BandNation

Can you introduce yourself to our BandNation readers?

I am Nathan Barlowe, lead singer in a band called Luna Halo. I also play the guitar.

Your album is coming out on October 30th—Congratulations! How are you feeling?

I feel good! It’s been a long road for us. We made the album over a year and a half ago, but just through different label changes, it’s finally coming out now so it feels good.

You were first signed to a Christian label. Why the change?

I was signed on back in 1999-2000 and it was a completely different band. I’m the only guy left from that era. We put out one record and I just didn’t enjoy touring in that industry. I was just tired of it--- (laugh) to say it nicely. So the band broke up and I started a new band and decided to keep the name because I liked it. I didn’t expect it to cause any confusion…(laughs), but it has. It’s okay though. People will get over it.

Yes, well as soon as this interview goes up, it will be cleared up. So you just said it was different in that industry. How is it different for you now?

I just think in that industry, there is less emphasis on your talent and music and more on what you say and how you live your life under the confines of what they think is right. I just thought it was bullshit. This new band is great because I can say what I want, write songs about what I want, and I feel like it’s more honest. Our band is ten times better than that version of Luna Halo.

Awesome.

It feels really good to be in a real rock band.

Tell us what the name Luna Halo means to you and how you come up with it.

I actually was trying to come up with a band name for weeks which is the hardest thing to do. I was outside one night on my front porch and I just looked up at the sky and saw the moon that had a big glow around it. That’s where it came from.

I noticed on your MySpace page that you are part of Movement Nashville- How did you get involved with that? And for our readers, who do not know, can you explain what it is?

It’s a conglomerate of artists and talent that have the same mindset and kind of support each other. Originally, when it was smaller, we would use each other’s MySpace and shows to promote other band’s shows that are a part of Movement Nashville. It’s really a collection of artists that have similar visions musically. We use it as a networking thing to help each other out.

Tell us more about your album and more about the writing/producing process.

Well when we signed our record deal, I must have turned in about forty songs to Rick Rubin. He went through them and got back to me—he liked about nine of them (laughs). So I wrote a few more and we finally got what we thought was the right record. We went to L.A. and got into the studio with Neal Avron for about three months and made the record.

So how was it working with Neal?

It was great. He’s a really humble guy. He knows when to let you be a band and when to step away. He knows when to make suggestions when it makes sense. He was really great to work with.

Tell us more about your video, “Untouchable”. I know you had your fans participate in it. How was that?

Ya, it was weird experience. It was our first real video and we had all these extras show up—fans that we advertised for them to come out for this. The concept of the video is that we are behind this cage, an electric fence. The fans are an angry mob that is trying to tear the fence down to get to us.

That seems a little scary.

It was fourteen hours of people cussing you out and screaming at the top of their lungs. It was really weird. Some of them were our friends too so they would say things that would make us laugh in the middle of a take so it was a fun night…but really long.

Have you guys ever performed overseas, if so how was that? Are the fans different?

We have done about ten tours over in Europe. I notice a definite difference. They are somewhat more appreciative of music. For instance, when you play at a place there and you are rocking out and then you do a quiet song—you can hear a pin drop. They are very respectful. Then when it’s time to rock out, they go crazy! I feel like in America was are just so saturated with bands and music that you kind of just get bombarded with it and take it for granted.

What is your favorite track off the album?

I think musically, I like “Untouchable”. I think “Untouchable” is a really unique song and doesn’t sound like anything out there. I really like the lyrics to “World on Fire”. That was a really cool song because I was writing in the apartment where we stayed in L.A. I was trying to write the lyrics to “World on Fire” and I came up with the theme of a girl that I was trying to get to—kind of this obsessive, I will do anything. I had the TV on and it said we had to evacuate our apartment because there was a fire in the hills right behind us. I could literally look out the window and see the hills on fire so that kind of sparked the chorus of that song.

Are there any other bands or anything in life that inspires your music?

I’m really inspired by a lot of European bands. I grew up listening to bands like the Smiths and Depeche Mode. More recently, the Muse is...

They are awesome. I just saw them three weeks ago and they were awesome.

I have probably seen them four or five times and every time I am just blown away. I’m really inspired when writing. I like to be surrounded by fashion magazines and I almost get more inspiration from that kind of stuff than from listening to other bands. Photos, fashion, and that kind of stuff…for some reason it makes me hear music.

So what is your philosophy as a band?

I think we have an unspoken philosophy of pursuing excellence. We are the kind of band that obsesses over every little note, decision, and career move. We push ourselves towards excellence. We don’t take failure very well so if something is not going right we switch to survival mode and fix it. I think that is a good thing for us.

Anything you want to say to your fans?

I want to thank all the people that supported us. I also wanted to promote the record. It’s coming out October 30th.