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 Moco, a quintet from Wigan, is the kind of band that has made me question the music industry’s thinking process and the A&R men’s logic, or in this case, lack of.
Moco are still unsigned to a major label despite relentlessly churning out well written, catchy, quality tunes.
Forthcoming, highly recommended mini album ‘Twice Bitten, Once Shy’ proves that any early ear-pleasing offerings were not a fluke or beginner’s luck.
After 7 years together Team Moco ( Steve, Nick, Simon, Rigby and Dave) can still deliver potential festival anthems and dance floor fillers.
‘Potential’ is the key word here. All the required ingredients for a commercially successful career are present:
- Consistent quality song writing - check
- Good looking, sexy, talented front man - check
- Acquired musicianship - check
- Entertaining live performances - check
- Willingness to succeed - check
What is missing for a truly magical recipe is the kind of backing and money investing that other, in my opinion less deserving bands do get.
It’s infuriating to think of how much cash has been thrown at the likes of ‘middle of the road, nondescript, perfect for the dentist’s waiting room’ bands like Keane, Travis or Embrace.
And don’t get me started on glorified tribute band Oasis.
These are some of the subjects we will discuss during our meeting in Brixton, South London, where Moco plays The Windmill tonight.
The guys are heartily tucking into their lunch and despite all the hardship come across a happy bunch!
The bond between the five musicians, made stronger no doubt by years of struggling toward a common goal, is touchingly genuine.
 Florence: Hi guys!
You are in London this weekend playing a couple of gigs but you’re also appearing live all over the country over the summer.
Anything to promote?
Steve: Yes! a mini album, ‘Twice Bitten, Once Shy’.
For financial reasons we recorded as many tracks as we could and to keep the momentum up we decided to go for a mini album and in the meantime set ourselves up with a following full LP.
It was important for us to get a single out. For it to get reviewed and get played.
Also we didn’t want to make the mistake of waiting too long between albums.
Florence: The single ‘Twice Bitten, Once Shy’ has notably been picked up by radio station XFM Manchester, so that’s fantastic news.
Steve: I went away for a week and when I came back I was told we were doing very well on XFM radio!
Rigby: DJ Clint Boon, from Inspiral Carpets, thinks that ‘Twice Bitten, Once Shy’ is one of the greatest songs ever written. He absolutely loves it and is gone a bit crazy for it.
More people are discovering Moco through him.
Steve: He is a well respected face in Manchester and when he has a gig DJing there is always a queue to get in. We know ‘cause we’ve been in that queue!!
Florence: ‘Cool Dancing’ is my ‘one of the best tracks ever written’!
Nick: That one was done over in America.
How does the album sound to you? Does it sound together....
Florence: No it doesn’t!!
It’s really two halves. The first three tracks, ‘Twice Bitten, Once Shy’, ‘Cool Dancing’ and ‘A Horse Is Just A Pony’ have a much ‘sunnier vibe’ than the rest. Some Californian, psychedelic vibe I really love. They’re real floor fillers. But that said the whole album works very well.
Nick: The tracks were recorded at different points in time.
The title track was recorded in one session with the idea in mind that it would be a single.
Cool Dancing’ and ‘A Horse Is Just A Pony’ were done in San Francisco, produced by somebody we’d never worked with before, who had a lot of control...
Rigby: He was the bass player with Jellyfish.
We had these six tracks and we thought we’d rather put them out now rather than leave them for later.
But our plan is to do the next album over a couple of weeks.
Have something more coherent.
Florence: You already have quite a rich back catalogue with Lp ‘Out To Go’, a few Eps and now your mini album.
Rigby: We’ve always released music instead of just gigging.
Simon: You can’t wait for somebody to come along and put your music out there, we’ve had to try and do it ourselves.
Steve: We’ve had various different labels but we decided that the best way of doing it was to really get on top of things, not wait around for a label but do things ourselves so we went back to square one.
The first Ep we ever released ‘Another Day, No Dollar’ in 2001, we did ourselves, and a lot of great things came from that.
People started getting very interested in the band because we had something released but at the same time we were still learning the trade.
Florence: Very recently Dave ‘Van’ Rybka joined the band.
Why add a fifth member?
Did the writing process change or were you not making enough noise live....
Rigby: We came to a point where we started writing songs including keyboards. Steve had to fill that part which would take him away from being a front man. It made more sense to have someone else join the band.
Steve: The new songs required an extra member in them or they sound a little bit too hollow.
Simon: If Dave was taken away now we would just go back to being a guitar, bass and drum band.
