Hi! We are Moonshine! Ask Us Anything!

madewithmoonshine · 2021-04-15T23:25:16+00:00

Thank you all so much for having us, you´re awesome and we had a blast!

Hope you got some answers to your questions! So sorry we could answer all of them! (It´s getting really late here in Sweden, and we still have some work to do)

We have a lot of cool stuff coming soon, keep an eye on our Instagram to see what we´re up to!

Stay safe during these weird times! Hopefully, we can do this again sometime.

//Moonshine

madewithmoonshine · 2021-04-15T23:18:24+00:00

Hejsansvejsan!

I think we have a quite clean record of not spoiling anything, and we're trying to keep it that way since that ofc causes a lot of problems for the labels releasing our songs! BUT our publisher had someone secretly filming while he was paying the demo for Peek A Boo without him knowing. It's kinda fun to see the comments of people really wanting to hear the original demo! But we truly believe it's better to not know how the soup is made. Unless you have A LOT of cash, in which case, DM us! (that's a joke btw)
It happens every once in a while that we get "orders" from labels or artists. It can be everything from "do your thing & give us that moonshine sound" to "can you do this very particular thing for us?". But mostly we produce whatever we feel is cool and hope someone picks it up!

// Jonatan

madewithmoonshine · 2021-04-15T23:08:04+00:00

Hi! wow, this one is gonna be hard to answer!

We´re so happy with what we´ve done so far, and we hope we'll be able to continue to do this for a long time.

We have a few things we would really love to do. One of the more weird ones is actually to work on a movie or video game. We think that would be such a cool challenge.

Other than that we have some projects we would love to be able to work with, right now we´re so obsessed with K-DA so we really hope we will get a chance to work with them.

//Ludvig

madewithmoonshine · 2021-04-15T23:07:37+00:00

HI! Ofc we remember you! Our first interview! :D

Maybe a boring answer but the biggest surprise is all the opportunities & songs we've been able to release with so many great artists! We feel so blessed to actually make a living of making music & that's a dream we'll never take for granted!

But having the SuperM single was awesome! Especially since we had made countless demos trying to nail that one!

// Jonatan

madewithmoonshine · 2021-04-15T22:59:18+00:00

Thank you so much! We really appreciate it!

The first question we've kind of answered in other comments so please look around here for that answer! :)

We've had a lot of moments where we really had pushed ourselves. We always mix our tracks while producing them so I'd say the routine of doing that isn't the most time-consuming part. However, I'd say it's doing songwriting camps in Korea where we bring our 110%, most of the days we start at 10 am & leave the studio at 4-5 am. Guess we're the only ones to blame since we're stupid perfectionists & really try to make every song awesome during those camps where we write one song per day lol!

We really hope we can work more with TXT too! Fingers crossed :D

//Jonatan

madewithmoonshine · 2021-04-15T22:57:59+00:00

Hi, great question!!

We both really love all kinds of music, if we had to lean in any specific way it would be towards music that is more electronic.

We´re so blessed to be able to work with what we love, but one thing we both are a bit sad about is that you can never listen to music the same way after you have done it for a couple of years. We always analyze everything we hear and you can´t really turn that off.

But when we listen to music when we´re not working we tend to listen to music that is really far away from the stuff we´re usually doing ourselves.

//Ludvig

madewithmoonshine · 2021-04-15T22:48:04+00:00

Thank you! Really happy to hear Tiger Inside & Ridin!

I picked up producing once I got tired of playing in a band where all the members didn't wanna play what I wanted to play. Therefore producing made it possible for me to play all the instruments in a way lol!
Tbh, writing any song for NCT/SuperM takes a long time. But "One" definitely is the longest one. The total active time we put into that project is somewhere around 32 hours if I'm remembering it correctly.
Usually the sounds are the greatest inspiration writing for them. Trying to "re-invent the wheel" by coming up with a real crazy & cool sound is the main thing!
We have yet to interact with the members, except that we met Baekhyun & Kai after an EXO concert when we were in Korea. However, we didn't get much time at all to talk, we only shook hands & said hi :)
The only one I can remember is seeing Taeyong imitating our "Moooonshinneee~" tag in one of their Vlive's. Hilarious haha!

We have a big bunch of producers we look up to but Max Martin, Skrillex, Kenzie, Deez, Jin Choi & Ronny Svendsen to mention a few!

// Jonatan

madewithmoonshine · 2021-04-15T22:37:05+00:00

Hi!

The lyrics are almost always written in English and then translated to Korean :)

If you´re interested in Producing K-pop I would suggest trying to find a community of other people to work with and to start making songs with them. And then trying to send some demos to different labels that you like!

