the ideal place for someone to listen to your new EP?
The ideal place for some one to listen to the new EP? That’s a great question. I thought about this a bit and I think that there’s this place right by where I lived in Westchester in the Goldens Bridge Colony, if you go to the end of Pond St, you can walk back into the woods and there’s this old, abandoned construction site that’s just a finished foundation of what—legend has it—was going to be a supermall. When I’m thinking about nature in my songs, I think that I’m often drawn to the woods surrounding that area where I spent growing up and as an adult, camping with friends.
I think somewhere around there or, because not everyone has access to that, just find a nice, quiet-from-human-activity section of woods and listen there. I think it would be really enjoyable. Blended with the sounds of the birds, and the wind, and the ground, I think it would be great.
The arrangements on a track like "Hillside" are pretty detailed and rich. What's one piece of gear that was essential in making the Crescent EP?
I feel bad not talking about my telecaster, because that’s my main guitar, and I really love it, but I think the thing that really opened up the world to me was getting this Korg Minilogue analog synth. Before this, in other recordings I worked on, I had been averse to synth—I can’t really tell you why, I just think I didn’t really understand the role that it played in a lot of the music I loved and I thought of it as— well, yeah— a synthetic, inhuman sort of item, but when we got this Minilogue, it opened up the world.
On “Hillside” specifically, it’s used to kind of create that dissonant atmosphere that’s floating over everything. It’s been a really great tool with creating spaces and textures throughout the EP. Actually, in the house that I live in, where 85% of this was recorded, we actually have a studio in the basement. So, little plug for Huntsville Road Recording, which is in the basement of our apartment.
Does contributing to multiple different projects/bands help stimulate creativity for you? It always fascinates me when musicians and collaborators create very different sounds and aesthetics depending on what creative endeavor they are currently working on. While are there are some common threads, your work with Demeter and Cicero & the Orations sound distinct from this sound with Moon Hound to me.
Yes, definitely. With Cicero, I was writing a decent amount of the songs, so I think that that was a really good place to learn how to collaborate. And with Demeter, which was really the next serious project that I joined, Kathleen writes songs that I would never think of. She’s influenced a lot more by classic rock icons and, you know, St. Vincent, whom I love, but I can’t wrap my head around writing a song like her. It was really great to come into an environment where I had to work with completely different chord structures than I was used to and think about how to fit in with what she was playing.
Also, in Cicero, there was only me playing guitar, so it gave me an opportunity to fill out different spaces [in Demeter] than I did in Cicero. [There are] musical projects that I was part of that really inspired me; I played bass in the band, Wooter, for a while. Rowan [Brind], who is Wooter, is extremely prolific. The year that I joined, he released a song every week for the entire year, which is just an incredible project. He recorded everything himself, which helped inspire me to start doing that myself. I was also coming out of getting my undergrad in classical music, so I was pretty bogged down in music theory stuff, but he doesn’t necessarily adhere to the chordal theory I had ingrained in my brain, so it was definitely inspirational to hear the way he did that—and he also loved synth, going back to the synth.
What sort of advice would you give yourselves from 5 years ago, and what kind of advice would you give to your future selves now?
If I had to give myself advice in the year 2016, I would say, “take more online master classes with musicians that you love.” I was never really able to stick with guitar lessons, and now over the pandemic, I’ve been able to take some master classes and I’ve really learned a lot about how to do the things that my ear is drawn to. I think that instead of trying to figure stuff out on the guitar based off my classical background, I could have spent a lot more time listening to what other people had to say about it—not in a regretful way, but it would have been nice.
And what advice would I give my future self? I would probably tell my future self to keep trying to make music no matter what is happening in your life. Music is definitely my chosen career at this point that I would like to be in, in some capacity. I know I’m starting to approach the age where I’m going to have start thinking a little more intently about my future and I don’t want that to get in the way of things.
Future me: just keepin’ on, and keep makin’.
If you could choose, what would be the first venue you'd want to play at once live shows are really a "thing" again?
I can’t really imagine any of the large ones, and there are so many great venues in Brooklyn and Queens, so, I think it would be pretty awesome to play a show at Baby’s All Right, honestly. It’s such a cool venue. Everyone who plays there rips, the bills are great, the lighting is super awesome, so yeah, I’d love to play there.
Final comments?
Thanks, I so appreciate this interview! I’d really like to thank Daniel Bloch, John Mason, Kathleen Rivera, and Tim Bustle, who all had a hand in the recording of this album and are part of Moon Hound along with Sean Kiely, who also listens to every rough mix with me, so also shout-out to him. I’m super excited to put this album out and start playing shows again, and get to know the people from Paper Moon, which is label I’m on.
It’s going to be so great getting out there again and playing, whenever that can happen.
Answer: I did not get my Master’s in Business administration from Baruch; I got my Master’s in Music Composition from Hunter.