Moravian: The Sirens of the Great Lakes State

On June 12th, 2026, Moravian played a twice sold-out show at the Orchid Theatre in Ferndale, Michigan. In the week leading up to the show, Moravian released their newest single, “Sirens.”  It became the theme of the night. Hometown fans did not take the prompt lightly.  Their commitment to dressing in shimmering blues and dark hues spoke volumes about their love for the band and its music. As it approached 7 pm, the line began to weave around the venue, with a thrilling excitement brewing. But before the chaos ensued, I managed to grab a quiet moment outside the theatre to speak with them.

Congratulations on selling out the show tonight, adding fifty more tickets, then selling out again. Can you take me through how you all are feeling about tonight?

The band: We’re feeling stoked! Electric would be a good word for it, and very excited.

You are supported tonight by Mild Pulp and Starlings. How did you guys make those connections?

Alex Christ: With Starlings, we played with them, we both opened up for Ethan Marc Band, and we didn’t ever hear of Starlings before. And we saw their live show, and me and Rico especially were like, “What a show they put on.” They look like vets, they got such an awesome vibe to them, and they are professional. They’ve been doing this kind of stuff for way longer than we have, and you could tell.  They look incredible.

So they’re a little bit of an inspiration, and we wanted a really polished act to be on the show for all the fans. And we haven’t played with Mild Pulp before but we love their vibe, some of us have seen them live before. And they were just the energy curators that we wanted to throw onto the bill. They’re super cool dudes, they make great music, and it just felt like those two pairings make for a really great night.

You said that some of you had seen Mild Pulp live but some of you hadn’t.  How did you discover them in the first place? Discovered on Instagram, etc?

Alex: Who was the discoverer?

Blake Potvin: I feel like we first found Mild Pulp on Instagram, actually. Our sound guy, Antonio ran into them when he did their show at Oakland Mall or something. It was like their first few shows and Antonio said, “This could be a good one.” I feel like they have a lot of hype surrounding them too.  It’s just like a fun stage to be in, just getting things off the ground and seeing that progress right off the bat.

Take me through your song creation process.  Does it usually start with a phrase, a riff, a feeling? How do you guys curate your songs? Or is it like, “Hey we kind of need to add something upbeat to the album”, or throw anything at the wall and see what sticks?

Alex: It’s really a combination of all those things. Sometimes we’ll be in search of a specific kind of vibe, a specific movement. Then I’ll write something or one of the guitarists will play a certain riff and we’ll be like, “Yeah, this is what we’re looking for”. A lot of the time, when I’m on my own and I’m moving around I’ll hear a phrase or a melodic motif in my head and I’m like, “That’s the chorus, now I gotta write a song around it”, and whatever words pop up in my head will inspire the nature of the song, and I’ll kind of uncover subliminally like what’s in my head and what I want to talk about in the tune.

And so I’ll write it out all the lyrics, kinda find a groove for it. It’s a very collaborative effort I think, starting with the lyrics and the general vibe, and then I get the professional instrument people to put the strings on it, put the beat on it, and they find what they wanna do, what they think gives the song justice and we get a result that we’re proud of.”

So is Alex the main songwriter then?

Alex: Currently, yes.

Does he ever bring lyrics to you guys and you’re like, “Yeah, no, we’re not doing that”?

Coby Valead: I have to say, Alex is really good, thank god, at coming up with good ideas. So normally that’s how it starts: Alex is coming up with the themes and ideas and he’ll get these words or a melody, and then he’ll bring us all these ideas and he’ll be like, “This one”, and that’s what we all like and that’s what we’ll work on and add our taste and flair.

Shane Wheeler: It’s very rare that we shut down a lyric from Alex and if it is, it literally could be like three words. There’s never been a time where he’s showed us a chorus or a verse and we’ve been like “Dude [chuckle], we gotta write something else”. So we’ve gotten pretty lucky with that.

Do you guys ever have creative ruts where there’s absolutely nothing coming to mind?

