CHARLIE VERSEGI OF MOANING LISA
Hi Charlie and thanks for taking the time out to speak to us at Musicology.
Formed in 2016 how has Moaning Lisa evolved over the last two years considering the new material you have released and additional touring?
We honestly had no idea we would still be doing this when we first formed! We were all still at uni so it never occurred to us that we wouldn’t be in ‘real’ jobs by now. The main things that have evolved is our bond to each other and how seriously we’re taking it all.
You are set to perform on the bill for years Big Sound Festival. By performing in front of so many industry heavyweights, do you feel like this could be a real break out show for Moaning Lisa?
It’d be silly to not recognise and appreciate what an important opportunity it is, so yes.
What other acts on the festival line up are you keen to check out?
Sweater Curse, Cry Club, Genesis Owusu, Raave Tapes, Candy, CLEWS, CLYPSO, Eilish Gilligan, Eliza & The Delusionals, JEFFE, Pool Shop, RMC, Sunscreen, The Chats.
Your track Carrie (I Want A Girl) contains the lyrics “I want a Kim, I want a Courtney, I want a Florence, I want an Annie, I want a Syd, I want an Ellen” all referring to the first names of prominent female figures. Can you detail some of the individuals you are referring to and what in your eyes makes them so influential?
They’re prominent queer figures more than they are prominent female figures, and that is the main influence behind those references. They are all existing openly as queer/gay. If you compare them all, most have little in common with one another outside of being queer. The song is, in a way, my coping mechanism for the amount of reluctance and ambiguity that surrounds non-hetero identity in the public sphere.
Throughout your work is there a common thread that ties it all together or the range of topics and sentiments you explore, zig zag to whichever direction your world view is facing?
Love, in all its wondrous forms, and fear, in all its equally wondrous forms.
Collectively do you each share the writing duties when it comes to carving out your lyrics. Is there a certain sequence you follow in fleshing out the lines for a track or simply bounce off one another in a very free flowing approach?
Actually, I write all of our lyrics. It’s probably the one thing we don’t do collectively.
Known for your exuberant and lively shows, what performance elements have you taken into your own shows from what you have seen of other acts (and for that matter what you haven’t seen) that makes its way into your stage craft?
I always really appreciate when an act genuinely interacts with the crowd, and I’m a big fan of stage banter because it personalizes the experience for me and takes it beyond just the music, which is really special. When we were first starting out we used to mimic our favourite artists (i.e. Wolf Alice, Sleater-Kinney) but we’ve done it enough to have our own styles now.
Can you share with us a particularly memorable Moaning Lisa gig and what made it such a stand out performance?
The first thing that comes to mind is our gig with Dream Wife at The Lansdowne. It was our first show in a couple months, and in that time ‘Carrie’ had been getting some heavy rotation on radio, so we were welcomed with a packed out room with complete strangers belting along to the lyrics! It was absolutely surreal as a band who’d only ever had close friends/locals know any of our lyrics before that.
On a technical level, can you elaborate on the specific instruments you use and what makes them your musical weapon of choice?
We love a bright, hot guitar tone so we play single-coils: specifically an American Standard Telecaster and Mexican Stratocaster. Similarly, our amp of choice is a Fender Hot Rod because it picks up our distortion in such a dirty, yet crisp way. In terms of pedals, we have lots of different varieties of distortion and fuzz pedals (i.e. BD-2, TS9, OD808, DS-1) mixed with classic reverb pedals (HOF and RV-5). Probably our most signature quality though is the chorus effect we use on every song- it’s definitely what makes us sound so ‘90s’.
Post Big Sound Festival, what is next for Moaning Lisa?
We'll be releasing our second EP and going on tour! Stay tuned for the announcement via our Facebook page.
