Following his debut release New Day in 2017, musician and Women’s Health Senior Journalist Alek Blak made his mark on South Africa and set himself up as a musician to watch. Now, almost 2 years later, he follows up New Day with his latest release titled Luna – a tragic song that explores the experience of an amicable break-up.
Alek says that Luna is a story of a relationship that’s going well – where no one has cheated, no one has deceived anyone, and everything is near perfect. But there’s a strong sense of “I don’t think I belong here anymore.” He further explores that feeling and how it eventually leads to a break-up.
Luna is an introduction to his upcoming full body of work planned for release sometime in March/April next year.
“The song is extremely mellow, it has no super high or loud or energetic parts and this was deliberate. I wanted the song to capture the feelings of defeat, exhaustion, tiredness, fear, and doubt. And that’s the general mood and feel. But the production lifts everything, so it’s not all doom and gloom,” says Alek Blak.
Usually starting his writing process strumming his guitar and then jotting down lyrics for a song, the approach for Luna was different. He says that Thomas Hadek from Germany, a brilliant producer he met on the internet had already composed the beat so he wrote Luna straight from the production in one go.
“It came so easily to me… before I go into studio, I’ll always record the song on my laptop (Garageband) with my little home mic and I’ll plan out the song there. I already know everything I want to do on the song when I eventually go into the studio to record it professionally,” the musician says.
Alek released Luna under his company called Alek Blak Media, a bold move working as an independent artist amid the high costs of making and releasing music.
“Being independent is beautiful. I love the fact that I was able to do that. I can tell the story I want to tell, in the way that I want to tell it – and I think that’s the gift that comes with independence. But being independent is also not easy. Things that don’t have to take time to achieve usually take time because everything is expensive.”
Alek has always been a firm believer that no one person was born to do one thing and the world we live in now allows the space for one to explore everything they love. He has been a picture of that, and this release and his continued growth in his journalism career is testament to that very fact.
You can stream Luna on all digital music stores.
https://open.spotify.com/track/2eFosT6NCWxTIaVgdPTqkf?si=rFy3457TQB6IZqY6VQz4ZA
