Q&A: little luna Summons Inspiration From Artists of the ’60s and ’70s With New Single “lennon”
“CONJURE GHOSTS BEFORE ME — question those who paved the way.” With poetry as a vessel, little luna seeks artistry from musicians past.
It was in the cafe of LA’s Laurel Canyon Country Store that little luna first penned her indie-folk song “lennon.” With co-writers Sierra Deaton, Cameron Walker, and Eric Palmquist, little luna so sweetly brings her poem to life with delicate guitar and ethereal vocals.
The song brings the singer-songwriter out of a time of feeling uninspired, when little luna found herself pursuing time alone and investing in her creative relationships. She continually seeks out people who make her feel like her truest self, and she encourages others to do so as well. With an emphasis on the connectedness of humanity, little luna’s music tells the stories of her experiences and lessons learned.
In just the last few years, little luna decided to listen to the inner voice encouraging her to step into music. With timeless sonics and visuals, it’s clear she was right in following this prompting. Read on below to meet little luna and learn more about her new single, “lennon,” how she feels about performing live, and more.
LITTLE LUNA: Thank you for having me, fellow luna.
LUNA: Of course! Luna and little luna — it’s a match made in heaven. I love the moon references.
LITTLE LUNA: I feel like it's in the collective consciousness, for sure. Which is funny, because the name came to me eight years ago now. But I feel like there's just a lot just in the collective about the moon. And I'm not mad about it. I think it's a very powerful force.
LUNA: That leads me into my first question for you — there’s this bit on your website where you say, “i am little luna and maybe you are too.” Who is little luna?
LITTLE LUNA: little luna is me and I am little luna. Even though that’s not my birth name, it doesn’t feel like an alter ego or a shtick. It just is very much who I am. And I feel like with that line “you are too,” I really view every song and music video that I put out as a circular invitation. So I feel like anyone that is listening to the music is also a part of the music and therefore a part of what I'm doing. I really feel like we're all in this together.
On a wider scale, I really feel, as humans, we're all connected. I really do believe that, and I believe in a world where we can all live in peace and harmony with each other. So when I say “you are [little luna],” it's not to take away from individuality, but just to hone in on the fact that I am a human and so are you. Like, yes, I'm the one singing and writing the songs, but you're the one consuming them. So it's really like both of us [being] in it together is where that thought was birthed out of.
LUNA: Before we talk about “lennon,” I want to go back in time a little. You released your first single, “shift & go,” in 2020. What led to that release? Is that when you started making music as little luna?
LITTLE LUNA: Yes. I will try to keep the story condensed as I usually try to for interviews, but I have been acting and singing my whole life since I was little. But when I was 13, I was signed by an acting manager and agent. I really stepped into having a full-time acting career up until a few years ago, when my yearning and love for singing was just this inner voice that was like, “You can't not be making music anymore. You have to step into that side of yourself.” And “shift & go” as a song, and as the first marker of music I released, is really like my own anthem to allowing myself to shift out of the career like that I had and the rules I had put on myself — that I was only an actor and that's what I was trained to do. I didn't really feel like I deserve to take up space in the music industry when I didn't have any background and training in music. But because I had always loved to sing, that calling never went away.
So before “shift & go,” I started planting seeds here and there and casually bringing it up to people … making a few demos here and there because I knew it was something I wanted to do eventually. But just a few years ago that inner calling got so strong that I couldn't ignore it anymore. I was like, I have things to share from my own story that I feel like I can share in a relatable way that can encourage people to rediscover their truest self. That's what all of my music — even from “shift & go” to “lennon” — is about: just allowing yourself to continually rediscover who you are in this current moment. Release the labels that either others have put on you or you've put on yourself from roles that you've played in your life. Just step into who you are at the current moment.
“shift & go” was the first anthem of that, but all of my songs kind of tie into that theme in some way, shape, or form. Even though I am relatively new to creating a whole song, music has been in me since I was little. It's just now I'm harnessing it and figuring out how to go from point A to point Z, how we write the song, put out the song, make the music video, do the marketing, make the merchandise — everything.
LUNA: That’s so sweet. Looking back at your first songs and now “lennon,” what have been some of the biggest factors in your growth as a songwriter? Do you have any practices or mindsets that have aided in finding your little luna sound?
