Mikey La Luna Finds the Sacred in the Dancefloor on “Human”
Punk Head: You chose Human as your first major statement as a vocalist. Why did this particular song feel like the right one to reveal that side of you?
Mikey La Luna: I’d correct one thing in the question: Human wasn’t my first statement as a vocalist. I’ve released several tracks over the past year where I sing, but mostly through mantras, chanting and spiritual electronic music.
Human was different. It was the first time I produced and performed an actual song, rather than a track, with a verse, chorus, and the vocal right at the center.
I chose it because Rag’n’Bone Man’s original has stayed with me for years, through some of my happiest moments and some of the harder ones. I’ve never grown tired of it. To me, it’s a masterpiece.
So if I was going to do a cover, I thought: at least be brave enough to mess with a masterpiece.
I changed the groove, tempo and energy, but tried to keep the emotion that made me love it in the first place.
Punk Head: You describe your music as existing somewhere between the dancefloor and ritual. Where do you personally feel that line disappears?
Mikey La Luna: The message is really the essence. You can deliver something spiritual through a cacao ceremony and sound healing, but you can also do it at a party or a rave that feels just as powerful. What matters is that there’s meaning behind it.
I see the dancefloor as a ritual already. So if I can bring music, words and energy into that space that create connection rather than disconnection, that’s where everything comes together for me.
My taste is very broad, but I’m drawn to music that hits hard, melodic, progressive, hypnotic, music that really moves the body. At the same time, I’m deeply connected to spirituality and rituals of connection.
That’s basically the heart of Mikey La Luna: turning the dancefloor into a ritual of connection.
Punk Head: There is a striking contrast between polished electronic production and your attraction to imperfection. How much imperfection do you actually allow into the music?
Mikey La Luna: I don’t really chase imperfection for the sake of it. I want every track to sound as good as it possibly can, and for the things I’m less strong at, like mixing and mastering, I work with people I really trust.
Where I probably allow more freedom is in how the music feels and moves. Most of the time when I’m building a track, I’m thinking about how it will flow at a party or how it will work with me on stage, rather than how perfectly it will translate in a car. The whole Mikey La Luna project is built more for the stage than for streaming.
So I’m happy to keep some human roughness in the performance, but not at the expense of the sound. Even if you only hear it on streaming, I still want it to hit properly.
Punk Head: You came from ballet before moving into electronic music. Do you still think about music physically, almost as choreography?
Mikey La Luna: Absolutely. I think I still experience music very physically.
The ballet I came from was Georgian ballet, which is extremely rhythmic and powerful. One moment you’re dancing with swords, the next you’re in a ritual of courtship and tension. That contrast was always there: power and grace, instinct and desire. So from a very young age, music was never just something I listened to. It was something you moved through.
I still have a lot of respect for dance and movement, and I try to bring some of that into the visuals when it feels right. As the project grows, I’d also like to bring more movement into the live show. Probably less Georgian ballet, and more tribal movement that feels natural to the music.
Punk Head: The graffiti setting feels deliberately unpolished. What does your neighborhood give the song that a more glamorous location couldn't?
Mikey La Luna: As I’ve moved closer to spirituality, I’ve probably become a little more hippie, less materialistic and definitely less interested in glamour.
So high-quality public graffiti felt like the perfect setting, especially because there’s so much of it right outside my home in the Jaffa Flea Market. For a song like Human, it actually felt more fitting to me than some beautiful natural landscape.
There’s something very human about street art. It carries fingerprints, history, mistakes and intention. That matched the spirit of this version of Human perfectly: the music, the performance and the visuals all come from the same handmade world.
Punk Head: Finally, if Human is the first time you're stepping forward fully as the producer, vocalist and visual creator behind the project, what does this release make possible for Mikey La Luna that wasn't possible before?
Mikey La Luna: Human definitely pushed the project forward for me, especially visually.
I’ve never loved being photographed or filmed, and I’m very critical of myself on camera. But I downloaded editing software, taught myself how to use it for social media, and strangely, it became almost therapeutic.
At some point I thought: if I can edit a Reel, why not try a whole music video?
So Human became the first release where I really connected the music, the performance and the visuals myself.
