Moon Kissed’s New Single “Shake // Those Feelings” is the Perfect Pick Me Up

I have a bit of a confession...I like to wallow in my feelings. If I’m sad, I habitually listen to sad songs, moving within my mood as if I’m wading through water. In accordance with tradition, I spent most of the pandemic driving around Illinois listening to Fiona Apple, Waxahatchee, Solange, SZA, Sufjan Stevens, and basically anyone else that makes me cry as I drive along the shore of Lake Michigan. 

However, something changed. Upon listening to NYC band Moon Kissed’s new single “Shake // Those Feelings,” I felt the desire to dance in a room full of people for the first time in a long time. This isn’t a song for the car, it’s a song for the dance floor. Even if your dancefloor is currently confined to your bedroom, I encourage you to blast it, close your eyes, and imagine yourself in a crowd of people, jumping in ecstasy. 

The song starts off upbeat, describing the sensation of missing feeling itself. Moon Kissed’s Khaya Cohen sings, 

I had a dream about you last night
You broke my heart, was so nice to feel something again
I’ve been struggling with numbness Miss your hands on my chest
Break my heart again

The song’s central conflict is the difference between missing one person specifically and generally missing the highs and lows of love. The lyrics simultaneously yearn for connection and the sensation of being broken. Yet throughout the song, what struck me most was the attention to intimate moments. With even the smallest of interpersonal gestures now fraught with risk, the simple requests of “Gimme your jacket, hold me tighter,” brings every listener into the experience in a heightened way. It reminds me of what I miss most: small human gestures free from premeditation and safety measures. 

While most bands just focus on the heightened feeling of love, Moon Kissed uses the second half of the song for the comedown. The song slows just like the rush of love eventually does, singing, 

This is just a game we play
Us young kids
Trying to get them out the way
Those feelings
But those feelings always get the best of me

Initially, I was struck by such a sudden shift in sound, but the structure ultimately mirrors the exact ups and downs it speaks to. 

Girl Gang’s Nicole, Hashika, and I spoke with Moon Kissed (Khaya, Leah, and Emily) and talked about releasing music in quarantine, the nature of their new song, and what they hope for the future. Check out the interview below! 

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Hannah: To start, what is the band’s general songwriting process? Is there a main songwriter in the group or is it a collaborative? Do you use outside songwriters at all?

Khaya/Moon Kissed: I feel like every album is going to be a different process. The first album, I wrote the majority of the first album before we were a band. Some of the songs, Leah and I had written together before and recorded a few of those songs. I feel like that is what we used to introduce ourselves to each other, those songs. But now that we are a group, the second album is definitely more collaborative. “Shake // Those Feelings” was a song that all three of us contributed to and wrote together pretty equally. We are working with outside people too. I do a lot of songwriting and production for other people. Occasionally, we’ll write something that strikes me as a Moon Kissed song. Leah and Emily are amazing and super champs and get excited about songs they didn’t write. I feel that is really important and I am really grateful for that because I know in other bands ego gets involved and everyone has to touch everything. I think it’s really special that we help bring things to the table and just really zoom out and see them as a work of art or a song and just be excited about them no matter who wrote them. 

There is a song on our next album called “Bubblegum” and I wrote it with my friend Bubele. Bubele and I write together all the time...I knew it was a Moon Kissed song. I sent it to Emily and Leah and they freaked out and are so excited to play it live. I’m super grateful for that. There are no restrictions, just a very free-flowing process. The songs find us rather than us trying to put our egos into it. 

Hannah: You mentioned certain songs just feel like a Moon Kissed song to you when you are working on other things. How would you describe a Moon Kissed song in general? What kind of sounds or themes separate other songs from ones you decide to use for Moon Kissed? 

Leah/Moon Kissed: I think because I came in last to the band and also started writing last, I don’t know if there is a word, genre, or anything like that for it. When we would go on car rides, Emily and Khaya put on songs they liked and sometimes there is just a little bit of a wink or a facial expression to a song. You know what I mean? There is just something in it that’s just like “Oh, this is it!” Something that just pops out to you. It could be a harmony thing or a melody thing, whatever it is. It’s just a tiny tiny glimpse of a feeling. 

Hashika: What was it like creating and releasing a song during COVID? What does that process look like for you? How is it different now than before?

