When you think of the UK’s musical hotbeds it’s unlikely Guildford is the first to jump into your mind. Music in the town largely starts, and ends, with The Stranglers, but one of a number of bands looking to put the Surrey town back on the map are Me & The Moon. The trio, formed in 2015, impressed many earlier this year with their debut single, Get Away, and return here today with a brand new offering, Standing Still.

Me & The Moon’s first release for My Little Empire Records, Standing Still is a winning slice of breezy indie-pop. Built around muted, Vampire Weekend-like guitar work, complex, fluttering drum beats and gorgeous,nonchalant vocals courtesy of lead-singer, Tamara Grzegorzek. The whole thing rushes by in two minutes of pure-pop perfection.

Lyrically, the track seems to tackle the common fears of living a directionless life, becoming isolated and constantly comparing your success with that of your peers. Accessible music, relatable themes, listening to Me and The Moon it’s hard to see anything stopping their stratospheric rise. Listen to Standing Still below, then read onto our interview where the band discuss building their own studio, their varied influences and why they didn’t get into the music business to get rich and famous.

FTR: For those who don’t know, who are Me & The Moon?

Well first off, thanks so much for premiering the track, it means a lot. We are Tamara (Vocals, Guitar), Jonny (BV’s, Guitar and Synths) and Alex (Drums) and together we are Me and The Moon.

FTR: Where does the name come from?

Well originally we were Tamara’s backing band playing her acoustic tracks and we started playing gigs under her name. But as we began to write together we decided it was more a group project so started chatting about names. Tamara has a crescent moon shaped ring she used to wear a lot, and her acoustic guitar brand is a luna. So we decided we wanted something Moon related. Jonny suggested ‘Me and The Moon’. It was the first name we came up with and we all liked it so it just kinda stuck!

FTR:We’re premiering your new single, Standing Still, what can you tell us about the track?

So we wrote Standing Still about 6 months ago, and have changed it so many times as its evolved in our live set. We recorded about 3 months back at Fairlight Studios in London. We actually ended up writing the bridge in the studio, including the lyrics, which was nice as it felt like it naturally fell into place. The song is about how sometimes it can feel like your not achieving anything and comparing yourself to other people, and just how its important to take a step back sometimes and realise its actually all ok!

FTR: The single is coming out on My Little Empire, how did that come about? Are labels still important to you?

We found ‘Pip Hall’ from a Spotify playlist earlier in the year and couldn’t stop listening. We checked out her online stuff and had been following it for a while and just saw the name My Little Empire Records tagged in some posts. We’d been considering working with an independent label for a while and so got in touch and they seemed impressed with the demos and liked what we’re about! We met for a drink that week and had signed a contract by the following weekend. I think independent labels can be vital in helping upcoming artists getting their music out there and to the next level. We feel very grateful to have such a great team around us helping out and believing in our music.

FTR: Who are your musical inspirations?

Oh this is always a tough question. I think originally we all had different inspirations really, but have all introduced each other to loads of different stuff. Tamara was more into Laura Marling, The Staves, Bon Iver and quite stripped back acoustic harmony based stuff. Jonny more guitar based pop bands like Mystery Jets, Bombay Bicycle Club and Noah and The Whale and Alex knew a load of Canadian bands that we’d never heard of like Hey Rosetta, Two Hours Traffic and loads more. So now we’ve got a big collection of influences and bands that we all love.

FTR: What are your aspirations for Me & The Moon? Do you consider music a viable career?

I think our biggest aspiration as a band is just to write music people can relate to and enjoy hearing, which is why we started writing in the first place. We’re not doing it to try and get rich and famous, but definitely already consider this our careers.

FTR: You’ve got a lot of live dates coming up, what can people expect from the Me & The Moon live show?

Well we will be playing some older stuff and a few brand new ones which we haven’t played before. We have added more synths and more harmonies to our live set so its a bigger sound now. It goes a bit dancey in places, a bit rocky in places and it’s just a lot of fun. We’ve also got a few acoustic shows lineup up whic​​​​​​​​​​h we’ll be announcing soon…

FTR: Do you prefer playing live or working in the studio?

It’s so hard to say, they’re both so different. We’ve just finished building a studio at our house so we can really relax and take our time over the writing and recording and nothing feels rushed or under pressure. It’s nice to just all get together and work on ideas in the one place and it’s always nice to hear your ideas evolving and coming together. But to be honest it doesn’t get any better than getting to play live…

FTR: You’re based out of Guildford, what’s the music scene like there? Any bands we should be looking out for?

Guildford has a great scene because it’s so diverse. In terms of other artists to keep your eye on it would have to be Annabel Allum, she’s just got back off a European tour supporting Beth Ditto and is a really great singer-songwriter. We’ve got a few nice venues including The Boileroom where loads of touring bands come through and supports are often offered to local bands.

FTR: What’s next for Me & The Moon?

So next up is our tour starting on the 11th November. We’re booked in for shows all the way until christmas with a few acoustic sets. Definitely some more new music coming in the new year…

Standing Still is out today via My Little Empire Records. Click HERE for more information on Me & The Moon.