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Highlonesome Music Festival (HLMF) Artist Spotlight: MOSELLE


Performing at HLMF: Friday, August 29, 6-7pm, Lafferty Stage

Moselle | Highlonesome Music Festival

New EP by Moselle: Jackelope

Voice Memo on YouTube for Song “DFAD” DFAD (voice memo)



At HLMF, we’re thrilled to host musical force and TikTok sensation, Moselle, to Lafferty Stage next Friday at 6pm. She has just released a new EP – Jackelope – a collection of 5 powerful songs that illustrate her songwriting prowess. As a musician, she’s a triple threat:

Songwriter/Lyricist, Vocalist, Instrumentalist!


Moselle took time this week to answer several interview questions I posed to her, covering topics ranging from the influence of nature and theatre to addiction, to navigating the positives and negatives of a vivid dream life.


Get your tickets today and come see Moselle perform!


BP: I love your new EP Jackelope! Tell me a little about your experience recording the EP: How did it come about? How much time was spent on it? How was it produced? Where was it recorded? Do you have any special highlights about the making of this EP?


Moselle: Thank you so much! I am really proud of it. I moved to California at the end of January in 2024, and started tracking the EP in September with the production duo blonde_brunette_ (Adam Ackerman and Eric Caruso). They reached out to me last year asking if I’d be interested in getting together for a studio session to see how collaborating might feel, and since then they have become good friends. We didn’t know exactly what we wanted to make when we first started, but once I presented the idea for Jackalope they were super on board. It’s a mix of songs that had been written for a few years, and newer ones written since moving to the West coast. Something I think is cool about the production is that on the song Lucid there is this recording I took onto a cassette tape of a Halloween party my roommates and I hosted last year layered into the track to add to the surrealness. I think it’s sweet because it’s like a ton of my

friends are on the song in a way.


BP: Addiction seems to be a recurring theme in your songs. Can you speak to how the concept, experience, or observation of addiction informs your music?


Moselle: Addiction is something that heavily affected myself and family growing up. I have lost people I loved very much to their battle with addiction, so my heart always grieves for someone in the midst of that power struggle. I myself had to get sober from alcohol a couple years ago because it was threatening everything I’d started working so hard for. I’m lucky to have a partner who helped me through that gnarly process. There's so much grace needed to escape the mindset/circumstances that enable addiction, and sadly most people don’t receive an ounce of the stuff. My hope in writing from my own experience is that people feel less alone, less shame in asking for help.


BP: Your song Lucid does a great job of painting a picture of dreamscapes. Are you a vivid, regular dreamer? How do your dreams affect your waking life and your musical life? Have you learned how to practice lucid dreaming?


Moselle: I’ve always been a really vivid dreamer. I like hearing other people’s dreams too. I think it’s such an interesting and funny thing our brains do. I lucid dream as well, but I don’t know when or how I learned to do it. I feel like I used to have way more control when I’d lucid dream, but more often lately I try to fly, for example, but can’t get very far from wherever I realized I was dreaming. I did once have a really scary experience dreaming, which seems silly to say, but it genuinely rocked me; I was taking a nap while in school, started dreaming and then realized I was dreaming. Something scared me so i tried to wake myself back up, but i kept starting the dream over, each time things were slightly different like i remember everything in the room I’d wake up in was suddenly huge or there would be people in there that weren’t before, and i’d get out of bed (in the dream), try to wake myself up again and then wake up back at the start of the dream. Because I knew I was dreaming I started catastrophizing and

convinced myself I was in a coma or something. I woke up after i don't know how many fake dreams and was crying and called my mom- it was so bizarre. I was anxious to go to sleep for weeks. Pretty wicked little prank my brain pulled on itself.

 


BP: Discuss your songwriting process for this EP, musically, instrumentally, and lyrically. As a young artist, is your process evolving or has it been fairly consistent since you began making music?


Moselle: I rarely write a whole song in one go. There are a few exceptions, but most of the music I write, all Jackalope tracks included, have lyrics that came about from 2 or three different writing sessions, sometimes months apart. I’m always weary of naming a song because I know I might steal from it for something else. If I’m sitting down to write I like to start with what I call seeds; usually a few lines and loose melody or rhythm that I can build off of while strumming my guitar- which I'm not very good at playing, I’m a cowboy chord connoisseur. I'm definitely still finding my process, and I think as I grow it will keep changing, but I’m always jotting down words and phrases that stand out to me, trying to find ways of piecing them together. Sometimes it's a concept that I want to write about, or specific words I want to use, but I’m always on the hunt for inspiration. I really enjoy songwriting when it feels like a puzzle, like I’ve got all these things that I feel in my heart go together, so it’s a matter of fitting them together in a way that's sonically appealing.

 

BP: Who are some of your musical and/or lyrical influences or artists you admire? And, what artist, album, or song have been enjoying the most this summer?


Moselle: I had an embarrassingly intense Bob Dylan phase as a teenager. Patti Smith too. And I loved Jagged Little Pill, that album was very formative. Angel Olsen and The Front Bottoms were also huge for me as a teen. And Stephen Sondheim. I have a deep love and appreciation for musical theatre and Sondheim is simply one of the most clever lyricists to have ever written. Currently I find myself very inspired by the work coming out from Ethel Cain, Jensen McRae, Wolf Alice (their song White Horses is my current song of the summer), and Chappell Roan. The most annoying thing about me is that I like to mention that I was a Chappell fan way before she blew up, I remember finding a video of hers years ago that was filmed in Branson MO and I thought that was so cool at the time because Branson wasn’t too far from where I grew up in Arkansas.