LITTLE LUNA: So cool. The first part of that question I've never been asked, so that's so fun. I feel like I've figured it out just by doing it. Like, just getting in the studio and just doing it and flexing that muscle and allowing myself to write with people I'm comfortable writing with and people I'm not comfortable with. I’m really continually working on not being a people pleaser, and I think it’s a huge part of the journey and the sound. As far as the actual sonics go, I feel like all of it is still little luna for sure, but in the last few years I've just been so inspired by and really leaning into the sounds and themes from like the late ’60s and early ’70s. That's what I feel like taking the sound from “shift & go,” which is a little bit more like indie-pop, into “lennon” which is more indie-folk and alt. rock.
The songs that I have coming up kind of keep going in that direction but all within the same world. It all ties back into the themes of rediscovering your truest self. I tried to make sure that no matter what the sounds are and who is producing it, if there's something in there that doesn't feel like me, I'm vocal about it. And if there's a lyric that I wouldn't say, it doesn't end up going in the final song. So I think that, although the sounds will change throughout my career, the through line is always myself in it, which is really cool because I know some artists don't have that luxury just because of how their careers were built. But I'm an independent artist. I'm doing everything myself, so it can really be what I want it to be at this point.
LUNA: I saw that you opened for 5SOS last summer. I can imagine that experience was a big high point in your career so far. What was it like to perform for a crowd like that?
LITTLE LUNA: They were my second and third shows ever in my entire life, so I don't have many shows to compare it to, as far as a crowd of three people or a crowd of 5,000. My first show had — I think — 300 or 500 people at it. Then the 5 Seconds of Summer show had, like, 5,000 people each night. That being said, I'm a music fan and lover myself so I go to a lot of shows, and I know that that trajectory wasn't exactly the normal path. But I also feel like all the ways in which I'm moving about my career are not necessarily normal … I mean, it's so different for everyone. But it's been beautiful to see seeds that I've planted in my past life — as an actor and in the entertainment industry, and really just rooting myself in LA — kind of come to fruition now in a different way, adjacent to my music career.
Overall, the shows were exhilarating. It was the best. I cannot wait to do it again. I want to get on the road immediately. A huge goal of mine is to get a booking agent soon because I [know] that I would enjoy it. I've always liked performing live but I didn't know that I was going to feel so strongly about singing my songs to humans in real time. Having a lot of those humans sing my songs back to me, I feel like it's such a personal, beautiful experience. I can't wait to meet more people [who] listen to my music. It just continues the thought that we started with at the beginning. Even though I was on the stage singing and people were in the audience singing, it was all of us together. It's not like me and them — it's all of us. I just have such a fire lit in me for live performing and I can't wait to do it more.
LUNA: That’s so amazing. It really is such a sweet connection between the artist and audience in that way when everyone is so engaged.
LITTLE LUNA: It’s so beautiful. And everyone in the front row right up against the rail. [I was] dedicating different lyrics to people and seeing who’s vibing. The 5SOS fanbase is really incredible and they embraced me right off the bat, which is lovely. You know, no one owes you anything, but at the same time I just knew I only had love to share. I knew that someone in the audience, if not multiple people, would vibe. And lots of people vibed.
LUNA: Yeah, fangirls really are the backbone of the music industry. They’ll always be there for you, you know?
LITTLE LUNA: They are, and rightly so. They waited, they bought tickets, they got themselves to the concert, they waited all day to see the show. I get it. I’m a fangirl with artists I love … just more like the Bon Iver side of things, but I get it. There’s just nothing like witnessing live music from an artist that you love. There’s nothing like it in the world.
Photo courtesy of Freddy Tyler Paul
LUNA: I’d love to start getting into “lennon” now. In an Instagram caption, you introduced it as a song coming out of a time of feeling uninspired. How did you ground yourself again in your creativity and what inspired you out of that rut?
LITTLE LUNA: Beautiful questions. For myself, personally, how I recharge and get inspired is time alone. And I need time alone in places that inspire me. If I don't always have the luxury of literally going somewhere, I try to make my apartment and my living space a space that's inspiring to me. So whether that's grounding down, taking a bath, and reading a book. Or whether it's actually leaving the house — going to my favorite museum, going to the Laurel Canyon Country Store, which is where I wrote this song, or the poem, anyways.
I get recharged and re-inspired by being alone. Being alone either with tools like reading materials, poetry, music, candles, or out in public spaces. You know, it can be nature-driven. It could be a cafe — but just wherever I'm there by myself, not with anybody. I need to be by myself to recharge, and that's something I'm really learning about myself and only starting to implement continually so that I have burnout less and more flow state continually.
