2. Sunglasses At Night (2:56)
3. Out of Touch (3:17)
4. Hungry Like The Wolf (2:59)
5. Young Turks (3:51)
6. Bettie Davis Eyes (3:01)
7. Holding Back The Years (3:31)
8. Valerie (3:15)
9. Promises Promises (3:03)
10. Something About You (2:50)
11. The Power of Love (4:38)
Moonlight Desires might only play 80s cover songs, but you’d be wrong to dismiss them as just another cover band. Formed by long-time Hamilton, Ont. musician Trevor Ziebarth (Actor/Writer/Composer on Teletoon’s adult comedy series Sons of Butcher), Moonlight Desires is his ode to the raunchy romances and youthful misadventures of summer’s past. By re-working synth laden pop hits of the 1980s, Ziebarth manages to turn familiar guilty pleasures into modern, guitar-driven rock anthems.
“For those unfamiliar, I created a television show with my brother Jay Ziebarth back in 2005 called ‘Sons of Butcher’. It was a unique adult comedy cartoon series that aired on Teletoon and was sold to over 200 countries around the world. The show was the first to blend video heads into a cartoon world. The Sons of Butcher characters worked in a butcher shop by day and were a spandex clad rock outfit by night, with my character (Ricky Butcher) relentlessly trying to make it as a big rock star. As a companion to the show, Sons of Butcher recorded and released a few comedy rock albums using songs from the show as inspiration, and travelled across Canada twice on a sponsored tour by Teletoon. As a live band, Sons of Butcher used to perform heavied-up covers of 80s songs and they often became fan/crowd favourites. Ultimately, I noticed the positive response and it led to the formation of Moonlight Desires in 2013.” says Trevor Ziebarth.
As an homage to their Canadian music heritage, the band decided to take their name from the popular 80s song ‘Moonlight Desires’ by iconic singer/songwriter Gowan.
“I wanted to have a direct (1980s song) reference …but I also thought it would fit in nicely with the band’s heavier direction.” says Ziebarth.
Joined in the studio by drummer Dave Dunham (Not Of, DAVIDS, ex-Chore, ex-Sons Of Butcher) and lead guitarist Marco Bressette (Dead Tired, ex-Threat Signal), he says “Just The Hits: 1981-1985” is “…a more layered, fully realized version of the band. We really just wanted to show people a good time, while still staying true to our metal, grunge and hard rock influences. Thanks to Mitch Bowden at Mechanical Noise, the production sounds big and warm, and I think this album really captures the fun of what Moonlight Desires is all about.”
While their 2014 debut album “Frankie Goes To Hamilton” delivered a rollicking arrangement of classic love songs, the band’s follow-up “Just The Hits: 1981-1985”transforms timeless hits such as “Sunglasses At Night” by Corey Hart and “Something About You” by Level 42 into party rock anthems. Satisfying that hunger to escape the shackles of reality with fun times and familiar hits, Moonlight Desires entire catalogue will be available for the first time on all major digital platforms (including iTunes, Spotify, Google Play) on September 15, 2017.
