The Act: MOON PANDA

The Release: ‘CLOUD WATCHING'

The Format: DIGITAL SINGLE

The Release Date: WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 10TH 2021

The Digital Link:moonpanda.bfan.link/cloud-watching

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). ‘Cloud Watching’ is their brand new single, and the second 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.

'Cloud Watching' is a speedy follow-up to the ‘Vacationer’ single, which dropped mid-October to coincide with a run of live shows in Denmark and the UK, including a sold out Lexington headline. That's about the only hectic thing about Moon Panda, who peddle a sumptuously pretty and vacant 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. Landing in Austin for SXSW 2020, they found that the festival had been cancelled and the rest of the world was heading to hell in a covid handcart. Undeterred, the Moon Panda group re-grouped and worked out a Plan B, as Maddy explains: "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. This time it just felt…monumental, maybe because the entire world was going through something together.” But it wasn't all work, work, work...

"We spent a lot of time this last year trying to learn to skateboard cause we live right next to a skate park and skating looks so freeing. It’d be us slowly wobbling back and forth and a bunch of 10 year olds just shredding like crazy. Watching these badass kids just going for it, dropping off into the bowl like it was nothing, kind of changed the way I approached my slow, quarantine days. There’s definitely something that you have more figured out when you’re young. An openness to doing something for the joy of it with no other motives. 'Cloud Watching' came out of that rediscovery of how satisfying it is to get present and centered in your body. Whether it’s feeling the sun warm your face, feeling your stomach drop as you skate the bowl, feeling your muscles work and tire as you run or stretch or climb. Basically taking some cues from your inner kid and flowing with your intuition. That’s what this song’s about."

So in so many ways Moon Panda never stopped believing throughout lockdown: 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.

Fingers crossed next time they fly into Austin for SXSW 2022 the Moon Panda landing will be softer than snow.

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