“No Genre, Just Intention”: Inside the Making of Driftmoon’s ‘Moonstruck’

Driftmoon has always lived at the intersection of emotion and energy — a duo shaped by trance, bonded by history, and rebuilt through reunion. The project, formed by Miikka Leinonen and Juraj Klička, has long been known for blurring the lines between club euphoria and cinematic grandeur, weaving orchestral strings, choirs, and widescreen melodies into the pulse of modern electronic music.

When Miikka stepped away in 2016, Juraj carried the project forward alone, earning acclaim for his forward-thinking production style — rich synth work, powerful chord progressions, and a flair for the epic. Seven years later, the story took an unexpected and beautiful turn: Driftmoon reunited. Their chemistry snapped instantly back into place, unlocking a fresh wave of inspiration that’s fueled releases across Black Hole Recordings, Armada, FSOE, and more. From the euphoric “Addicted to Love” to their ambitious new work, the duo continues to merge emotion and power in a way only they can — delivering a trance that feels as visual as it sounds.

Now, their journey culminates in ‘Moonstruck’ — a 22-track odyssey divided into four lunar chapters, tracing their path from rediscovery to full artistic alignment. Moonstruck features powerful collaborations with Ruben de Ronde, Richard Durand, Robert Nickson, Hel Sløwed, Xijaro & Pitch, and vocalists Sue McLaren, Sarah Howells, and Susie Ledge. Ten years in the making, the album captures the full depth of Driftmoon’s shared sound, delivering their most vivid and complete work to date.

‘Moonstruck’ isn’t just an album — it’s a reunion sealed in sound, a cosmic diary of where Driftmoon have been, and an exciting promise of where they’re headed next.

Your tracks often feel like tiny cinematic adventures. Where does that storytelling spark come from outside of music?

Juraj: Honestly? Books. Films. Long night drives. And weirdly enough, silence. Most of my ideas don’t start in the studio; they start when life finally shuts up for a moment, and I can hear my own thoughts. I imagine scenes, people, places… and then music becomes the soundtrack to something that doesn’t exist yet but feels like it should. It also really helps that my biggest escape from reality is taking photos. It's uncanny how many musical cues you can find in a visual composition.

You’re known for blending orchestral magic with electronic firepower. What’s the weirdest or most unexpected sound you’ve ever used as the starting point for a track?

Juraj: A dishwasher door squeak.

No joke. I pitched it down, drenched it in reverb, and it became this emotional, almost vocal-sounding pad. Half the time, the best ideas come from sounds you weren’t even trying to capture.

Many producers chase trends, but you tend to chase emotions. How do you decide which feelings are “big enough” to become a track?

Juraj:

• If it sits in my chest longer than a day, it’s a track.
• If I wake up thinking about it, it’s a track.
• If it makes me uncomfortable, it’s definitely a track.

We don’t care about trends. We care about moments that demand their own universe.

What’s one small, invisible detail in your workflow that makes a huge difference in your final sound?

Juraj: I automate everything.

Reverbs breathe. Filters move. Delays shift. Pads never stay still. Even the smallest static element gets a little life. That’s why the music feels like it’s alive — because nothing ever stays perfectly still.

Your music is visual — if Driftmoon could create a no-budget-limit concert, what would the crowd witness?

Juraj: A planetarium exploded into a trance show.

Real strings. Massive choirs. A stage built like a lunar temple. Lasers carving shapes instead of just lines. A story that unfolds from first note to last — not a set, but a journey. And at the end, the whole stage eclipses.

‘Moonstruck’ is built around four lunar phases. What’s the idea behind this cosmic concept?

Juraj: Each phase is a personality, a mood, a chapter:

• New Moon – the quiet birth of ideas
• Crescent Moon – hope, movement, curiosity
• Full Moon – big emotions, euphoria, the heart of the story
• Eclipse – shadows, contrast, the moment everything transforms

It’s the emotional cycle of being human — just written in moonlight.

The album has 22 tracks and many collaborators. How did you keep everything feeling authentically Driftmoon?

Juraj: Because we never start with genre. We start with intention.

Everyone who joined the project had to fit that emotional direction — not BPM, not a style. And I handled the sound design and final shaping myself, so no matter who touched a track, it still passed through the same pair of hands and heart.

You said this album represented the sound of a friendship reboot. What surprised you the most about each other after seven years apart?

Juraj: Musically? How quickly we clicked again.

Personally? How much we’d both changed… and yet the spark was the same. We rediscovered respect for each other. Space. Humor. It felt like picking up a book you loved years ago — but now you understand it better.

Is there a track that started from a tiny random experiment but became central to the album?

Juraj: Yes — one pad sound Miikka accidentally created during a test session became the official Moonstruck album track! It was meant to be a placeholder, but the texture was so emotional that it became the backbone of a whole track.

What will pleasantly surprise long-time Driftmoon listeners on ‘Moonstruck’?

Juraj: The vulnerability.

This is the first album where I stopped worrying about “Will this work live?” or “Is this trance enough?” and just wrote what felt honest. There are new colors, new rhythms, more storytelling… and a few moments where we let ourselves be softer than ever before.

If you could freeze one moment from your career and frame it, which moment would it be?

Juraj: Transmission Prague, playing during peak set time between Markus Schulz and Paul van Dyk — stepping on stage, hearing the first note from the intro I wrote, and seeing the entire arena light up.

For a second, time actually stopped. If I could frame a feeling, it would be that one.

After this big emotional album, what’s the next creative itch you want to scratch?

Juraj: A fully live Driftmoon show — keys, strings, modular synths, noise, chaos, beauty. Something raw and imperfect and human.

Or maybe something completely opposite… a tiny, intimate ambient record that feels like falling asleep inside a dream. I am working on another album for a different project of mine, which is fully acoustic so let’s see if the moons align on that one!