Dan Wilson (Semisonic) Releases Title Track to Forthcoming EP 'Dancing On The Moon'

The GRAMMY-winning songwriter Dan Wilson released the official video for the title track to his forthcoming EP Dancing On The Moon that will be released on September 28.

The six song EP is his first collection of solo material since his 2017 album Re-Covered and follows his band Semisonic's first release of new music in nearly 20 years You're Not Alone that was released in 2020.

"I wrote the chorus for 'Dancing on the Moon' at my piano, and it felt like a found object, like something I saw on the sidewalk and picked up," explains Wilson. "To me, it really does sound like a couple, marooned on a distant moon, trying to make contact with someone - anyone - and dancing under the super-lonely stars. Working on the song, I wanted to convey the feeling that comes from being toe-to-toe with someone you care about. You might be with them out in the vast emptiness of space, yet you're still completely dialed into each other and nothing else matters."

About the video, Wilson adds: "I came to director Yazz Alali with the song and just one thought - let's rent a spacesuit and I'll wander around anywhere you like. Yazz had the idea of telling more of a story, and also of folding some aspects of my daily L.A. life into my astronaut life: guitar pedals become the blinking lights of mission control; making espresso in the kitchen represents the long stretches of uneventful time en route; walking in Silver Lake Meadow becomes a lunar landing. I'm glad to be back on earth, all in all. I missed home."

Last month, Wilson announced the EP with a cover of Perfume Genius' "On The Floor," which was praised by Cool Hunting, Stereogum and Under The Radar.

The Dancing On The Moon EP finds Wilson exploring a more pop-centric and experimental sonic palette than his previous solo material, which for the last four years has consisted of a string of nearly 20 singles in lieu of a proper album or EP collection. Dancing On The Moon features four new recordings along with the previously released "Under The Circumstances" and "Red Light," which was co-written with Jenny Owen Youngs and Ethan Gruska.

"I always figured all those singles I'd been releasing might turn into an album or something down the line," he reflects, "but I could never get excited about the idea of sweeping up a bunch of odds and ends and calling it a record. Plus, the world had changed so much in the last year or two alone that my writing had naturally changed with it, and I felt like anything I put out needed to reflect that."

In the midst of writing and releasing new solo material and continuing to work with his band Semisonic, Wilson remains one of the most in-demand songwriters working today. In the past year alone, Wilson teamed up with Mitski for her first released co-write, "The Only Heartbreaker," worked with Taylor Swift on re-producing his co-writes on Red (Taylor's Version), and collaborated with with Leon Bridges, Tom Morello, Joy Oladokun, Claud, Cuco and many more.

In 2020, Wilson released his Words + Music in 6 Seconds deck that spawned from his popular Words + Music in 6 Seconds instagram series. The 75-card deck offers brief and inspiring pieces of advice and covers everything from inspiration and creativity to working relationships and mental health.

Watch the new music video here:

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