by Chandler Christopher
June 24th, 2022
Moonlight Depot is the new-wave, electronic rock project of Ander Baizan and Carl Bernicker. Hailing from Houston and based out of Austin, Texas, the duo met while attending school at the University of Texas. The two seamlessly work together, bringing completely different elements to the table in terms of their songwriting and during performances. Just beginning to release music in 2022, they have has already amassed nearly 5,000 Spotify monthly listeners. The authentic essence of Moonlight Depot is simply described by a quote of theirs– “We’re not afraid to grow musically in front of everyone.”
Their latest release, a double single with tracks Color and All at Once was released July 6th, bringing Moonlight Depot’s total song count to five. Preceding this exciting achievement, Ander and Carl were faced with some serious adversity. Following a June 10th show at Empire Control Room, a technical error caused them to lose every single one of the dozens of tracks they had been working on, temporarily devastating the duo. However, they didn’t sit around for more than a day before facing the music of their current situation, making the admirable decision to say, “Well, what can we do?”, and move on to the next. In my opinion, that should make the release of their most recent singles that much more special.
The tracks are a super fun combo of upbeat and bright songs to accommodate all of the parties these two have been playing this summer! The production has continued to improve with each song Moonlight Depot has released, and it shows with Color already making its way to the duo’s top spot on the charts. Check out our Q&A below to learn a little more about how these guys met, when they started playing music together, and more. Support them by following their socials here!
Q: Thanks for taking the time to meet with me guys. So first off tell me a little bit about yourselves, how’d y’all first get into music?
Ander: I’ve been producing since my sophomore of high school. I really got into DJing and I was able to play some different shows around the states like New York and Arkansas.
Carl: Growing up I took piano, guitar, and drums. I took a break in high school then started taking guitar seriously again in college. I decided that music theory was something I really wanted to understand– why it worked, why music affects me, and why musicians use different sounds, etc.
Q: How’d y’all decide to start making music together?
Both: We both went to The University of Texas and met there.
Carl: I was working with a few different DJ’s and they’d bring me out to play guitar. I did a show with Ander and I realized this DJ (Ander) was the only one taking the music as seriously as I was.
Ander: Yeah, we met at the show, stayed in contact, and originally he was gonna just do what he was doing with the other DJs. Eventually, one thing led to another around December and we were like “let’s do this together.”
Q: So, tell me about your perspective on the direction Moonlight Depot has taken musically?
Carl: The original thesis for Moonlight Depot was to take the coolest parts in both of our discreet genres– the hard rock guitar solos and then the drops that Ander is so good at, and make that into one.
Ander: We occupy a place on the spectrum that’s in between a DJ set and band experience on stage. We want to really execute in bringing these organic elements to an electric project.
Q: Do y’all have any electronic rock groups or just artists in general that have heavily inspired you??
Ander: RÜFÜS DU SOL is a huge inspiration for me.. Kasbo is probably the guy I listen to the most.
Carl: FKJ Twigs is a massive reason why I got into Saxophone and looping… Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn, George Benson, also The Backseat Lovers.
Q: I saw y’all opened up for Carnage a few months ago. Have yall opened up for any other big names and how did that come about?
Ander: Yeah! We also opened up for Cedric Gervais and Goldroom. The big thing is getting out there in person and meeting and connecting with people at shows… And really just anywhere.
