moonstalker is a darker pop creature from the mind of the multi talented Alissa Oberst who wrote, sang, and produced her entire EP “the other”. In addition to that she plays the keyboard and uses Ableton Live to create and shape sounds you hear in her songs. She is also her own mix engineer, according to moonstalker she shapes each of her songs from beginning to end, aiming to build sonic experiences that give the listener the opportunity to escape, dream, forget…or whatever you do when the moon comes out.
Her debut EP “the other” opens with “heavy”, and although it may be your first time to hear the song, it isn’t the first time you’ve experienced feeling heavy. The song is relatable because it is all about pressure….the expectations, the lack of money, maybe wanting to achieve your dreams but the fear of not achieving them, the disappointments you feel like you create. The slow yet distortedness of “heavy” really makes you feel the pressure, when the beat drops you really feel the heaviness of the song.
The transition from heavy to “lost girl” and “the other” is almost non existent, the smoothness is what keeps you hooked in her EP. “lost girl” is the perfect choice as the second song because you go from this heavy feeling to having an existential crisis, wondering about any and everything. moonstalker says that “lost girl” refers to getting lost inside of the mundane repetition of day-to-day life. moonstalker sampled sounds for this track from various office supplies such as a stapler and paper clips as a metaphor for the predictable yet maddening cycles of an office job or other commons workforce duties.
“the other” wraps up the self-titled EP, it refers to the antagonist from moonstalker’s main inspiration for the album; the new horror/thriller movie “The Chimera Effect”. The slow mind warping song puts you in this psychedelic like trance, moonstalker is proving that you don’t need to pay all this money for studio time to produce amazing music. Her home being her studio has not stopped her from putting an EP that should be heard by everyone.
“They say the only thing we can truly control is ourselves. But what if that’s just another lie? Perhaps we all have a darker reflection of ourselves laying in wait for us deep within our souls…” -moonstalker
Written by Jaye Maverick
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