There’s a lunar rhythm to Moonchild’s trajectory.
In the last 15 years, the progressive soul trio — Amber Navran, Andris Mattson and Max Bryk — have emerged with the steadiness of a neap tide. It’s something they embrace about themselves today. “It’s been a slow build for Moonchild; it’s not like we went viral or something,” Bryk says. He’s reflecting on their musical journey ahead of their sixth album, Waves, out Feb. 20. “We’ve been spreading the word and trying to be consistent with that,” he continues. “We’ve had some levels of success over the years, but it feels like this organic project we started when we were 20 years old.” Mattson likens it to, “It’s these little gradual waves.”
Moonchild formed in 2011 at the University of Southern California, where all three studied jazz. After Bryk and Mattson backed Navran on a solo tour that summer, they decided to become a unit. In spring 2012, they released their debut album, Be Free. The jazz fusion project drew inspiration from D’Angelo’s iconic album Voodoo. “It brought us together and made us want to write music together,” Navran said in a past interview.
When they heard about D’Angelo’s death last October, it shook their core. “We had to announce our album [Waves] the same week he passed, so it was tough to navigate that as we’re grieving this person that had such an impact on our musicality,” says Bryk. “We were in various places in our music education — coming from studying jazz, big band and having all these influences — but D’Angelo was this key that unlocked a door that we walked through as Moonchild.” Navran adds, “I feel like he’s our north star. He’s the blueprint. There really wouldn’t be Moonchild without D’Angelo.”
Waves follows Moonchild’s Grammy-nominated LP Starfruit (2022). Their new album drifts through loss and grief, while reclaiming power through resilience. “Ride the Wave” surrenders to life’s ebb and flow, understanding that every dip and swell shapes us. “All you can do is ride the wave,” Navran sings. “Up From Here,” featuring D Smoke and Robert Glasper, is a glimmer of assurance at rock bottom. Then there are songs such as “Nothing To Prove” and “When You Know” that exude self-confidence and assert boundaries.
Much of Waves rides off the power of community and collaboration. Beyond Moonchild’s production and vocal appearances from Jill Scott, Lalah Hathaway, PJ Morton, and Rapsody, the album features contributions from drummer Chris Dave, flutist Elena Pinderhughes and string players from the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra.
What does the album title Waves represent for each of you?
AMBER: Lyrically, it’s the waves of grief and processing.
MAX: For me, it’s more like cycles and seasons of life that you’re going through.
ANDRIS: It’s about the waves of life.
The Moonchild sound has a certain calmness, even when exploring heavy themes like grief and loss. How do you channel those weighty topics in the music?
AMBER: We’re all beat makers, so we make a bunch of music inspired by whatever we’re listening to and our influences; it happens naturally. We don’t go in saying, “It has to be this way or that way.” I think the combination of our three voices together has a distinct sound, and that’s what ends up coming out. For me, with singing about grief, I just vibe on a song and think about what it feels like. It’s nice to have juxtaposition. “Ride the Wave” is a happy-sounding song, but it’s about grief, and that’s kind of the point of the message, too.
As producers, what drives the beat-making process for you? Are you starting with a feeling or a story in mind?
AMBER: I’ll end up with a batch of beats and I’ll vibe and pick which ones to write to. Sometimes I’ll [make] the beat and [write] lyrics at the same time. Like “Strong,” the beat and the lyrics happened at the same time because that’s where I was emotionally.
ANDRIS: I feel like the times I’ve opened up Logic to make a beat and had a set intention, I’ve never been happy with what I come up with. It’s almost like the process needs all pressure taken off. The feeling arises in the moment; it’s not something I can plan for. For me, the way in which a Moonchild album process comes out is for a set period of time, I’ll be making a beat every day with the idea that 80% or 90% of it isn’t going to make the album. It’s a volume thing, and that, for me, in the music creation process, has felt the most freeing.
How do you decide what story to tell collectively? Do you find things you all relate to, or do you pour in bits of your own experiences even if everyone hasn’t experienced it at that time?
MAX: When I’m thinking about starting the songs from an idea, it is very much like I’m pouring my individual self into the seed of the composition. We obviously have overlap in influences and things that resonate with all three of us, but we also have our separate [influences], so that blend is really fun. I think if you can start the music from some kind of honesty and truth, when you present those ideas to the group, they might resonate with all of us. Those are the ones that naturally turn into something that we work on and that may make the album.
It’s been four years since you released Starfruit. Is there anything you took away from that time in between albums that you applied to this Waves?
