Los Angeles-based pop duo moonflower. channels the utmost heart and emotion with their soothing and transcendent debut single entitled "río."
Comprised of Colombian singer-songwrtiers Alejandro Montoya and Elisa González, moonflower. is deeply inspired by their Latin roots and their admiration for pop, soul, and jazz. The duo strives to tell stories through colorful melodies, intricate harmonies, and playful instrumentation.
Teaming up with producer Renny Goh for their lush and dreamy debut single, "río," listeners are able to introduce themselves to the soothing and harmonious sounds that moonflower. has to offer. They serenade us in the beautiful Spanish language while singing a story of the journey one takes when feeling lost and eventually being found.
Listening to their dreamy debut single, "río," the song opens with Elisa's breathy and angelic vocals that are perfectly chopped and sliced by producer Renny Goh. As Alejandro makes his soothing and warm vocal appearance, the atmosphere instantly shifts into this emotional and passionate space, especially as Elisa brings a tranquil and romantic back and forth.
As the duo continues serenading us with their lush and chilling vocals, the accompanying instrumentation takes us by the hand and leads us down towards this sonic waterfall, cascading our speakers in nothing but introspection and emotion. We're truly impressed with moonflower.'s ability to create such poignant and compelling tunes, especially since this is their debut; it showcases their mastery of the singer-songwriter craft.
Don't miss out on the chilling and heartwarming performance of moonflower. offers in their debut single, "río," now available on all digital streaming platforms.
Welcome to BuzzMusic moonflower., and congratulations on the release of your passionate and mesmerizing debut single, "río." Why did you want to release this single as your first? How does this song introduce us to who you are and the music you create?
Our song, ‘río.’, was the first original song we started working together as a duo. Back in 2016, when we met in college, we noticed how much we had in common and how we gravitated towards the same musical inclinations. We started singing covers from the likes of Bon Iver and Maggie Rogers, and we got to know and understand each other musically. Eventually, we gathered the courage to sit down and commit to writing our own stories - our own songs. From this process, we started collaborating on ‘río.’, a song that Alejandro had written down in an old notebook when he first arrived in Los Angeles. Back then it started as a piano ballad focusing on having two lead melodies throughout. We performed the song a couple of times and then for some reason shelved it. Elisa understood the value of sharing that story and after some conversations, we decided it was necessary to take off on our journey with the song that brought us together. This song introduces us as two songwriters who want to share the stories from our upbringing in Colombia to our journeys that brought us here together in California. The song and production capture our essence as artists and musicians because it allowed us to tell a story with a strong message through various musical elements we love. Harmonies, melodies, and instrumentation (percussion, vocal pads, synths) go hand in hand with the objective of resembling nature, hence the imagery surrounding the name of the song ‘río.’ which means river in Spanish. The message in the song is something we strive to share with our music; overcoming, moving forward, finding yourself, and healing despite the struggle.
What inspired the emotional and relatable lyrical concept and theme within your single, "río?"
Alejandro started collecting some personal journals at the beginning of 2016 before arriving in Los Angeles. It was a huge change from a life in Colombia that forced him to face what he needed in order to heal from the past. Growing up surrounded by nature, it was almost instinctive for him to be able to connect with the peacefulness of nature in order to find that healing. Inspiration came from the desire of finding who we were at the moment and the complex journey of healing. The theme always circled around the idea of getting lost in a river and finding oneself once it led to the ocean. Metaphors are used throughout as a resource for depicting the story in a way that resembles the mountains in Colombia leading to the ocean in LA.
What was it like working with producer Renny Goh for "río?" Will you be working with her for your future releases as well?
We first met Renny through some friends in common in college and heard of her amazing ability to play the piano and lead musical projects. She graduated before us, but we remained close as she unraveled her musical life. We always knew that she was someone we could trust with our musical vision due to her musical intuition and her special sensibility.
With ‘río.’ we all started a learning process that took the song through different paths, where Renny’s arranging and production skills held our vision and made it what it is today. Her willingness to learn, change, and explore new sounds within the instrumentation and our voices truly transformed the song. It was so important for us to be able to work with a friend like Renny, who not only is extremely talented but was willing to go along on this journey keeping the storytelling aspect at center stage. We are also strong advocates for supporting women in the music industry and being able to work with a female producer in such a male-dominated space felt like the right choice for us. We will surely continue working with Renny Goh for our future releases as she is an integral part of moonflower.
Could you describe your duo's creative process when writing and creating the single, 'río?" How did you divide the process between the two of you?
We first traveled together to Big Bear Lake, California in 2017, where Alejandro finished a first draft of the song. He recollected some journals from late 2015 and 2016 and no less than a week later, we found ourselves polishing the lyrics and figuring out a consistent melody. We learned how to properly blend with each other vocally through this song. It started as a slow pop piano ballad and worked as a two-part melody focusing on the two layers you hear as lead vocals. It was always a collaborative effort from the moment we both sat down on the piano after our trip. In 2018 we started working on some demos with Renny Goh at her home studio where the song took many shapes before the final cut. Anthony Cummins, a close collaborator of Renny’s and a good friend of ours, recorded percussion and drums. Edmund Wee worked as the mixing engineer, and George Dum as our mastering engineer. We also collaborated on the single artwork with local artist Abraham Matias. We finished the recording process from late 2020 into early 2021, and after all these years around the song, we finally felt proud of the beautiful multilayered pop song you hear today.
What's next for moonflower.?
We have been writing and gathering songs for a while now and they are patiently waiting to be produced and released. Currently, we are working on our next single with Renny Goh, which is a more upbeat song that shares a story about moving forward through fun Latin elements, different instrumentation, and a lot of melodic playfulness. We are also working on releasing an EP next year that showcases these stories about healing and overcoming. This song ‘río.’, our next single, and a couple of other new songs would be part of this first EP, which will hopefully lead the way to our debut album. Live shows are also something that we are carefully considering so you might see us perform around the LA area soon enough.
We are currently planting a garden on the moon and we can’t wait to share more of our stories with our fans.
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