Moon Duo is well accomplished for a young band. Having formed in just 2009, they already stand with five albums beneath their belt. "Killing Time" was their first EP, released in 2009, quickly followed by "Escape" within just a year. Then came the "Mazes" album in 2011 and in 2012, their most recent EP "Circles." 

The release of "Circles" was a prelude to a three-year hiatus in which the pair – Ripley Johnson and Sanae Yamada – brewed up the forthcoming album "Shadow of the Sun," set to release March 3rd. Each album has maintained that fine line between adrenaline-fueled and rhythmic ADHD, creating an addictive quality also found in the duo's lyrical value.

Curious about the pair's unique brand of sound, I spoke with Ripley Johnson about their creative process and more before the band's show Sunday, March 1 at the Cactus Club.

OnMilwaukee.com: Tell me a little about your tour that ended in September. Any favorite stops or experiences that stuck with you?

Ripley Johnson: After our tour in September, we went down to Santiago, Chile. That was our first time in South America. That was probably the most memorable. Santiago has a really good music scene, but Chile's way down at the bottom of the continent and is pretty isolated. In Santiago, there's nowhere for these bands to tour to; the location makes it more expensive for them to tour. It's cool to see people creating art and music in their own scene.

OMC: Will you be playing music from your new album on your upcoming tour, or will it mostly be the songs everyone already knows until the album release?

RJ: We're gonna try to play most of the new album, we released our last album in 2012 so we're ready for new material.

OMC: How do you think audiences will receive the new songs?

RJ: No idea. For people who've seen us before, it's not going to be vastly different, not a shock. I mean, it's not gonna be a reggae tour or something. The new album has new textures and sounds, a lot of synthesizer but still mostly the rock 'n' roll thing.

OMC: I read about the making of your last LP "Circles," which you made in seclusion on a Colorado mountain. Can you speak on what you took from that process musically, and whether any of that carried over onto the making of "Shadows of the Sun"? And all that said, tell me about the making of "Shadows of the Sun" on its own.

RJ: We did learn a lot from that. The main thing was that we went there thinking we could be as loud as we wanted, and it would be great. But we were at 10,000 feet, and everything is different – the light, the sound, the air – and suddenly you don't have this impulse to make noise. In the city, you have this impulse to react to noise with more noise.

What I took away from that is that place really has an impact. I didn't really have an appreciation for how environment has an effect on the art you make before that – that was a realization for me. That said, that didn't really affect what we do because we do things out of practical considerations. We don't just think, "We're going to Jamaica to record an album." We live in Portland right now, and we made this album in our basement. As for the environment here, there's a kind of darkness to it.

OMC: You mean the physical environment, or culturally?

RJ: Just a vibe (laughs). You know, people want to come to the Northwest to film dark or mysterious movies. I mean, there's sun out today, and it's always beautiful here, but there's just a dark feel – from the forests and the type of light, there's moss everywhere – that kind of thing.

OMC: How did you come to decide on making "Circles" in seclusion?

RJ: We had family in Colorado, and, you know, it's really pretty there. In San Francisco, we decided to do the band full time, and we could do Colorado rent-free so we decided to quit our jobs and move there for a while to start out.

OMC: Just curious, what was your job before you started doing the band full-time?

RJ: I worked in IT as a server administrator.

OMC: Did you like it?

RJ: No, no, I absolutely hated it.

OMC: What is most exciting about this new album to you? It's been three years since your last album, how has your style evolved?

RJ: That's a good question. On this one, we're more focused on synthesizer sounds, and we recorded with a drummer for the first time, John Jeffrey. He came on our last tour, and it worked out well.

OMC: What informs your music style? Any other music, art, news, big ideas?

RJ: Other music for sure, and we're influenced a lot by literature and film as well. We're both big readers. [During the making of this album] I was reading a lot of dystopian science fiction. One of the songs on the new album is called "Ice," and it's influenced by a book called "Ice" by Anna Kavan. I guess kind of darker themes, existential themes.

OMC: What is the difference to you between playing at home and playing far away? Is it very different doing a show in Europe, or is the familiarity about equal?

RJ: We've toured so much now that we've come to know the places we go. Santiago was new and an adventure, but a lot of times there's this circuit that bands play in Europe that sort of makes sense. Belgium, France, Italy, etc. When you've done it about six, seven, eight times, you know what it's going to be like.

As far as audiences, there are certain places where you have a bigger following than others. In Spain, they really like American rock, and the shows are very high energy. But you get to know people and promoters, and it's cool to go back and see people, meet new people.

OMC: Do you prefer touring in Europe to touring in the states?

RJ: Not really. I don't want to generalize, but in big cities in the states, people can be spoiled and jaded because they get to see every band. In smaller cities, people can be more appreciative, and audiences more excited. That's not always the case though; it's hard not to generalize. But sometimes our best shows are in smaller cities. Big shows can be fun, but it gets sort of impersonal. Huge crowds are fun and exciting, but with small shows, you have more personal interactions.

OMC: Your videos are really entertaining, I'm thinking specifically of the one for "Sleepwalker." What was your involvement in that video and the new one for "Animal"? How do you come up with the ideas?

RJ: We have an idea of something we want to do, or we let the collaborator be inspired and do what they want to do. We're not videographers; that's not our passion. The "Sleepwalker" idea was ours, the aerobics thing. King Khan starred as the guru; he had a lot of ideas, and we just worked with that and these videographers from Berlin.

For "Animal," we collaborated with Richie Jackson, who's a professional skateboarder – he's known as a psychedelic skater and does unusual tricks. We like his videos and told him he could do what he wanted. And for the artwork for the album, we did want to get someone who could do something that looked like an Italian horror movie, so we contacted this guy named Jay Shaw. His work is amazing.

OMC: What are your favorite things to do when you're not making music, and what habits affect your artistry? Do you still meditate?

RJ: Yeah. Meditation sort of affects everything. When we're home from tour, we like to watch movies. That's our big indulgence. Portland has great movie theaters, and we love to stay home and read. That's all great. 

OMC: I've read a lot of different descriptions of your music: garage rock, space rock, psych and neo-psych rock, dance music, "kraut-rock," etc. What is your response to being described as so many things? It seems like an odd need that audiences have to classify music when everyone has their own definition. Does it bother you, and do you ever disagree?

RJ: I don't ever mind, I think it's a hard thing to do. When I think of other bands, I think it's a good sign when they can't be pigeonholed into one genre to me, because it means they're not doing something that's formulaic. But writers are trying to make categories to help people understand.

As musicians, though, you don't want to do that. Musicians don't struggle to describe themselves; they just make something they like and then have to talk about it later. For a lot of media outlets, they compare bands to something they generally sound like, even if it's only a little. Music nerds have really interesting descriptions because they have more specific, more entertaining references.

OMC: Any big plans for the future, new instruments you want to try or collaborations you want to do etc.? 

RJ: Well, since we just finished this record, we're just focusing on making the sounds work in a live setting and rehearsing. I'm always excited to work on something new, but it's good to get some space after the recording process.

OMC: How has your involvement with Wooden Shjips changed in the past few years? Is the band still going strong?

RJ: I was just hanging out with our drummer last night. We’re all sort of bad at communication, but we'll probably do something again soon. It's not like a job; it's very nonchalant – just whenever everyone wants to do something.