Most people know me as a tattoo artist. Some know me as the guy who runs Love Story Art Collective and is building LVL2. Fewer people know that I've been making music for years — and that Black Moon Project is the most serious creative work I've done outside of tattooing.
This one's for the people who want to know what's actually behind it.
Why a Project, Not Just a Song
"Black Moon" isn't just a name. It's a concept — the idea that the most interesting creative work happens in the margins, in the spaces between what's obvious and what's expected. The black moon isn't missing; it's there, just not always visible.
I started recording because tattooing taught me something about creative process: the physical act of doing the work — not talking about it, not planning it, but actually sitting down and making something — changes what you think is possible. I wanted that for music. So I made it.
How It Gets Made
I'm not a studio rat. I don't have a rack of synthesizers or a wall of outboard gear. What I have is a setup that's portable enough to actually use, and a belief that the song matters more than the gear.
Most Black Moon Project tracks start with a voice memo — something hummed or mumbled that I can't get out of my head. From there, lyrics come second. I write them in the margins of everything — receipt paper, notebook pages, voice memos. A song doesn't get lyrics until I know what it's actually about, which usually means I need to live with the melody for a while.
Production happens on my laptop with a small interface, a decent mic, and software I know well enough not to think about. The goal is always: make it sound like the song, not like gear.
Vocals are the last thing I record. They're also the hardest. I don't punch in. I do full takes, and if it doesn't feel right, I start over.
The Sound
I get asked a lot what Black Moon sounds like. The honest answer is: I don't know how to describe it in genre terms.
There's dark folk in there — acoustic guitar, real room sound, vocals that sit close to the mic. There's also something electronic underneath a lot of it, not in a club music way but in the sense that certain textures and spaces feel like they belong together.
I think of it as ambient songwriting. The song is always the point. But around the song there's atmosphere, space, texture — things you feel more than hear.
What It's For
These songs aren't a side hustle. They're not a brand extension or a content play. They're work I'm doing because I need to be doing it, and because there are ideas that don't fit into tattoo designs or software products.
Some of them might find their way to streaming platforms eventually. Some might just live here, on the site, for the people who want to hear them. I'm not in a hurry to figure out which is which.
What I will share: the process. The gear I'm using. What works and what doesn't. The difference between a song idea and a finished song.
If you're a musician in a smaller market — Somerset, rural Kentucky, anywhere that's not Nashville or LA — and you've been waiting to start because you think you need better equipment or a better setup, I want to give you permission to start with what you have. Start with the voice memo. Start with the one guitar. Start before you're ready.
The work teaches you more than the gear ever will.
Russell Cain IV is a tattoo artist and musician in Somerset, KY. Black Moon Project music and tattoo work at russellcainiv.com.