Khaya: It’s weird and we are still figuring it out. This is also just my perspective and you two might feel differently. I’ve been really rethinking what the point of releasing stuff is. Before, we had these dreams to travel, go on tour, and meet people. We were on tour when the pandemic hit and it really made me appreciate all the people we met on the way and all the experiences we had. If we can’t have that from releasing music, what’s the point? But you’re still meeting people digitally so it feels like you are just throwing stuff into the void. I often wonder the point of releasing something if you can’t play a show. I’m still trying to figure it out. I don’t know. For me, it was a little anticlimactic.

Hannah: I was curious about that especially since this song is primarily about touch and little moments of intimacy. The song is so fun and made me want to dance in a room of people instead of being alone. I heard from Nicole that your live shows are iconic. How do you imagine the future of live music now given venues are struggling and tour is out of the picture for the moment. How do you anticipate moving forward? 

Khaya: We don’t know. It is hard to predict. Everything right now is just about figuring it out and coping with the present. Not just coping, but figuring out how to exist as yourself and as us. I just finished Intimations by Zadie Smith. It’s her new book of essays written in the months of March to May. She’s a writer and she writes all the time. She has this workaholic mentality with writing. It’s like who am I without all the busyness, all the rush, and she wants to take a break from writing? Not that we want to take a break from music, but it’s discovering ourselves more rather than falling into the mold of you write a song, you produce the song, you record it, you put it on an album, you get signed, you go on tour. There is a very normal trajectory. In a way, I’m trying to be grateful for this interruption because it really allows you to sink into what it all means. 

Leah: I agree with the first part. It’s like you release a song and you usually get to have a show and see people moving to it, see the crowd’s facial expressions. Now, you don’t have that. But the disconnect of right now challenges us to remember why all of us as people love music so much. At the beginning of quarantine, my brother said “Now’s the best time because people fucking need it so badly.” Even at the beginning, to plug another one of our band friends, I was listening to this band Raavi and the Houseplants EP. They are a Boston band. I was listening to it all of quarantine and that was literally what got me through the start of it. They have no idea. I never even told them. 

Hannah: How have your listening habits changed during Covid? Have you discovered any music you initially didn't have time for, or have you fallen into old classics for comfort? How have you been relating to music as listeners during this time? 

Khaya: At the beginning of quarantine, I did this thing where I would go on a date with an album since we can’t go on actual dates. That’s what I called it in my head. I texted a bunch of people I admire and asked them for their favorite albums and I made a list. Every night before bed, I would put my headphones on and just listen to one the whole way through. I think because I was so deprived of seeing friends, family, or going on dates, I started to feel giddy at times. It was really weird. The albums were super personified. 

Hannah: I like that idea a lot! As a group, what other bands influenced you the most?

Emily/Moon Kissed: Right now, I’m really into Mount Kimbie and their synth sounds and I think I’m trying to write stuff like that and get it into Moon Kissed vibes. But that’s more a personal thing. 

Leah: Earl Sweatshirt is mine. 

Nicole: You keep talking about the Moon Kissed vibe. If you could each describe the vibe in a word, what would you choose? 

Khaya: Okay do you guys have your words?

Nicole: Pressure is on.

Khaya: Ready? GO!

Leah: Bubble!

Everyone: CUTE!

Khaya: I’ll say… Feminine.

Emily: Glitter Gun. That’s two words. 

Hannah: How do you resolve any differences of taste or opinion as a group when you are writing or at any point in the process?

Leah: (Jokingly) We settle everything physically. If we have a disagreement, we just tackle each other. If I ever play slightly out of time, Khaya turns around and spits in my face.

Khaya: I do glare at you. I need to stop. In all seriousness, as much as we talk about the Moon Kissed vibe, we can really take anything and make it into a Moon Kissed song. In terms of settling disputes, we don’t really have them. If we do, we let it go and come back to it. I trust Emily and Leah a lot. If they are going in a certain direction, I would much rather follow them than try to interject with where I want it to go. We can down that rabbit hole and it may or may not work. But I have my ideas from before, which we can always try. 

Emily: We’ve gotten better at that. There was a time where somebody would share an idea and it would be like “No no no, I don’t think that’s where we should go.” But now we go down both paths and compare and contrast the two ideas. 

