Maura Pond of Luna Honey
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Interview with Maura Pond of Luna Honey

Luna Honey was originally formed in 2017 in Washington, DC by Maura Pond and Levi Flack who had informally begun playing together in Flack’s basement and set a goal to write an album’s worth of music. The pair met Benjamin Schurr (Ruah, Br’er, Nyxy Nyx), founder of BLIGHT.records, when his band Br’er opened a show for Arto Lindsay at the Black Cat and he soon after agreed to record and produce them. When they’d finished recording their debut album, Peace Will Grind You Down, Ben insisted that the pair begin performing live, agreed to fill in temporarily, then became a permanent member along with baritone sax player Madeline Billhimer. The four-piece line-up recorded Peace Lives, a live recording of songs mostly from their first album. Billhimer left the band during the recording of their next full-length album, Ballast. Schurr, who was born in Philadelphia, moved back to his home city in 2019 with Flack following shortly after. Christmas Eve of 2019, Pond’s aunt shared she had months to live and asked her to write her some music to help accept her transition, asking that it could be released after her death. Still living in DC, Pond recruited Ben to come down to her house in Anacostia and record an intense week of highly improvised sessions. The two worked around the clock on what would become the fourth album Luna Honey, Branches. After the pandemic hit in 2020, Pond moved back to her hometown of Richmond, VA to be closer to her parents and Schurr followed. All three band members commuted back and forth between Richmond and Philadelphia continuing to write songs. Parables was written during the period of geographic separation across DC, Philadelphia, and Richmond. Three months after moving to Richmond, Pond’s mother passed after an over a decade long fight with cancer. In the wake of her mother’s passing, Pond had found comfort in the solo work of longtime Swans guitarist Norman Westberg and ended up striking up a long-distance collaboration. Aftermath resulted, a meditation on grief and what is left behind. In 2022, Pond and Schurr moved to Philadelphia, finally reuniting the band within the same city. Re-energized after living through the difficulties during COVID and the past several years, the three began recording a new crop of songs that would make up the majority of Bound, with the goal of capturing the raw, powerful energy of their live shows. Luna Honey’s art emerges from the creative tension between the death of the ego and the exploration of the subconscious with the pragmatism and discipline of punching the clock and getting the work done.

http://www.lunahoney.com )

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https://open.spotify.com/artist/3kz45E0sd0kFgZIfQNwm2F )

https://lunahoney.bandcamp.com/album/bound)