INTERVIEW + SHOW REVIEW: Victor Mucho's Moonlight in Visby

On May 13, Judah and the Lion mandolinist and vocalist Brian MacDonald released his first debut solo album under the moniker “Victor Mucho.” Ahead of the release, Heart Eyes got to sit down with Brian MacDonald and discuss the origin of the solo project and the vision behind Moonlight in Visby.

Written while Brian, his wife and their dog lived in Sweden, MacDonald describes Moonlight in Visby as “a mixture of love songs and self-introspection and self-identity shift.” Two days after the release, Victor Mucho debuted the new album at The Back Corner in the place he calls home — Nashville, TN. The intimate venue contained handmade displays of locations that MacDonald and his wife visited during their time in the little coastal town of Visby, Sweden.

The soft percussion and acoustic melodies, paired with a stream of consciousness lyrical style, mirror the pace of sabbatical island life. MacDonald and his wife moved to Visby with their dog so she could pursue her graduate degree.

“When I got there, I had a lot of free time on my hands because we were going to be living there for a year, said MacDonald. “So all the songs on the album are contained within our time in Visby. And they’re just totally written through that lens and that story of living there.”

MacDonald spent much of his time surfing, hiking and writing songs on the island.

Being away from his home in Nashville for an extended period gave him the space to explore a unique sound outside of his Judah and the Lion folk-pop-rock persona and develop a more reflective style. Visby was the perfect place for MacDonald to “dive into my creative process. I just found myself in a very rural place on this small island with a lot of time, a lot of space, really beautiful nature.”

MacDonald incorporated pieces of this idyllic setting into his release show in Nashville. The small room and even smaller stage were peppered with artifacts from the historic town, including personal polaroids and beautiful home videos. Revealing the intimately personal nature of the project, MacDonald’s wife (jokingly referred to as “Elyse Mucho”) created a sweet moment by joining him on stage for a couple of songs. Friends and family laughed and cheered as he played the whole album and then some.

“The album was written about and through a lot of change in my identity. And I think I’ve noticed looking at my friends and family around me that they have also gone through a lot of change during these last couple years,” shared MacDonald. “And I’m really thankful that I had the outlet and the space to be in Sweden and make this album because it was a form of me processing all of that change. And what I hoped that people would get from the album is the space and ability to reflect on their own change in their life and just be able to recognize and process some of that identity change that they’ve gone through. Because that’s really what the album and our time in Sweden did for me.”

You can stream Moonlight in Visby on all streaming platforms.