AMBER: I think all of us are constantly growing musically and production-wise. Every album has a new collection of influences [from] music we found that we love and are excited by, software plugins we’ve had fun messing with and instruments that have come into the picture more. Vocally, I definitely grow every year. I think you can hear that in the music pretty clearly. On a personal level, my husband and I have been trying to have a baby for three years, and I had some miscarriages. I also started to dive into some old family grief and trauma in therapy. I think that whole process informed the lyrics and where they come from. It’s grief, but it’s also a new confidence that I feel like I’ve found through all of that.
“Up From Here” touches on the grieving process. What inspired it lyrically and sonically?
AMBER: Max sent me those drums. I made that song right after I miscarried for the second time and was going through a lot in my personal life — even outside of that — and was really feeling that there’s only one way up. It’s like you’re in a grief-heavy place, but there’s that one thing that it’s like, “It can only get better.” That’s exactly where I was when I was making the beat. When I brought it to D Smoke, he was in a similar position in his life. His mom was not doing very well, and she passed shortly after. When I told him what the song is about, he was like, “This is crazy because this is exactly where I am too.” Even though it sucks that we were both going through tough stuff, it was beautiful how we could process what we were going through through the music together.
You teamed with PJ Morton for “Fear (Hey Friend).” What was your experience creating that track?
MAX: I’m such a huge fan of PJ’s music. He was a remote session, so we didn’t get to be in person with him, but working with the level of people we have on this album — they’re all such elevated musicians, transcendent. They make everything we already had in the track sound incredible. I think the PJ collab is a great example of that, where he could hop on, do his thing and it clicks because he’s at that level.
AMBER: One thing I loved about working with PJ — well, this is true of all the collabs — my lyrics and the concept are there, so it’s fun to see how people interpret it and bring new meaning out of it. A lot of times, I will be thinking about a second verse and I have ideas of where it could go. Often it goes somewhere totally different that I love; and PJ did that. I was so excited when I heard it.
How do you process fear through your art? When working on Waves, was there anything you overcame creatively that you might not have felt comfortable with before?
AMBER: For me, it’s talking about grief. It’s always been a part of my life, but it hasn’t been something I’ve been ready to write and sing about, so that felt vulnerable. Going back to the song [“Fear”], the whole concept is personifying fear as somebody who’s a friend that’s always going to be there when you’re doing something that matters. You’re not going to get to the places you want to be without facing your fears.
ANDRIS: As far as my relationship to fear, it almost ties back to the “Up From Here” ethos, which the times in which my relationship to fear has been the healthiest is when I’ve been at rock bottom, and Amber even says, “Nothing can touch me.” Fear is the blocker of all creative pursuits for me. When I was at my lowest a couple of years ago, it was like, “Well, it can’t get lower than this. Let me just try and do a bunch of stuff that I was scared to do before.” I was able to do them. So yeah, the gift of rock bottom.
What was your favorite part about creating Waves?
ANDRIS: It tends to be a lot of my favorite parts of all the album processes, where we are sitting with all the tracks, deciding the flow of things, and sort of on that same token, when we had this list of people we wanted to work with, figuring out which songs would be cool with them. Those moments are hugely satisfying.
MAX: Andris is a genius with all those album order transitions. I think since Starfruit, we all had been diving into our individual sounds a lot. So coming together again to make this album, we sat down together and wrote a whole page of intentions, which was something new. Through this process, I think we all found our way back to making music that resonates as Moonchild. Whatever that is, it’s a thing. Whatever Moonchild is, it’s a sound. So it was beautiful to see us all tap back into that as we started this album.
AMBER: The sessions with the guests was my favorite. Everybody works so differently and has a different process. So some of the sessions, we would hang out for two hours and then we’d sit down and start doing stuff. Some of the sessions, we got straight to it and hung out afterwards. But getting to hang with people we’ve idolized since college was surreal and super fun.
When you’re not creating music for Moonchild, are there any hobbies you have?
MAX: I love audiobooks. I’ve always got something in my ear. I live near this park in LA, so if I have the time, I’ll go for a hike.
AMBER: I usually spend time with friends. I love seeing live music. I also like crafty things. I sew and pick little projects around the house to do; I’m not great at it, but it’s super fun.
ANDRIS: I’m like a serial hobbyist. I tend to cycle between new hobbies every two years. During the pandemic, I got into bread baking. I love languages. I learned Italian, speak Latvian, and yeah, I’m always curious, searching for the spark. Right now, the current hobby, which is sort of music-related, is really getting deep on music technology, specifically MIDI. Who knows what will be next?
Stream Moonchild’s new album Waves HERE.
Get tickets to their Waves Tourat thisismoonchild.com.