An emotionally charged indie rock reckoning on love, mortality, and time, Coral Moons’ “Apartment” arrives as both intimate whisper and explosive storm. Speaking with Atwood Magazine, frontwoman Carly Kraft dives into the raw humanity at the heart of her band’s latest song – its aching lyrics, anxieties, and revelations – unearthing the fragile, fleeting beauty of life itself.
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Stream: “Apartment” – Coral Moons
Instead of enjoying the moment you have with your people, I sometimes spend my time worrying that it will all be taken away.
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“Do you really think that it’s like that?” Carly Kraft asks in the opening line of Coral Moons’ “Apartment,” her voice trembling with equal parts fear and fire. “Slow dancing around my apartment. They say all the time, time is precious, or am I just counting the seconds?” These questions – heavy, haunting, and unresolved – set the stage for a visceral meditation on love, mortality, commitment, and the fragile architecture of human connection.
Fueled by Kraft’s raw, aching delivery and the band’s blend of hushed acoustics and roaring, full-bodied sonics, the song mirrors the turbulence of its subject matter – beginning as a whisper of doubt and erupting into a storm of existential urgency. With its intimate beginnings and explosive crescendos, “Apartment” is an emotionally and sonically charged reckoning with what it means to live and to love while shadowed by uncertainty, doubt, and time itself.
Do you really think that it’s like that?
Slow dancing around my apartment
They say all the time, time is precious
Or am I just counting the seconds?
Tell me are they calling?
I don’t think they’re calling
Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering the striking one-take music video for “Apartment,” the latest single from Coral Moons. Independently released September 5, the track follows July’s “Made Up My Mind” as the group’s second single of 2025, once again recorded in Seattle with producer Andy D. Park (Pedro the Lion, Death Cab for Cutie, Noah Gundersen). Based in Upstate New York after forming on the shores of Boston in 2019, Coral Moons today consists of Carly Kraft (lead vocals, guitar), Justin Bartlett (harmonies, guitar), Miguel Cepeda (bass), and Kevin Krewer (drums). Together, the four craft music that’s as enchanting as it is exhilarating – a sound that first turned heads on their 2021 debut album Fieldcrest, which Atwood Magazine praised as “groovy and glistening… an exceptional rock record: A radiant album full of heated emotions, intimate harmonies, vast landscapes, and assertive, unapologetic passion.” 2024’s sophomore album summer of u built upon that sound, zooming in on a band that refuses to be boxed in to any one identity – while staying true to their substantive core.
Long a bastion of breathtaking lyrics and spellbinding melodies, Coral Moons have continued to expand their sonic horizons in 2025 while holding onto the raw humanity and emotional immediacy that has defined their music from the start.
“‘Apartment’ is the newest single from Coral Moons. Its haunting, simple arrangement adds to the existential dread of the song’s deeper meaning – evaluating commitment when grappling with life and death,” Kraft tells Atwood Magazine. “I wrote this song about someone in my life not willing to commit themselves fully to a relationship. It brings up recurring fears of always feeling like I’m out of time, and highlights the demise of love and respect in lifelong relationships.”
That theme of commitment, or lack thereof, courses through the song’s very veins. The lyrics move between moments of intimacy and estrangement, Kraft’s repeated refrain – “Tell me do you want this? I don’t think you want this” – cutting with the sting of a wound that won’t heal. Musically, the track mirrors that unease: What begins in soft-spoken acoustic fragility gradually erupts into a fierce blaze of searing electric guitars and crashing drums, the full weight of Coral Moons pouring into a cathartic release. It’s as though the band is exorcising the very tension that Kraft sings about, shaking it out through sound.
Lines like “Do you really think we’re above that? / Fall right in the pattern that my parents had” carry a generational sting, while “They say all the time, time is precious, or am I just counting the seconds?” distills that gnawing clock-watch of anxiety into a single breath.
