DELUNE is more than just a musical project to sisters Kate and Izzi Eberstadt. Although they are currently celebrating the release of “Wild West Side Highway,” their new single and ode to New York City, the duo are currently very focused on their charity work and activism. Most importantly, Kate and Izzi want to bring music and promote creative freedom across the world. It might seem like a lofty goal, but they’re not opposed to the hard work that goes along with it. In fact, DELUNE almost seem to function better when they’re busy.
Currently, the duo are currently working on their debut EP which is due out sometime next year, Kate is working on her musical, Notes from the Basement and Izzi is penning a piece that compares the architecture and infrastructure of US public high schools to US public prisons. Needless to say, DELUNE are busy, and that’s exactly how they like it.
With “Wild West Side Highway” out now and big plans for the future, get to know DELUNE a little bit better now below and expect to hear more from them before the year comes to an end.
Interview by Shannon Shumaker
Can you tell us a little bit about yourselves for anyone who might not be familiar
We are DELUNE – sisters (Kate and Izzi), recording artists, songwriters, and producers, based in NYC.
On top of working on your music, you’re both also very involved in activism and charity. How does that tie into your music? .
A recording artist is often judged by her tangible products and technical craft. A less glorified yet equally important component of music is the butterfly effect of one’s work. What communities does your artwork forge, what are the values you instill and reinforce in the world, who are you bringing together, for whom do you create space? These are the kinds of questions on our minds.
We work as teaching artists and have facilitated music workshops in prison, in refugee camps, in youth centers, etc. We’ve had some pretty great teachers, and hope to be artistic mentors for others in return. DELUNE’s overarching mission is to promote creative freedom in the world. Through our music, artwork, and workshops, we aim to build a community in which people feel free to express themselves.
What would you like to do in the future to combine both activism and music?
In 2016, Kate founded a performing arts program in an emergency refugee camp in Berlin called The Hutto Project, named after our high school choir teacher. Izzi joined upon graduating university. A bunch of people – over 80 artists, friends, and participants, from 7 countries – volunteered on this project. Our classroom was so alive with energy and talent of all different disciplines: videographers, breakdancers, costume designers, instrumentalists, mimes, dancers, scholars, social workers. Everyone came together to create artistic opportunities in a space where there were previously none. Almost no one spoken the same language, yet our group was able to form a classroom where participants felt safe collaborate and share their voices. It was very moving to see what can happen when everyone believes in the healing power of creativity.
We would like to expand on this kind of work, and continue to create performing arts initiatives in places where artistic opportunities are lacking. We foresee a project in the United States, hopefully in the near future.
You guys recently released your new single, “Wild West Side Highway” – can you tell us about the track? Did you have any goals in mind when you first started working on it?
We wrote “Wild West Side Highway” 2 years ago. We were living in the basement of our childhood home, having just moved back from Berlin. It was a weird time. We were trying to figure out who we were, and the world seemed pretty crazy (backdrop: Fall 2016, if you recall what was going on then…) We were missing New York City, but had mixed feelings about it.
NYC is like the Wild Wild West: both brimming with opportunity, yet full of unpredictability and devastation. The extremes of modern day New York seem similar to the extremes described by old American folklore of the Western Frontier. Legends of ambition and thirst for adventure, lawlessness, risk. We went to Columbia University, and spent our teenage and young adult years surfing the highs and lows of Gotham. Our first single is our ode to Manhattan, set on the West Side Highway.
What would you like for fans to take away from “Wild West Side Highway?”
“Take your broken heart and put it into art.”
With your new single out now, do you have any plans to release more new music this year?
We’re releasing our second single this winter, so be on the lookout! We’re super excited about sharing this upcoming track. It’s emotional, personal, and truthful. Our debut EP comes out next year, and we’ll be sharing lots along the way – follow our journey on instagram! @deluneofficial
Do you have any other big plans for the rest of the year?
We’re working on our second music video with Katharine White, who directed/ DPed the “Wild West Side Highway” video. She’s a genius, and we’re pumped to get to work with her again.
In other news, Kate wrote a musical called Notes from the Basement, which is currently in development, with an upcoming workshop residency in NYC this spring. Izzi is writing a piece comparing the architecture and infrastructure of US public high schools to US public prisons.
In the meantime, we’re honing our skills as amateur conspiracy theorists on the daily. 🙂
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