Alex: We’ll feel that way every once in a while, or at least I will. But you kinda just sit in it, kinda just accept it and then something will come to you, it always does. And that comes from A) going through the motions of your life and just trying to be very present in your life and even like, romanticize your life and B) consuming other art and seeing what tickles your fancy and explore further. Sometimes it feels like the end of the world, the well is all dried up and I feel like I can’t write anything else, but you just keep on going, keep on writing, keep strengthening that muscle, and then something great comes along and it’s truly a gift.

Is there a certain part of your life that you guys are romanticizing right now? I saw a few of you have graduated recently, so new era.  Is it feeling any different for music now?

Alex: I feel like the realness of adult life, especially in your early twenties, is something that takes a lot out of people. It’s a very difficult time in a lot of people’s lives, trying to figure themselves out…I think we’re all just trying to be present, we don’t want where we’re at in life right now to just pass us by and then by the time we know it, we’re old and we have regrets, or we didn’t live in the present. Anybody else have thoughts on that?

Coby: You’re doing great, Alex. I mean, talking about romanticizing, how can you not be romantic about tonight? I mean, it’s our first ever sold-out show in Detroit and this is definitely one of those memories that will one hundred percent stick with every single one of us. It doesn’t matter how big you get, you will always remember this as your first. Probably right now, romanticizing tonight a little bit.

Blake: Speaking of firsts…our first show ever, I think is something to be romanticizing about too, right now. Seeing how far it comes, how long it took to really sell out a hometown show. We recently had the experience of selling out shows in Chicago and Columbus and to think that Detroit would take longer, that wasn’t something that was on my bucket list this year. But yeah, just thinking about that first one, thinking about where we were at that time and just how it all came together over three years.

Coby: There’s a part of the show tonight where you’ll kind of see like, that growth in the videos of us together so I’m excited for you to see that and that will probably give you that idea of like, “Okay, I see what they mean about this is like romanticizing this whole journey.”  We’re really gonna capture that tonight for the audience.

I’ve definitely noticed the growth in your guys’ music, like the change in the style. You’ve mentioned before being inspired by artists like Steely Dan and The Strokes.  Does that still hold true? Are you pulling inspiration from other people and places?

Alex: I feel like Steely Dan and The Strokes, huge for me. Steely Dan doesn’t really come out in our music much. I think just like my love for all kinds of music is kind of displayed.  Like every time I’m super into Steely Dan in public or in my room. We just all have different backgrounds in music and there’s a wide span of genres that tickle everybody in the band’s fancy…for me and Rico, The Strokes are a huge inspiration.  That was kind of my introduction to alternative rock music as well as just the live performance of Cage the Elephant. They’ve got a really cool thing that they do.  They’re super energetic, Matt Shultz is a great front man, he’s a huge inspiration to me as well. Anyone else want to speak on their inspirations?

Blake: I feel like despite playing alternative rock, like I think that’s how we can define ourselves now, alternative rock…some of us may dabble in different realms of what we listen to, like what alt rock means to us, but it’s still a wide variety of backgrounds and tastes. Like I’m driving here listening to Rihanna. Not that that’s directly where my music inspiration may come from, just like elements of so many different eras across time. It’s kinda just like handpicking what pieces you like, and after five people it gets somewhere and somehow we landed on alt rock.

Do you find regionally your taste is influenced? Midwest emo is pretty big around here.  Do you find it infiltrates your music or are you just working on your own style still?

Alex: I think the passion that can be seen in Midwest emo is something that works its way into our music because there’s a huge emphasis on passion and emotions through our music. We just take it a more theatrical kind of route, a bit more grandeur in our approach to it. But that same kind of energy and passion makes its way through.

Coby: Even being from here, from Detroit. This has been a huge music city for over a century, and I think just the grit that the Detroit music scene has had over the last 30 years has really had a place and factor into being a high energy and aggressive band and just throwing it all out there. 

I know Michigan plays a big part, especially in the name of your band, which takes after Moravian Drive.  Any other Michigan places that didn’t make the cut, or other band names in general? 

