Long Bio

Jaime April and Jason Moon - aka APRIL MOON - moved to the UK from the prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada to write, record, and perform their songs in the genre of Canadiana (similar to Americana but tastes more like bacon). Combining stories from the road with big male/female vocal harmonies, a jangly acoustic rhythm guitar, and a blisteringly twangy telecaster and a thumping beat provided by a suitcase kick drum, APRIL MOON sounds like a bit of a cross between 70’s Fleetwood Mac and the jammy, bluegrass feel of Grateful Dead.

Splitting their year between beaches in wintertime, prairie summers and the open road in the UK, Jaime and Jason’s wanderlust is woven through their lyrics and frank, honest stories. In 2023, this took the shape of a campervan to make travel between gigs easier and give them an opportunity to see more of the countryside along the way. After adding the finishing touches on a Transit van conversion including the capabilities to record demos while on the road, the pair decided to give up their Liverpool flat and do the van thing full time.

“We call our campervan ‘The Clubhouse’ because as soon as we’re in there, we feel like two little kids who have built a cool tree fort and have somehow convinced our parents to let us have a sleepover in it.” laughs Jason.

To Jaime, who handles most of the bookings and online promo, the lifestyle has even overhauled the way she works. “I think living in the Clubhouse has been this actual, physical thing that has forced us to slow down and be more ‘present’. When we lived in our flat I was used to making a cup of tea and sitting down at my laptop to check my messages, seeing my to-do list and immediately getting bogged down with the tasks of the day. It’s hard to leave the job at the office when you work for yourself. For me, I had to physically remove my work desk from my life to recognize and make this change.”

The pair met through the theatre in their shared hometown of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan doing everything from dinner theatre to “Shakespeare In The Park” to larger scale musicals including a favourite of theirs - “Jesus Christ Superstar” in which Jason snagged the lead role as Jesus. Cast parties were where their friendship really sparked, as there would often be many instruments lying around leading to late night jam sessions.

Jason’s experience in music went back to when he was a child, “I might have picked up the drumsticks first but as soon as I realised that the girls always cheered for the guitar players at our school talent shows, I got my friend to teach me a few chords. I must have spent a week straight learning to play The Ballad Of John and Yoko - and driving my parents mad in the meantime!” Jason went on to play in various bands, touring across Canada and using his dual citizenship to do a stint in the UK with his friend Jim.

Jaime’s background in music is a bit more varied, starting with childhood piano lessons, switching to the trumpet in the school band and eventually learning to play the didgeridoo when she had the opportunity to make her own while in Australia. When Jason started putting together a large jam band called ‘Bridges of Light’, Jaime was keen to be involved, playing whichever instrument was free but working hard on guitar at the same time. A gig opportunity came up that not everyone in the full band could do so Jason whittled the band down to just 4 to make the gig happen and called the group ‘Magic Trees’.

‘Magic Trees’ was a time of huge musical growth for both Jaime and Jason and included releasing 2 full length albums and performing shows across Canada and into the UK. The pair both fell in love with the UK at the same time as they fell in love with each other - a major problem as the remaining two band members happened to be their spouses! What happened next was an epic, Fleetwood Mac-esque blowout, leading to Jaime and Jason deciding that they wanted to develop their own project and spend some time in the Northwest of England, building a life revolving around recording and playing live.

On 12/12/2012 (the Mayan’s prediction for the end of the world) a new world began for APRIL MOON as the duo arrived in the UK, looking for a fresh start. Setting up a mobile recording studio in their flat, they recorded their first album ‘The Sun, the Moon and the Truth’ while starting to get to know people in the local music scene. The album includes two tracks which feature pedal steel, played by a young Adrian Gautrey who now tours as the guitarist for bands such as Atomic Rooster, The Kiefer Sutherland Band, The Fun Lovin Criminal and The Robert Vincent Band.

A few years on and APRIL MOON self-released a second album called ‘The Bus That Takes The Sad People Away’ that featured the massive crowd favourite, ‘Bloody Suzy’ - a song about Jaime’s sister back in Canada who performs cow autopsies. “My sister used to send me pictures from out in the fields because it was so beautiful - views of the Rocky Mountains and the endless prairies. This one summer day it was too hot to wear her work coveralls and I got a picture of her skinny little legs and cute rubber boots but they were just spattered with blood. Those double sides of sweet and gruesome all in one shot just got under my skin and I really tried to capture that in the song” says Jaime.

After moving to the vibrant, bohemian community of Liverpool, they briefly developed a project named ‘Wooden Rocket’ with some local musicians and released an EP in 2019 however when the group disbanded during lockdown, Jaime and Jason went back to writing and performing under the name APRIL MOON. One of their most well-known songs from this time is ‘Robert Cain,’ written during the time when they first moved to Liverpool and were living inside the iconic Cains Brewery.

