The Incredible Moses Leroy – Interview

You have a great album, it must be exciting to know that its ready to be unleashed on the world.

I’m excited. But sometimes its tough because people outside of the band don’t realize that it really is just one person and they keep piling these things on and it can wear a person down after a while.

Now you are taking on the business part of your career.

Right. Now I have to find some balance. I also like to have time for myself.

Isn’t it good in a way though because people want to have the time with you?

You know what? That is a really good way of looking at it. Thanks!

(We both laugh)

How long was this album in the works?

My whole life. (Laughs)

Do you write in the studio?

Well for this record its been about a years worth of work, but sporadic. Some songs I had before and some I wrote on the spot. Actually most of it was written on the spot.

Do you have that much faith in your skills to allow yourself to write on the spot?

I have a lot of songs already so I feel pretty safe. Whenever I go into the studio I get an influx of ideas. There is something about the studio that does it for me.

Some people take five years to come up with twenty songs.

I know.

Do you write on guitar or piano or just chance?

Sometimes its just by chance. Like maybe I’ll hear a certain effect on the guitar and it can make a chord sound different and that sometimes cues me. Practicing for me is the best way to write songs because I stumble on things by accident.

Is your daily music eclectic?

My daily listen isn’t as much anymore, but I listen to whatever I feel to at the moment. Whatever mood I’m in I’ll put on a certain group. I think I write like that depending on my mood.

Did you put so many eclectic songs on your cd because you had them or was it planned?

I really don’t want to repeat myself. It may happen because I might write two or three ideas and offshoots of the same idea. But as far as an album goes I would take the best of the ideas not the three ideas because they are good. Some bands have a sound and they just stick to it. Like Green Day, they have done a great thing with changing their sound just enough. I mean they still sound like Green Day but it doesn’t all sound exactly the same.

I always think of Limp Bizkit.

Every song is so near to every other song.

I read that you didn’t start actually playing music until college. How long where you just messing around before you got signed?

I joined a band I think my junior year in college and that band showed me a lot about sending out demos, networking, press packets, making and recording stuff on your own. I learned a lot from that. After I graduated it was probably two or three years after I graduated that I just finished my first cd. Then a few months after that people started recognizing it was something different. Then the deal came.

What was your degree in?

Media communications.

I bet that is coming in handy.

Definitely. I applied certain things to my music, well not my music, but that asthetic things.

Where you doing that for work?

No, I was substitute teaching. I was subbing so I could make some money to make a record. You only work when you want to work.

Is the group just you?

It was just friends initially, but now its really been a band for about a year.

It blurs the line.

The title ‘Incredible Moses Leroy’ is meant to refer to the band.

It was your grandfather’s name right?

Yeah.

When I first got the press kit I didn’t read it, I just listened to the cd. And I thought ‘well this guy Moses Leroy really thinks a lot of himself to call himself incredible’. Do you have cover this a lot?

I have to all the time. I’m always ready to explain where the name came from because people can get the wrong idea.

It’s cool though because you have a good story behind the name, but also if you play live and people love it or if they love the cd they think ‘okay, he is incredible’.

I know. That is cool.

What is the live show like?

It’s actually pretty cool. I have archived video that is all timed and stuff. It’s pretty interest. It’s like an art rock show.

Do you ever worry that you will be labeled as artsy? It does dog some bands.

It’s funny because so far with the reviews some think its way to art rock, I read a review from like amazon.com where the guy says I can sing and play, but I have an agenda and am self indulgent. Other people who are music snobs don’t think its arty enough, too commercial and slick. I think the people that like it like to just listen to music and aren’t snobs. People seem to like that its not like everything else on the radio today.

I think of bands like Pavement or Belle & Sebastian or even Blur who get dogged as an art band. But I liked them before I was a writer.

And they are all media darlings.

Do you think that the problem with music today that they want it dumbed down?

I think it depends on the person. Mediocrity kind of rules our nation and not just music. Like a movie will come out and boast its from the producers of fucking Godzilla and Independence Day. And you are like ‘you are using these examples to sell me a movie?’ Because they both sucked. But they do that because they made millions and millions of dollars.

+ charlie craine