“They really all stemmed from anxiety,” Kraft admits. “I always feel like there’s not enough time in this world to do the things I want to do, and yet I can never fully enjoy the things I yearn for because I’m so worried about things going wrong. It’s just a reminder to myself that things and experiences don’t need to be linear – they can just be.”
Do you really think we’re above that?
Fall right in the pattern that my parents had
Do you get scared it could end?
No warning or call, just like that
The phone-call motif – “Tell me are they calling? I don’t think they’re calling” – turns absence into a character, an invisible force that haunts the room. Kraft’s plea, “Tell me do you want this? I don’t think you want this… I need to know now,” sharpens the fear of asymmetry in love into urgency, while “Are you okay now?” lands like a mirror held up to both partners – a pulse-check for a relationship on the brink. And when she wonders aloud, “Do you get scared it could end? Don’t want it to go just like that,” the song takes on an even heavier existential weight: not only the fear of love’s demise, but of life’s fragility itself.
“The quote is certainly talking about my personal existence on the planet and/or that someone you love could be taken from you at any moment,” Kraft reflects. “It’s another hard thought to have, instead of enjoying the moment you have with your people – I sometimes spend my time worrying that it will all be taken away.”
Tell me are they calling?
I don’t think they’re calling
Tell me do you want this?
I don’t think you want this
Are you okay now?
Are you okay now?
Are you okay now?
Even the offhand line “No warning or call, just like that” hints at the way endings often arrive – not with ceremony, but with a thud. Together, these fragments form a portrait of someone suspended between longing and letting go, tracing the outline of commitment by feeling where it frays.
Coral Moons’ lyrics resonate because they don’t offer answers; they sit in the tension of doubt, exposing the human tendency to crave connection even as we fear its impermanence. In holding that space, Kraft raises a mirror not only to her own anxieties, but to ours – unearthing the fragile, fleeting nature of presence, love, and time.
Tell me are they calling?
I don’t think they’re calling
Tell me do you want this?
I don’t think you want this
The accompanying music video, filmed and edited by Nate Bellavia (Raincoated Records), captures this raw intimacy in a single take. Featuring Kraft walking across Rochester, New York’s Pont de Rennes Bridge (overlooking High Falls) and addressing the camera directly, it’s simple in design yet utterly magnetic in execution – a visual embodiment of the song’s themes of honesty and exposure. There are no walls to hide behind, no cutaways or disguises: Just Kraft, her voice, her presence, and her pain. That stark directness mirrors the song’s brutal honesty, making the video as visceral and affecting as the track itself.
For Coral Moons, “Apartment” is more than just a single; it’s a reflection of life lived in the balance of love and fear, commitment and loss, presence and absence.
In its fire and fragility, it reminds us of the weight of our choices and the brevity of our time. Let this song inspire and invigorate you, as Coral Moons turn doubt into thunder, silence into song, and vulnerability into something achingly, beautifully human.
Watch the “Apartment” music video exclusively on Atwood Magazine, and step into the world of Coral Moons as they wrestle with love, loss, and the fleeting nature of time – and of life itself. Vulnerable and visceral, this song confronts our deepest fears while offering space for release, reflection, and catharsis. We dug deeper into its lyrics, anxieties, and revelations in our candid conversation with Coral Moons’ Carly Kraft below!
Tell me are they calling?
I don’t think they’re calling
Tell me do you want this?
I need to know now
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:: stream/purchase Apartment here ::
:: connect with Coral Moons here ::
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Stream: “Apartment” – Coral Moons
A CONVERSATION WITH CORAL MOONS
Atwood Magazine: Coral Moons, hello again!!! For those who are just discovering you today through this writeup, what do you want them to know about you and your music?
Coral Moons: We are an indie rock band that started out in Boston, MA, and the past 5 years we’ve called the Finger Lakes region of New York home. We spend a lot of time tending to our gardens and writing music in nature.
You followed your sophomore album up with “Made Up My Mind” in July. What's that song about for you, and why return to the spotlight with that track in particular?
