Neu The Big Moon: “I had to turn off my emails because I was freaking out”
Fresh from a ‘Eureka Moment’, this London group are howling their way to the top.
“We’re not wasting time / I’m with you for life,” sings The Big Moon leader Juliette Jackson on her band’s debut single, ‘Sucker’. It’s a neat, fitting mantra for the group’s first steps. Two songs to the good, the London four-piece capture timelessness in a way few newcomers achieve. Faster than lunar patterns tend to change, they’ve swiftly become a huge prospect.
Back in February and initially going by the name The Moon (presumably they added a ‘Big’ because they’re going to be massive), debut track ‘Eureka Moment’ flew into the spotlight. “It’s a good song to put out first because we’re like ‘“Kaboom! Eureka! The Big Moon’s here!’” jokes Jackson. “It’s choppy, weird - it’s so silly.”
The response was instant - and a bit overwhelming. “I had to turn off my emails because I was freaking out a bit. Having a little bit of a panic attack,” says Jackson. “It was two days of people saying ‘Who are you? Where have you come from? Do you need a manager? Do you need someone to do your hair and make-up?’”
Day one of being a band and they were getting hair and make-up offers? “It’s like ‘What, do you think we look ugly?’” pipes in bassist Celia Archer. “But I suppose if you’re a make-up artist, that’s kind of your way to do it. It’s not cool, but they’re gonna jump on a female band,” says guitarist Soph Nathan, who also plays in Neu favourites Our Girl.
Besides the outlandish, somewhat offensive offers, the very idea of putting themselves out there was almost a bit much. “Showing anyone what we sounded like was kind of weird,” says drummer Fern Ford. “It’s all so precious and tentative in those early stages. We wanted to handle this in the right way,” backs up Jackson.
Following the revelatory ‘Eureka Moment’ is ‘Sucker’, a more precise and structured glimpse of what to expect from The Big Moon. It boasts the kind of stone-cold classic songwriting Alex Turner wouldn’t sniff at, and it’s enough to spur them on to a full-length. Soph Nathan says there’s one in the works. “These songs work together. We wrote them all in a similar time. It feels like a set. We have enough to choose from.” Expect this heady rise to continue at a ridiculous rate.
Photo: Emma Swann / DIY. The Big Moon's 'Sucker' single is out 15th June on Hard Up Records. They play London's Corsica Studios on 17th June.
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