Bob Moses Speak About Their Album ‘Days Gone By’ and Explain How To Make A Record
Bob Moses are two Canadian artists who keep coming back to the Montreal crowd with eagerness and ambition.
They have been working with Domino Records this past year and recording their new album Days Gone By. The twelve track project will be released on September 18th via Domino and iTunes.
I caught up with the duo after their performance earlier this summer during Osheaga Music Festival. See what they had to say below!
CNL: Hey Jimmy and Tom, thanks for being here. You two seem to frequent Montreal with your performances. What is it that always brings you back to the city?
Jimmy: Well Montreal is awesome, there is an abundance of poutine which is a reason to come back anywhere. We always have a rocking time here!
Tom: There are a few places where we have a good following; the vibe of the crowd here really suits us. Montreal from the beginning has always been really fun with good people.
CNL: Where else in the world do you see similar places that are very accepting of what ever you play?
Jimmy: Dublin, Ireland is a great place. New York is a lot like that, Berlin too. We’re from Vancouver originally, born and bred Canadian, and every time we play there people go crazy.
Tom: North American’s so far for us have generally been a bit more open minded it seems. In certain places in Europe especially with electronic music, it’s more developed and rooted there longer. They have their tastes and can be harder to crack.
CNL: Would you say there is a global community among all musicians?
Tom: The underground dance scene that we’ve come out of is totally a global community. You get the same sort of people and vibe most parts of the world. It’s actually quite shocking how true that is.
CNL: How do you decide between when playing your own music or music that interests you?
Tom: We always play live sets so we’ll play only our own music. If we’re at an after party or even afterhours we’ll do DJ sets, but not too often anymore.
Jimmy: When we started out performing we didn’t have enough music so we’d only do DJ sets. Tom would just sing over some of our tracks.
CNL: Well now that you can play a full live set, would you say you prefer that style of musical performances?
Jimmy: It’s nice to have the DJ sets occasionally because it forces you to listen to a lot of music. DJing is different because it’s a performance in a way, but you don’t have to be as tight. It can have a punk rock element where you can drink and play and step away for a second. There are other people on the stage and you make it a party.
Jimmy: When it’s a live show it’s just you and there can be visuals. We wouldn’t be able to do what we do now without having experience from both.
Tom: The way we approach that side of DJ culture is making sets. It’s the same process of finding music, talking about it, playing for each other, and getting inspired. We do this big collection and that’s actually really important to do before starting to write. Lots of our original stuff is spawned out of that process.
CNL: Where would you find yourself when you would be playing tracks you suspect people don’t know?
Jimmy: That’s a recent thing for us because we’re now playing live shows from an album that’s not out yet.
Tom: A funny thing that I’ve started to notice is every show people don’t go as nuts for a new song they don’t know yet. Knowing our songs beforehand is a big part of enjoying the concert. Not always, but a significant portion. Most of our new stuff people have really responded to well!
Tom: We actually played a lot of gigs while we were making this album. We would take it on the road and test out demos. Playing live really formed our creative process for Days Gone By.
CNL: Can that ever be a hindrance though? When the same songs and transitions become redundant?
Jimmy: I think it’s important to play places not too often and when you do to keep in mind that you should bring something new to the table. Mistakes are good too! The best bands in the world are human and put that on the music they make.
Tom: When anything becomes too formulaic or repetitive it is not as powerful. People want to be surprised.
Tom: Electronic music is generally recorded music so you have less control and it’s harder to make it different every time. In DJ culture, how you place the records next to each other is where the art is as opposed to how you perform one song.
CNL: What can you say you are most excited for about your debut major release?
Jimmy: Well having your first full length is a super exciting thing! We get to go on a headlining album tour so we can play more of Canada and eat Ketchup chips.
Tom: Making an album is a huge process and we both put a lot of work into this album. I’m just excited to put it out and share it with as many people as possible. That’s such an interesting experience in itself.
CNL: How long will the album have taken in total to create from the first idea to its release?
Jimmy: We always knew that we wanted to do an album. We always know we wanted that as an end goal. We spent about a year making it, but also played over 80 gigs during the same period.
CNL: Are any of the songs on the album an idea you started that you brought back?
Tom: A lot of the time when you’re making music you start an idea and get stuck. The first single “First to Cry” came out and then a year later we have the finished album.
Jimmy: The album wouldn’t have so much meaning to us had we not have the experience of gone out and playing it live. The way everything happened the way it did and the confidence to finish it, was because of both.
CNL: How has your relationship with the Dominos record label grown now and did you have consistent over sight of the project?
Tom: They rock! We’ve become really good friends with lots of the people we work with. They signed us because we are artists they chose to believe in. They’re not interested in meddling, but want to give artists a voice and be able to do our own thing. They signed us before we were done our album so for the first year they took a leap of faith with us.
Jimmy: They believed in us and just gave a really nurturing environment. They made us milk n cookies, they’re a shoulder to cry on, and they’re a warm hug. They are like a fireplace in the snowy wilderness.
CNL: Would you say that there’s more lyrical content from you two on Days Gone By?
Jimmy: One thing we used to do is this chanting thing where we repeat a line a lot. We’ve added more sections like verses, choruses, pre-choruses. There are way more words on this record.
Tom: With an album you can go off the beaten path more because you have chance to bring it back next track. There is a lot more than just writing a great song or producing a good beat. Just writing and writing and then deciding which songs go on the album! It’s a big progress.
CNL: Who are some of your biggest musical inspirations growing up?
Jimmy: Now Tom and I listen to Tame Impala all the time. We love Tame Impala.
Tom: I grew up listening to my mom’s mixtapes with the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and stuff. My Dad loved Eric Clapton, Elton John, and blues music. We are both from Vancouver so we were both byproducts of the this post grunge-90’s rock era.
CNL: Do you still listen to a lot of classic artists or more electronic music?
Jimmy: We listen to all that classic rock still!
Tom: There is different ways that we listen to music. Lots of the time we listen to music for a purpose or to study it. That’s how we work, by trying to find new sounds, digging through older records. Sometimes we also put on Rage Against The Machine and just fuck around, no rules.
CNL: Thanks guys for speaking with me today!
You can catch Bob Moses on their upcoming Days Gone By album tour where they’ll be playing all across North America. Check the Canadian dates below!
10/04- The Fairmont- Montreal
10/06- CODA- Toronto
10/14- Imperial- Vancouver
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