Bay Area-based duo Maybe the Moon, comprised of Karmen Kimball (vocals, keyboards) and Alex Lasner (guitar, keyboards) can trace their origins to when the two met at an “End of the World” Party — a party on December 21, 2012, the end of the 13th cycle of the Mayan calendar, and the alleged end of the world as we knew it. While at the party Kimball and Lasner chatted and bonded over a mutual of Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music. As the story goes, during their conversation the duo discovered that at one point, they had attended the same elementary school. Shortly after their meeting, the duo got engaged and they started working on the material that would become the singles that they’ve released over the course of the past year to 18 months or so.
Now, if you’ve been frequenting JOVM over the past 12-18 months, you’d likely come across a couple of posts on the Bay Area-based duo. Their latest single “Washout” continues the duo’s burgeoning reputation for carefully crafted, thoughtful electro pop with lyrical content that possesses a novelist’s attention to their character’s psychology and psychological motivations, and nuanced psychological states; in other words, the song’s characters speak and feel like fully-fleshed out people — like someone you may have known or dealt with at some point. In the case of “Washout,” the song’s narrator regretfully and candidly speaks of a relationship that she sabotaged. She speaks of that period with a little bit of perspective, and with the recognition that she had someone who lovingly dealt with her until they couldn’t deal with her anymore. Of course, the duo has also maintained elements of the sound that have caught my attention over the past few months — moody and minimalist production composed of slowly cascading synths and sparse yet propulsive beats paired with Kimball’s ethereal and mournful vocals, which evoke a desperate and urgent desire to connect with another, and a fear of the heartache that connection can bring. Thoughtful and detailed pop is sadly relegated to misfit status, and it’s shameful because in the increasingly perilous times we live in, we need music that forces us to think and moves us to feel something.
