Moxy the Band, an interview
In case you missed it, last month, we posted a review of “The Feeling of Letting Go,” by Moxy the Band. We became so obsessed with this song that we decided to track them down and ask a bunch of questions about their new record, Dream Feeling. Virtuoso composer and one of Moxy the Band’s sonic masterminds, Michael Franzino, finally returned our call…
UpToHear: Dream Feeling has now been out for just over a month and we noticed that you couldn’t keep the vinyl in stock. Is it safe to assume that it’s doing much better than you had anticipated?
Moxy the Band: Truly. We did a fundraiser on Indiegogo in conjunction with our pre-order and were honestly just hoping to raise half of our goal, but by the end we were blown away to have it almost 150% funded. We are a brand new band, so it’s usually a decent struggle for artists to get anyone to care in that initial period. We could not be more grateful to be receiving such a loving and supportive welcome.
UTH: When we initially featured you on the blog, we made it reasonably clear that we were not often drawn to your genre, yet something in “The Feeling of Letting Go” dug its claws into us. Is this sorcery?
MTB: It is possible, and I believe we could even be captive to its spells ourselves. It’s funny, this song almost didn’t make the record. The demo for it was written after we believed we had written all of the tracks & had recorded them just on a whim as a palette cleanser. Maybe it’s something about what happens when the pressure is off, but we wrote this song very casually knowing the whole time that it would most likely be cut. It just kept us coming back though and by the time Amber’s vocals were laid down, we realized we had something here and had to rally to finish it / give it a place on the album. So glad we did, because it is now one of our favorites and definitely gathering steam the fastest!
UTH: It’s such a great song! After we featured it, we did a reasonably deep dive into your catalogue, especially your videos, which are all very impressive in their level of professionalism. Did you set a budget for this? Or are you just talented as all hell?
MTB: We very deliberately released this album DIY. I’ve been through the whole label rigamarole a number of times now and it has it’s strengths… but some major drawbacks as well. DIY is the same though, and the major drawback is that if we wanted to own our first record and do it on the level a label would have done, it was gonna be expensive. We did our best to mitigate that though by keeping it all as in house as possible. Our bandmate Dryw is also a producer / engineer by trade, so we were able to accomplish the recording ourselves. I built Dryw’s entire recording studio in exchange for his time in tracking, mixing & mastering it. Columinati Films (our incredible video team for “The Cost” and “Pawns”) are great friends of ours, and though it was most certainly expensive to pull off productions that big, we were working with people that believed in us / the music and weren’t there to gouge us, which made a difference. Same goes for the promo photos with our talented friend Raul Gonzo, much of the graphic design, etc. We are lucky to be surrounded by very talented people with great taste. We made a pretty big leap of faith and took on considerable debt, but our fans caught us on the other side of it and I think it is all gonna be ok now haha.
UTH: It is very easy to believe in your band. Like we said, your genre is so far beyond our wheelhouse, yet we knew upon first listen that there was definitely something special happening here. Anyone listening can sense that– not to mention all the references to pop culture. For example, there are some pretty heavy Carrie vibes in the “Pawns” video. Please tell us that you showed up to rehearsal and decided to, instead, watch the film.
MTB: Haha, “Pawns” indeed was an intentional homage to a flipped version of Carrie. Though we didn’t have the film playing on set, it was definitely all of our homework to watch the film beforehand and take notes. Funny story: Amber and I both went to the junior high school where it was filmed (at different times). She endured a fair bit of bullying there, and I was expelled from it (lol) which actually led to me picking up guitar, so the whole thing was very full-circle and bizarre feeling.
UTH: The bass work in “The Cost” is simply outstanding and we, at first, thought it was midi, then we saw a bass in the video. There isn’t really a question in here. We just thought that it was amazing.
MTB: That bass line is definitely a prized jewel on the record for us. That song is Dryw’s baby and he indeed gave an incredible laid back, behind the beat, almost sleepy (in a cool way) performance on a P bass that really deepens the mood of that song.
UTH: We are pretty big fans of Stranger Things and believe that this weighs in on how much we ended up falling in love with your sound. There are moments in your songs that are definite callbacks to certain sounds from the ‘80s. Did you all collectively decide on this genre? And are those nostalgic sounds in there because you also like Stranger Things?
MTB: Man, there’s actually a lot I can say on the subject of genre, but I’ll summarize the best I can: We never write with genre in mind; in fact, trying to not be stuck in a box is a core goal of the band. The backstory of how this band came to be is that it was born from the dissolution of my previous band, which was a lot heavier. It started when I was 18 and lasted for ten years. As I’m sure you can imagine, musical taste/influences/interests change a lot from 18 to 28, so I found myself in a predicament I’ve seen happen to a lot of bands: I decided my musical trajectory as a kid, and it no longer worked for me as an adult. The heavier music-scene has an especially hard time allowing artists to grow, so we either had to continue making music we were no longer passionate about, or put it down and move forward. This album was me moving forward, and the beginnings of it was just me on my own aimlessly writing in a million directions / genres. I wrote about 40 different songs before I had the best idea I ever had - to invite Dryw to collaborate with me and contextualize/finish the many ideas I had recorded. All that to say that the ‘80s influences you hear are really just a result of mine and Dryw’s nerdy obsession with that era of synths and textures. Though I think Stranger Things is incredible, I think the similarities there are a result of Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein sharing the same nerdy synth influences that we have.
UTH: You have managed to do all of this without a manager or label, correct? The caliber of music is, no doubt, a major ingredient to baking this cake, but what advice do you have for the other indies who are dead-set on getting signed?
MTB: I touched a little on this earlier but yeah, there’s SO much I wish I could fit into this answer. I’ll try to be succinct: the label thing is a very weird paradox. In the beginning of a musical project, it is useful to have a label because most artists (us included) cannot afford to do all the things necessary to get your music out there. Having a label front those costs and offer their infrastructure is helpful. The catch is that their financial support is essentially a loan with the worst APR you could ever imagine. More paradoxically, a label won’t sign you until you are at the point where it is likely your music will see a return… and if you’re lucky enough to get there on your own, then you no longer need a label. In many ways, TikTok has done much to bypass the label machine, allowing artists to reach people in an unprecedented way. However, it can also cause artists to compromise their vision in order to fit their format. Might be a little “boomer-y” of me to say tho.
Don’t sleep on this album, folks. It’s easily one of the best releases of 2022.
-TM