Yin/Yang Chemistry for Duo the Moon and the Tiger

by Adelie Salagnac

photo by Zack Garlitos

photo by Nancy Mitchell

“It’s about balance between the spirit realm–the realm of interconnectedness and magic, and the human realm–the realm of everyday stuff like doing the dishes, the on-the-ground realm. The moon is floating in space, it’s above everything and sees everything; and the tiger is wild, hunting, on the earth.”

Ever heard of Philadelphia’s latest indie rock / hip-hop duo, the Moon and the Tiger? Surprising and unsettling duo, that’s for sure. Hip-hop artist Sterling Duns and ex-Jollie Holland guitarist Brian Miller are not only kind enough to talk with us about their exciting project, they are also extremely talented.

“We met shortly after a West Philly house show, a staple of living in West Philly for sure,” recalls Duns. “I was playing in another band at the time, Futur Mama, at the house of a mutual friend, and Brian had come by to see the house show. He emailed me a few days later to open up a conversation about collaborating and sent some beats along and I actually, unintentionally, ignored the email. He was so kind to send a follow up, and I was so embarrassed that I had dusted off the first email, and now looking back terrified because it could have meant this band had never formed. The beats were awesome. Brian and I met one time and he had all these awesome vocal parts already set, we got deep on topics that are both meaningful to us. It was a powerful meeting of the minds for sure.”

Miller adds: “At the show, when I heard Sterling’s voice, I was like, “Whoa, who is this!?” Sterling has an awesome voice, and his intelligence and kindness really come through in his lyrics, but it was more than that. I can’t really put my finger on it- it’s almost like a chemical or intuitive thing- but I was immediately drawn to his rapping. Like, music-crush level drawn to it. That’s only happened a few times in my life. It was like when I heard Jolie Holland’s voice for the first time: it was like, how can I work with this person right now? Because not only do I like his voice, but I like what it draws out of me. Also Futur Mama was indie-rock-ish and the contrast between Sterling’s voice and their music was really intriguing to me. You don’t usually hear these deep, political, personal lyrics rapping over an indie rock setting.  And I thought it would be cool to try something like that.”

A clash of two very different yet very similar artists, that gave birth to the Moon and the Tiger. Creating spacey, original, troublesome tunes, this skilled duo blends elements of street music and indie folk.

“In a lot of ways we do come from different backgrounds and have really different life experiences,” adds Miller. “I think as a kind of temperamental commonality we’re both truth tellers. We both have the same calling to speak what is true for us. There’s not a lot of artifice in our music. In the group I do alone (The Lightning Bug Situation) there’s a lot of intimacy–like in the LBS song “Call,” it’s almost like pillow talk with a lover. And if you listen to one of Sterling’s songs he did on his own, say, “Walk It Off,” you hear an honesty too. A directness. It’s not about posturing or posing so much.”

Today, a long couple of years later, the Moon and the Tiger is releasing their very first EP. I had the privilege of talking to Duns and Miller right before the D Day, and let me tell you: relief, excitement and feelings of self-accomplishment were all mixed together in the duo’s minds. Duns says: “We feel great about it. It is something we have worked on for about two years, which is wild because it seems just like yesterday we first met. We really put our heart and soul into this project, and we really hope people vibe with what we are saying and what we are trying to build.”

With a quite unusual musical duo, one can wonder how such different artists can successfully work together. I was blown away by this unexpected combination, and couldn’t help but ask this burning question. How can two musicians, coming from opposite musical backgrounds, work together and create something so coherent and cohesive?

“We would often write our verses and choruses separately,” explains Duns, “and then get together to record them and give each other some advice about how to sharpen our sounds, more accurately convey an idea, etc,. It was beautiful because we were both really open to hearing the constructive insight from the other.”

Miller adds: “What happened a lot for me was I would come up with a rudimentary beat and maybe a bass line or chord progression or something, then he would rap over it, then I would be so blown away that I would have to re-do everything because his verse was so awesome. It was like, ‘ooooh the bar has to be this high?’ And then I’d have to make the chorus be as good as his verse. Like in “Freedom”, I heard his verse and I was like ‘well I can match that power if I have, like, 50 voices going at the same time during the chorus.’ So that’s what I did.”

First single off of their EP, “Freedom”, captivated me. Was it the wonderful instrumentals, Miller and Duns chemistry, or the relatable well-written lyrics (“Do you feel trapped by your hands? It’s never too late to look in the mirror and start again”)? Probably a mix of all of the above. Miller says about the song:

“It’s a political song in the sense that we get so isolated from each other by this system we live in: gay/straight, black/white, rich/poor. Separate from each other. You see it in Philadelphia all the time, where one neighborhood is white and another is black, and never the two shall meet. There are all these stories our society tells us that stop us from loving each other and seeing each other as the humans we actually are. And it’s also a personal song in that I so often get scared to love people, so I put myself behind this wall in order to protect myself because it’s a very vulnerable place to love someone, to let your spirit be seen and to see someone else’s spirit. But then in that cage my world becomes very tight and lonely and isolated. So the song is about that scary freedom of breaking out of that cage, so that we can love.”

We couldn’t be more glad that Miller and Duns broke out of their cage and decided to venture together. Truly passionate about what they do, this local duo still has a lot in store for you: “More creating, hopefully some videos, live shows!”

“As a Philly native,” Duns says, “I am so committed to helping to amplify the voices of musicians in this city. You don’t have to leave Philly to have prominence, to make a difference. The Philly music scene is so dope, so community based, so much about the connection for connection sake. It is important to be rooted and to help support the local scene, for sure. (…) We want to see how people connect to this project and we want to continue to speak honestly and clearly about the things that are important to us.”

Rather than writing lines and lines, rambling on about how you should check out and keep an eye out for The Moon and the Tiger, I’ll conclude this story with Duns, very well chosen words:

“The Moon and the Tiger is collaboration and creativity in the truest sense of the words. We are literally taking two different genres, two different approaches, two different lived experiences, bringing them together and creating something that never existed. We both still have other projects that we have worked on, and we both have had projects that we have stepped away from. The Moon and the Tiger is another stop in our musical journey, and we are hoping that it goes very far.”