Artist: Miss Tess
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “The Moon Is an Ashtray”
Album: The Moon Is an Ashtray
Release Date: February 7, 2020
Label: Miss Tess/Tone Tree Music
In Their Words: “This song came out of an experiment with metaphor, smashing two unrelated words together to derive a new meaning. This is one of the few songs in my writing career than just fell out of my brain in about an hour. I grew up with a lot of fairy-tale ideas of how life and love might pan out, but reality can be a harsh mistress. ‘The Moon Is an Ashtray’ is a tongue-in-cheek vintage-kitsch metaphor discussing the idea that romance isn’t real. When you get up close to the moon, you realize it’s not as pretty it seems from a distance, or is just plain fake, or not as it originally appeared. The whole idealism and cruel optimism wrapped up in an image like the moon — or new love — is just an illusion.
“For me, it kind of ties into getting older and realizing some of your childlike views are not what they seem. On a professional level the music industry is really rough when you get up close. Fairy-tale ideas of relationships are never real. I think a lot of the songs on the album speak to that.” — Miss Tess
Photo credit: Gina Binkley