 

BP: I really enjoy the quality and mood of your lyrics, and I imagine you must be a reader. If so, what are you currently reading?


Moselle: Currently I’m reading “A Closed and Common Orbit” which is the second book in a really sweet contemporary Sci-Fi series. My favorite book of the last few years though has been Piranesi. I have a copy I’ve lent out to probably 20 friends because I just think more people should read it.


 

BP: To what extent does your Ozarkian heritage play a role in your musical heritage? Have the Ozarks been a muse for you, creatively (whether good, evil, or indifferent)? Where do you live now and how does your current environment influence your music?


Moselle: Nature is a very frequent source of imagery in my writing. I think growing up with the Ozarks around is what instilled that. The Earth is a source of awe and comfort, just as much as it is one of fear and uncertainty.  And there’s the tradition of folk music in the Ozarks. I saw a bluegrass band play at a young age and my family didn't attend church or anything growing up so live music was my first experience with collective effervescence. Hearing people pick out the most intricate melodies while jauntily singing their woes in a way that transmuted the difficulties and heartbreak

described by the lyrics into something joyous and communal was pretty inspiring. There are a lot of people making good music in Arkansas across genre- really talented folks all over the Ozarks truly.

 

BP: I’m very excited to see you perform at our 4th  annual Highlonesome Music Festival on Friday, August 29th . What is it about this festival that’s bringing you back for a 2nd  year?


Moselle: Highlonesome is, first of all, in a beautiful little pocket of the hills. And they embrace the surrounding environment which adds so much to the weekend. Plus it's a really great spot for both mine and my fiance’s families to meet up and enjoy each other’s company just as much as the music. It’s always nice to play outside as well, there’s something primally satisfying about singing for the trees and the breeze.

 

BP: Describe your experience with performing live and how that differs from the

recorded/produced expression of your music.


Moselle: I used to do a lot more theatre, and those performances never gave me half as much anxiety as playing/performing my own stuff. I’ve played live regularly over the last year to really hone that part of this project. It’s been mostly solo, acoustic sets, but now I have a band I really love to jam with. They couldn’t join me for this festival, but I am excited to be back this year because I think I am much more confident on stage now than I was even a year ago. Taking music into the studio is still something I’m learning how to navigate. It’s hard to keep people satisfied with the recorded version of a song when they’ve become endeared to like a TikTok of me just playing it by myself, but I do love the creative opportunities that come with a studio recording. I ended up releasing a ‘voice memo’ version of Jackalope to try and appease the people who just want bare bones versions of my music. It’s a really kind request honestly, but sometimes a little doubt inducing when you want to let a song grow in the studio, but have this nagging fear that people won’t accept it.

 

BP: At last year’s Highlonesome Music Festival, your mom’s boyfriend, Mark, was one of the performers for our midnight storytelling event, and I hear that your mother will be one of this year’s storytellers. Do you come from a family of creatives? Do you all support and enjoy each other creatively? Do you ever collaborate?


Moselle: Mark is awesome, love him, he’s been a really big supporter of my ambitions. My mom as well, she’s such a good storyteller conversationally I’m really excited to see her take the stage. She did theatre when I was growing up and I always thought it was so cool to see her on stage even if I was too young to get any of the jokes.  I’m the oldest of four as well and all my little sisters have their own unique facet of creativity.

They’re all so cool, I feel so lucky as the oldest to watch them grow into the people they are now. My sister closest to me in age has been writing plays and starting to make short films in Seattle and we’ve collaborated a couple times now where I write a song for her short inspired by the story. It's really fun because I'm writing about an experience that’s not my own and ultimately not real, which allows for a little more irreverence and experimentation lyrically.


My dad is a musician as well, he’s a fantastic writer and guitar player, but we have a hard time connecting in general. I think he has insecurity about what he did and didn’t accomplish as an artist, so it’s hard for him to be supportive of me without undermining the work I’ve put in.


 

BP: Is there anything specific you’d like to share with your fans or potential new fans?


Moselle: First of all, thank you for listening if you do. I get messages from people about how they showed one of my songs to their child or their partner, and that means the world to me. I know how special it is when I want to show someone a song I love that I think they might like as well, so when I hear that someone's done that with a song of mine it really makes me feel grateful for this life I’m living. 


BP: Finally, what comes next for you, in reality or in your aspirations? 


Moselle: I’m excited to be working on a lot of music right now, 2026 is shaping up to be a really exciting year for this project. I may have another little surprise or two in store for the rest of 2025, but If there’s one thing I’ve learned during all this it's that taking your time to plan will always pay off so I’m really trying to practice that moving forward. Without promising too much, I definitely intend to play shows outside of just LA next year :)



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Find details about other HLMF performers at the website: Home | Highlonesome Music Festival

| Homegrown Americana Music Festival in the Ozark Mountains | Dockley Ranch, 10005 County

Rd UU545, Chadwick, MO 65629, USA

When: Labor Day Weekend 2025 (Aug 29-31)

Where: (@dockleyranch near Ava MO)

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