Moes Haven's Appropriately Detailed Year An Interview by Andrea Weiss Moes Haven are a very unusual band. They release albums on their own label (Motern Music), rarely play out, and send albums to people they find on the web who they think would like their music, which is basically indie folk/rock. I was fortunate to be one of those people, and have enjoyed their music very much over the last few years. They even wrote a song for me, and I thank them for that. It was an invitation to a listening party for their current project, in which they wrote a song for each day of the year, put the best ones into 30 minute albums, and invited people to come to their home state of New Hampshire to listen to all 365 of them. “Andrea Weiss, Andrea Weiss, we’re so glad you wrote reviews of our albums for your magazine Tone and Groove, we’d like to invite you to our party… and we hope we’re pronouncing your last name right.” (You did, guys, but pronounced my first name wrong! It's AHN-drea). The duo consists of lead singer and keyboardist Matt Farley, and guitarist and backing vocalist Tom Scalzo. I got a chance to interview Matt recently, and here's what he had to say. l-r Matt Farley, Violin Girl (who plays on the January CD), Tom Scalzo Andrea: You don't follow the traditional indie/DIY process -- recording for a label like Sub Pop, touring all over, hoping for some sales and good press. You just send records to people you think would like your music, or hope iTunes, CDBaby and the press you do get sell some albums. Why did you choose that path? Matt: We've always been a "studio band," even though the studio was our college dorm room or my apartment, etc., so playing live shows was never a priority for us. In fact, we don't even remember how to play most of our songs. Usually, we'll write a song, immediately record it and then move on, so the more standard path was not really an option. For several years, we didn't even try to get anyone to listen to our music. Only in the last three years or so have I started putting effort into getting the music heard. It started by handing out CDs and slowly evolved into finding addresses on the internet and sending CDs to people who seemed like they might enjoy a free disc. It's been a fun way to meet different people around the country and get our sound out there. Andrea: For those who don't know your history, how did you meet, and what made you decide to become musicians? Matt: Tom and I lived on the same floor during our freshman year at Providence College in 1996. It soon became clear that we were both interested in music and songwriting. About a month after we met, we wrote our first song together. We continued to collaborate here and there for the following years, but it wasn't until senior year that it got very serious. By then we were meeting at least once a week for marathon songwriting sessions, and we've basically been working that way ever since. Because we don't live too close (I'm in NH, he's in Boston), when we do get together, we work long hours and get as much done as possible. It's a good method for us. Andrea: Where did you get the band name? Matt: We considered several names. In fact, when we started in college, we'd change the name of the band with each album we recorded. Of course, it didn't matter because no one was listening, but we got a kick out of it. We finally settled on Moes Haven by taking the first name of Mose Allison (a jazz-pianist) and the last name of Richie Havens (an acoustic guitar player). It sounded good and it made sense because I play piano and Tom plays guitar. Andrea: Do you record at home, or in a professional studio? Matt: We record in my apartment. I'm sure people could find problems with the sound, but we like it very much. We don't like records that sound too polished. Andrea: Why has the band only played two concerts so far? Matt: We haven't actively sought out places to play shows. It's more fun to write and record new songs. The shows we did were a Battle-of-the-Bands in college and a show at a coffeehouse in Wisconsin in 2004. Now that we're taking a self-imposed break from releasing new music, we might look into playing more shows. Of course, we'll have to learn to play our songs again. Another reason we haven't played live is because we have the songwriting bug. The songs keep coming. Who knows how long it will last? Perhaps when we turn 30 our creative juices will stop flowing. Songwriting seems to be a young man's artform, so we wouldn't want to waste our best songwriting years performing live. All our musical energy thus far has gone into songwriting. When the well runs dry, then we can start performing. Andrea: How did you get yoursongs on iTunes, and how or why did CDBabybecome your seller? Matt: I happened upon www.cdbaby.com a few years ago. It seemed like a perfect fit for what we were doing. They sell our CDs on their site and also digitize the songs and send them to iTunes and other digital distributors. It would be so much more difficult get our songs out there without CDBaby. Andrea: Where do you get your ideas for your songs and projects? Matt: Most of the ideas come from conversations. For instance, I was talking with a friend about crazy ideas when I said, "Wouldn't it be funny if we recorded an album a day for a year?" And then I pretty much had to do it. I called Tom and told him about it. He said he was in. Now here we are. The song ideas come that way too. While setting up the studio one of us will say something that triggers an idea and we'll run with it. The trick is to not think about it too much. Just let it happen. Andrea: Your songs are grounded in everyday life. Is that easier to write than larger than life? Matt: We prefer being specific about things in our songs rather than trying to make any grand statements. We've both studied Bob Dylan's music quite a bit and have figured out that what makes him great are the specific details in his songs. So, we try to do the same thing, but with a Moes Haven twist to it. Andrea: Your sense of humor is so good. Do you have to work on it,or does it come naturally? Matt: We have to work on taming our sense of humor. If we totally let go, all our songs would be ridiculous novelty songs that only appeal to 10-year-olds. Sometimes our songs end up like that anyway, but I think we've gotten better lately at being simultaneously funny and serious. Again, our study of Bob Dylan revealed that even his most serious, heartbreaking songs have lines in them that are incredibly funny. You don't notice them the first 20 times you listen to the songs, but if you pay close attention, you'll find them. We think that's great and have found a way to do similar things within our own style. Andrea: What do you consider your best song, worst song, or best and worst albums? Matt: Usually our favorite album is the one we just finished. From the monthly releases in 2006, I think November and March are probably our favorites. April is the worst album from the project, but we intended for it to be. (It's called April: What a Cruel Month!) It's a very rough recording, filled with mostly improvised songs. That album is not on iTunes. You can only get it through CDBaby. True fans might enjoy it, but it wouldn't be a good introduction to Moes Haven. Our worst songs have not been released. Even though we have 22 albums that we've released since 2004, there are many, many terrible songs that will never see the light of day. We have one track called "Inappropriately Detailed Request" which most people would consider unbearable to listen to. Andrea: What is "Inappropriately Detailed Request" about? Matt: "Inappropriately Detailed Request" is a song about a guy who asks the girl next door if he can borrow some sugar for his tea. He asks this question with a ridiculous amount of detail. This song is not to be confused with "Inappropriately Detailed Response", one of our better songs, which is about a guy on the sidewalk who is asked for directions by a driver. The best songs from the 2006 project will be packaged together in an album called Victory is Ours! (For Now). We selected 16 tracks for the disc. It was a tough process to select just 16. If I had to name just a few of our better titles, I'd say "Rattletrap", "Inappropriately Detailed Response", "Sandy's Photo", "Black Lake", and "Dixie Guano Co." Andrea: Who are yourinfluences? Matt: Bob Dylan. Van Morrison. Tom Waits. Ben Folds. Jonathan Richman. Brian Wilson. Paul McCartney. Radiohead. Andrea: You mentioned on your site the there would be a follow-up to December, and then you would like lowuntil 2012. Why 2012? Matt: The last song on the December release is called "Moes Haven's 5-year-plan". In it, we describe how we won't release another new song for five years, but we will continue to write and record new music. It's just that we thought maybe it was time to give the world a chance to catch up with all our releases (22 albums in less than 3 years). Of course, we could just take one or two years off, but we're an all or nothing kind of band. One year we'll record 365 albums, releasing 12 of them, and then we'll take five years off.