Georgia Mooney for FAULT Magazine

Georgia Mooney

Georgia Mooney certainly has a lot of strings to her dulcimer. The former All Our Exes Live in Texas mandolinist has launched her solo career more or less at the same time as devising and presenting her live concert series, SUPERGROUP, against the backdrop off the pandemic, and ahead of an impending change of continent. In between international collaborations, creating web series and learning how to play relatively obscure instruments won at raffles, she’s managed to release an achingly beautiful debut solo album, the charmingly dubbed Full of Moon. All this while harbouring a borderline unhealthy obsession with Star Wars and a tragic-flaw infatuation with a spoken-for film star. Humans of the world, meet multi-threat, multi-instrumentalist Georgia Mooney.

FAULT: Am I right in thinking that Full of Moon was produced remotely during the pandemic? Aside from the obvious challenges, were there any advantages that perhaps surprised you about creating something in a (relative) vacuum?

Georgia Mooney: It’s funny, in the end I’m very grateful we made it that way, and for so many reasons. My producer Noah Georgeson and I had never made a record remotely before, so it was a challenge we were both excited by.

I think the timing of it, starting in the thick of 2020, gave us purpose and focus amongst all the fear and uncertainty. I was able to reach out to some of my favourite musicians in the world to ask if they’d contribute parts. It was right at that moment when all the touring had been cancelled, so apart from the pleasure I took from giving people work, everyone was available! I got to assemble the most incredible cast of players, a group I’d never get together in the studio. And we were based all over the world, across three continents in fact. We had the gift of time and were able to mull over things more, come back with fresh ears, experiment, make mistakes, dream big. I really believe that meant that we came up with more creative arrangements than we otherwise might have.

I think most of all I’ll never forget how meaningful it was having a creative project that connected me to my music community during that time. It was a wonderful thing to escape into, and I think in sound and sentiment, the album only grew outwards in response to our worlds closing in.

A major theme of the album is the basic human need to connect with others. But the album was recorded remotely, listeners will hear it as a digitally reproduction, and you and I are discussing it remotely – through ‘the Machine’, if you like. With that in mind, is your plea on this album for people to connect more genuinely hopeful or wistfully nostalgic?

I think it might be both? Perhaps to connect with more of a big, fearless, romantic, open heart. The album is also a lot about how relationships can be perceived and experienced differently. Something can be small to one person, and momentous to another. Brief connections can have a lifelong impact. And we are inevitably, though often unknowingly, pushing up against what we’re raised and socialised to believe we want and need. I think the context of the pandemic (though I hate to bring it up), thrust human connection forward as the most important thing in life.

The music speaks to that, in a particularly romantic, and even, at times, melodramatic way. After all, playing an instrument and singing is one of the most whimsical things a person can do. I think we’re going through a strange period in terms of how we create and maintain human connection, because as you say, we live online now. And, yes, it’s ironic given the way the album was made! But at the risk of sounding like an insufferable wet blanket, I really do believe that all that matters is how we love one another, whatever form that takes.

Georgia Mooney’s Full of Moon is out now

How did you decide on who you invited to collaborate on Full of Moon?

I feel so lucky to have worked with my collaborators, I am quite in awe of them. My producer, Noah Georgeson, is someone I’ve admired for a long time. He’s worked on wonderful records by many of my favourite artists, people like Cate Le Bon, Marlon Williams, Devendra Banhart and so many more. I hadn’t met Noah, so all I could do was nervously send him some demos over email. I was so happy he was keen to worth together, and it was very special making this album with him from opposite sides of the world. He feels like a lifelong friend now.

Marcus Hamblett added mountains of instruments from his home studio in Brighton in the UK – synths, guitars, horns and more. He is the most incredible, creative musician I know, and I would quite happily make music with Marcus forever. He’s worked with artists like Villagers, The Staves, Laura Marling and many more.

Sam Dixon is an amazing London-based bass player who I’ve also never met but always admired.

