Features

Moonalice: Art, Apps and George Takei Aspirations

Moonalice at Brooklyn Bowl in April. Photo by Vernon Webb

Why aren’t other groups using such technology yet (or are they)?

You will have to ask them. Everything we do with technology – including live video – costs about what we used to spend on our manager, label, and publicist. Now that we really know what we’re doing we can do more things. We look for ways to make it available to others. For example we contributed live video of one stage for the entirety of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival.

From the band’s vantage point, what is required on the technology side at a given show to make it work?

Nothing. It just enlarges the audience by a few hundred people.

Is it proprietary technology? Will be you licensing it or otherwise sharing it with the world?

We invented several aspects of what we are doing. Our goal is to keep our innovations out of the hands of the Dark Side.

I read that you’ve recently acquired you own liquid light show? Are you using it at every evening gig? Can you talk about what that had added to the experience?

Our light show is at every indoor show, including Brooklyn Bowl.

The English Lights deliver the best of both liquid lights and digital light shows. Our production manager, Dan English, is a lighting wizard. This year, digital light show technology finally reached a point where it made both artistic and economic sense for Moonalice to upgrade. The system is all digital, but one of the core functions is the liquid show of Brotherhood of Lights, who did our 4/20 show this year.

Moonalice certainly has place a particular focus on the live experience. What if anything in the works in terms of studio record?

We go into the studio regularly with the amazing Dave Way. Our way is live, but Dave’s Way is live in studio. We have put out six Dave’s Way EPs so far, with two more ready to go. We charge $5 each for the EPs, which have five songs.

Final question. You played at AT&T as part of Jerry Garcia’s birthday. Do the Giants have want to takes to win it all (and who’s the biggest Moonalice fan on the team)?

The Giants are good enough, but I fear that both St Louis and Detroit are better. I love baseball because being better only helps over 162 games, not 4 of 7.