moondaddy “Dove Tapes” (Silver Girl)
Going For Adds to Top 200 Radio June 3, 2025
moondaddy “Dove Tapes” (Silver Girl)
“Decadent synth textures, winding guitar lines, and wistful harmonies ... a tapestry of
shimmering melody.” - Under the Radar
SOUND: dreampop / shoegaze
HOMETOWN: San Diego, California
INSPIRATION: This Mortal Coil, Broadcast, Cocteau Twins
RIYL: Beach House, King Hannah, Cigarettes After Sex
STATS: 100K+ catalog streams, 50+ shows to date
SAN DIEGO’S MOONDADDY is on a mission to find light amid the dark. The analog-obsessed dreampop project helmed by singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Cara Poticker meets the haze of existence with a kaleidoscopic sound that provides peace even (especially) when all else feels like chaos. Deploying glistening guitar, gauzy synths, dulcet vocals, and poetic observations, moondaddy leans into the fuzziness between people, things, and sounds — even literally, as they eschew digitalia in favor of perfectly imperfect sonics.
On her gorgeous and hypnotic sophomore LP, Dove Tapes, Cara works to make sense of heavy forces both internal and external — confrontations with a former friend, a brutal breakup, global events. “When I thought of the title, I pictured a dove carrying an olive branch,” she says. “I'm committed to creating little microcosms
of love, despite what's happening in the world. That's what art facilitates, and what we all need to keep doing.”
moondaddy began as Cara’s private practice and has since expanded to include Gabriel Poissant (guitar), Patrick Heaney (drums), and Rob Wren (bass). For Dove Tapes, the group reconnected with producer/engineer Manuel Calderon (Animal Collective, Beach House) to record live to tape at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas. The tracks were then mastered directly from tape to lacquer by Paul Gold (Grizzly Bear, Songs: Ohia) at Salt Mastering — an approach they picked up on last year’s Lightwave Lightwave EP, whose ethereal and cinematic songs were remastered to become the spiritual and actual foundation of the new set’s track list.
“I want a little imperfection in the sound — that's what led me to tape,” Cara says. The approach unlocked something, too: “I’m a perfectionist, so it helps me to let go of the reins and allow error to be a part of the art.”
Born in the eerie quiet of the pandemic, moondaddy embraces the maxim that the only certainty in life is uncertainty — a welcome sentiment, it seems. Cara’s 2023 debut LP, Poet Lies (Volar Records, with sold-out vinyl variants on Wax Mage), swirled shoegaze, dreampop, and trip-hop to entrancing effect and lifted the band to bigger stages. They’ve since headlined tastemaking San Diego venues like The Casbah, gone on a sold-out tour with DeVotchKa, and opened for acclaimed peers like Beabadoobee, Peel Dream Magazine, and King Hannah.
moondaddy’s expansive sound is deepened further on Dove Tapes, which blossoms with fresh input from Patrick and Rob. Shimmering lead single “Bystander” nods to Lush and likeminded ’90s acts as it carries us through moments of earthly ache and heavenly bliss. “Eris” is a blur of tense-but-pillowy keyboard tones that could close out an episode of Twin Peaks: The Return. The tender “New Years Eve” pairs Cara’s lush coos and harmonies with piano piped in from the last lounge on Earth. “Light Wave” serves up sustained, string-saturated surface tension, while “Nameless, Faceless” contrasts jagged guitar strikes against buoyant synth waves.
From within all that atmosphere, Cara’s mission to find light amid the dark emerges. She calls “Great Expansion” a “universal love song” even as it looks back on a relationship lost to time, while the reverb-soaked “Painted” works to reclaim self-worth after a harrowing split. The silver lining: “Some people won't fully appreciate what you have to offer,” Cara says. “You don't need to keep wrecking your own life by thinking of them.”
Despite the carousel of uncontrollable events, Dove Tapes takes off through the maelstrom and — with a peace offering in tow — gives its creator, and us, a profound sense of peace.
live
HEADLINERS at Casbah, Soda Bar, Jacumba Hot Springs Hotel PAST TOURS DeVotchKa’s 2024 West Coast Tour (sold out), Pacific Northwest, Southwestern US
OPENED FOR Beabadoobee @ Soma Mainstage (sold out), King Hannah, GIFT, Peel Dream Magazine, Cryogeyser, Estereomance, Jackie Mendoza, Brijean, Psymon Spine