LUNA: That makes a lot of sense, and I definitely relate to needing alone time to recharge. I feel like it’s funny to ask this question after you’re talking about needing alone time, but I love hearing how solo artists collaborate and find community in their creative process. Can you tell me about your biggest collaborators? Who helped bring “lennon” together after you had that alone time?
LITTLE LUNA: Absolutely. What’s different to me, though, is that the people I collaborate with and alone time almost go in the same bucket. I more so mean time away from people in my literal life that I play whatever role like partner, friend, daughter, sister, whatever it might be. I feel like I could hang out with my collaborators pretty frequently and continually be inspired, even if I'm not there alone. I feel very blessed by the people in my life that I've worked with so far.
First and foremost, I have to name my creative partner Jade. He's been with me since before “shift & go.” He was who really gave me the final push I needed to say, “Listen to that inner voice. Now is the time to be putting your music out into the world.” He's helped me build every visual and every logo idea since the beginning. His partnership is invaluable to me. And then as far as “lennon” goes, Sierra Deaton was one of the co-writers on it, and she's one of my favorite people to write with. I feel like she just sees inside my brain and helps me articulate myself better than I can.
It was also co-written with Cameron Walker, who I wrote “therapy” with, and Eric Palmquist at his studio Palmquist Studios here in LA, which is really cool. He has the whole old-school analog setup and everything. When we had that session, I took in the poem that I wrote at the cafe, just because I always go into every session with at least one idea or melody that's true to me. So we can start with something that's me and then like, see where it takes us, just so that my through line is always in it. And I read the poem to Sierra and she's like, “Yeah, okay great. So that's the song.” Then we just started fiddling around with different melodies. Cameron started these cool chord progressions, which are now the chord progressions in the song, and we all kind of went back and forth from there. Then Eric did all the production for it.
LUNA: I watched the music video for “lennon” today. It was just so beautifully done. So sweet and simple, and I feel like being done on film made it feel so nostalgic. I can see what you’re saying with the ’60s and ’70s inspiration you’ve been having recently. What was that experience like? What made you choose film as the medium for this video?
LITTLE LUNA: Thank you so much for watching it and [giving] your thoughts on it. This one feels extra special because I haven't attempted to do a music video on all film. It just felt like this is the one. Even as I look ahead to new music coming, this is probably my most stripped song, if you will. Just acoustic guitar and my vocals being the main component highlighted. Jade and I just knew that film would be the way to go. I already knew that I wanted to shoot it at the cafe before they opened. It's technically the Laurel Canyon Country Store, but there's a little cafe outside — I just call it the cafe. I knew that so many of the ’60s and ’70s rock stars lived up the hill from there that there's a documentary on Netflix called Echo In The Canyon that really impacted me a few years ago. I just know you can just feel when you're there that there have been people making their art there before you, and that's where the lines from the poem — and now the song — came up. I “conjure ghosts before me;” I “question those who paved the way.” “So sing to me Lennon, let the band play.”
When we were going to film the music video, I [was like] “Let's just go before they open guerilla-style.” It was just Jade and I. I had the ideas directing-wise but then Jade really brings it into his own as far as the exact camera movement, shooting all of it, and then coloring the music video as well. I knew film was the medium just because it fits so well with the song and it fit with the literal location of where we were filming. I also wanted something different. I direct all of my music videos, and since it is normally just me and a few people I wear a lot of hats. They're very large productions to me. It might look simple to some people but to me I'm like, “Wow, we really pulled this off again, with “last time” being one of my larger music videos to pull off. And I just I didn't I didn't want to pull anything off with this one. I just wanted to go at sunrise with my friend and film a place that I love about a song that I love. And I love film, so this all just seemed like the most attainable option to do an all film music video since we were just shooting in one location.
LUNA: Yeah, it came together so beautifully. I loved it. On Instagram, you mentioned the importance of the people in our lives who make us feel like our truest self. Who are those people for you?
LITTLE LUNA: I did say that. It’s so true. It's clearly a theme that's just oozing out of me and my life right now. I would say right now I feel the most seen by my best friends, Maddie, Mica, Madisen, and Allie, my violinist in little luna. And then the people that I'm making music with: a producer named Simon Oscroft, who I made my song “want it all” with and have some future songs with, and then Sierra Deaton. As I mentioned, she’s my favorite person to write with. I feel very seen by all of those people and Jade, my creative partner. They really helped me see myself and allow me to be myself. And that's something I haven't always felt in relationships, which were my fault. Nobody else's. I wasn't being myself, so how can someone see you if you're not being you. But I feel very, very grateful for everyone I just mentioned.
Photo courtesy of Jax Puwalski
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