VICE LUNA
Born in San Luis Potosi, raised in Puerto Vallarta, a seaside locality in the Pacific, his nomadic soul led him to live in different places, and now he has resided in Milan for three years. Infinite explorer, constantly looking for spiritual musical encounters thanks to neo-psychedelic guitars and space synthesizers, he creates an eclectic sound full of cultural influences.
His music has flowed in abstract directions since he started, exploring different instruments and modes of expression: to the musical bases of the rock & blues of the 60s and 70s, with heavy riffs and lysergic strings, it blends a deep, organic sound and subtle more progressive rhythms, melodic lines and deep grooves.
After the release of “THE LIGHTS” on Villahangar Records, available from October 7 on all digital portals and streaming platforms, let’s go discover the artist and author of the track: VICE LUNA.
1. Where you were born, where you raised and where do you live?
I was born in San Luis Potosi, a city in the middle of Mexico but soon I moved to Puerto Vallarta, a beach town in the pacific where I grew. I’ve been always a nomad so for the past years I’ve been living in different places but now I live in Milan since 3 years.
2. You recently came to Italy, can you tell us how and why you decided to stay in Milan?
I came to Milan because my mother has lived here for some years now, so she invited me to have a long vacation in Italy and then things changed in a strange positive way.
I can say that Milan kinda forced me to stay due to Covid. I had intentions to come back to Mexico on February 2020, but by that time Covid was starting to become a serious thing so I rather staying here with my family and then the city made me fall in love with it.
3. How would you define your musical style today?
I’ve been evolving a lot in the past years and I have to say that my journey in europe and of course covid, has definetily shaped my musical identity. I stick to my musical bases of rock & blues but I try to blend it with a deep organic sound and with some subtles influences of progressive.
4. Which musical genres influence you the most?
60’s & 70’s rock is my forever influence, is pretty much what got me into music, but such as the downtempo and organica movement in the past years but as well progressive and melodic techno play an important role in my influences.
5. What were your most recent projects and what projects are you part of?
Lately I’ve been collaborating with a bunch of friends and talented artists, like Sinai, Dan Buri, Antonio (AR), Don Jongle, to name a few, always with my own project as Vice Luna.
Last year I also started with some friends a fun project called “Los Bandidos” a psychedelic electronic cumbia group that we left on stand by due to lack of time.
6. Speaking of releases, what were your most recent projects, which are the current ones and those of the nearest future?
I have an EP and some singles programmed to release in the next weeks and months, my latest release was my remix for Makossa’s song “Infinitum” on Hupupa Records.
7. And which labels have you worked with?
I’ve worked directly only with Mandarina Records and Hupupa Records, So far I’ve released mainly my music only independently..
8. What can you tell us about your remix of Blond: ish Abracadabra?
It’s a crazy fun story, I worked on that remix together with my wife Play Eva for a contest on a platform called Metapop that held this competition. After a few months we never had any update about the results of the competition. One day I had an invitation to play at a festival in Albania but weeks later I received news that I couldn’t go due to external problems, that same day, discouraged because I couldn’t go to the festival I got an email telling me that we had won.
9. What can you tell us about your residence at The Sanctuary Milan, new super cool destination of the Milanese nightlife?
My collaboration with The Sanctuary was born from determination, the establishment was on my radar even before I got in Italy, as soon as I knew they were opening in Milan I got in touch with them and soon was born a long term collaboration.
10. What are your plans for the present and the immediate future?
Right now I want to keep myself open to work on more collaborations with other artists, I’m also perfectioning my live performance and I’m planning to make an album out of it for the next year.
11. What do you think about the milanese electronic music scene? What do you think are the differences with Europe and with the rest of the world?
I’m short in words when it comes to describe Milan’s music scene, since unfortunately I got here pretty much in the middle of a pandemic that blocked me from living the full experience of night life and the musical scene as it was before Covid, but I can admit that the scene in Milan has a lot to offer and is under fast development.
12. For your new EP with Villahangar, what did you work on in terms of sound and inspiration? What is the atmosphere like? How was the project born? What does the project represent for you and why was it born?
The project it’s inspired from the need of protecting one’s self energy, to bring it on into the surface and don’t let people turn it off.
It’s a simple idea but it means a lot to me since I feel we often are to much influenced by other people’s opinions, energy, etc.
When it comes to the sound, I started the main track “Bring Your Light” from a strong guitar chord and a simple bass line that gave me the idea of power, of energy and build everything else from there. “The Palace” is a reference of our mind such as home or a “palace” so I tried to create a deeper sound with an introspective idea, of course without losing the idea that both tracks were meant to be heard in a dance situation.
13. How many and which tracks does the EP consist of? What can you tell us about the title of the EP and the titles of the tracks?
The EP consist in two tracks, Bring Your Lights and The Palace and the whole project it’s named The Lights, as I said before, I believe everybody has an inner energy an inner light that needs to be put outside, so the name is basically born from this simple concept.
14. How was your collaboration with Villahangar born? How did you get to know the label?
I got to know the Label through a good friend of mine that introduced me to Chris, one of the label’s members. He then asked me if I could be interested into making a podcast for them and from there everything went on.
15. You are the new Villahangar release: what prompted you to release your new EP here? In the sense, how much does the label’s DNA reflect your new project and which concept do you want to follow with this new EP?
I feel Villahangar to be a label that connects with their artist’s, that if they like your music they really believe in it and push it forward and that’s something that I highly appreciate.