Blake: Metro Parkway. Rico and Tomi [Baumeister] wanted to do Metro Parkway. I think honestly at the beginning, me, Rico, and our old guitarist Tomi we were about to be Metro Parkway. We had Moravian brewing but then we had our own bassist. [lots of giggling] I don’t even know who would have been singing.

Rico Velez: I wanted to sing at one point.

Alex: I think [Moravian] was the only place.

Coby: Flint would be a pretty cool name

Rico: I will say, Moravian was solidified the day Blake threatened to leave the band if we didn’t name it Moravian.

Shane: And not a single soul can pronounce it correctly.

Blake: I think there’s some beauty in not knowing how to pronounce it. I was listening to Måneskin for a long time and I still don’t even know if I’m saying that properly, but there’s some sort of question or like an eyebrow raise like, “What is it?” 

Rico: I brought this up to Blake not too long ago but there’s gonna come a day when people know how to say our name. 

I already touched on inspiration a bit ago, but what was it about “Sirens” specifically that made you choose it to release as your next single and also make it the theme of tonight’s show?

Alex: We were talking about this earlier.  The universe of horror, there’s multiple very intriguing elements of what makes horror, horror. And what makes it a very popular universe, not just in film but just in dark music and alt rock and vibes, and we just like the mystery element. I’m really into cryptology and mythology, so that kinda worked its way in here. The first myth we sang about was Medusa and I just like the idea of some sort of foe. I can’t tell you exactly where it came from, it’s just something that’s been in my head for a while and it’s an image and a vibe that the guys really rock with.

What do you guys think is your most underrated song?

Coby: “Tell Me Why”.

Alex: “Tell Me Why”.

Shane: “The Rain”, I don’t know if that’s underrated, it is to me…Oh no wait, “Clementine”.

Blake: I’ll say “Domino”.

Rico: I say “Medusa”.

The band: “Tell Me Why” is extremely underrated, we really like “Tell Me Why”.

Coby: It blows my mind that that song did what it did.

Rico: Yeah, when I first heard it, I was like, “This song is gonna win us a Grammy”. [laughter] Still waiting on that moment.

Alex: The day will come.

I’ll put it in writing now so when it does happen-

Coby: We’ll make sure to find you, we’ll repost the article and be like, “We called it”. 

Just to wrap up, anything you would love for your audience to know?

Alex: We’re very grateful for them. We want our concerts to be a place where they feel comfortable and welcome, free to move around and dance to the beat, have fun and sing the words, and just have a great time. That’s always what we go for. We love them very much. 

Rico: If you feel inspired in any way to pick up an instrument and you know, do it? Do it. Anything can happen; it happened to all of us. I started playing the drums like literally three or four years ago when I met these guys and look at where we are now. Pretty crazy.

The electricity promised was more than delivered, with an incredible stage presence from every member of the band. The energy was palpable, radiating from every person in the room. 

The romance Coby spoke about was spotlighted with an intentional segment that featured a montage of moments leading up to this show: messages from loved ones, behind the scenes clips, and other special memories the boys hold close to them. That emotion is reflected in a perfect blend of intimacy, raw passion, and musicality in their performance. It didn’t matter if it was the first time you’d seen them or the hundredth.  Every person in that packed room was moving and enthralled by them. In between sets, I was hanging out by side stage and had the pleasure of meeting Coby’s mom. The pride was evident in her eyes and voice.  That was reflected by the love and support from the audience. That night, it didn’t matter whether you were strangers or had known the boys their whole lives.

A huge thank you to the members of Moravian for their time with me.  Don’t forget to check out all of their social media links below. This is one band you won’t want to miss.

Moravian

Alex Christ: lead vocals

Blake Potvin: lead guitar

Coby Valead: bass

Shane Wheeler: rhythm guitar

Rico Velez: drums

At the time of publish, it has been announced that this show was the last show that Rico Velez would be playing with Moravian. As a founding member, Rico is responsible for helping shape the band to become what it is today. Although their journeys may continue separately, there is no denying the impact Rico has left on Moravian and vice versa. On behalf of all fans, thank you to Rico for providing inspiration and music that has led to a sold-out home show and more. <3