Walking On The Moon

The road to rock stardom typically starts at a young age, with unemployment and/or university studies providing an irritating distraction from dreams of world domination and mass adoration. Bands begin early in sheds and backrooms, split soon after amid creative disagreements and a healthy dose of reality, before finally settling into the responsibilities of the nine-to-five environment. It's a well-trodden path for the musically creative, a story imbedded in the minds of countless could-have-beens taunted by the memories of their rock and roll youth.

Sanae Yamada's story took a different route altogether. As one half of drone rockers Moon Duo, Yamada's background is at odds with her partner Erik “Ripley” Johnson's lifelong journey through various clubs, stages and studios. As guitarist and vocalist for space rock wunderkinds Wooden Shjips, Johnson began Moon Duo with Yamada in 2009 in the hopes of creating a simplified way to tour and create music. Loosely categorised initially as a side-project for the cult hero Johnson, the pair gradually evolved to become the in-demand outfit they are now. Merging Suicide-esque repetition with psychedelic rock'n'roll, the duo's music garnered an enthusiastic fanbase from the outset.

For Yamada, the group's success meant quitting her day job and concentrating on music full time. Having already established a career as a teacher, the decision to quit was riskier than most. “The band had been going for about a year and a half at that point,” explains the softly spoken keyboardist. “And Ripley had been laid off from his job in the economic downturn, so our desire to do it was there. It definitely felt like a risk in some ways, but it was also the kind of thing where this was probably in all likelihood my only opportunity in my life to do something of this nature and to make it my life. So I knew that it was the best decision because even if it didn't work out I would never regret trying.”

While the decision was a welcome one, moving from the relatively sedate confines of the classroom to a rock'n'roll lifestyle was always going to be a major change for the laid-back San Franciscan. The globetrotting touring schedule was something Johnson was well acquainted with, but for his partner it was an entirely new experience. Above all else it was the restriction-free day to day existence of the creative musician that took the most getting used to.

“It was a massive adjustment,” admits Yamada. “Not least because I was used to getting up at about 5.30 in the morning and going to a classroom and dealing with 13 year olds all day. It was the definitive change to the nocturnal life first of all, but also a very loosely structured kind of life. Teaching is funny because you respond to a series of bells throughout the day and either it's time to eat or it's time to go supervise this or that or it's time to teach. With music, touring is structured because we have a travel schedule, but when we're at home and working on things you're in just this free floating time, which was not what I was used to at the time.”

The pair have continued to develop their sound with each new release. Their debut LP, Escape, was four tracks and 30 minutes of pulsating noise and darkness. Their Berlin-recorded follow-up, Mazes, expanded the template and their fanbase, culminating in last year's brilliant third album, Circles – a veritable pop feast compared to the sonic minimalism of their earlier work. More accessible than their previous material yet increasingly experimental, Circles fights a constant battle between studio trickery and maintaining the band's simplified two-person attack.

“It is a difficult urge to keep in control,” laughs Yamada. “The first record we recorded on a four-track tape recording machine, so we were limited in that way. That was kind of cool because we just recorded it live, but the two records since then, we've done a lot more layering. It's a tricky balance! You don't wanna layer to the point where you're doing the music a disservice, but it is fun for us to have the opportunity to build and layer because we are only two people. So it's something that we're not able to do necessarily in a live situation, it's a nice indulgence while we're recording.”

Having experienced both the daily grind of career employment and the loneliness of classical music training in her youth, Yamada has a deeper appreciation of the band's growing success than most burgeoning rock stars usually would. “Moon Duo is my first band,” she says. “I played piano when I was young as a child, but that was really different. It was very classical and I was playing in front of people at a recital and it was very strict and you're always playing on your own. So it's been fantastic! It's a totally different way of thinking about music when you're crafting a sound with other people on other instruments.”

Any initial nerves about taking the jump to the stage were easily dismissed too. After being responsible for a class full of rowdy adolescents, performing in front of a crowd didn't seem nearly as panic inducing. “I think having taught kind of allowed me to have the guts to get up on stage and play music,” ponders Yamada. “Standing up in front of people scares me, I have to say, but getting up and playing music is really not that hard compared to standing in front of 30 adolescents and trying to control them and communicate something to them. That was good training, I guess.”

The upcoming Australian tour brings them together with blues rock animals The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion for a series of shows that will easily eclipse their previous visit to the country in 2011. The nothing less than insane bill will see Moon Duo teaming up with both JSBX and indie rock legends Dinosaur Jr. Three albums into their career and the couple seem like they're only just getting started. For Yamada, the tour is the latest in a growing list of things to be thankful for.

“We've been so fortunate to have had the opportunities we've had,” she says. “When we started we had this running joke that we were gonna be the band who said yes to everything, show up for any travel opportunity, any recording opportunity. We can't logistically pull that off anymore, but I think it was a fun attitude to have in the beginning, and the amount of travelling that we've been able to do and people we've been able to work with and play with has just been amazing. I think we're really lucky.”

Moon Duo will be playing the following dates:

Thursday 7 March - The Zoo, Brisbane QLD
Friday 8 March - The Northern, Byron Bay NSW
Saturday 9 March - The Hi-Fi, Sydney NSW
Tuesday 12 March - The Astor, Perth WA
Friday 15 March - The Espy, Melbourne VIC
Saturday 16 March - Corner Hotel, Melbourne VIC