Regular visitors and our favourite rising stars Geography of the Moon came through Cambodia rapidly this time, for two weeks in late January, between extended time in Japan and Thailand. LengPleng caught up with Andrea and Virginia at The Deck to see what they’ve been up to – touring, releases, occasional rest. The next day they took off for Chiang Mai.
LP: It’s been very much the whirlwind tour this time around.
Virginia: It was short, and extremely intense. There was almost no day off. There were a few hours off here and there in the afternoon, where I could go and rest until it was time to go. We went to Kampot, but it was only a couple of days – arrive, play, play, go – actually we had one day off, but it was not a day off because when you go and it’s the only time you see your friends it’s not a day off. And then travel and then play, play, play, and now it’s today.
Andrea: Today is the day that we can take a little bit of time.
Virginia: No, it’s not today, it’s not tomorrow, it will be after that.
Andrea: We’re about to go back to Thailand and play in Chiang Mai, and the Shambala Festival in a couple of weeks.
Virginia: And then leave again.
Andrea: And then tour Japan again. We’ve got releases soon, we shot a video a couple of weeks ago in Bangkok.
Virginia: We have a new single coming out, it’s in the making, very soon.
LP: Usually these interviews are conducted when you’re either very exhausted or very excited.
Virginia: There’s not been anything in between.
Andrea: We played 120 shows last year.
Virginia: In the last two weeks we’ve played nine shows.
Andrea: We came from a very intense year where many things happened.
Virginia: It was intense but it was good, because we were pretty much sober, for me since my birthday in mid-April. I got really trashed for my birthday and I had the worst hangover and I decided that I needed a massive break from everything. And in Japan it’s very easy.
Andrea: When we tour Japan we don’t do four gigs in a row…
Virginia: When we do Tokyo…
Andrea: Yes, in Tokyo we do four gigs in a row.
Virginia: Sometimes five.
Andrea: And sometimes we do four days here and there in Kyushu, but we have some weeks in between of rest. Last year we also toured Nepal, and went through a revolution. So it was very interesting to see our friends in the middle of that. Quite exhausting as well.
Virginia: And we had time to record four new songs for the next album.
Andrea: We wrote a new one the other day as well. So this year there will be a new album coming out.
LP: We haven’t spoken since the release of your most recent album, Aberdeen Hiroshima.
Andrea: Yes, which recently came out on vinyl on a Greek label called Green Cookie – they also released an album for Dengue Fever. A really, really interesting label.
Virginia: Thanks to Tony.
Andrea: Yes, thanks to Tony of Pearl of Asia and Space Four Zero for being supportive and bringing us around and sharing our contacts.
Virginia: Thanks to him the record exists, which is really amazing.
Andrea: You can find copies at SpaceFourZero.
Virginia: We’re dropping them there today. The only place to find them in Cambodia.
Andrea: We did very well in Japan last year, we met a lot of great bands. I don’t know where to start – the random bands, go and check out Three Ring Circus, an amazing trio from Tokyo.
Virginia: Ikameganezzz, they are so good.
Andrea: A five-piece band from Osaka.
Virginia: They’re amazing. The thing with Japanese people – they do physical stuff but then it’s hard to find them online, which is a shame.
Andrea: Three Ring Circus are on Spotify. There are many other bands – sorry for not naming all of you, but Tucker was a maniac, looping piano, drums, guitar, synthesizers, random instruments, setting his piano on fire, dancing on top of it. If you want to see it you have to go to Tokyo and look for him. We played with .
Virginia: Chiko-San is a legend.
Andrea: He’s like a ghost story teller, Japanese folk, very, very interesting.
Virginia: There’s been so many great gigs.
Andrea: The Nepal tour went well. Rest in peace to Eric, that booked our gigs, who unfortunately died recently.
Virginia: It’s been a hell of a year for that.
Andrea: A lot of people died last year, Eric, Ned, Gabs.
Virginia: Anna.
Andrea: Anna from Bangkok. Stan the Weatherman died yesterday. We saw him the other day in Kampot.
LP: While in Japan are you based in one place?
Virginia: Usually we do a couple of tours, and then we’ll have a month, maybe a month and a half if we can afford it, where we have found a small town with a very nice creative community. One of our friends fixes up abandoned houses, so we can rent for dirt cheap, and we have set up a little recording studio. So we record and take time off.
Andrea: And I bake bread for friends.
Virginia: We bake and enjoy having a kitchen and our own thing.
Andrea: It’s the only time when we cook, six months a year…
Virginia: It’s not six months, it’s maybe two or three. If you take off the touring…
Andrea: So it’s three month solid cooking and the rest is touring and only eating from the 7/11 – and delicious local food. It depends where we are.
Virginia: So we have this little place, and work on the next album from there.
Andrea: We managed to see Troy Campbell as well, one of our drummers in Phnom Penh. Alongside Sal – hi Sal! And hi Greg.
Virginia: #Gregtimes.
Andrea: It’s a nice place to be. We got really healthy. Both of us released solo albums.
