Moon Landing
Fresh off the back of supporting indie legends Mercury Rev, the last two years has seen Belfast five-piece Moon Landing build a reputation as one of the most exciting alternative acts in the Northern Ireland music scene!
After critical acclaim and an NI Music Prize nomination after the release of their debut EP, Moon
Landing are set to release their second EP ‘We’ll Come Back Again as Birds’ on 27th November 2025,
with singles ‘Streetflowers’ on 26th September and ‘Echoes’ on 24th October. This will also coincide with
a UK and Ireland tour with multiple dates in Belfast as well as Dublin, Derry, Newry, London, Glasgow,
Edinburgh and Liverpool in late 2025/early 2026.
‘The Room Is Spinning’ is Moon Landing’s debut single,
an indie song evoking feelings of heavenly levitation into the pitch-black night sky. It struck a chord with those deep in the isolation of lockdown, with many rushing to praise this brave new Belfast sound. It was a lift-off for Moon Landing. In November 2023, Moon Landing released ‘Blink Once and Miss The World Go By’, the braver big brother to ‘The Room Is Spinning’, with a wider, panoramic sound. Again, the accolades continued to roll in as Moon Landing were nominated for an NI Music Prize after its release. They then went on to win Chordblossom’s ‘Kickstart 2023’ campaign and were hot tipped by Hot Press Magazine as a key band to watch in 2024.
These accolades were then followed with new singles ‘The Last Two People on Earth’ and ‘Let the Love In’
which create a loving concoction of the band’s key influences: The Flaming Lips, Explosions in the Sky and
Arcade Fire. They take the band’s early potential and start to realise it in a massive way. Mature music that is
destined to soundtrack a movie epic!
Beginning as a solo project for Belfast based songwriter Jake McCrea up until mid-2024, Moon Landing has now evolved into a gang of brothers. This includes long-time confidant Niall Devlin, drummer Conor Keenan, trumpeter Dan Monaghan and bassist Ethan Hollan. A full set was written with huge orchestral arrangements, cinematic in their scope and vision as they set their sights on performing live for the first time 2024. They sold out their first headline show in Ulster Sports Club before announcing themselves on the festival circuit through performances at various festivals such as Stendhal, Greenbelt and Under the Drum. They then played multiple shows in Belfast’s Mandela Hall, including one supporting Mercury Rev.
Moon Landing have only scratched the surface of their very bright future; that high untrespassed sanctity of
space which stretches out before them. They released a new single entitled ‘It’s a Big Small World’ as part of
Oh Yeah Music Centre’s ‘Scratch My Progress’ 2024 campaign, with a new EP due for late 2025, along with
a UK and Ireland tour. Already they are masters at their craft, creating soaring soundscapes full of wonder and emotion. The sky no longer feels like the limit, more of a starting point.
(Biography by Taylor Johnson of BBC Introducing)
