PopCycle Interviews
Aldora Britain Records interview - April 2024
Powerpop perfection is back in the shape of South Carolinian tunesmith BRUCE MOODY. With a knack for catchy and original melodies, this American musician has crafted countless underground pop earworms. Most recently, these have been captured on the aptly titled PopCycle, a set of tunes that has its origins in the 1980s.
Over the course of thirteen glistening compositions, Bruce ably builds on the foundation stone that was laid on his previous outing, the fantastic Forever Fresh! Despite the individual and unique flair, there is a sense of vintage and retro sensibilities, which is a glorious and welcome addition, tapping into the timeless energy of acts such as The Raspberries, The Beatles, The Left Banke, and many more. As PopCycle continues to garner independent acclaim and praise, Bruce took some time out to speak with Aldora Britain Records about his powerpop journey so far.
We discuss the impact of the COVID pandemic, formative musical memories, his original songwriting process, and much more. That exclusive conversation is published here for the first time. Bruce Moody has previously contributed his track ‘One Desire’ to our independent, underground music sampler ‘The Universal Thing’. Listen or download HERE.
Aldora Britain Records: Hello Bruce, how are you? I am excited to be talking with such a fantastic artist from over in the Carolinas. It is amazing how music can bring us together. Let’s start off by travelling back in time. What are some of your earliest musical memories and what was it that first pushed you towards pursuing this passion of yours?
Bruce Moody: Hey, Tom! I’m doing well! I hope you are! My earliest musical memory was seeing The Big Bopper on TV when I was about three and a half years old. I’m sure I’d probably heard Elvis on the radio, and perhaps even on TV, before then. But there was something about watching The Big Bopper’s facial expressions and the way he pronounced his words that was very entertaining! He was on TV and the radio quite a lot in a short period of time and I was able to learn the words and perform the song, much to the amusement of my family! Something stuck with me about performing in front of people and having them smile and clap at the end! One of the few memories I have of my dad growing up, my parents divorced when I was about five years old, is him calling me ‘The Little Bopper’ when I would perform the song standing on the old picnic table in our backyard. I had a full circle moment years later with The Big Bopper when I was in a recording studio in Houston, Texas. I was about to record a vocal track when the engineer came over and set up the big boom stand with the microphone on it and said, ‘Do you see that nail sticking out of the ceiling beam right above our heads? This is the very spot where The Big Bopper stood when he recorded ‘Chantilly Lace’!’. Pretty cool!
Aldora Britain Records: And now, let’s take a leap forward to the present day and your impressive solo output. I am really drawn in by your impeccable songwriting and songcraft. How do you approach this part of your process? Are you drawn to particular themes or topics? Perhaps coming from a personal, observational, or even fictional perspective?
Bruce Moody: Thanks for your very kind words, Tom! I like doing interviews with you! I think songwriting is different for everybody who does it and inspiration can come from different places. It could be something that a person says in a conversation, or even a movie that might suggest itself for a song title or a song subject. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always heard music in my head, whether it’s just a phrase of words being sung with a melody or a full band arrangement. If something in my head sounds interesting, I’ll ‘percolate’ on it to see if anything else reveals itself to pursue further. If it does, I’ll go someplace quiet and engage in a musical dialogue with it and then try to shape it into a song. Sometimes, an entire song, or the gist of one, will just come to you, which is very magical because at that point you feel more like an observer than a creator! I think there’s a subconscious way, sort of like meditating, where you let yourself be vulnerable to receiving musical ideas and you have a silent conversation. It’s sort of like when you’re out for a nice walk in a wooded area and you suddenly feel a part of everything around you and it lets you join in, or not, depending on your willingness to appreciate the experience. The universe gives you gifts sometimes if you’re willing to accept them. Am I getting too ‘new age’ here? Ha!
Aldora Britain Records: Just recently, you unveiled a brand-new record in the form of the exceptional PopCycle. This is an LP that was born in the 1980s but has an undeniably fresh feel. I love that! What are your memories from writing, recording and releasing this set, and how would you say you have grown and evolved since the 80s?
