If there was a title for the current era of Half Moon Bay’s life, it’d be named “Sand Dune,” he tells me on a Friday afternoon from Los Angeles. The grainy landforms for the singer/songwriter represent upcoming transition and change; mountains of the Earth that are grounded yet moving simultaneously. His era of transformation, in part, is what made spring of 2021 the precise moment to release his latest song, “Emotional Intel.”
“New transitions bring you into knowing what is the right time,” he tells me in an exclusive interview for EUPHORIA. “Everything comes together in a really miraculous way, that in my experience, I can’t force. I let the energy compound on itself and that’s what happened with ‘Emotional Intel.’”
His vibrationally charged lyrics in the song approach difficult emotions, pulled from circumstances of his current relationship, the singer — who also goes by Med — said. It was written more than a year ago after he and his partner consistently butted heads. The artist said that reactionary responses to certain disagreements, oftentimes influenced from previous trauma, needed more control at the time.
“It got to the point where I couldn’t necessarily take responsibility for all of these things that she was consecutively getting upset with me about or all of the emotions attached to them,” he says. “I took responsibility for the things that I do that may affect her in a way that’s not so pleasant, but it’s also important to remind her that we all are the creators of our own reality.”
Although mending those issues with his partner is what Med described as a challenge that took time to work on, the full-circle moment of creating “Emotional Intel” came together quite succinctly. He wrote and recorded the song all within a total of two days, he says.
And from it, he took away a revitalized understanding of emotions, as nuanced vibrations to reflect upon, dissect, and fully experience rather than run away from. His moon in Libra is what he says makes it easier to be diplomatic and come to such conclusions. The creation of the track is what he says motivated him to keep moving forward to approach his next transitional life checkpoint.
“We have awareness as human beings,” he explains. “You’d be remiss to look at emotions as black and white; good or bad. You know? It doesn’t feel authentic for me to experience a challenge with my partner and make music about how much she sucks. It’s all much more complex than that so with the song, it ended up becoming a really beautiful moment for us.”
In fact, Half Moon Bay — whose moniker is named after a small foggy coastal city on the Northern coast of California — thinks about many aspects of life in a multidimensional vein, down to the cover art for his recently released song, which he says is “a lot deeper than most people realize.”
The colorful drawing for the single depicts cartoon versions of him and his girlfriend, Jenna, side by side with half of their faces obstructed by masks in reference to the anime show Bleach. In it, the main character Ichigo learns how to utilize the villain of the show’s superpowers. The mask that Ishigo wears occasionally throughout the series is the source of his power and is referenced within the lyrics of “Emotional Intel” and on the cover art, because to Med, he says that he sometimes felt like he too was wearing that same mask of power within some of those learning milestones with his partner.
“Sometimes when Jenna would be upset with me from one thing or the next, my natural inclination would be to look at myself and be down and question where I’m fucking up, but in those moments I learned a lesson to stand up for myself and advocate for myself. I learned balance and there was power in that.”
The product of such intention is a smoothly laid-back and self-aware song that displays Half Moon Bay’s consistent progression forward both musically and personally. Med says that he hopes to see more intention in today’s music landscape, but for now, he’ll continue to let energy, manifestation and synchronicity direct his own music.
“In our generation, we’re starting to understand the power of expectations, the power of our intentions and the power of our words,” he said. “I’m really proud of myself because in my music — in this song specifically — I was able to speak my truth and express how I feel. I’m happy to be at the forefront of that.”
