“Lunar Vacation is for lovers.”
The words aren’t words I hear aloud. Instead, on a sunny Tuesday morning, they’re plastered on a sticker attached to a dark gray Chevy Traverse parked outside of Lunar Vacation’s home studio in Decatur. But the words are salient enough to make me feel like it’s something I hear as I meet with the band.
Because the love is centered in how closely the band resembles an actual family. They have the bond of siblings who know each other well enough to move in uniformity while still embracing their distinct personalities (for example, when taking photos for this story, each bandmate naturally strikes their own pose unlike the others — with minimal guidance from the photographer).
This is underscored by the fact that all five bandmates live together. And share one bathroom.
“We just came home from a tour in July, and I was like, ‘Oh, wow, we’re still all together,’” guitarist Maggie Geeslin said.
Lunar Vacation’s communal connections became the momentum for their sophomore album “Everything Matters, Everything’s Fire,” released Sept. 13. Produced by Athens’ Drew Vandenberg (known for his work with Faye Webster and Toro y Moi), the nine-track LP centers the art of letting go.
“All (the songs) have hints of things being out of your control,” said lead singer Gep Repasky. “Sometimes, that’s just the way that it is, and you have to be OK with the things you can’t change and use what you’re given to make something else.”
It’s a lesson the group of 20-year-olds knows all too well. The alt-rock band (which also includes drummer Connor Dowd, bassist Ben Wulkan and keyboardist Matteo DeLurgio) formed in 2016 while attending St. Pius X Catholic High School in DeKalb County. Shortly after their original bassist (John Michael Young) left the group to pursue a solo career, they dropped their 2021 debut album “Inside Every Fig Is a Dead Wasp” and decided to move in together. The following year, music streaming platform Tidal listed them as Georgia artists to watch.
For the group, becoming roommates was necessary. They didn’t know if the group would last if they weren’t. After all, the time period after the first album encompassed many changes: touring, dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, adapting to the loss of a bandmate, graduating college.
Living under the same roof had to be a priority.
“Music is such a vulnerable activity to do together,” Repasky said. “You really need to be as close as you possibly can with the people you’re making it with. I think, at least for me, moving in together really helped strengthen and solidify our relationships and learning how the other person is. Then, when you go in the studio and you’re talking about certain things, you don’t take certain things so personally.”
When it came time to create their next album, they wanted to make something that mirrored the collaborative energy of their home. “Everything Matters, Everything’s Fire” became an exercise in trust and patience. Lunar Vacation began working on the album in January 2023. They recorded it last December in Athens. Each song echoes the need to be content with accepting situations you can’t change.
The opener “Sick” has a cathartic beat flip at the end that emulates the song’s somber acceptance of prevailing destruction. “Tom,” backed by boisterous drum patterns, is a rosy track that wades in the yearning of someone who only exists in your mind. It’s an indie pop song the band initially wanted to make more rock, but learned that less is more (“You need to know when to stop and take yourself away from it,” Repasky cautioned).
Then there’s “Erase all the B’s,” a standout track for its subtle chords and vocals that offers a not-so-subtle reminder: “What’s it gotta do with me?” It’s a question Repasky (whose pronouns are she/they) asked while dealing with a tumultuous friendship breakup. They wrote the song in 10 minutes and recorded the live vocals in one take — a first for Repasky.
“It really had nothing to do with me,” Repasky said about the situation. “I could not have prevented anything. I couldn’t have known that any of this was happening. I kind of just had to take it and move one. It was pretty life-altering, too, because this situation happened and so much of my life was tied into these people where I quit my job because I couldn’t work with them anymore, then I lost a lot of friends. It was insanely isolating.”
But becoming closer with bandmates helped.
For Geeslin, creating “Everything Matters, Everything’s Fire” marks the first project in which each bandmate is fully relying on each other’s strength and trusting their instincts (“It feels like the most authentic thing we’ve put out yet”). In turn, the music sounds more honest and less manicured than their debut.
Performance trumped perfection.
“When you have five people making decisions, it can be kind of hard,” Geeslin said. “Sometimes it’s easier for one person to just say ‘this is how it’s going to be.’ But we really tried to have everything be really equal. And there was definitely a learning curve on every aspect — the album, art, the sequence, tones.”
Next for the group? Touring this fall. They’ve even started working on the next album. Repasky said waiting too long in between album cycles can feel mundane.
“Having an album rollout and you’re kind of just sitting at home,” they said. “It’s like a song drops and you post about that on Instagram then it’s like, OK we’ll go back to our rooms. It’s not really interactive. To combat all the jitters and excitement I feel about releasing anything … we just have to put it toward more music and keep going.”
Upcoming Shows
5 p.m. Sept. 13. Free in-store performance. Criminal Records, 1154 Euclid Ave. NE, Atlanta. 404-215-9511, criminalatl.com/Event/65961.
7 p.m. Sept. 14. $26. 40 Watt Club. 285 W. Washington St., Athens. $26. 706-549-7871, 40watt.com.
