New tunes out of NFK – Courtesy of Lux Nova and Sunny & Gabe

by | Dec 29, 2014 | MUSIC

Two tracks out of Norfolk which are sure to help you kick off your new year, “Blue Dice,” the debut release from Lux Nova, and “Truth,” put out under the name Sunny Moonshine, are everything I need right now.


Two tracks out of Norfolk which are sure to help you kick off your new year, “Blue Dice,” the debut release from Lux Nova, and “Truth,” put out under the name Sunny Moonshine, are everything I need right now.

“Blue Dice” from Lux Nova

The band consists of Joe Hamm and Nate Fender, from Chasing Arrows; Kelsie McNair, who you know from With Lavender & Lace and from having a voice that fits on a Flight Facilities Pandora station; and Lizzy Paluszek, most recently from the Janks.

“My writing in this project is adventurous,” Kelsie said. “I have been able to take on different perspectives while in this group.”

“The song represents the part of love that hurts,” said Nate. “It’s the bittersweet feeling you have, knowing that the pain you are experiencing is because of the admiration you hold for what you could have had. It’s the precise moment of decision in life or love where I feel this song.”

“It’s a song about chance and choice,” Kelsie said.

I listened to this song something like 20 times in a row yesterday as I wrote. This song doesn’t need me to intellectualize it–just enjoy it.

*** *** *** *** *** *** ***

“Truth” from Sunny Moonshine (aka Sunny & Gabe) (Top Image)

“The account is basically an outlet for me to post whatever I want,” Sunny told me. “I decided to post a song me and Gabe were working on (the vocals are recorded brainstorms) and just put it out there. It’s not official and is separate from our new project. Kind of an experiment.”

“There’s no rules to this shit,” Gabe clarified.

It’s a song to listen to as you leave the earth’s atmosphere; lighter than air, intoxicated, perfect as background music for holding eye contact with black holes infinitely expanding far away in the solar system.

For more of Sunny & Gabe, click here. This is what I got for Lux Nova.

Brad Kutner

Brad Kutner

Brad Kutner is the former editor of GayRVA and RVAMag from 2013 - 2017. He’s now the Richmond Bureau Chief for Radio IQ, a state-wide NPR outlet based in Roanoke. You can reach him at BradKutnerNPR@gmail.com




more in music

Iron Blossom is Part of a Bigger Richmond Music Story

Ahead of Iron Blossom, we talked with veteran promoter Ken Macdonald about the city’s changing live music ecosystem, from clubs to festivals and the Allianz Amphitheater. Richmond has always been a music town, but going back decades there were gaps in the local scene....

A First Look at the New Brown’s Island

Brown's Island has been closed since November 2025 for a $30 million improvement project, the largest renovation of the six-acre island in decades. It will temporarily reopen for the Richmond Folk Festival, October 9 - 11th, giving Richmonders their first chance to...

Richmond Loves Dolly Parton

I was gonna kill my husband in a cab in Peru, but “Islands in the Stream” came on the radio, and we stopped arguing and started singing. She could do that to you. You could totally be feeling some type of way, but if you put some Dolly Parton on, well, then you got a...

Night Idea Has Been Here the Whole Time.

Richmond has no shortage of bands that arrive and then disappear. Night Idea has taken the opposite approach. They’ve been around for 16 years, and keep getting better. I sat down with Joey Anderson, Reggie Pace and Reyna Pannell ahead of Night Idea’s appearance at...

You Can Kiss Off! 45 Years of Violent Femmes

You can always kiss off into the air. Behind my back, I can see them stare. They hurt me bad, and I don’t mind. They hurt me bad, they do it all the time! Yeah, yeah. You just sang that in your head, didn’t you? I believe it is impossible not to. There’s an alchemy, a...

Read the Virginia Pride 2026 Pride Guide 🏳️‍🌈

For more than a decade, RVA Magazine has worked with Virginia Pride to produce the Official VA PrideFest Guide, bringing together stories from Richmond’s LGBTQ+ community and everything you need to know for PrideFest this Saturday, September 12,...

Virginia Film Chief Andy Edmunds Made a Movie

For context, when I’m not writing for this magazine, I’m a director and producer in the film industry. There’s one person rallying troops in the trenches for me and my colleagues all over the state. Andy Edmunds is on the front line of the conversations that bring...