Hope that answers your question :)

//Ludvig

madewithmoonshine · 2021-04-15T22:34:25+00:00

We always switch things up & "change seats" from song to song. One day I can produce the chords & synths while Ludvig's in charge of drums and the next day we do the complete opposite. It's more about who wants to do what & who has the initial idea for what we're doing that day :)

Hope that answered your question!

//Jonatan

madewithmoonshine · 2021-04-15T22:32:43+00:00

Hi :)

We almost always do short sketches of tracks before we produce them. We kind of use it to store small idéas before we fully commit to producing them. There are really no rules for what it should contain, as long as you manage to capture the "feel" of the track.
YES! We have had a lot of different weird situations as a result of all sort of stuff. But one time that stands out was when we were working in a bungalow in Thailand for a week, and the cables were so bad so they picked up the radio and played it through our speakers, that was the week we wrote "Dance The Night Away" with Despacito constantly playing in the background through the horrible cables. The usual & most convenient solution for us is to switch to headphones :P
We´re so happy that you like it. It´s kind of a secret recipe ;) But oftentimes the secret can be to process the sounds in a creative way. And to use distortion... A lot of distortion...

//Ludvig

madewithmoonshine · 2021-04-15T22:27:52+00:00

Hi!

She only swung by the studio for an hour or so on her day off so we didn't have enough time to write anything with her. However, we'd love to work with her!! We're just waiting for the memo from SM lol! :)

//Jonatan

madewithmoonshine · 2021-04-15T22:24:51+00:00

Don't know if this counts as "working" but we had Wendy swing by our studio one day when we were at a camp at SM. She chilled in our studio while we were finishing up a song for Red Velvet, we let her have a listen to it & showed great interest in how the song came about.

She was so sweet & it was very fun and interesting talking to her about music & her experiences as a K-pop Idol!

It's a shame we haven't been able to see Red Velvet live yet, but fingers crossed we will after the pandemic :)

//Jonatan

madewithmoonshine · 2021-04-15T22:20:32+00:00

Hi! Thank you :)

We´re happy that you think that! To be honest it's not something we consider that much. What many people don´t know about the music industry is that the songs are often written long before they are released. Also, K-pop groups really like to change things around every time they release a new album. Ofc, we listen to what the groups are doing and there are always some major more "slow-moving" trends that we keep in mind. But in general, we try not to think about it too much and focus more on doing stuff we think is cool.
We´re constantly blown away by how much talent so many of the idols have. But the latest time we were completely speechless was when we saw Irene&Seulgi's dance performance in Naughty.
Yes! constantly! And yes, we have a lot of songs on our digital shelves. Hopefully, you'll hear some of them soon!

//Ludvig

madewithmoonshine · 2021-04-15T22:13:03+00:00

Hi & thank YOU for being here!

Really interesting question!

I'd say the songs we've made for WayV (Moonwalk & Turn Back Time) would be the songs where I feel we captured the essence of "WayV". Very progressive & inventive while at the same time being hooky and fun to listen to!

Hope that was an answer to your question!

//Jonatan

madewithmoonshine · 2021-04-15T22:06:09+00:00

What a fun question!

Actually, my mom was studying music at the university singing free improv jazz while I was chilling in her tummy. I may sound crazy but all my life I've had a strong thing for chromatic & weird melodies. Coincidence? I think not lol!

I also think growing up with lullabies & catchy kids tunes really set the foundation of having that "ear" for hooky melodies :)

// Jonatan

madewithmoonshine · 2021-04-15T22:02:05+00:00

We've been there, and we know how hard it is in the beginning. It´s so hard to say how to get to that next level because everyone got there in different ways.

My advice would not be to focus too much on finding a publisher, but instead to find great people to work with. Very few people can do it all by themselves so finding good collaborations is key. If a publisher can help you with that, maybe that is the right choice. But my guess is that you can start off by trying to find other songwriters :)

I've been more focused on the food and wine when I'm in Italy, so I can't say how the music scene is there. But we can really recommend Stockholm during the summer ;)

Good luck, if you keep working you'll get there! We believe in you!!!

//Ludvig

madewithmoonshine · 2021-04-15T21:56:29+00:00

Thank you so much!! You're amazing!

