// Letters to YVYNYL //

Moon Sand Land “New Matters”

/ I’ve been listening to the new record from New Jersey’s indie musician Jason Ross this past week. It’s been slip-sliding into this single about “obsessions and habits” and it makes me swing into a shake. I appreciate that he wrote this song for his big brother Alex who has brought challenges and love to his family’s life. He sounds like he’s a special person, indeed.

Dear Mark,

Words cannot express how grateful I am that you would take the time to read about my own musical journey. While anticipating the release of my single on May 14th, “New Matters”, I have reflected on the deeply personal connections in my music and how I can share my influences with the world.

I grew up in Cresskill, New Jersey alongside my older brother Alex and my two parents. Alex was diagnosed with low-functioning Autism at the age of two, depriving him of the ability to speak or live independently. His presence brought us a whirlwind of turbulence and stress, but the joys have always outweighed the difficulties. His smile is infectious beyond compare and he carries a sense of wonder with him that captives any room he enters.

We call him “The Moon,” always lighting up our lives during times of darkness. After years of working on various music projects, I felt The Moon’s guidance when struggling to determine my musical identity and embark on my first solo project. After reflecting on words with great personal meaning, Moon Sand Land was born.

During the pandemic, music has continued to function as the lifeline I need to feel a sense of purpose. “New Matters” is my personal take on those midnight moments trapped in thought. From late-August anxiety to mid-winter depression, this song portrays the continuing absence from reality throughout the seasons. This song reflects my longing for connection, desperation to embrace The Moon, my long-distance girlfriend, and my friends.

Like many other seniors in college, the pandemic shattered all of the structures that I had built a life around. Wearing a mask in my own home and maintaining a six-foot distance from my parents while I was working in person added another level of distance. However, the distance I had to maintain from The Moon was the hardest.

My family and I were lucky that the caregivers at his group home provided him with a safe and secure environment, but we still were barred from physical contact for months on end. It’s not like we could hop on FaceTime with him and catch up; our bond was entirely built on physical contact. I will never know how that separation made him feel or how he made sense of the situation at hand, but it was painful to know that I couldn’t simply give The Moon a hug.

The greatest sense of hope, the magical full moon, was when my brother received his second vaccine dose. Not having to worry about him being at-risk of catching this virus lifted my family and I from an unspeakable emotional burden.

It didn’t matter how long it would take for us to be vaccinated, as long as he was able to get his doses first. Since then, my family and I have been fortunate enough to get vaccinated as well and he has even been allowed to stay in our home for the night. And every single hug from him seems to last an eternity as if we’re simply making up for lost time.

What once was new matters have now begun to fade to old matters. The time has come to turn the page.

All the best,

Jason

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