A Conversation with The Moore Brothers (continued)

PM: So yeah, I found out a lot from Thom about the Moore Brothers gigging scene and the recording scene. So tell me your version of who you may be either reading or listening to at the moment.

GM: Well, that Scritti Politti record...

PM: Oh, yeah. Now, I thought that they were done so long ago.

GM: Yeah.

PM: I mean, when was their heyday? I remember loving that band.

GM: Yeah, their heyday was probably like Cupid and Psyche '85.

PM: Yeah, right.

GM: And since then they've done one thing around 1999 or 2000, which was totally different. "No synthesizers" was the rule. And they got Mos Def, and he assembled the band, and a couple rappers.

PM: Wow!

GM: Kind of like this weird grunge hip-hop thing. He wasn't really singing as much as he did on the more poppy stuff. So that was strange, but it was really good. But this one was even better than that, and I think it's probably the best thing he's ever done.

PM: Well, I don't even know who the people in Scritti Politti are. They were just like a big synthesizer band, to me, that I loved.

GM: Well, before that there was a couple different versions of Scritti Politti, and it was kind of like a gospel R&B-tinged kind of like real band before they got famous. And then he was on Rough Trade, now he's back on Rough Trade. So then the whole slick synthesizer era was when he moved to New York, and was like really into hip-hop and R&B, like all these really expensive guys. So now this new one is all just him in his home studio.

PM: Now, who is him?

GM: Him is this guy, Green Gartside. He's a really interesting character. If you check him out on the internet, he's a really funny, eccentric guy, very smart.

PM: And he's American, he's English?

GM: No. I think he's Welsh. When they started out in London, they were really kind of indiscernible and weird. I mean, it's still interesting for me and a lot of people who like weird post-punk, anti-music kind of thing, or something.

PM: Right. Singing the way you guys do, and composing the way you do, there are some unusual influences.

GM: Yeah.

PM: Do you have any truck with the rap scene or the hip-hop scene, or do you listen to any such thing?

GM: I wish I listened to more. I mean, I enjoy it. I don't really know too much about it. I can only listen to it in small doses, but I do like it, yeah. But definitely I mean, yes, for sure--but probably more like the R&B end, like Marvin Gaye kind of stuff. I was into Run-DMC when that came out. And I think that still sounds pretty much fresh.

PM: Right. What about reading? Do you find time or make time?

GM: Yeah, I do. I mean, gosh, I can't even think of what I've read. It's embarrassing. I read just kind of fluffy stuff.

PM: [laughs]

GM: But I just read this Beatles bio.

PM: Which one, the book by their engineer?

GM: No. It's a new one that came out from a New York Times writer named Spitz, maybe? [The Beatles: The Biography, nearly 1,000 pages by Bob Spitz]

PM: Uh-huh. [laughs]

So what is the plan, now? I mean, Murdered--you didn't get to hear me rave on about it, but I'm just crazy about this record.

GM: Oh, thank you so much.

PM: The singularity of its originality, it's mind blowing to me.

GM: Really? Thank you.

PM: So you, I know, have a job as an attendant for a disabled person. And Thom is finishing his last year in school. But now with the timing of this release and you've got to play, how will you work that all out?

GM: Well, I would probably prioritize music. I would love to do that full time and make money, if I could, doing it. This guy I'm working for now, I gave him a year commitment, but I told him I'd be doing a little touring. So I think I'm actually thinking about going to grad school, but I haven't made any concrete plans, or haven't applied yet, but I'm kind of considering going somewhere around here for an MFA.

PM: What would it be in?

GM: Painting.

PM: Painting, wow.

GM: So that would be a nice way to have fun for two years and make some art.

PM: Right. So that's something that you do seriously is paint?

GM: Yeah.

PM: So did you get to see many Renoir sketches in the course of the recording?

GM: I don't think I saw any. I think I saw a picture of one. It wasn't that impressive.

PM: It wasn't.

GM: Yeah, and I think it was just a flower, like a watercolor of a flower, or something like that.

PM: Wow, I hope that sometime you'll put up some work of an artistic nature on the site.

GM: Oh, yeah.

PM: I like when artists do that. I've been meaning to do a feature in Puremusic about the artwork of musical artists.

GM: That would be interesting. I mean, it's really interconnected. A lot of the ideas and a lot of the kind of moods I'm going for, there's crossover, for sure. But it's funny, I've always in my mind been reluctant to do that thing. I guess because when I was doing my undergrad degree and I was in art school, and the Moore Brothers were gigging around a lot, I just didn't want to be that guy, the guy who was like having his band come play all the time. I wanted people to take my paintings separately. So people wouldn't have that background information or something.

PM: Right. And now, in your thirties, it may matter less. I don't know.

GM: Yeah. I don't know.

PM: Well, jeez, Greg, I really don't have more questions, because I plumbed many depths with brother Thom there. I hope you haven't come too far to get my few questions.

GM: No, no, not at all. That was great. I hope I meet you in person next time.

PM: Absolutely. When I get out to the Bay Area, which I'm soon to do, I will try to get in touch and see if we can have coffee sometime.

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thanks for photos to: Terri Loewenthal (press shots, the nice close-up on the setup page & the one atop this page that I decided to drastically crop to suggest aspects of brotherliness), Lyn Gaza (deer in foreground on page 4--go look at her wonderful Dreams and Glass images), Jared Dayley (photograph of the Moores accompanied by the other brother torsos, page 3--his "about" at thedizzyplanet.com is worth many pictures), and the inimitable Alison Schmidt (Bros. live, including the one on the Box O' Thom above--her site thebooj.com is being reoriented, expect it to come back swinging soon). Inspiration and several cool frames were found at folkartisans.com, the online and mailorder world-of-wonders run by Matt Lippa & Elizabeth Schaaf of Mentone, Alabama. They might have exactly what you're looking for or didn't know you needed (they have remarkable items in abundance), and just wandering around their site can be strangely refreshing.