Andrea Rubbio and Virginia Bones are gaining international recognition as the indie band Geography of the Moon, which they formed as a duet eight years ago in Britain before moving to Cambodia and then took their distinctive sound to the rest of East Asia.
Their death-pop, post-punk recordings incorporate elements of blues with surf-guitar riffs reminiscent of Frank Zappa that initially attracted the expat scene but are now widely played on commercial radio in Japan and Thailand – and in Europe and even South America.
Rubbio, a Scotsman of Italian descent, and Bones, from France, spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt about their music, the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, and their re-emergence onto the world’s rock scene with a batch of new songs, including “Sometimes” and “Feels Good to Feel Good.”
Both are classically trained musicians. Rubbio studied as a conductor and can play up to five instruments and recently added the sitar, a traditional Indian string instrument, to his list. And their success has enabled them to work as full-time musicians.
They also talk about life on the road as a married couple and the highs and lows of playing more than a thousand gigs in venues big and small while recording, marketing and distributing music in a digital world from “one of our homes” in Cambodia.