Moon Invaders

February 2008,Matthew Hardison (Moon Invaders), singer and cofounder of the Moon Invaders, he lives in Bruxelles (B).

1) You guys are one of the greates band of the european scene right now, can you tell us a short story of your band?

thank you, what a cool compliment !
well, the band was formed in early 2001 and it was put together by Nico and myself. We have had numerous lineup
changes but the band is now steady.
We've put out 3 records so far on Grover records, the
last one is called "Moovin'n'Groovin'" and it just
came out !

2) For your albums you alwais had great producers as Victor Rice or as for the last one you had Vic Ruggiero, why them and what's your personal opinion about them?

Well, we've always loved the sound they get on their
own records; Vic Rice has this really cool sound that
feels like it's from outer space and Vic Ruggero
has a sound with great warmth in it. They're both
really different, yet both unique and easy to work with!

3) In your last album "Movin' & Groovin'" you decided to mix it "mono", it sound great to me but tell us why you decided to go in that way.

Well the idea came to us slowly but then it was like
"well it's obvious, why didn't we think about it before".
To me, the sound in mono is more powerful as it all comes
out in one block; same thing on the left speaker and
same thing on the right, just like in the old days!
for "dance" music like ska, funk, soul,... i think
mono is the only way to go !

4) You toured all over Europe, where did you found your best audience?

A bit everywhere actually there's great audiences in
Ljubljana (Slovenia), Luzern (Switzerland), Mainz (Germany),
Leipzig@Mc Cormaks ballroom (ger), Jena (ger), Salzburg
(Aust)... the list is pretty long so i'll stop there
for now.

5)A B-Side project of your band is "The Caroloregians", do you want to tell us more about that band?

Sure, it's a band that's been put together by Nicolas
Leonard, the drummer of the Moon Invaders.
The idea behind the band, at first, was just to make
a funky reggae instrumental album inspired by his hometown
(Charleroi), but Nico quickly decided to put the band on the road after the album had come out!
Since then, the band has released 2 ep's and we're currently working on the 2nd album witch will be released in March.

6) The cd selling as everybody knows is in a bad situation, what do you think about digital download? Is the vinil the "future" again for our music?

I'm fine with selling the music online, but personally,
i will always prefer having the record in my home
(even if it takes up all the godamn space :-) )
With Mp3's, the quality of the music is diminished,
so for that and other reasons i avoid downloading.
Vynil is the futur as far as i'm concerned and I hope
it will be here forever ! (& in mono PLEASE!)

7) Do you will play in some music festivals this summer? are you planning something for the future?

Probably, we're still waiting for confirmations.
Yes of course, we're always planning something for the
futur ... wait & see :-)

Moon Invaders myspace http://www.myspace.com/mooninvaders