Bruce Moody: At the beginning of the recent pandemic, I completely re-outfitted my home recording studio. As I mention in the liner notes for the album, my studio is in a very small, but cozy, room that I call ‘Closet Studios’, a studio so small, you don’t actually walk into it, it’s more like you put it on, ha! A couple of weeks before the new recording gear arrived, I was listening to a bunch of my old reel-to-reel tapes from the 80s. There were some very interesting songs that said, ‘Hey! Finish my bridge and record me in your new studio!’. No, I didn’t actually hear voices telling me this. I don’t want to scare anyone, ha! There were also a couple of songs that we’d recorded in the studio back in the day that never really sounded completely finished. After all of the new equipment was set up, I started recording some of those songs. It was fun engaging with those old friends again! I used the studio as a writing tool to experiment with different sounds and ideas. Before I knew it, I had the basic tracks for twelve songs done! I’d had a couple of health issues during the pandemic that took some time to get through, not the least of which was getting COVID three times! After I got to grip on those things, I started adding the vocals to the songs. Having not played in a band for a while, I was curious how that would go. I worked on my voice a lot during the basic tracks recording sessions. In the end, I was very happy with the results. My dear friend Terry Carolan, who’d helped me set up the new studio, added some really cool harmony parts to two of the songs. One great thing about digital recording is that folks can send you various song parts long distance via the internet, no COVID masks required! Terry sent a couple of guitar parts. Also, Jeff Tracy from Blue Cartoon played some cool twelve-string guitar parts on a couple of songs. Dolph Chaney added a really nice heavy guitar track on a song, as did Kei Sato from the Japanese band The Choosers. My longtime friend and “For as long as I can remember, I’ve always heard music in my head, whether it’s just a phrase of words being sung with a melody or a full band arrangement.” brilliant keyboard player George Palmer contributed some amazing piano parts on both ‘Shy Girls’ and ‘One by One’.
Aldora Britain Records: It is a pearl of a record from top to bottom, but I would like to pick out two personal favourites. Let’s go for ‘I’m Gonna Tell Her Tonite’ and ‘Shy Girls’. For each, what is the story behind the song, and can you remember the moment it came to be? Did anything in particular inspire them and what do they mean to you as the writer?
Bruce Moody: Sometimes it’s difficult to describe a song’s meaning, especially if it’s really personal. ‘I’m Gonna Tell Her Tonite’ was inspired by watching the movie Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The storyline of the movie contains so much of the human emotion related to love, unrequited love, frustration, longing, and the inability to communicate, great stuff for a song! It’s really kind of a sad song to me. For ‘Shy Girls’, I had a muse. So, there’s a party where a guy sees his gorgeous crush arriving. She comes through the door with her date, while she’s nervously sizing up the room. All the guy can see is a woman he’s totally in love with that he knows he’ll never have because he’s too shy to speak up. He’s totally smitten with her but he thinks she ignores him. He finally works up the courage to get her attention and offers her a meek smile. But in reality, she’s a very shy person just like him! I wonder what happened with them?
Aldora Britain Records: As you well know, I love the Moody sound and your approach to making music. Elements of powerpop crossed with a rock and roll sensibility. How would you say this sound of yours came about, what goes into it for you, and who are some of your biggest influences and inspirations as an artist?
Bruce Moody: If you take a glimpse at my website, brucemoody.com – he shamelessly plugs here, ha! – you’ll see I’ve played with a number of bands and musicians since I started in 1968, so I have a lot of different influences. I played trumpet and baritone in my school bands and string bass in my high school orchestra. That’s probably why I’ve always liked adding interesting themes, melodies, and counter melodies played by different instruments. I think those things can bring some interesting textures to a song. My biggest musical influences are probably The Beatles, The Who, Yes, The Beach Boys, The Raspberries, The Records, bands who create strong melodies with cool harmonies! I’m also a big fan of many one hit wonder bands in the 60s, like The Cyrkle, The Left Banke, The Lemon Pipers, Every Mother’s Son... there are a lot of them! The 1960s were a dessert bar of great songs!
Aldora Britain Records: Previously, if we travel back to 2020, you unveiled a stellar set entitled Forever Fresh! This was actually my introduction to your music, so I look back on it especially fondly. How do you reflect on this album as a whole now, and how would you say you have grown and evolved as an artist since its initial release?
Bruce Moody: Forever Fresh! is an anthology album of sorts. It contains twenty-three songs that range from my first record release in 1982 called Fresh Out!, which is a four-song EP, to various studio and home demos that never really had their moment in the spotlight. Terry Carolan mastered the album and he did an amazing job considering the condition of some of the original master recordings. I think every artist naturally grows and evolves as they move forward in their songwriting and recording. I’m still trying to write the perfect song, ha!