When it comes to songwriting, the pair take turns although they help each other out a lot with the arrangements. Jaime’s influences tend to run a bit more country and bluegrass while Jason’s roots are firmly planted in classic rock and pop which makes sense as APRIL MOON’s music seems to weave a lot of genres and styles together. The duo ends up with a collection of yin and yang tracks that fit together as a whole - lively, cheerful tunes with pop hooks that make you want to stomp your cowboy boots sitting side by side with soft and sweet folk songs highlighting the more tender side to their songwriting.

Live shows are where APRIL MOON really feel at home. Upbeat and energetic, Jaime holds down the fort with solid rhythms on her beloved Takamine (named Scout) while playing the suitcase-kick drum with her right foot and filling out the harmonies. Jason’s voice strongly leads them through a range of styles while his twangy but dirty Telecaster sizzles out the solos. Combining all these elements, the duo creates a huge, full band sound.

APRIL MOON ventured into some different territory during 2021, writing, recording and filming a playful, psychedelic cowboy musical called ‘The Ballad Of Johnny West’ which won ‘Best Score’ in the Sandgrounder Film Festival in 2022 and was featured at the Liverpool Film & Food Fest as well as the Colorado New Musical Festival. The film was animated by hand-drawn stick puppets and filmed in front of a green screen and has built up a small cult-like following around the whimsical songs and story.

Jason and Jaime also spent lockdown in Liverpool working diligently on their harmony singing and starting to write songs in a more collaborative way. They came out of the pandemic with a strong collection of new tunes and a live show that had developed to a standard that was better than it had ever been. In April 2022, the duo put out a Live EP with Klee Publishing as part of the label’s Edenhurst Sessions and later in the year, self-released a full-length album called ‘The Other One Was You’ which featured the single ‘The Lord Hath Taken Away’ (over 22,000 Spotify streams). The subsequent tour included shows at the Atkinson Theatre in Southport (Grateful Fred’s Roots & Americana night), supports for Ian Prowse & Amsterdam in Chester, Sebastian and the Poor Valley Marauders in the Cavern Live Lounge, the Wardrobe in Leeds, the Bedford in London and a sold-out show at Prohibition Studios in Liverpool

In late 2023, APRIL MOON decided to make the move recording new songs in a Liverpool studio, feeling that they had stretched themselves to the limits of their home studio and recorded ‘Part Of The Game’ in Scratch Studios with Adam Trevor on engineering and featuring Jo Pue on fiddle.

2024 saw a turning point for the duo as they were awarded a Help Musicians Record and Release funding grant to record new music, a project that led them to record music in both Crosstown Studios with Jon Lawton and Scratch Studios with Adam Trevor. The three songs were released as singles but will provide a cornerstone of music for Jaime and Jason’s EP ‘Forgiveness Juice’ which will be released in spring, 2025 alongside some new tunes.

As a side project, ‘Happy Place’, a collaboration with Brighton-born, multi-instrumentalist Harry Kirzynowski (Kirzy) was recorded and released in Fuerteventura, APRIL MOON’s winter home.

Past Releases

Forgiveness Juice (EP), 2025

Bandcamp: https://aprilmoon.bandcamp.com/album/forgiveness-juice

Press release: Press Release - APRIL MOON - Forgiveness Juice (EP)

Full album with videos on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhmASaLeG7TCnrrNJwAfmCqqWGYlB84l6

Happy Place (single) - 2024

In collaboration with Harry Kirzynowski (Kirzy)

Bandcamp: https://bit.ly/4b2znTe

Youtube: APRIL MOON + KIRZY - "Happy Place" (Official Music Video)

Happy Place (Live in The Dunes of Corralejo) - KIRZY & April Moon

The Other One Was You (album) - 2022

“Like the tornados that ravage the province on a yearly basis, the sound of April Moon is one that hangs in the air and fills everything around it. The Other One Was You is a phenomenon, graceful, rocking, and full of fearless ambition; this is the sound of April Moon, let it shine in your heart.” - Ian D. Hall, Liverpool Sound and Vision

Bandcamp: http://bit.ly/3FJCQJH

Youtube: APRIL MOON - "The Lord Hath Taken Away" (Official Music Video)

The Edenhurst Sessions (live EP) with Klee Publishing - 2022

Listen on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3BX97tj

Watch ‘Call Of The Wild’ live session on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiV-kQ0bFVU

The Ballad Of Johnny West (short film, musical) - 2020

Written, recorded and animated by Jaime April & Jason Moon

Awarded “Best Score” in the Sandgrounder International Film Festival, 2022

Watch full film on YouTube: APRIL MOON - "The Ballad Of Johnny West" - A stick-puppet movie musical.

The Bus That Takes The Sad People Away (album)

Featuring crowd favourites ‘Bloody Suzy’ and ‘Days Go By’

Bandcamp:https://aprilmoon.bandcamp.com/album/the-bus-that-takes-the-sad-people-away