Ben Edgar is an amazing guitarist who added layers of beautiful, unique guitar parts from his home in Germany.

Evan Mannell is a Sydney-based drummer who I have played with many times over the years and who is wonderfully inventive.

And the other main contributor was Rob Moose, who added strings from New York. I first heard Rob’s string arrangements on albums by Laura Marling and Rufus Wainwright, two of my favourite songwriters. I was struck by them immediately. He can write the most beautiful parts, in a way that remains surprising and unpredictable. I think that’s true of all the musicians on the record, and my philosophy in general for this music.

I wanted this album to be lush, cinematic, and chasing beauty above all, but with an intricacy that kept you guessing.

If this record were a Star Wars movie, which one would it be and why?

Well, this might be the best question of all time! My favourite is The Empire Strikes Back so I might have to say that. But I think it rings true! That’s the movie where they’re all coming to terms with their relationship to one another. It’s very emotionally heightened! And beautiful and thoughtful too. Love is professed, Yoda asks Luke to search his feelings and have faith, Han is cryogenically frozen, a hand is cut off… the similarities are undeniable!

As a multi-instrumentalist, is there an instrument you play that you think is criminally underutilised in music today?

Oh yes, well I must, of course, say the dulcimer! This record was written half on dulcimer and half on piano. I’ve always been fascinated by dulcimers since I heard Joni Mitchell play one. Then I won one in a raffle! Can you believe! It was the best $5 I’ve ever spent. I muddled my way around working out how to play it and have subsequently fallen completely in love with it. It’s also one of those magical instruments where everything sounds nice. The fretboard is diatonic, the strings ring out forever which makes it lovely to sing over, and you can put it in all sorts of interesting and surprising tunings. The real test was introducing it to the synthesiser, but they got on famously!

What’s been the best (or worst) SUPERGROUP cover you’ve heard so far?

Ha! I’m delighted to say I’ve enjoyed every SUPERGROUP cover we’ve performed. (Georgia Mooney ‘s) SUPERGROUP is a live concert series I developed in Sydney. For each show I invite three guest songwriters to join me on stage and we take turns to play each-other’s songs together, backed by a house band. I interview each guest between songs and much hilarious storytelling ensues!

The show really took off and we’ve done 15 now across the east coast of Australia and featured 45 guests. Artists like Tim Minchin, Middle Kids, Ngaiire, Ball Park Music, Tim Rogers and many more.

It’s a really special show (soon to become an web series on YouTube), and a rare opportunity to collaborate with artists from different musical backgrounds. We finish each show with a cover, and I think my favourite might have been performing (The Bangles’) ‘Eternal Flame’ with Clare Bowditch, Bob Evans and Ruby Gill. What a banger.

If you could hand pick your own supergroup from anyone in history, who would you choose and why?

Joni Mitchell, Dolly Parton, Nina Simone, Freddie Mercury. Doesn’t really need explaining, and wouldn’t it be an extraordinary hang?!

Have you always been a performer? If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?
It’s what I’ve always wanted to do, despite being quite a shy kid, and it’s hard to imagine an alternative when it’s something that is so all-consuming. But I do really love radio. I think it’d be pretty fun to have a drive-time radio show. Or to be a novelist, travelling the world alone writing novels in cafes and libraries.

Any plans for a European or US tour in the near future?

Yes! Nothing I can say publicly quite yet, but I am so looking forward to touring the album in the northern hemisphere! And in fact, I am relocating to London in October, so all going to plan, there will be plenty of it. I feel very at home in that part of the world. As for the US, I’ve been lucky enough to do lots of touring there with my previous band All Our Exes Live in Texas, and I hope to return to all the places we visited. As wonderful as Australia is, it’s just so very far away. I can’t wait to return to floating between home and abroad.

Georgia Mooney, what is your FAULT?

I have an outrageous crush on Benedict Cumberbatch.