Trusted voices make important records: Moon Panda on their textured third album

Posted On September 20, 2025September 20, 2025

It feels like something happened around the Covid-19 pandemic. Frightened by the prospect of this bleak permanency, a collective settling down happened, prioritising finding your home for what it truly is and the idea that it could be all that you have left in this new and isolated lifestyle. 

Life on the road and all its romanticism felt left in the rear-view mirror then, as we accepted domesticity. The future was uncertain, music no longer fuelled this grand idea of globetrotting freedom, and so for Moon Panda, it was time to pick a base, which, for a band who have resided in both Denmark and London, poses a great threat.

Picking up the soil of whatever creative land they choose to inhabit, the band sprinkle it back into their music without preconceptions or design, simply letting the natural wind of their chosen home point them in the right direction.

“London kind of stays with our music and with our hearts,” Maddy Myers explained to me, before her partner Gustav Moltke backed her up, contextualising their next chapter. “I feel like the places definitely affect the music. When we lived in Denmark, it was during our What on Earth album, and that very much sounds like Denmark to me, that record. And then Sing, Spaceship, Sing, we moved to San Diego. And it very much sounds like I very much see our house and our view from our house when I hear that record.”

So, how does their upcoming third album Dumb Luck sound in comparison to their first two transatlantic records?

“I feel like that one we wrote both in Denmark and here. It’s a little more of a combination. Maybe at least I feel like” Moltke answers, before musing, “But I think in the end it sounds more like San Diego than Denmark.”

While they may have played the role of artistic troubadours in years gone by, they know full well that music extends beyond a simple attachment to a location. Sure, that helps evoke a feeling, but what’s inside is so much more than a reflection of one thing. This is a melting pot of ideas, of cultures, of worlds entwined by Moon Panda’s separate tastes. But this time, that extended beyond just Moltke and Myers.

“We finally kind of surpassed fitting in somewhere,” Moltke explained. “We’re just ourselves. But I don’t know. You know, as time passes, I think we’ll probably feel different. Something I hear a lot of this record is I hear more of the other guys,” he says, in reference to their surrounding band members, adding, “Definitely in the past, it was a lot of just us, and this time it was definitely all four of us kind of like writing together.”

For Moon Panda, that’s how this record bridged sonic evolution. Not location, not circumstance, but the slow extension of an arm to surrounding musicians, and allowing this small unit of ideas to become slightly bigger.

An injection of new artistic voices brought with it new layers, but fear not, the modest and introspective Moon Panda sound remains on Dumb Luck. Myers’ vocals descend over ethereal soundscapes like the narrator of a soft fever dream, while Moltke’s instrumental vision is bolstered through delicate touches, which mostly manifest themselves in ever so slightly industrial guitar lines that punctuate the dreamstate.

“There’s also a song called ‘Automatic’,” Moltke answers when I ask for a specific song that encapsulates how the sonic direction may have changed on this new record. He continued, “Which is one of my favourite ones, it’s a really good feel of a really good mix of being kind of like ethereal and a little industrial, too.”

‘Automatic’ is exactly the sort of song Moon Panda fans should want and expect from the pair. It’s so carefully constructed and almost feels at ease when listening to it, but ultimately, the balance they’ve struck is a hard one to achieve. 

The atmosphere and rhythm built is warm, almost soul-esque, but the nuance exists in their choice of guitar tones. Lines come in between verses, bordering on the funk, but given enough fuzz to offset the overall etherealness of the song, which ultimately lends itself to praising just how well this band have understood tones and their combinations.

“It’s a lot more, there’s a lot more small details that people won’t necessarily catch or notice,” Moltke explains of this new record and listening through it, and I would encourage them to do so, for that is where the album proves its brilliance.

For Myers, her favourite moments come elsewhere, notably on the already released ‘Butterknife’, which for pre-existing fans less inclined to hear about the nuanced change delivered by more hands in the studio, is a welcome embrace of an already winning formula. Softly spoken vocals rain over smooth dream-pop chords to provide a natural soundtrack to its subject; introspective moments of doubt, softened by the reassuring comfort of warm chords.

“For me, I think ‘Butterknife’ kind of sums up the album in a nice way,” vocalist Maddy Myers explained, “It’s kind of that one where we were all just jamming and then it kind of just happened in like 20 minutes. And then it was just a song. And so that kind of feels like the most recent us.”

Perhaps the most notable element of ‘Butterknife’ is the inclusion of a shaker at the end of the track, provided by Myers and Moltke’s one-year-old son Miles. An impressive contribution to the record from someone who will no doubt have a natural talent for musical performance, but even without the shaker, his tiny fingerprints are all over his parents’ third album.

Born just before Moltke and Myers decided to start working on Dumb Luck, he drastically altered the way in which they approached the record. The days of free and easy, pick up a guitar whenever they like, style recording were long gone, now their child had given structure. But with the introduction of this new chapter came an understanding of how love works, as well as a questioning of their own artistic identity.

“We had a baby a couple of years ago right when we were recording and writing this album,” Myers told me, “And it just kind of felt like I shifted or I split into two people once we had him, and there was like this kind of like musician person that used to go on tour. And then there was this mum. And I think ‘Penny’ is a lot about that, like your old self and how do you still kind of like love and coddle the damaged but different pieces and sides of yourself.”

The album’s lead single grapples with this duality through the lens of Myers’ alter-ego almost. Even when you strip away the lyrical content of the song, which finds her wrestling with Penny’s character traits, it presents an almost sonic duality. The rhythm is pulsing, teetering on the edge of a tempo that’s desperate to immerse itself in a party, while the melody and Myers’ vocals hold it back, tempering their expectations and better understanding how to navigate this new world.

As they grapple with their ever-changing lives on ‘Penny’, by the time they reach the end of the album, they are at complete ease with themselves. Beautifully arranged, ‘The Light’ is an ode to the new, more warm-hearted adventure they are on and acts as a sonic tribute to their newborn song.

“One of my favourite songs from the album, ‘The Light’ was written about Miles,” the pair explain. Moltke continues, “That song wouldn’t have been made without Miles. And that’s pretty cool, you know, because that’s a great song. And in some ways, our best songs, I think we’ve ever done.”

Speaking of how parenthood and the overwhelming injection of love have altered their creativity, they are quick to explain that their priorities shifting doesn’t come to the detriment of either. Moltke says, “Music becomes less important. I think we’re just as passionate and love it just as much as always. But now we do have something that we love even more, and that’s also really cool, you know. So it’s not that like that our love for music didn’t mean this. We just have something that’s so much more important.”

Regardless, Moon Panda can dust their hands off at the end of this year and consider it a job well done. Not only have they created one eternally important being but have followed it up with a slightly less, albeit brilliant record to commemorate it. With the introduction of a new life brought with it the introduction of more voices in the studio, proving that in this new age of social isolation, community is at the heart of success.

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