Emerging out of Decatur, Georgia, Lunar Vacation are doing the simple—and the difficult— things right on their new full-length, Everything Matters, Everything’s Fire. Driven by hazy guitars and sparkling vocal presence, the new album is potent and empathetic, dreamy and intimate, with excellent production from Faye Webster and Toro y Moi collaborator Drew Vandenburg. Full of idiosyncratic eccentricities and towering emotional depth, it’s a record boundless of genre and idealism, a free-flowing ride downstream to joy, turmoil, malaise and romanticism.

To showcase the newly released LP, lyricist/vocalist/guitarist Gep stopped by Wonderland to give us a rundown of the record, track-by-track…

Listen to Everything Matters, Everything’s Fire…

Read the band’s analysis…

“Sick”
This song came about after going to an open mic stand-up comedy show across the street from our house, where, unbeknownst to us, we were the only audience. The rest of the people hanging around us were eagerly waiting for their 5 minute slot to try their latest bit out on other comics, and frequently at the expense of the spectators in the back (us). Take it however you want. 

“Set the Stage”
“Wild card” of the album is an understatement… I still can’t fully understand how this song got out of the demo world and has a full identity. This was the first love song I wrote about someone and then sent it to them. That is the first and last time I will ever do that. Love can make you do really strange things. So, to my surprise and maybe my disappointment, this song stood out to our producer (Drew Vandenburg) when we met up to make a plan for the record. It took some convincing on my end to fully realize this song, but that’s the best part about making music with my bandmates; they are the voice of reason and I trust them. So once the walls were down, we went in blazing and changed up the vibe from sad, acoustic demo to the monster that it is now. It’s turned out to be one of my favorite songs on the record.

“Tom”
The verse melody for “Tom” is around three or four years old at this point, making it the oldest song on this record. Its initial lyrical meaning came from the beginning of quarantine, filling my days with a specific reality TV show with two characters sharing the same name. But as time went on and this album started to form, I changed some things around and to fit my current happenings. 

“Erase All the B’s”
This song was recorded in one take, which we’ve never done before. We didn’t intend on choosing a live take for the song but, after a few rounds of playing through the song together, it felt right to get it in one go, even the vocals. It features a lyric from “It’s hard to get around the wind” by Alex Turner that has always stuck out to me. It holds a lot of weight for one line and at the time I wrote this song, it encapsulated all that I was feeling. Like a lot of the songs on this record, there is no one true meaning, one true focus. They’re a collection of experiencing and processing feelings and for this song, the main idea is accepting that it is possible for things that happen to have nothing to do with you. 

“Bitter”
All five of us were jamming during our demo month and this song just came out. I think Ben was just playing the first two chords over and over. Maggie joined in. Then I just sang nonsense over that and some things stuck, some didn’t. But once the chorus melody came out, we were sold. Repeating “stop being so bitter” just felt right at the time, and that’s what we took to the end. Maybe my subconscious was trying to speak to me. 

“Fantasy”
This song takes a look inside of my daydreams that are sometimes difficult to get away from. Sometimes it’s more comfortable to live in your own bubble and watch scenarios in your head all day.

“Just for Today”
“Just for Today” encapsulates my day-to-day when I was working at the grocery store. It was a very social job but when you’re stocking shelves, you’re on autopilot. It’s easy to zone out and go into your own world. My own world wasn’t that positive back then, so my brain would drift from scenario to scenario, what if’s, etc. I thought a lot about sex and death. 

“Better Luck”
I wrote this song after what I would consider to be my first real breakup. This song is a reflection on firsts. First loves, first times, first losses. Taking chances, messing up, growing up, accepting things you can’t change. I think this song wrote itself pretty quickly. If I remember correctly, I think it took me around 20 or 30 minutes. It holds a very special place to me. I tried to put all of my emotions about the relationship in this one song and I noticed that the lyrics came out more hopeful than I thought.

“You Shouldn’t Be”
In October of 2022, I wrote this song in the back of our van while we headed off to start a tour. The melody and chords were there, and even the lyrics kept their original form. I didn’t think much of the demo but Ben was the biggest advocate for us to further explore this song. He definitely saw the potential before any of us. We were listening to a lot of Kid A at that time and next thing I know, Matteo busts out the best drum beat of all time and all the ideas started to flow.