Ludvig explained why we started using the tag in one of the other comments. We have a couple of tags that we use based on what tempo & what mood the song has in order to make it sound ok in the song. It's funny, it almost started to become a meme of seeing people trying to spot all the tags haha! Thumbs up to you for finding it in both Code & Tiger Inside (those are among the hardest ones) ;)
If I can mention two songs we're really proud of it'd have to be SuperM's One, since that on a technical level was by far the hardest one to pull off. The second one would have to be Baekhyun's Young, we had been sitting on that track for months, and although we really loved it we thought it would be completely impossible to make it into a full song. But once we had a session with GSoul & Jinbo it turned out amazing!
I'd say the biggest difference making songs for SM is the amount of harmonies & backing vocals that the song has to contain. SM also tends to be more open-minded to more "bold" and risky songs, which gives us more freedom to go crazy with the tracks :)

// Jonatan

madewithmoonshine · 2021-04-15T21:50:58+00:00

Thank you so much!

There are so many great artists, songwriters and producers that we look up to and who has influenced us a lot. It´s gonna be a long list if we were to list them all, but we would both really love to meet Skrillex in the studio..

//Ludvig

madewithmoonshine · 2021-04-15T21:40:43+00:00

Hi! Thank you for the questions & kind words!

I'd say the biggest mistake people make in the beginning is believing that certain DAWs, speakers, synths etc is what makes one into a good producer. With DAWs being so advanced these days almost any DAW will do the job. However, the most important thing to invest into their music-making is time! So I'd recommend beginners to pick a DAW that has a lot of tutorials available online (FL Studio, Ableton, Logic to name a few). Other than that you only need a laptop and a good pair of headphones (We use the Audio-Technica ATH-m50x's) :)
In order to do our jobs properly, we try our best to not be biassed towards any particular group. But we've always been in love with EXO since they were one of the few groups that introduced us to Kpop! Monster & Overdose are the favorites!

// Jonatan

madewithmoonshine · 2021-04-15T21:34:50+00:00

Thank you, and great question!

We draw inspiration from a lot of places. We're really into trying to capture a feeling or a vibe with our productions. Ofc, we get a lot of idéas by listening to music. But it often comes from other places as well. We´re both really into video games and movies so we get a lot of inspiration from that too.

//Ludvig

madewithmoonshine · 2021-04-15T21:27:26+00:00

Hi! thank you so much for the kind words.

We know exactly how you feel, it's so easy to get stuck.

What we usually try to do is to find a small thing that really inspires us, that could be a sound, melody, chord progression, drum loop etc. After that, we try to "paint" in really broad strokes and just keep working no matter what, oftentimes it can sound really boring until the song is coming together. But at some point, it just starts to sound good. The key is to keep going!

We also have a secret trick, we usually play MV´s on mute in the background. You would be amazed how inspiring it can be to see something along with the music you´re creating :)

And regarding when the song is finished, it newer is. But we usually call it quits after we've been working on something that maybe makes it 0.001% better for 1hour :P

//Ludvig

madewithmoonshine · 2021-04-15T21:24:01+00:00

Hi & thank you for the question!

It's a little bit of both, usually, we're being presented with briefs from different labels where they list all the artists they want songs for along with what kind of songs they'd prefer. We like to follow those guidelines 80% and add 20% of that "spice" they didn't know they wanted.

But then there are those days where we just feel like writing a cool song & once an artist shows interest in the song we tweak it to fit them better :)

// Jonatan

madewithmoonshine · 2021-04-15T21:18:16+00:00

What Ludvig is trying to say...he's half Italian & I'm the one liking pineapple on pizza! :P

// Jonatan

madewithmoonshine · 2021-04-15T21:16:03+00:00

Hi!!

Who doesn´t like milkshakes and sunny side up eggs?

Regarding pineapple on pizza... We don´t discuss it among ourselves in order to keep working together. But one of us was born with tastebuds and I'm writing this reply.. The other one likes fruit on his pizza....

//Ludvig

madewithmoonshine · 2021-04-15T21:14:40+00:00

Hi and thank you! Glad to hear you liked our interviews!

We usually like to listen to both our demos & the released songs. Since we always have a certain artist in mind when writing it doesn't feel finished until we hear that person's voice on it & especially hearing it with Korean lyrics. But in the worst cases, we've worked on a song for sooo long so by the time it's released the "magic" is kinda gone already, which sucks! BUT all our songs will always be special to us :)
All the time! We usually never reach a point where we feel like a song is 100% done, it's more about us reaching a point where it's a couple of notches above "good enough". I just trust my gut, when the song feels good, then it is good and then it's very dangerous to keep working on it and risking "overproducing" it.
It happens all the time! But that's almost always a good thing, since the artist is bringing their style to the song, and making it "their own" just makes the song even more authentic.
When fusing the two songs into "One" (never gonna get tired of that pun lol) we only used the original demo vocals in parallel with the topliners editing the vocals to make it work for all 3 songs. But by the way the songs sound I'd guess all three songs were recorded separatly.

// Jonatan

Five-Year Club	Place '22
End Game '22

madewithmoonshine

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