Interview with Moons In Retrograde (March 2026)

In the northern shadows of Flensburg, where Baltic winds carve their quiet hymns through stone and sea, musician, producer and multimedia performance artist Kara Kuckoo has summoned her otherworld into being. Under the moniker Moons in Retrograde, she has not merely created music—she has constructed a dark, immersive realm where nightmare and neon intertwine, where ritual bleeds into circuitry, and where the body itself becomes both altar and artifact.

Her debut album, The Third Side of the Coin, released in November 2025, unfolds like a divided soul: Anima and Animus, two mirrored chambers of the same haunted heart. It is an album in two halves, yet bound by one lifeblood—dark alt-electro and hyperpop entwined with trip-hop’s slow-burning seduction. Echoes of Heilung, IAMX, Nine Inch Nails, and The Birthday Massacre move like distant constellations across her musical cosmos—yet what rises from the dark is entirely her own creation.

Born in the United States and once the voice of Cleveland’s dark electro-industrial outfit In Winter, Kara’s path has never been linear. There were stages shared with underground icons, tours through America’s industrial arteries, and the spectral trip-hop landscapes of Azure Noir. And then—silence. A decade swallowed by self-doubt and reinvention. A decade where pigment replaced microphones, where body-paint became both armor and altar.

When isolation descended during the pandemic, she returned to the guitar—not as “only a singer,” but as a reluctant architect of her own sound. What began as fragile acoustic sketches mutated into something far more visceral: “Nightmare Trip-Pop splattered in body paint.” She merged flesh with frequency, transforming herself into both canvas and conduit.

Then came illness, invisible and invasive. Mold hidden within walls forced her to abandon even the paint that had become her skin. What might have been an ending became another metamorphosis. Confined by physical limitation yet driven by relentless will, she built a new realm: an Avant-Goth universe of handmade masks—one forged entirely of teeth—cosmic mirrors, blacklight constellations, and distorted vocal incantations. If her body imposed boundaries, her imagination tore them open.

Kara Kuckoo does not retreat from adversity; she alchemizes it. Each setback becomes scaffolding for a darker kingdom. Each fracture reveals another facet of the coin.

Now, with The Third Side of the Coin released, Moons In Retrograde stands poised at the threshold of her next transformation—fluid, unyielding, and luminous in the dark. Like water, she adapts. Like the moon, she wields hidden tides—and carried on that flow, we join Kara Kuckoo in conversation, entering the dark, immersive universe she has conjured.

Q: Dark tides blessings to you, Kara. At Peek-A-Boo, we are delighted to drift along hidden streams into conversation with you. Moons In Retrograde is a project I’ve come to know with great delight, but before we turn our focus to your moniker, I’d love to get to know the musician behind it. Could you tell us a little about yourself, and how you first began making music?

Kara: First, thanks for having me. It’s a pleasure to chat with you at Peek-A-Boo.

My name is Kara and I am multidisciplinary artist. I have dipped my toes into many mediums over many decades trying to piece together my own puzzle and to use my voice through my art. I have always moved back and forth between music and visual arts and creative writing. As a child I won awards for writing but then began exploring art as I got older and at the same time I was learning to be a drummer. It wasn’t until I started drumming in a band and doing backing vocals that I discovered my love of singing and songwriting. I was a singer for a few garage bands while I was studying Arts and Crafts. There have been moments where I completely focused on music and other times where I completely focused on art. So I guess I can say I began making music with my first drum set I bought when I was 14 years old. It’s kinda eye opening to look back at my journey and who I am now. I can see how I have collected knowledge and craft which I use today in my performances as a dark artist exploring decay, mortality, liminality and transformation...