Rock deity Fiona Moonchild returns solo to Orlando

"We were in Detroit, in Hamtramck, last night, and there was a power outage. So I ended up playing the set acoustic, sitting on the bar for a bunch of people with a bunch of candles. We did a Nirvana Unplugged kind of deal," says Fiona Moonchild. "You know, the show must go on."

We're talking to self-professed "road dog" and rock deity Fiona Moonchild from the parking lot of a Kroger in Ohio. She's a few dates into her first headlining tour as a solo artist; it's a tour that's taking her everywhere from mineral caves in South Dakota to Will's Pub in Orlando (Monday, Sept. 9). Moonchild is taking the songs from her album Sweets of Reason for a spin around the country, with a very familiar face in her backing band.

See, Moonchild is no stranger to Orlando stages, having played everywhere from Stonewall's back patio on a frigid night to the aforementioned Will's to Uncle Lou's — all as the musical right hand and creative foil to one Scott Yoder. The duo have been playing together for roughly six years — though they've known each other since their teens — and their creative dynamic is near-telepathic. The first time we saw them onstage together, we immediately thought "David Bowie, Mick Ronson. Got it," but that's a reductive read on a bond between equals. Now the roles are flipped: Yoder booked this whole tour and is perfectly happy playing guitar in Moonchild's backing band.

"He's one of my biggest supporters. He's so great to have on my side and fighting for me, to get my music out into the world," says Moonchild. "It's a really fun dynamic to play on stage and hear him let loose on guitar in a way that he doesn't really ever do with own his music live."

One thing Yoder and Moonchild have in common is a commitment to putting on a glamorous S-H-O-W, no matter how big the crowd or how small the venue. These solo shows will be no different, as Moonchild has her own vision for organic stagecraft.

"Since it's my first tour with my solo project, playing these songs that I created almost entirely by myself alone in the studio, I've tried to treat it as a bit of a blank canvas. The band is wearing all black and I wanted really stark white light coming from the back, just to give us a little bit of a silhouette. I want it to evolve from there, what the actual visual show will become, letting it sort of progress naturally, and just seeing where it goes."

Sweets of Reason came out in 2021, and Moonchild has been patiently waiting for the chance to take these songs on tour since. This album is intensely personal, recorded in 2020 with nearly every note played by Moonchild on the cusp of a global pandemic, and released when touring was still very much an uncertain proposition. The album was released by Cruisin' Records, a DIY enterprise dedicated to supporting queer artists. Cruisin' is a good home for Moonchild, a trans woman, and her music, among adventurous company like Tracy + the Plastics, Yoder and Wizard Apprentice.

"A lot of things with the record ended up being like one step forward, two steps back," says Moonchild. "So it feels very redeeming to finally be able to get out on the road and give it its proper due. I feel very grateful to be able to do that."

Sweets of Reason is a gorgeous record, lush and reflective. It has a progressive, magisterial quality redolent of a cross between Harmonia and glammy Eno — very different than the New York Dolls-style rager we anticipated, having seen Moonchild onstage ripping guitar solos. This is an album to spin in the wee hours, aimed toward the lonely, lost and lustful out there. But by all accounts, with a handful of shows wrapped, these songs are well-received live.

"It's always an indicator when there's a quiet part of a song and you notice that people are paying close attention to you and not trying to talk over you," says Moonchild. "It definitely is a little more introspective and a little more mystical than the straight-up rock vibe of Scott's music, but I'm still a rocker at heart, so we still have that going."

We detour into a discussion about Moonchild's life on the sea — she's spent a good chunk of her youth and recent adult life on boats and on long sailing sojourns. We wonder aloud if that perhaps feeds into the questing sounds of Sweets of Reason.

"I think there's definitely threads of The Life Aquatic on the record. I'm definitely — it's in my name, 'moon child' — entranced by the moon. I think there's something very hypnotic about being out on the ocean, living by the tides and living by the cycles of the moon with nothing around you; no land in sight on a crystal clear night in the middle of late summer, and the moon's reflecting off the sea. It can be a very entrancing feeling, and it can be a feeling similar to being on tour. I think that's a common thread running through the record."

Moonchild — and Yoder — are increasingly rare spirits in a suffocatingly commodified music industry, truly happy and content wandering the country, getting dolled up and playing some music for whoever wants to lend an ear.

"I'm just kind of a vagabond. Growing up, I never had a really strong, rooted household anywhere. And being able to be on the road and just play a show every night is such a more clear focus of life than having to go to a job," Moonchild explains. "I'm a Sagittarius, the fire-sign thing, just seeing what's out there and what there is to experience. And also just looking around the world and trying to see where I fit in. Because I've never really known that."