It’s been a while since LengPleng checked in with our rising stars Geography of the Moon – ahead of their last weekend in Phnom Penh before heading off for Thailand and Japan we sat down to see where they’re at and where they’re heading. After an early afternoon breakfast – Virginia eating slow, Andrea eating fast – we turned on the recorder, noted the date and time, made Twin Peaks references and got talking.
LengPleng: So it’s been a busy year?
Andrea: In the last year we played almost 100 gigs, starting with our last couple of London gigs after COVID, then in Thailand, then we came back to Cambodia.
Virginia: This time around in Cambodia we’ve played everywhere, we’ve been in everyone’s face every week. In Phnom Penh this year – we’ve never played so many gigs in one place ever, this is a record. Waiting for borders to reopen so we can start travelling again.
Andrea: That’s why we’re about to go to Thailand and Japan.
Virginia: There’s a lot of places that we have already been to where people are eager to book us, and they say when are you coming back? Give us a date, we’ll book you straight away. It’s nice. For the next two months we will play in new venues that we’ve never played before.
Andrea: In Thailand we’re going to go on a tour with a band called Operateur.
Virginia: Then we’re touring with another band, Dirt Doll, in November.
Andrea: Both great bands.
Virginia: We knew a lot of the musicians from before, and we’ve always wanted to do stuff together. It’s really exciting, because a tour is usually just the two of us. Now it will be us and other bands. It’s a step up – instead of playing a two hour gig by ourselves we’re going to play one set every night, so it’s much easier.
Andrea: Sometimes sharing a stage with three or four bands in a night, it will be very interesting.
Virginia: There’s a really good scene in Thailand at the moment for original bands, especially indie rock and punk, there’s a lot of punk. The scenes in Bangkok and Chiang Mai are really happening – it wasn’t like that a few years ago, it’s built up. Fresh blood. I’m looking forward to it. We leave Phnom Penh on the bus on Monday, we’ll arrive in Bangkok on Tuesday, and then play Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
Andrea: Then we go to Chiang Mai and play the weekend again, after that Pai, on to Chiang Dao for the Deep Green Festival, and back to Bangkok. And then Japan.
Virginia: Tokyo Beyond Festival. That’s going to be fun.
Andrea: We’ll stay four or five days in Tokyo, and then go and play in Osaka and Kyoto with a couple of local bands. It will be December, we’ll have to put jumpers on.
Virginia: We’ll have to buy some cool Japanese clothes.
Andrea: From Japan we go back to Thailand, then we’ll be back in Cambodia in mid-December for some gigs and to celebrate Christmas.
Virginia: Then we’re going to have a break.
Andrea: In February we have some festivals in Thailand, then we play in Nepal and India, finally back in Europe for the summer.
Virginia: We are praying for more festivals.
Andrea: We are not praying for them, we are booking them. I am booking them.
Virginia: I pray, you book. In Europe they’re booking festivals for next year now.
At Oscar’s on the Corner, Saturday 1 October, 2022
LengPleng: Tell us more about Tokyo Beyond.
Andrea: It’s a showcase festival.
Virginia: Organised by industry people for industry people.
Andrea: We have 30 minutes to play in front of a crowd of 1,000 people.
Virginia: 30 minutes to impress everyone.
Andrea: During COVID I was doing the Teen Freaks Pick of the Week, I found a Japanese band, became friendly with one of the members, and they’ve sorted some gigs for us, we’ll be playing alongside them.
Virginia: So far that’s been the best way, to do it ourselves. We don’t have a booking agency, we have our own label. It’s rare when the work is done by somebody else. The video for The Unravelling was an exception, it was done by Lok Lak, a small French group, and it’s a really professional job. If you look at our other videos, we’ve put them together ourselves, we are super DIY.
Andrea: Because we never stop anywhere too long, to be able to work with people.
Virginia: We don’t have jobs on the side, this is our full time occupation. You need certain skills.
Andrea: You need to really love to travel.
Virginia: Between the two of us we either had the skills before or have developed them, so we are able to do everything ourselves. We turned down a record deal a couple of years ago, when we put out Fake Flowers Never Die – it was not a bad deal, but we thought we can do a better job than them, and we keep all the rights. You are not keeping my baby for five years!
LengPleng: In our last interview in January your comment was: some people make babies, we make records.
Virginia: We haven’t changed our minds. One is quite a lot – if you had a baby every year that’s a lot of babies. In the end, whatever you choose becomes your life. To be surrounded by something that you love and that you made yourself, whatever it is, it’s beautiful.
LengPleng: Much of the what you’re talking about is making the connections, building networks of friendly contacts.
Andrea: Connection is the key.
Virginia: People are an infinite resource for anything you want to do. Once you understand that, it’s the open door for whatever you want to do, just find the right people to connect with, and work together.
Andrea: Collaborate and help each other.
Virginia: We are all unique, we all have the possibility to come up with something, even if it’s made of all the pieces, everything we’ve picked up along the way – in your lifetime you do pick up an awful lot.
Andrea: Unique is the answer.
At Oscar’s on the Corner, Saturday 1 October, 2022
LengPleng: The world of digital connectivity must make it easier to find your tribe, like-minded people in different places.
Andrea: We have made connections. I love and hate social media – you post something on Instagram and 100 people are greeting you for existing, it’s incredible. People asking you to come to their country and play for them, and we do!
Virginia: Somebody will say hey, by the way, do you know this person, they live in this place, they have a label.
LengPleng: There’s been a lot of performing this year – has it been a good time for writing?
Virginia: Actually, yes. We’ve pretty much got a whole new album, we just haven’t had time to fully record it.
Andrea: We are 70% done, I still need to do some stuff, but it’s not going to come out before next year, so we’re not behind schedule.
Virginia: We write a lot on stage, that’s our best method.
Andrea: We don’t rehearse.
Virginia: We did rehearse a few times in the summer when we had three weeks off. And we did write a song that will be really nice when we finish it. In Thailand we have friends who have studios, so hopefully in Thailand we’ll have time to finish the recordings. We like to have one release every year, I think it’s a good average – more is too much, and less people might forget about you. And if there’s new songs, if you don’t record them they waste away. It’s a shame to lose them. So the plan is to have it finished by the end of the year, and at some point next year to release it.
LengPleng: The local music community is very proud of you. We congratulate ourselves that we got Geography of the Moon when nobody else knew about them.
Virginia: That’s true – we were no one when we came here, not knowing anyone, and we built from the ground up, little by little. At our gigs now there’s more and more people. I want to say thanks to Phnom Penh and the Cambodian scene, everyone who’s given us a chance, and that’s a lot of people. The city has given us the chance to play and play and hone our skills and write and be continuously supported, so that we can live off music and nothing else. We wouldn’t have that opportunity anywhere in Europe.
Andrea: It’s growing and growing, and it’s great, we’ll be back.
Virginia: And more and more people know about us, because we’re out there so much. Thanks to all this intensive playing we are able to grow faster. We are really lucky to have found that.
LengPleng: any last comments?
Virginia: I have something to say to all the girls: more women on stage. Boys and girls don’t get conditioned in the same way. When you’re a girl you get told a lot that you cannot do a lot of things. It’s much more difficult for girls to believe in themselves, and I think this needs to change. We are not taught to have the confidence to do anything, even if we’re good at it.
Geography of the Moon will play at Sundance on Friday night and Back Street Bar on Saturday, and after their travels will be at Sra’Art, Meta House and Back Street Bar again in mid-December. Follow them on Facebook here, and sample and buy their music at Bandcamp here.
At Oscar’s on the Corner, Saturday 1 October, 2022