MELISSA WHITLER | NBCU Fellow
Melissa@DallasVoice.com
Coming to the Southside Ballroom in Dallas on Nov. 19 in support of Manchester Orchestra and Thrice is the indie rock band Lunar Vacation. Comprising five members, the Atlanta-based band first started making music back in high school. Now they have just released their second album earlier this year,
While on the road to their show in California, lead singer and guitarist Gep Repasky took some time to talk about tour life and their music process.
Dallas Voice: How has tour been going so far? Gep Repasky: It’s been really fun. We’ve been on the road for about two weeks, and right now we’re driving through the mountains in Oregon on our way to play in California. This time we have a tour manager, Trevor. He’s been a friend for a long time, and it’s really awesome to have someone help out. As independent artists, we’re used to doing everything for ourselves, so it’s nice to have more time to focus on the music and performing.
What are some of your favorite parts of touring? Getting to engage with the fans, definitely! It’s great to be engaging with the audience in real time and seeing their reactions to the music. You can read what they think online, but it’s different to see it in person. We’re able to talk to people after shows, and everyone’s super cool and chill. I love hearing what the songs mean to them.
We are in a really unique position. Our job is to make good music and give it to people and put on a good show. We try to create a space for people to escape, where they can just not think about things for a little while. It’s like creating a different world. Art is the main thing that makes people feel better, and if you’re offering up that space and sharing your gifts that opens doors for other people. It has a good domino effect.
‘Well, we all moved in together to help with the writing process’
Gep Repasky, explaing the process for the band’s second album, ‘Everything Matters’
Back in June you released your second album, Everything Matters, Everything’s Fire. What is your process for writing music with all five of you? Well, we all moved in together to help with the writing process. We moved in with the intention of making an album and centralizing so we weren’t as spread out. For the first few months we didn’t do a lot, instead focusing on working and saving up money. Then in 2023 we started demoing in our living room. This was a new process for us, but it was much more collaborative and gave more time and space to figure out everyone’s ideas.
Typically, we start with some sort of demo I’ve created, ranging from parts of a verse to almost a fully written song. I almost always have the melody and lyrics first. If I get stumped on some lines, guitarist Maggie Geeslin helps me. She really knows me the best, and sometimes it takes someone else to say it better than I can. When we’re writing, we always have playing the songs live in the back of our minds. A lot of the recordings we do playing at the same time, so it’s not hard to translate to playing live.
Since you all live together, does touring feel any different from when you’re at home? Do you have any traditions specifically for when you’re on the road? There really is no difference; it feels like we’re in a traveling home. Even with Manchester Orchestra and Thrice — we met them through mutual friends, so it feels very comfortable traveling with them. It’s a big treat.
As for traditions, before shows we usually do some vocal warmups, and try to take three deep breaths together before we go on. It’s all very loose and doesn’t happen every time, but I’ve noticed that when we do both, we always have a good show.
What’s on the horizon for Lunar Vacation? We’re returning to Atlanta with a couple of shows at the end of November and will begin our tour cycle in January. I’m super excited because that will be our headline show. As for music, we have a good folder of demos we want to work on. We’re ready to go and flesh them out and go on to the next album. For the next album we’re not working with a label, so we have a lot more freedom. I work a lot better without deadlines, so we can just write a bunch of stuff and decide how we want to release it.
For more information on Lunar Vacation and to purchase tickets, Visit LunarVacationBand.com.