Coral Moons: “Made Up My Mind” was all about ending my people pleaser era. It was about being bold and doing something for yourself and only yourself. It felt like the beginning of a bunch of new music that wasn’t so categorically Coral Moons and feels like the start of something that is adventurous and ever changing.
“Apartment” is a stunning song in its own right, made even more powerful by its aching simplicity. What's the story behind your newest song?
Coral Moons: “Apartment” is certainly one of the more emotional songs we have written. It’s more or less about commitment and toying between reality and the idea of someone. It’s about getting over the honeymoon phase and really making a commitment. The song brings you in a few twists and turns but overall they decide not to throw in the towel and make the leap.
You've talked a bit about the existential dread surrounding this song - how it's about evaluating commitment when grappling with life and death. What's “Apartment” about, for you?
Coral Moons: The chorus lyrics in particular reminds me of death. “Tell me are they calling?” Sometimes when I am singing that song on stage, It feels like a little phone call to the afterworld – asking “is it time”? And some days when music is really hard and easy to get down on yourself, I wonder if there was something deeper within me that was relating the conversation I thought was romantic between two people could have all along been my relationship with music as a career.
“They say all the time, ‘time is precious,’ or am I just counting the seconds?” you sing in the first verse. It's such a provocative, profound contemplation. Can you share a bit about how this song came about for you - what inspired these thoughts, these candid, naked words?
Coral Moons: They really all stemmed from anxiety. I always feel like there’s not enough time in this world to do the things I want to do and yet I can never fully enjoy the things I yearn for because I’m so worried about things going wrong. It’s just a reminder to myself that things and experiences don’t need to be linear – they can just be.
“Do you get scared it could end? Don't want it to go just like that.” That lyric left me speechless. It's exceptionally raw – that desire to be, to not not be. It's something I grapple with as well – probably thinking about more than one should. What does it mean, for you, to sing it in song - to crystallize your feelings so vividly and viscerally?
Coral Moons: The quote is certainly talking about my personal existence on the planet and/or that someone you love could be taken from you at any moment. It’s another hard thought to have, instead of enjoying the moment you have with your people – I sometimes spend my time worrying that it will all be taken away.
We're premiering this very special one-take music video. How do you feel this visual adds to the intimacy, and to the narrative of your song?
Coral Moons: The simplicity of the video reminds me of the arrangement of the musical parts; it felt simple and authentic. We were trying too hard in any way – it just felt right. We actually almost got struck by lightning on one of the takes and had to evacuate to the nearest bar! We ending up going with the take. Lol.
I just have to ask – what is your favorite lyric in this song?
Coral Moons: I personally think the timekeeper line was the first thing that came out when I started writing this song and that it permeated through every idea or lyric written here.
They say all the time, time is precious. Or am I just counting the seconds?
How does this track fit into the overall narrative of who Coral Moons are in 2025?
Coral Moons: It’s certainly the most honest and down-to-earth song. We have lots more indie pop rock songs that just make ya wanna sing.
I feel like I've heard you, as a band, diving down an alternative path that's even scratching at the door of ‘emo’ from time to time – and “Apartment” is one of the best examples of this creative transition to date. Is this a real move you're making, or am I just hearing things and manifesting what I want to hear? What's next for Coral Moons in the coming months?
Coral Moons: Haha!! We are certainly not any one genre or thing. We go where the inspiration takes us and hopefully that’s interesting for listeners as it is for our creative side. Lots more music to release and hopefully more shows to announce.
What do you hope listeners take away from “Apartment,” and what have you taken away from creating it and now putting it out?
Coral Moons: A fun takeaway from the song would be that we aren’t just any one genre, and we continue to be versatile. We have a lot of new music on the horizon and hope that folks can keep an open eye and ear to us!
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:: stream/purchase Apartment here ::
:: connect with Coral Moons here ::
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Stream: “Apartment” – Coral Moons
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🖼️ © Meg Kelleher
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