ARTIST BIO
LONG STORY SHORT...
Moon Bride is an eclectic musical collaboration between singer-songwriter Carly Kotula (née Taich) and friends.
Moon Bride has something to say and by golly she’s going to find a way to say it. If life’s heaviest questions are the medicine, then her smart lyrics, fun melodies, and pure vocals are the sugar that makes it go down.
At the end of the day, Kotula feels that this whole music-thing is a calling to shine light into the darkness. The moon does not create light but accepts the task of reflecting it. So too, Moon Bride looks to her Source, then sings and lives as a "conduit of love".
In 2022 Kotula gathered support from over 100 patrons to fund her latest album 'Insomnie’, a pandemic-era pop anthem that, as NewSong Music so eloquently wrote, “explores the deep and nervy recesses of creativity, loneliness, insecurity, and self-discovery."
LONG STORY LONG...
NC-based indie-pop artist, Moon Bride is a walking contradiction. Her timeless yet contemporary, otherworldly yet grounded voice brings new life to themes of faith, doubt, fear, and love. The woman behind the name, Carly Kotula’s, warm and airy vocal quality instantly captivates listeners, while her lyrics - called “French press in a world of lyrical drip” by Front of the Tapestry - keep us around long term.
Riding the line between self-assuredness and insecurity, Moon Bride frames her award-winning lyrics with cinematic orchestrations and unusual melodies that usher us into another dimension. There is a storybook mysticism to all she touches, with one foot planted in this reality. The paradox between the two worlds has left listeners wondering if she is inviting us into a dream or waking us up from one. The premiere track off of Moon Bride’s latest album, Insomnie, removes the mystery at last: "Rise up, rise up, why are you sleeping?"
In December 2022, Kotula crowd-funded her sophomore album with the help of over 100 patrons. With her eccentric personality and skill set has come opportunities for exploration beyond what’s expected of a singer-songwriter. Operating as a one-woman record label, as she puts it, Kotula is an indie artist in the truest sense of the word, and proud of it.
Moon Bride’s 2024 LP, Insomnie, “explores the deep and nervy recesses of creativity, loneliness, insecurity, and self-discovery [Newsong Music].” The eclectic 12-song album dares us to face our fears and keeps us on our toes by weaving its way through a myriad of genres. From 1930's crooner to 60's blues rock, 80's synth-pop to 90's alternative...nothing is off limits for Moon Bride.
Moon Bride is known in her hometown of Asheville, NC and beyond. Her 2020 EP, It Tends to Glow, earned her the accolade “One of the most fearless songwriters of western NC” by CLTure. Blurt Magazine named her debut 2017 record, Reverie, “a start-to-finish, no-filler/all-killer gem—a veritable calling card to greatness if enough ears find it.”
2020-Winner, Renew the Arts Songwriting Contest through The Breath and The Clay
2018-Finalist, NewSong Music Songwriting Competition
2018-Winner, LEAF Songwriting Competition through NewSong Music
2018-Winner, Best Soundtrack (“Give Me A Likeness”), Music Video Asheville Awards
2015-Winner, Brown Bag Songwriting Competition
Since first meeting at a public high school in Charlotte, NC musical artist Moon Bride (Carly Kotula) and filmmaker, Daniel Rosenberg promised that one day they’d make a music video together. Lucky for the world, that day has finally arrived.
Near the end of 2023, the two gathered a small dream team of other hometown friends and artists Zoë Lotus (Art Director), Pat Kotula (Assistant Director), and Victoria Singleton (Costume Designer, Hair/Makeup Artist) to reunite in the town where it all began.
The result is the debut music video by production company, Boy Howdy.
The music video is a medley featuring not one, but two songs off of Moon Bride’s latest album,
Insomnie.
Staying true to the album’s theme of restlessness and awakening,
“Nobody Knows / Keep Calm and Carry On” visualizes a woman breaking free from the mundane to find a world in technicolor, but no more answers than questions. The eccentric, retro-pop soundtrack quickly turns from a Judy Garland-style lullaby to an upbeat, rockabilly-grunge ballad with nods to Weezer and The Pixies.
In a whopping 3 1/2 minutes the team managed to fit 9 characters (all played by Kotula herself), a dozen different sets, and 9 outfits -
6 of which were handmade by Victoria Singleton. Singleton looked to the name Moon Bride for her otherworldly designs, as well as tastemakers of the 60’s futurism movement, like Pierre Cardin and André Courreges, whose shapes and color pallets inspired the playful, cosmic, and fashion forward pieces that became the final looks for the music video. Her iconic white dress blends bridal elegance with the spirit of the space-age.
Rosenberg, a compositing artist working in film and television, and Lotus, a motion graphics artist, spent months carefully curating the shoot and just as many editing in post. Invested in recreating the quality of traditional film processes, Rosenberg drew inspiration from orthochromatic film (“Nobody Knows”) and 35mm technicolor (“Keep Calm and Carry On”). The crew shot for 3 full days at NODA Art House in Charlotte.
The project was edited by Rosenberg in Da Vinci resolve, with motion VFX built in Nuke and Blender. It was shot on a range of lenses from modern Canon to vintage glass and a Soviet manufactured lens for an authentic vintage aesthetic. The music video was produced without a trace of AI technology.
The first collaboration between Moon Bride and Boy Howdy,
“Nobody Knows / Keep Calm and Carry On” is as playful as the songs it envisions. Taking inspiration from Old Hollywood classics and Harper’s Bazaar’s Man Ray with a sci-fi punk-rock spin, it is an artful, extravagant, and totally original trip through time and space. And worth your 3 1/2 minutes.
Learn more about the making of "Nobody Knows / Keep Calm and Carry On"
Find the music video in the following places:
VEVO/Youtube: https://youtu.be/kbc7NohBj4E
TIDAL:
http://tidal.com/video/370179361
Boomplay:
https://www.boomplay.com/video/1126467
Vibe Stream
https://www.vibe-stream.tv/video/0dcea96f-4e19-4d20-82bb-084e40c9f2c8
Vimeo:
Produced by Boy Howdy
Directed by Daniel Rosenberg
Art Director: Zoë Lotus
Assistant Director: Pat Kotula
Costume Design / Hair and Makeup: Victoria Singleton
Post Production: Daniel Rosenberg and
Zoë Lotus
Filmed at
NODA Art House in Charlotte, NC
Special thanks to Daniel Harp, Tom Taich, and Hannah Glavin for their contributions!
WEB DESIGN, DRAWINGS + ANIMATIONS BY MOON BRIDE