By adding keyboards we are moving away from the garage rock sound.
Steve: This latest album shows the transition.
The songs recorded in America were as a four piece but Dave is involved on the tracks recorded in Wigan and that is the cross over.
On the next album it will be the five of us plus we’re hoping to use brass. Northern Soul is something we are very keen on.
Wigan being one of the ambassador of Northern Soul, we’ve fallen in love with that sound, not enough to really change the Moco sound but enough to incorporate it in future recordings.
It also has some local relevance to ourselves and it’s nice for people to think that we have a ‘Wigany’ sound!
Florence: Talking about Wigan reminds me that there is more musical talent per square meter in Northern England than anywhere else in the world.
Can you explain that?
Nick: That’s right!
Unfortunately Northerners need to come down to London because that’s where the ‘scene’ is, as well as the record companies, the journalists, the national magazines...and you’ve got to play the game.
Florence: We’re lead to believe that it’s ‘grim up North’ but how is that conducive to great song writing?
Nick: The North-West is similar to places like Detroit in The States, where amazing stuff comes out, it joins the transition between being industrial and working class.
The funny thing with Wigan is that people never seem to move away from there.
Families are there from generation to generation which makes for a real community feel.
Of course it’s difficult to get that in London, as people move all the time, however London becomes the sales pitch, the ‘bank’.
Up North, teenagers have got more time on their hands to write good music. Also maybe the youths try and use music to rebel against the ‘small town’ mentality and get out of places that are predominantly mine shafts, where people will shout at you in the streets for looking different.
Maybe this wouldn’t happen in a big city like London.
There is definitely a bit of that in us, wanting to rebel, wanting to get out.
 Florence: I guess nobody can really answer as to why there is such a high concentration of talent in that part of the country.
Another trick question: Why aren’t you signed to a major label despite all your good work?
Rigby: It’s just a combination of events. There has been points when we have been close but things turned out differently.
Steve: Sometimes we feel that we are genuinely cursed.
Many times we’ve smelled the success just around the corner and we just about manage to get there.
Simon: Often it doesn’t matter how hard you work, you need a bit of luck as well and to be honest we’ve never had much luck!
Rigby: We had some interest from Mercury but the guy who was dealing with us ended up signing Razorlight instead.
Maybe it was a simple case of Razorlight seemed like a safer bet and also they are based in London so the A&R guy could see them often while he saw us twice, so it was hard for us to form a good relationship with him.
To us it just seems like an unfortunate chain of events.
Florence: Being signed would guarantee you a higher level of commercial success, but creatively speaking you are functioning very well as you are...
Steve: That’s what we think and that’s why we are not too worried.
We’re in a kind of ‘take it or leave it’ situation...
If a record company came along and said “we’re gonna make your lives a lot easier” then yes that’s good but we can’t wait for that to happen, so we have to keep music coming.
People don’t remember you for the music you could have done but for what you have released.
If you look at the ‘100 most popular albums of all time’, something like The Velvet Underground didn’t even chart but at least it was released.
People are good at retrospectively look at music, and as long as the songs are good we can always be discovered.
Maybe thirty years down the line, when we’re dead....but our children’s children will be very rich!!
Florence: Moco has been the opening act for many ‘big’ bands such as The Charlatans, Babyshambles, Boy Kill Boy, The Arctic Monkeys and a lot more besides.
Surely they are times when you must have been aware that Moco was actually more talented than the main act.
Do you feel any bitterness when you see lesser bands with so much financial support?
Steve: No we don’t feel bitter but we love doing really well on stage.
Naming no names, once we opened for a band who was very well supported by their record company. They were part of a tour we were doing...anyway, once on stage we were getting cheered and the crowd loved us however the other band didn’t go down too well with the audience...they had bottles thrown at them and all sorts...
Rigby: They were blaming their manager!!
Florence: Moco has been booked for live shows all over the country and that speaks for itself.
Steve: Sometimes we forget how much history the band actually has but people don’t!
People seem to remember Moco which means that it has had an effect on people’s lives.
If you look at the history of music in Wigan and the North, Moco definitely has a place in the ‘hall of fame’, if there was one that is!
Florence: What are you listening to right now?
Simon: Gnarls Barclay
Nick: The Beatles, David Bowie, Northern Soul, The Stones and all the good old stuff because for me, now, there is nothing good about really.
Simon: I don’t agree, there is always good stuff coming out...
Nick: Really? Like what?
Florence: Ok guys I leave you to it....
Words: Florence ACHERY
www.mocohq.com
www.myspace.com/moco |
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