Photo by Jono Bernstein.Daniel Benjamin of Moon King is a pretty cool guy. When he’s not crashing abandoned houses with acts Doldrums and Grimes, or playing in farmhouses in the middle-of-nowhere Mississippi, he’s working on music all of the fucking time.He’s also about to embark on a two month North American tour with collaborator Maddy Wilde, who he’s known since they were kids growing up in Toronto. They also have an upcoming 12” release titled Obsession II, on Toronto label, One Big Silence, run by Mike Haliechuk of Fucked Up.Anyway, because we love you all so much we’ve got a premiere of Moon King’s “Icarus” for you. Stream it below then keep hanging out on Noisey to read our interview!Noisey: Hey Daniel, how’s it going?
Daniel Benjamin: Good, just chillin’ out pretty hard. I’m in bed. [Laughs] I’m just trying to take it easy because I have a busy couple of days ahead. Trying to stay in bed as long as I can.Cool. What’s your week looking like?
Just getting ready for our upcoming tour, which is going to be two months long. I think it’s the longest one Moon King has done. We’re also working on lots of new songs and stuff.I also went out last night to see a friend’s band. They’re called Hut. I used to play drums with them. I ended up singing half my songs with them and it got pretty wild. I ended up destroying a microphone. It was an endurance-testing kinda night.Well, rest up then I guess. Tell us a bit about Obsession II.
It’s another short little record that we’re putting up with our friend Mike who plays in Fucked Up. It’s a follow up from our other one, which we called Obsession I.What are your obsessions?
At this point I feel like its music in general. It’s become this all-encompassing thing. I really don’t go out and do anything. I wake up and work on music, try to figure out touring and shit like that. Before I go to bed I work on more music. I think that’s great but it can get really unhealthy. Having an obsession with something is both good and bad. I think a lot of the songs too are about this weird narcissism, it’s one of the over-arching themes on a lot of the songs.What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever written a song about?
I wrote a song about the planet Jupiter having sex with the planet Mercury. The song was called Jupiter; it was this interplanetary sex, kinky thing. There’s a lot of noise, steam, and gas expanding.Deep. Do you have any crazy stories from being on tour?
We played in a pretty wild place in Oxford Mississippi. It was this house out in the countryside. We went way out of the city. It was like playing on a farm. We found out the last show there was Grimes, who played there just a year ago, which was pretty cool. I used to play drums with Claire.Cool, have you and Grimes ever done any shows together?
The first time I ever did any solo-stuff was in Guelph a couple years ago, which was with Grimes. I remember they were giving out all these free Bloody Marys, and I did this weird set where I was interviewing people in the audience, and then we slept in this abandoned warehouse across the street. It was fun, and really sketchy.Did anything bad happen?
I don’t think so. I just remembered it being really dirty and we slept on the floor. I’m pretty sure it was freshly abandoned. There was still people’s stuff there, like drawers full of clothing falling out. It’s fun to explore weird places like that. I really like abandoned shopping malls too.Were you afraid of getting murdered in the abandoned house?
In Guelph? No! Guelph is the safest, most lovely place ever. It’s one of my favorite places to go in Canada.Yeah it’s a nice place. Ok, thanks for doing the interview with me!
No problem!Catch Moon King on their North American tour:04.10.13 – The Drake Hotel – Toronto, ON
04.11.13 – La Sale Rosa – Montreal, QC
04.12.13 – Signal Kitchen – Burlington, VT
04.14.13 – Firehouse 13 – Providence, RI
04.15.13 – Great Scott – Allston, MA
04.16.13 – Bowery Ballroom – New York, NY
04.18.13 – Maxwell’s – Hoboken, NJ
04.20.13 – Johnny Brenda’s – Philadelphia, PA
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Daniel Benjamin: Good, just chillin’ out pretty hard. I’m in bed. [Laughs] I’m just trying to take it easy because I have a busy couple of days ahead. Trying to stay in bed as long as I can.Cool. What’s your week looking like?
Just getting ready for our upcoming tour, which is going to be two months long. I think it’s the longest one Moon King has done. We’re also working on lots of new songs and stuff.I also went out last night to see a friend’s band. They’re called Hut. I used to play drums with them. I ended up singing half my songs with them and it got pretty wild. I ended up destroying a microphone. It was an endurance-testing kinda night.Well, rest up then I guess. Tell us a bit about Obsession II.
It’s another short little record that we’re putting up with our friend Mike who plays in Fucked Up. It’s a follow up from our other one, which we called Obsession I.What are your obsessions?
At this point I feel like its music in general. It’s become this all-encompassing thing. I really don’t go out and do anything. I wake up and work on music, try to figure out touring and shit like that. Before I go to bed I work on more music. I think that’s great but it can get really unhealthy. Having an obsession with something is both good and bad. I think a lot of the songs too are about this weird narcissism, it’s one of the over-arching themes on a lot of the songs.
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I wrote a song about the planet Jupiter having sex with the planet Mercury. The song was called Jupiter; it was this interplanetary sex, kinky thing. There’s a lot of noise, steam, and gas expanding.Deep. Do you have any crazy stories from being on tour?
We played in a pretty wild place in Oxford Mississippi. It was this house out in the countryside. We went way out of the city. It was like playing on a farm. We found out the last show there was Grimes, who played there just a year ago, which was pretty cool. I used to play drums with Claire.Cool, have you and Grimes ever done any shows together?
The first time I ever did any solo-stuff was in Guelph a couple years ago, which was with Grimes. I remember they were giving out all these free Bloody Marys, and I did this weird set where I was interviewing people in the audience, and then we slept in this abandoned warehouse across the street. It was fun, and really sketchy.Did anything bad happen?
I don’t think so. I just remembered it being really dirty and we slept on the floor. I’m pretty sure it was freshly abandoned. There was still people’s stuff there, like drawers full of clothing falling out. It’s fun to explore weird places like that. I really like abandoned shopping malls too.Were you afraid of getting murdered in the abandoned house?
In Guelph? No! Guelph is the safest, most lovely place ever. It’s one of my favorite places to go in Canada.Yeah it’s a nice place. Ok, thanks for doing the interview with me!
No problem!Catch Moon King on their North American tour:04.10.13 – The Drake Hotel – Toronto, ON
04.11.13 – La Sale Rosa – Montreal, QC
04.12.13 – Signal Kitchen – Burlington, VT
04.14.13 – Firehouse 13 – Providence, RI
04.15.13 – Great Scott – Allston, MA
04.16.13 – Bowery Ballroom – New York, NY
04.18.13 – Maxwell’s – Hoboken, NJ
04.20.13 – Johnny Brenda’s – Philadelphia, PA