Be seduced by the underworld temptations of 'Dracula', the new single from Fremantle-based performance artist and bandleader MOANA.
The song is the first single from MOANA's debut full-length album, which is still a work-in-progress. MOANA says the idea for 'Dracula' first came to her while working with a new vocal technique. “I was experimenting with a vocal pedal for the first time and was getting some pretty cool, interesting sounds from that,” MOANA says.
“'Dracula' was one of the first songs where it became part of the songwriting and then made its way into a song. That was just a new technique that I'd never experimented with before, that opened a lot of doors creatively and it inspired this feeling of lots of different voices and characters all creating this world of something alluring and dark and beautiful all at the same time.”
Conceptually, MOANA says the song is not a literal interpretation of the vampire mythos but draws on their characteristics as dangerously seductive creatures as depicted in Bram Stoker's original novel.
“It was a mixture, that was what I was doing musically and then I also had been reading 'Dracula', and the song was inspired by Bram Stoker's novel but it was also about the idea of things that seduce you in life that you maybe get lost in,” she says.
“The idea of something draining you in life and you don't realise until later that it was – kind of like being a victim of a vampire. It's not a literal thing, it's more of looking at the mythology of a vampire and the concept of something that drains you.”
MOANA is quick to add: “I'm really not into vampire stuff in terms of wearing fangs or any of that crap, it's more about the concept of what that is in today's society.”
Dark and brooding with a soundscape that looms like the Gothic fortress of Bran Castle in Transylvania, 'Dracula' will be launched with special shows in Fremantle and Perth.
“I'm really excited, we've been kind of hibernating writing and recording the album for quite a few months so it's super exciting,” MOANA says.
“There's a lot of creative energy ready to burst out into some shows. I'm particularly excited about the Newport [Hotel, Fremantle] because it has a big stage and really good production, which is always better for us because we are theatrical and I like to put that into performance.
With shows, I like to create a world and an atmosphere people can be drawn into. In terms of what we have planned, that's still to be discovered; we might have some actor friends doing some exciting vampire stuff around the gig.”
The song 'Dracula' follows the aesthetic quality of exploring imagined ancient other-worlds that MOANA has been developing with previous releases such as 'Echo'.
“Aesthetics have always been super-important to me,” she says.
“It's like an extension of the music for me, so I'm excited to do the film clip for 'Dracula' and to be able to express the kind of aesthetic and the vague concepts that I was looking at lyrically as well.”
