--- title: "Moonlight Beach" description: "A 2023 Encinitas beach-pop LP where Scoobert turns the post-KŌAN range into a physical place: hometown myth, surf/funk, covers, Japan still in the distance, and a live touring body." year: 2023 releaseDate: 2023-05-19 artworkBy: "Gentle Giant Illustrations" artist: "Scoobert Doobert" artistId: "#scoobert" bandcamp: "https://scoobertdoobert.bandcamp.com/album/moonlight-beach" spotify: "https://open.spotify.com/album/2l5r7AyE9hDNI7VUH6FLlA" apple: "https://music.apple.com/us/album/moonlight-beach/1675559395" tracks: - { title: "Walk Don't Run", cover: true, coverOf: "The Ventures", song: walk-dont-run } - { title: "Feels So Good", song: feels-so-good } - { title: "Dancing in the Moonlight (Beach)", cover: true, coverOf: "King Harvest", song: dancing-in-the-moonlight-beach } - { title: "Ocean View", song: ocean-view } - { title: "Tired of the Sunshine", feat: "Bubby Lewis", song: tired-of-the-sunshine } - { title: "Shrimp Burrito", song: shrimp-burrito } - { title: "Meteor Shower", feat: "Jamie Drake", song: meteor-shower } - { title: "Gonna Go to Japan", song: gonna-go-to-japan } - { title: "Low Tide", cover: true, coverOf: "The Wonder Years", song: low-tide } - { title: "möbius . spuǝ ʇᴉ ʍoɥ ʇoN", song: mobius-how-to-not-use-it } press: - outlet: "Beformer — Indie Covers & Feel Good (Instagram)" url: "https://www.instagram.com/p/CqJOsHWv_4D/" desc: "March 23, 2023 — Dancing in the Moonlight (Beach) + Feels So Good on Indie Covers & Feel Good; Remi Wolf on Indie Covers art." - outlet: "Beformer — Dancing in the Moonlight (Beach) on Spotify Chill Vibes (Instagram)" url: "https://www.instagram.com/p/CpHC2DcrPYV/" desc: "February 25, 2023 — major Chill Vibes editorial add; King Harvest cover." - outlet: "Beformer — Feels So Good on Spotify Chilled Indie (Instagram)" url: "https://www.instagram.com/p/Co3zXQEOmeR/" desc: "February 19, 2023 — official Chilled Indie editorial add." - outlet: "Beformer — Feels So Good Spotify playlist adds (Instagram)" url: "https://www.instagram.com/p/CoNgwdrPDlX/" desc: "February 2023 — six official Spotify editorial adds; Ocean View promo in caption." - outlet: "EARMILK" url: "https://earmilk.com/2023/02/09/scoobert-doobert-basks-in-the-serenity-of-life-on-ocean-view/" date: "2023-02" desc: "On “Ocean View” ahead of the LP: laidback summer guitar, bass grooves, and calm ocean-facing pop." - outlet: "Riptide Magazine" url: "https://www.riptidemag.fr/feels-so-good-le-tout-nouveau-single-chill-de-scoobert-doobert/" desc: "French feature on “Feels So Good,” written about friends on Moonlight Beach." - outlet: "Reggae Tastemaker" url: "https://reggaetastemaker.com/reggae/scoobert-doobert-feels-so-good/reggae-tastemaker/" desc: "On “Feels So Good.”" - outlet: "egoFM: Radiowelt" url: "https://www.egofm.de/radiowelt/scoobert-doobert-interview" desc: "Munich Glumanda interview; promotes Privataudienz guest hour." - outlet: "egoFM: Privataudienz (hosted guest hour)" url: "https://www.egofm.de/radiowelt/die-egofm-privataudienz" desc: "Scoobert Doobert hosted and curated ~25 min guest hour on Munich radio; Slow Jam.wav in published tracklist." - outlet: "egoFM: Bier, Burritos und Marihuana" url: "https://www.egofm.de/blog/bier-burritos-und-marihuana" desc: "Written California-week feature: Encinitas, burritos, North Park, San Diego scene; quotes plus audio." draft: false --- *Moonlight Beach* is the place-record and touring-body record. After [*KŌAN*](/albums/koan/) expanded Scoobert into paradox, Japan, spatial audio, and international attention, this LP pulls the project back into a physical geography: Encinitas, ocean air, covers, collaborators, burritos, bonfires, and songs that sound built to be played outside instead of only inside headphones. [*Finding $D*](/albums/finding-d-remastered/) is the lab notebook. [*Swami's*](/albums/wami/) is the lore dump. [*Dragon Ball $d*](/albums/dragon-ball-d/) is the narrative hip-hopera. [*Masks and Monsters*](/albums/masks-and-monsters/) is the pandemic record. [*Little Hug*](/albums/little-hug/) is the small recovery object. [*Big Hug*](/albums/big-hug/) is the accessible thesis. [*KŌAN*](/albums/koan/) is the four-part paradox / international expansion. **Moonlight Beach** is the place-record, radio record, and live-body record. [Bandcamp *Moonlight Beach*](https://scoobertdoobert.bandcamp.com/album/moonlight-beach) dropped **May 19, 2023** ($8 or more, 24-bit/88.2kHz). Ten tracks, about twenty-eight minutes, on [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/album/2l5r7AyE9hDNI7VUH6FLlA) and [Apple Music](https://music.apple.com/us/album/moonlight-beach/1675559395), ℗ 2023 Beformer. Album art by Gentle Giant Illustrations; mastering by Riley Knapp. The title is not abstract. [Moonlight State Beach](https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=659) is an actual Encinitas beach: California State Parks lists it as operated by the City of Encinitas, with a snack shack, rentals, playground, and Junior Lifeguard programs. That local specificity matters because the album sounds like the Scoobert mythology finally landing in a named hometown public space. On Apple Music, Luke notes that *Feels So Good* was written thinking about best friends on Moonlight Beach, beer in hand: a platonic love song for the homies. This is also where the release becomes more social and less solipsistic. Earlier records were heavily internal-world: cartoon lore, pandemic mind, koan structure, internet friends. *Moonlight Beach* has covers, guests, and a more legible “come hang out” surface. *Walk Don't Run*, *Dancing in the Moonlight (Beach)*, and *Low Tide* make the album partly a covers conversation; Bubby Lewis and Jamie Drake make it a collaborator record; *Gonna Go to Japan* keeps the KŌAN/Japan thread alive; and the final flipped-title [*möbius . spuǝ ʇᴉ ʍoɥ ʇoN*](/songs/mobius-how-to-not-use-it/) points forward into [*MÖB*](/albums/mob/) and the planned four-part cycle (**MÖB → I → US → MÖBIUS**). *MÖB* and *I* are finished; [*US*](/albums/us/) is in progress. Public radio logs show [FIP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIP_(radio_station)) plays for *Walk Don't Run (Ventures Cover)* and *Dancing in the Moonlight (Beach)*. FIP is Radio France’s nationwide eclectic station: curated, genre-spanning, built for discovery rather than chart repetition. For [*Gonna Go to Japan*](/songs/gonna-go-to-japan/), the verified trail is smaller: [GRRIF](https://www.grrif.ch/recherche-de-titres/?date=2023-09-25) logged the title twice on **25 septembre 2023** (12:28, 17:25), and [Radio Nova](https://www.nova.fr/)'s **catalogue des titres** lists **GONNA GO TO JAPAN** as title ID **#38775** (03:05) without a confirmed broadcast date from the accessible search result. Not a campaign — un petit fossile public beside the FIP cover plays. On the Munich/Bavaria side, egoFM had already brought Scoobert into its world with a [Radiowelt interview](https://www.egofm.de/radiowelt/scoobert-doobert-interview), a written [California-week blog feature](https://www.egofm.de/blog/bier-burritos-und-marihuana) (beer, burritos, Encinitas), and a hosted [**Privataudienz**](https://www.egofm.de/radiowelt/die-egofm-privataudienz) guest hour (~25 min online cut): his curated track picks, his stories, funk and current favorites in rotation. egoFM broadcasts in Munich at 100.8 FM and across other Bavarian cities. Moonlight Beach is the era where that beach-pop language had visible French and German radio traction. It also lines up with the live transition. In a [2021 VENTS interview](https://ventsmagazine.com/2021/04/16/interview-indie-pops-scoobert-doobert/), Scoobert said he had not yet played live as Scoobert Doobert and was still figuring out solo performance. By the egoFM interviews around 2021–2022, he was talking about turning the virtual, live-stacked Scoobert idea into a real-world thing and starting to play out. This is the period when the project becomes a live act, not only a studio persona. The best single-context clue is *Ocean View*. [EARMILK](https://earmilk.com/2023/02/09/scoobert-doobert-basks-in-the-serenity-of-life-on-ocean-view/) described it as a laidback, summer-tinged, self-produced track with live guitar, bass-driven grooves, and a calm ocean-facing quality. That previews the whole record’s posture: less “what is the self?” and more “go outside, look at the water, bring the groove with you.” *Big Hug* made the project emotionally legible. *KŌAN* made it conceptually and internationally expansive. *Moonlight Beach* makes it local, bodily, and performable. The record says: this is not only a bedroom universe anymore. It has a beach, a snack shack, guests, covers, radio stations, and a crowd. What comes next is [*MÖB*](/albums/mob/): the first Möbius turn.