Contributing WriterAfter six years away from releasing new music, Dance Spirit return with “Tranquilized & Hypnotized,” the first single from their long-awaited sophomore album, Lunatic, arriving September 25 via their newly launched independent imprint, Koukan. Originally completed before the pandemic and left unreleased for years, the album has become more than a collection of songs—it stands as a testament to creative resilience, artistic independence and the enduring connection between music, visual art and community. As Christopher Mohn and Reagan Denius open the door to this long-awaited new chapter, we caught up with the duo to discuss the journey behind Lunatic, the inspiration behind their return, the production techniques that shaped the record, and why some stories are simply meant to be told in their own time.
“Tranquilized & Hypnotized” introduces listeners to Lunatic in a beautifully understated way. What made this the right track to open the conversation around the album after such a long hiatus?
CHRIS: As a piece of art, I am almost haunted by how ironic it is that this is the lead track to our return. Lyrically, the speaker in the track is obviously going through an existential crisis and realizes he must look inward to move forward, to rebuild, to move on, and on. We had recorded this song years ago, in 2016 I think, and in a way you hope music this deep will heal people or move them upon hearing it. It’s funny for me to return to it, I just hear it as a note from my past self to my present self.
Reagan and I are pretty conceptual people and the journey is a prerequisite for any long play album I would want to listen to. I think this song has more pop sensibility than anything else on the album, and just fits in that space in the journey.
Your productions have always balanced organic emotion with intricate sound design. Were there any particular pieces of gear, production techniques, or happy accidents that became essential to shaping the sound of “Tranquilized & Hypnotized”?
REAGAN: The original version of Tranq&Hypno was actually recorded in the same studio we wrote our first album ‘The Sun Also Rises’ in. The piano in the song is a live recording of me playing! The Hypnotized and Tranquilized versions came about years later in 2019 once I had the modular in our studio. ‘Tranquilized’ version features some granular fun with the MakeNoise Morphagene, while the 303 in the Hypnotized version is a 303 I acquired from a hacker friend who does live modular techno. It’s a very special piece, a mod called “The Beast, which features CV inputs so you can control it with the modular. It’s also got a pretty special extra filter modulation built into it.
“Making music for me is akin to world-building; I want people to get lost in the music, in the world of the song, and have it transport them to another dimension entirely.” – Reagan Denius
There’s a cinematic quality that runs throughout your music, with each track unfolding like a journey rather than following a traditional club structure. When you’re writing, are you imagining a dance floor, a personal listening experience, or something entirely different?
CHRIS: Writing music has changed a lot for me since we initially split in 2019. As far as Dance Spirit goes, my influence and intention with the music was always seeking and expressing beauty, and was quite obsessed with capturing the essence at one point. It was totally possible in collaboration with Reagan, and if any song shows how amazing his musical abilities are, it is this one. The piano work was so exciting to record, and that performance in the studio was such a magic and universal moment. Those moments are the best ones to have when you’re making art, and I guess I imagine it moving people in the deeper places of their feelings.
REAGAN: For me, it’s all about figuring out the story and “vibe” of the song—making music for me is akin to world-building; I want people to get lost in the music, in the world of the song, and have it transport them to another dimension entirely. I tend to think less about the dance floor, and more from a place of how everything combined makes you FEEL. This is one reason our collaboration works so well, I feel like, as Chris grew up with a dance floor experience to the music, while for me it was an imaginative escapism to lose my extremely moody self in which transported me to outer space and other dimensions (I didn’t discover the dance floor until my 20’s). Because of this, my music can sometimes be a bit more abstract or experimental, and with Chris’s touch, he is able to capture a solid groove around the worlds I build, making it a more tangible experience for the dance floor.
“It’s funny for me to return to this song—I hear it as a note from my past self to my present self”…” – Christopher Mohn
After stepping away for several years, did returning to this music change the way you hear or value the tracks? Were there moments where you were tempted to revisit or completely rework parts of Lunatic, or was it important to preserve the album as a snapshot of that creative period?
CHRIS: I listened to it for the first time since 2019 a couple months ago, and it was a pretty emotional ride. Some of the songs I remember every millisecond of because we played them out a lot. Playing ceremony on the Robot Heart Bus Sunrise in 2019 at the burn was and is a major moment in my art life. Funny enough, a few of them I honestly don’t remember making haha, it’s like that when you are compulsive producers.
I think the work is timeless, and good and that is why I wanted it to be released. It’s a beautiful expression for the world to hear right now. Both of our styles as individuals have progressed so much, and so far from each other, I know for me I’m just locking in underground grooves in the studio, so listening to this, it’s slower, more transcendent, than what I am making now. In the end I am proud of how uniquely beautiful and strange it is.
REAGAN: I listened to the album for the first time in about 6 years last winter, and it was definitely an emotional experience. There was a lot there, between the “breakup” and just things I was going through and experiencing at the time. The album was like a time capsule, catapulting me back to those moments. Listening to the lyrics and the album, I could almost see it as a pre-cognitive, alchemical fortune-telling of our temporary split, the oncoming pandemic, and what transpired and would transpire in the years to come. In the back of my mind, I occasionally think “oh, I could rework this song a new way with the new knowledge and understanding I’ve developed over the last 6 years,” but at the end of the day, as a whole piece, it just works beautifully, and I didn’t feel anything really needed to change—it would completely alter the personality of what we did. I’d rather make a new album! I think our remixes for the album’s second single are our own ways of adapting what we did to our new individual styles.
For someone discovering Dance Spirit for the very first time through “Tranquilized & Hypnotized,” what do you hope they feel by the time the track comes to an end and what would you want them to know before diving into the full Lunatic album?
CHRIS: My wildest artistic ambitions in this realm is that the listener feels like they can compare the experience to a Pink Floyd album, or John Digweed mix. Those are my standards for Long Play Listens…
REAGAN: Well, I’d say it depends on the version of the song the listener is enjoying. If they’re in the original, I want them to feel the hope of their dreams that fuels their aspirations, and the emotions that come with pursuing them. If they’re enjoying the Tranquilized version, I want them to feel tranquilized—hence the mix name! It’s just a super feel-good, hit those emotional harmonies created with that root sustained bassline, and just experience pure blissful beauty. For the Hypnotized version, I want people to feel like dancing! I want them to feel cool, feel like they can let loose, and be hypnotized by their dreams. As for diving into the full album, I believe it’s an alchemical experience—it’s meant to evoke emotion, make you think, experience beauty, get an audiogasm, experience the shadow, work through the shadow. I think all the lyrics are ambiguous enough that the songs can be made to reflect whatever the listener is going through in life, and find some insight into where they are and where they need to go. As with all our music, our aim is to help people with music, because, as Sun Ra says, “Music is the healing power of the universe.”
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