Photo by Austin Donohue courtesy Lady Moon and the Eclipse
Lady Moon & the Eclipse are part rhythm and blues, part Afrobeat, part hip-hop, part rock, and part jazz. That might sound like a lot, but when you consider that the six-member band features musicians from France, Japan, New York and Chicago, it’s probably the way it should be. Led by Ngonda Badila, aka Lady Moon, the band has attracted attention for its recent single, “Stargazing,” and is ready to testify with a sound it calls “cosmic soul.” Moon talks about how she got her name, their live show and cosmic alignment.
Richmond magazine: Where does the name “Lady Moon” come from?
Lady Moon: The name Lady Moon came from my father — he actually named me “the Moon.” It’s a Congolese name pronounced “gun-da.” My dad was an artist. He was a painter, a dancer, he did a lot of different things. He wanted all his children to have names that mean something, and so he named me and my twin sister the sun and the moon.
RM: You talk about the “cosmic soul.” What does that mean?
LM: The cosmic soul is a soul that is aligned. So Lady Moon and the Eclipse is not only Lady Moon working with the sun; the audience is the Earth. I see the sun as the mind, I see the body as the Earth, and I see soul as the moon. And so, here are elements that we experience in our everyday lives, and so I want us to take the opportunity to really appreciate it, and the cosmic soul is a soul that understands this alignment. They understand how to align their mind, body and soul. They understand the cosmic perspective of life, and the stars, and astrology, and the galaxies, the planets, like the dimensions, they can really just open up their minds to seeing more than what we think. So that’s really what the cosmic soul is.
RM: What can we expect from a Lady Moon and the Eclipse live show?
LM: You’ll be either banging your head, or you’ll be twisting your hips to a little bit of funk, or you’ll just be smiling and looking at the stage. It’s gonna be very universal sounding and really something that you’ve never experienced before. And we’ll speak to everyone in the audience — at least one song will getcha. [Laughs]
RM: Anything else you’d like to add?
LM: The Eclipse season happens in a two-week period, starting with the lunar and ending with the solar eclipse, or vice versa. And you know it’s the perfect time for us to do a little two-week tour and teach people about alignment, teach people about how the sun, Earth and moon are teaching us about aligning our own selves, our own mind, body and soul, so we can be the cosmic soul, so we can be better people, and we can be better people in the world. The more better people we have, the more amazing inventions are created and the more beauty that there is in the world, and the more we can progress. That’s really my goal, is just to make a difference in the world in that way, to inspire the people to change through music and live entertainment.
Lady Moon & the Eclipse, along with Calvin Presents, Mekong Express and Kenneka, come to The Camel, 1621 W. Broad St., on Jan. 5, the date of the first solar eclipse of 2019, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $7 to $10.