Virginia: Time is a Strange Bird.
Andrea: That came out a couple of months ago on Bandcamp.
Virginia: It’s on my own page. I really didn’t work on any marketing for that, so it’s a very small release.
Andrea: A video is out on YouTube, Little Fish.
Virginia: I shot a video in Japan with some artist friends, directed it, edited and released it. It’s on the Geography of the Moon YouTube channel.
Andrea: And I released Voyage by Tired Panda. It did really well, and got played – I didn’t push it too much, but it got played on underground radio in the US, Scotland – all over the world, actually. And Geography of the Moon as well, Aberdeen Hiroshima…
Virginia: It’s being played a lot.
Andrea: Pick It Up has been discovered – every month Pick It Up gets discovered. We’ve been playing that one since Otres Beach, years ago, and now it gets discovered – this song is innovative! I can barely listen to it…
LP: That song – improvised on the spot, and then you were asked for it so much you got sick of it. And then you re-embraced it…
Virginia: I’m okay with it now.
Andrea: We’re changing the form of it with every gig. When we play this many gigs, and we do two sets, so we have time to re-arrange the songs. When you play over a thousand gigs, 1,400 gigs…
Virginia: You have a lot of practice.
Andrea: You have time, and also the honour to change your own songs, because why not?
Virginia: Because you get bored.
Andrea: I do whatever I want, because otherwise I will go and be a full-time chef again, but I think it’s more fun like this.
Virginia: We’re always busy. I am thinking of coming back and doing a few solo gigs here in March, that might happen.
Andrea: I will be cooking in India.
LP: And everywhere you’re getting new crowds.
Andrea: Some weird things – little satisfactions. Some months ago we played a festival called Inochi No Matsuri, which means Festival of Life.
Virginia: It was the year before last. It was the Year of the Dragon, on the Year of the Snake.
Andrea: After that there was a New Year, we went to Tokyo to play – a girl that we met, she listened to us. And last year when we played at Berlin Party there was a couple of girls in front of us singing the songs.
Virginia: People turn up and mouth the songs, and we’re, like, who are these people? It’s amazing.
Andrea: The place was packed, and you see these girls in front singing the songs – I had to turn back from the audience.
Virginia: It’s so cool.
Andrea: It was making me happy and distracted and extremely excited, so I have to look elsewhere, otherwise I’m going to f#$% the entire gig. People that follow us, you know?
Virginia: We’re a very underground band, and we spread slowly, but some people really pick up on the sound, and when they do some people get really into it. And it’s really nice to meet them as well. It’s not just friends and family. Actually, I don’t think family listens to us – maybe your family.
Andrea: And your mum as well.
Virginia: My family does but they won’t admit to it. Except my mother, she asks for the records. Hi Mum!
Andrea: We’ve got the mothers, we’ve got the aunties – my auntie, doing good comments. Some of our family is proud of us.
LP: In Cambodia we pride ourselves that we got on the Geography of the Moon bus really early. And each year you come back there’s more.
Virginia: Well, we’re not stopping until we’re dead. Some days you think what am I doing? There is no stability, how am I going to be not broke and survive the rest of my life somehow financially. But we’re committed and this is it.
Andrea: Geography of the Moon till death.
Virginia: I think Cambodia made us, because all the years we were here, when we were living here, and we were playing three, four, five gigs a week every single week – it pushes you to be more creative, it pushes you to practice…
LP: It’s The Beatles in Hamburg.
Virginia: Yes, this is our Hamburg, definitely.
Andrea: You get tight, you believe in it. It’s a little bit of a curse, but it’s a good curse.
Virginia: It’s a blessing
Andrea: It’s a blessing, but sometimes at the end of the month…
Virginia: For most people life is not like that. And honestly, this is a much more interesting life than a lot of things we could have chosen. So many people I know, when I talk to them all they do is complain about their life, because they are so bored. I can never complain that I’m bored. I can complain that I’m tired, I’m exhausted, I’m depressed, I’m up and down and all over the place, and I sometimes turn into a monster, but I am never bored. That is one thing that is great. Is it David Bowie that says: I will accept being boring but never being bored. It takes a lot of energy, and determination, and commitment. Sometimes we don’t have the energy but we still have the two others. Most people are, like, when I retire I’ll do what I want. What kind of thinking is that? The thing about being an artist – it is something that you have in you, it becomes a choice when you consciously make the decision to run with it and commit to it. You can choose not to do it, but that will eat you up from the inside, and you will never escape. You’re a short time alive and a long time dead. Just f&*& do it.
LP: And a European tour this summer I believe?
Andrea: Right now I’m dealing with Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, London, Stuttgart…
Virginia: Nothing tangible and concrete just yet.
Andrea: But we will try our best to come to Europe.
Virginia: It’s something we’ve been planning since the last time, and we don’t know when but there will be one. When we manage to get a whole bunch of dates that make sense together.
We hope they’ll be back in Cambodia too. In the meantime: SpaceFourZero, Bandcamp, and YouTube.
Photos from January in Phnom Penh:
