Koko Moon is Italian-born musician, singer and songwriter aspiring to Lynchian-synth-pop and inspiring lights and shadows to cast spells on those who engage with her music. Bold bass lines intertwine with shimmering synth playing on the surface of the walls of sounds building up in the air. Rhythms run through the melodies unfolding smoothly and comfortably. Lyrics sprout directly from Koko Moon's lived experience, both under the sunshine and moonlight. Taking the cue from underground and shoegazy style, Koko Moon hybridates reverbs and ethereal effects with lush, pop melodies. Charged with personal tales of dream, night, moon phases, demons and shadows her songs are nothing but short stories of true feelings and thoughts.

Koko Moon is a pseudonym that refers to a precise imagery: the moon, planets, esoterism. What's your main inspiration?

The cosmos and uncharted space have always fascinated me since I was a child. I used to love looking at the stars out the car window while travelling with my parents. That feeling of belonging and serenity made me feel like I was looking towards home, a place left long ago, far away but close to my heart. Somehow the universe and its laws often have a primary role in every song I write. I believe that every lived experience moves through invisible laws, this certainty helps me to live life for what it is even when it proves particularly hard and a little mean.

I'd be interested in knowing how you create your music. What's the process behind it and what kind of atmosphere and narratives inform your inspiration?

Before writing a song I need to feel that I have something to say; what I write needs to be true, has to excite me, to heal me and to entertain me. Through my songs, I exorcise and crystallize pivotal personal experiences. I can't write if I don't have anything to share, I've tried a lot to have a methodical and constant approach although this doesn't belong to me. I feel the need to seize what life has to offer, even if I am constantly putting myself on the line and am faced with many trials to overcome, often coming out with skinned knees. My music is charged with all this.

How do your music and visuals co-exist? Who do you work with to produce your audiovisual works?

I feel so lucky to live with the video maker who has always worked with me on each of my projects, Matilde Borgherini. With her I feel perfectly aligned, I like to experiment and above all, I have lots of fun! Every video we create together is an amateur production, what interests me is to find the right form for my imagery most spontaneously and honestly.

Your music floats between dreamscapes and dark synthy influences that wink to Lynhcian aesthetics. What's behind your peculiar style? Where are your practices rooted?

David Lynch is one of my favourite artists. Dream, night, moon phases, demons and shadows are the main characters of my songs, they move through the light and hide behind big smiles. It is a hard and sweet struggle between the opposite parts that coexist within my being. Native American stories have also accompanied me in this creative process, as well as the study of wild and nocturnal animal behaviour.

How is it to be positioned in the underground scene?

Rowing against the tide is difficult because you have to work twice as hard, and few people help and support you, but it is necessary for those who believe as I do in the true essence of creative power. Those who are ready to compromise and have sure and more immediate results follow a smoother and probably more fruitful path but unfortunately or fortunately this does not belong to me.

What do Koko Moon’s tarots whisper in the here and now?

The hanging man. This tarot is a figure who has chosen to be still, motionless, waiting to be able to start again after having time to put things in order. After what I have experienced in the last few years of touring, It has come for me to stop, process and understand what happened, what needs to stay and what to change.
Before starting again I need to recharge my energy and re-learn how to breathe.