Khaya: I saw a quote this morning about how the best artists are patient. I think with this album, I’m really realizing that because it’s changed so much from the start. From the first song we wrote for the album to now where it is pretty much ready, you have to just let it take you where it needs to go and however long that takes is ok. I am really learning that. That’s on a micro level of songwriting and a macro level of making an album. 

Hannah: With the new song “Shake // Those Feelings,” I really love the video! The animation is really great, fun, and dreamy. How do you view the role of music videos in relation to the music itself? Do you like to have complete control over the aesthetic or collaborate? 

Emily: We mostly just let the other person take it where they want to take it. Honestly, with this video, we all talked and visually it is what’s going on in our heads. Especially for me, where it just kinda falls apart and the colors and textures are so on point. It’s really amazing. 

Khaya: I don’t think I’m a very visual person and we have so many talented friends that are. I don’t feel any sort of worry or guilt about that because then you have two different works of art that can work together. 

Emily: It is just so interesting to see how somebody will interpret the song. This video, it’s one of my favorite ones we’ve done. 

Khaya: With music and visuals it is all about letting go and accepting there is no perfect way it is supposed to go. It’s super liberating. 

Hannah: Something I really like about the song is that it starts off very energized and mellows out by the end. How did you create that shift in tone and is that something you are generally interested in. 

Khaya: Originally, that mellow ending was the chorus. Me and Emily started writing at the studio I work at. We had the beat and the guitar, which brought up the whole song. But it didn’t feel right, so we redid the chorus. I still really liked the lyrics from that old chorus so we decided to make it mellow. The first demos of the song were so rough and we wanted to keep some of that energy which is where the ending bit came from. Now that it’s all together, I think it’s really indicative of young love. You are so giddy and you miss someone so much, but you get really confused and hurt. Those things can exist at the same time, in the same breath. 

Leah: Yeah, the highs and lows. I think especially with that song with all the harmony in it. Because the chorus of that song and the ending are the same chords with just a different feeling/interpretation of it, I feel like it’s totally the young love thing. It’s giddy, the best thing ever, so energized, and also the hardest heartbreak and depression you can go through as a young person. So, those are both in there intrinsically. 

Hannah: You guys met at a New Year’s party, right? Can you tell me the story? 

Emily: I was at a party with Khaya. I knew her from summer camp in high school. It was in someone’s apartment and I just ran down the hallway to find the person that lives there. Leah saw me and was like “I saw you play and I cried!” (laughter). We started talking and then I was like “Hold on a second!” I ran to Khaya and I was like “I found the girl who’s going to be in our band!” I brought Khaya over and then we talked about a lot of things and we had the same favorite artists.

Leah: I remember I was really drunk because I’m usually not that drunk. I was just riding. My other friends there kept looking at us and said we all looked exactly alike. I didn’t even realize it, we all had curly hair or whatever, but as time went by I was like “woahhhh” we really do look exactly the same. 

Khaya: I remember running Emily running over and saying, “I found this drummer and she looks just like us!” (laughter) 

Leah: At the end of the night, we were standing in line to go somewhere. Both my best friends I arrived with left, I wasn’t even living in the city, it was wild! Now I’m alone standing with these two girls I just met who look like me were gonna be like my pet stones (?) and then they just disappeared and I was like “Fuck!” 

Khaya: I just remember us walking around in circles…

Emily: Oh my god, do you remember talking to the man… 

Together: With the mesh top! (laughter) 

Hannah: You mentioned being on tour right before lockdown. How do you feel about tour versus recording? How do you approach translating the music from the studio to live shows? 

Khaya: It’s pretty natural. We don’t really reinterpret the music for live shows, but I'd say it’s more about reinterpreting a feeling or an energy. The energy is always going to be different live so we don’t really worry about changing the songs that much. 

Emily: A lot of the parts change after playing it a few times live. 

Nicole: I have to say I am so excited for you guys. I know how much live means to you however despite not being able to tour and go through the standard steps you were used to going through to be “successful” in the music industry because of the world right now, I think the way you have been able to bring the energy of dancing in a room full of people to me, in my pjs, alone in my bedroom, is something to be really proud of. I know we are all figuring everything out right now, but I cannot wait to see what you all come up with next!

“Shake // Those Feelings” out now on all streaming platforms.