Aldora Britain Records: A broad question to finish. We have been through such a unique time in history over the last few years. Both politically and within society, and that is before you throw in the pandemic. How have the last several years impacted on you personally and as an artist? How do you think this time has changed the music industry, both for the good and the bad?
Bruce Moody: I think everybody has been affected by our recent history in some way. Personally, the results of the 2016 US presidential election were a major gut punch. Just when you think you’ve got people and the world figured out... bam! It’s unfortunate that so much of the human condition has to do with fear, which leads to sadness, which leads to anger, which can lead to violence. Then along comes the global pandemic, whoa! That brought even more change and uncertainty. But overall, I have to say that I feel so lucky to have music to immerse myself into. It’s almost like taking a long, soaking bath where you can reset the negative meter and then try to make things better in any small way you can. I’ve been doing a lot of volunteer work over the past eight years and it’s nice to be able to help a few people have just a little bit of a better day. I mean, we’re all we’ve got, right?
Quickfire Round
AB Records: Favourite artist? Bruce: Got to go with The Beatles!
AB Records: Favourite album? Bruce: Tough one!
AB Records: Last album you listened to from start to finish? Bruce: Besides mine? Ha! Are You Experienced by Jimi Hendrix.
AB Records: First gig as an audience member? Bruce: 1966 concert with The Lovin’ Spoonful, The Mamas and the Papas, and The Supremes.
AB Records: Loudest gig as an audience member? Bruce: The Who in 1970.
AB Records: Style icon? Bruce: Lauren Bacall.
AB Records: Favourite film? Bruce: Tossup between A Hard Day’s Night and Lost in Translation.
AB Records: Favourite TV show? Bruce: Monty Python.
AB Records: Favourite up and coming artist? Bruce: The Beaches.
Sweet Sweet Music - Interview 2024
Resurrected Melodies: Bruce Moody’s Musical Journey Across Decades
Posted on April 19, 2024 by patrickdonders
During the pandemic, Bruce Moody revisited songs he had begun in the 1980s. Working comfortably at home in his new studio, free from time constraints, he meticulously ‘restored’ and creatively embellished these pieces. The outcome is a rejuvenated and distinctive sound that beautifully mirrors two incredibly creative eras, separated by four decades.
Can you take us through the creative journey of bringing this album to life? What were the key milestones, challenges, and breakthroughs you experienced along the way?
Initially, I didn’t set out to create a new album at all. During the spring of 2020, the Covid pandemic was starting to present itself as something very serious with no end in sight. I decided that if I was going to have to quarantine until the medical community got a handle on things, I was going to occupy myself creating music.
For starters, I completely re-did my studio with a nice Digital Audio Workstation. I had recently been going back through a lot of my old reel-to-reel demos and studio tapes, and I found a couple of songs from the mid-1980’s that I thought might be fun to bring some new life to them. I re-imagined a lot of the song’s existing parts and then worked with the arrangements with my new recording system as a work tool to experiment with different sounds and instruments.
After I got the basic music tracks recorded for those two new songs, I started working on the lead and harmony vocals. It had been a while since I played in a band and done live gigs and I didn’t know if my voice would be up to it. I spent some time working on my singing and just trying different things to see if I could improve my vocal style.
Since there were no time constraints, I just took my time and made a few modifications here and there on how I would otherwise normally approach recording my vocal part. In the end, I was really happy with the results on those two songs! I went back to my old tapes and repeated the process, again, taking the time to experiment with the instruments, melodies and vocal. IT was during this time that I had a couple of health challenges that I had to deal with, not the least of which of contracting Covid three times! Before I knew it, three years had passed, and I had twelve songs recorded. So, I thought, “Well, I guess I’m recording an album now!” (laughs)
How would you describe the evolution of your sound in this new album compared to your previous works? Were there intentional shifts in style or themes?
With my new digital recording system, I was able to explore the possibilities of using different sounds and combinations of sounds more fully, due to having a limitless number of tracks available to record on. My earliest recording efforts in the late 1960’s consisted of having a friend borrow his dad’s reel-to-reel tape recorder, setting everything up in someone’s basement and having the band play and sing live while the songs were recorded.
After that, we recorded in a four-track studio, a major luxury in those days because you could come back and record the vocals after you had recorded the basic instrumental tracks. Over the years, we had eight, sixteen and twenty-four track capabilities, which gave you even more creative freedom. Flash forward to 2021 and I now had a Digital Audio Workstation with an infinite number of tracks to work with! This was most welcomed, as I did most of the instruments and vocals on the album. I could also take my time and experiment with different instruments like steel drums, synthesizers, brass instruments, strings, sitars; any number of things. It was very liberating!
Albums often involve collaboration with various musicians and producers. Could you shed light on how these collaborations contributed to shaping the album’s identity?
My long-time friend and contemporary Terry Carolan was immensely helpful in crafting this batch of songs into a legit album. Terry’s advice on all sorts of things relating to my new digital recording system, from advice on various plugins, and especially mixing techniques, was crucial to the project’s completion. Terry also played a couple of cool guitar parts and did a couple of nice harmony parts on the record. Jeff Tracy from Blue Cartoon contributed a couple of great guitar tracks. Kei Sato from Japan’s The Choosers did a smokin’ Rickenbacker guitar part on ‘Keep It Together’! Also, George Palmer, who played keyboards in my very first band, sent me some very powerful piano tracks for ‘Shy Girls’ and ‘One By One’.
I’m incredibly grateful to these guys for their contributions to the album! The wonderful thing about recording digital music, considering geographic distances and especially when the pandemic was in full force, is that these guys could send me their individual parts over the Internet that I could just drop into the mix as newly added tracks.
While you can’t dictate how people interpret your music, are there specific elements you wish to highlight that set your songs apart?
I’ve always tried to have interesting themes and melodies in my songs that complement everything else. I want my songs to be musically interesting. I work hard on creating lyrics that tell compelling stories. I also like altering otherwise conventional sounding instruments into something completely different; like playing a guitar line and then doubling that line note for note with a melodica, or even a kazoo. It adds an extra musical texture that wouldn’t be there if one or the other were just used by itself.
I had the most fortunate opportunity to work with Buddy Holly’s producer/manager Norman Petty in 1979 and 1980. Norm once said “Always try to leave a little surprise towards the end of your song, or even during the fade out, that the listener hasn’t heard elsewhere in the song; something they’re not expecting to hear.” He also told me something once during a session that has always stuck with me: “An artist creates his art with the tools he has available to him at the time.” I will never forget that!
Was there a particular moment or experience that struck you, signaling that you were onto something special with this project?
Here’s something cool thing that happened during the recording process. My dog Copper likes to hang out in the studio with me when I’m recording. On one of the last songs I recorded for the album, a song called ‘Turn Away’, Copper was laying down under the mixing desk while I was doing a vocal take. At the perfect emotional moment of the song, Copper howled and barked in time with the music! At any other time, the take would have been ruined. But when I listened to the playback afterwards, it seemed like he knew exactly what he was doing, so I left it in! It’s great when those fortuitous things present themselves that you couldn’t have otherwise planned for! Of course, Copper is included in the Special Thanks section on the CD! Good dog!
At some point, I realized that there was a really nice, natural flow going on with creating this album. The songs sounded like all the parts were being performed by an actual band playing together, verses a guy recording a solo album playing all the instruments himself. The special guest players certainly helped that a lot. But I was also hearing something in the rough mixes that I really liked. Something a little different from my last album. I wasn’t even sure that this album could be called Power Pop. I was speaking with a friend about this as I was mixing the album and he said he thought the songs on PopCycle, if anything, sounded more like “Power Pop Plus!” I laughed when he said that, but I really like that term!
Among the gigs you’ve performed, which one holds an indelible place in your memory and why does it stand out?
In 1983, we did a gig opening for The Beach Boys at a Spring Break concert on South Padre Island, Texas. Just before the show, I had lunch with Mike Love and then they put us into these open Jeeps and started driving us towards the stage along the beach! The driver was hitting all these dips in the sand while trying not to run over any sun bathers! We got stuck in pedestrian traffic with people walking along the beach to the concert and we ended up driving partly into the ocean to get to the stage! We were a little late arriving and we had to go on-stage immediately. As we were walking up the ramp, my bass tech said, “Dude! There are over 60,000 people out there!” The concert was videotaped for MTV, and we sounded like we were playing at twice our normal speed. They put us on a small plane and flew us to Brownsville, Texas for a late show in a club there. We flew back to South Padre the next morning and started shooting a video for MTV at 8am. We finished about 4pm, went back to the hotel, showered, ate, then got into those Jeeps again so we could go open for A Flock of Seagulls! Today, it feels like those two hectic days were compressed into about two hours! (laughs!) I have quite a few unique memories like that!