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Do You Want Me, Death?
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BIOGRAPHY
MOA
Do You Want Me, Death?
Ask Moa what kind of music the band that carries her name plays and she answers simply, "Blues." If the Swedish singer infuses elements of the blues in her lyrics, Muddy Waters this is not. Rather, what she and her four bandmates create with a distorted acoustic guitar, saxophone, bass and drums is utterly animalistic, primal in execution and drenched in power and sex. It's unhinged/unfiltered expression, crude emotion. Blues? No. Some sort of avant punk, yes.
Riddled with saxophone squeals and squonks, and propelled by pounded-out chords-the Stockholm-based band avoids guitar solos altogether-Do You Want Me, Death? properly announces Moa, both the band and singer, to the world at large.
A tiny, striking beauty, with piercing blue eyes and black hair, and a back tattooed from her neck to her waist, Moa herself is a commanding presence. Onstage she's a blur of wide eyes, flailing limbs and vocal muscle, who sits at the eye of the hurricane of sound rustled up by guitarist Tony Naima, saxophonist Per "Rusktrask" Johnansson, bassist Markus Ingberg and drummer Fredrik Haake. On Do You Want Me, Death?, the band's official debut-following the release of the four-song EP All Blade, No Handle, this summer-it somehow fuses everything from raw punk to waltz-like fare, a meld of PJ Harvey and Tom Waits on steroids.
Appropriately, the band's signature song thus far is a sonic assault dubbed "Bulldozer," fitting because that's exactly what MOA does live-bulldoze the audience, bowling over fans with a sound akin to a bullet train promising to leap off the rails.
"Someone once described our music as a fuckin' colon cleanse, and I thought that was perfect," laughs Moa. "I hate music that is too polished, too contrived. 'Bulldozer,' I think, grabs the whole MOA vibe, it's raw, it's short-two and a half minutes-good lyrics and kind of punky, and I think it's a very good expression of me and my take on things. You know, I never stop to think, 'Hey, I made a mistake there. Maybe I should learn something from that, stop and reflect. I keep making the same mistakes over and over again, whether it's every day life, or love."
If there's a theme running through the songs comprising Do You Want Me, Death? it's that sort of insecurity and doubt, elements of a constant battle raging in her head. "I'm always struggling with low self confidence, and it kind of colors all the different situations in life, whether it is love, or career. There's a constant struggle between the person I want to be and the person I am. It's hard to talk about it, because sometimes you think that you're putting your dirty laundry in people's faces."
It was her need to express herself, to work through these emotions that gave birth to MOA. In 2007, after a successful tenure fronting the hard rock band Meldrum (a favorite of the likes of Motorhead and one-time touring mates Black Label Society), Moa left the group out of a desire to try new things musically. "After seven years, it wasn't fun anymore," she says. "When you're in a band, you have to compromise, because you have to consider your bandmates' desires and opinions. Eventually, my ego took over, and I just wanted to leave. And, plus, I got kind of tired of screaming all the time."
Even if she was actually quite great at that-and still is-the tracks comprising Do You Want Me, Death? are a 180-degree about-face from Meldrum, infinitely more arty and diverse, veering from raging squalls of sound to simple, spare guitar-and-vocal balladry. In the song, "DanceSingDreamSmellTasteFuck," Moa explains exactly where her head is at, creatively: "I want a voice like Polly's/I want it deep as Nina's."
MOA began life as a two-piece, comprised of Moa herself accompanied by guitarist Naima. But it wasn't long before the duo blossomed into the current five-piece, which in Stockholm took off almost immediately, thanks to clips posted on YouTube and demos streamed on their MySpace page (www.myspace.com/meetmoa). Everything coalesced on the night of the band's first official gig, in Stockholm: "It was packed, and everybody was there to see me. There were five other bands on the bill, but no one was there beforehand, and everybody left after we played. The show was so good, and I was so excited that I forgot to sing in the mic," she says, laughing. "I was so excited running around and going fucking crazy that Tony had to back me up and sing all the words I missed. I felt like I was 15, and I had just started my first band. In a way, it felt like the first band I had. I've been doing all these other shows and big tours [with Meldrum], but that was the first time it felt real. And that's the feeling I want to keep-that feeling of being 15 again, because if you don't have that feeling, there's no point in doing it."
Recorded live and mixed over seven days at Grondals Studio in Stockholm-birthplace of recordings by the Hives and Timbaland, among others-Do You Want Me, Death? was produced by Moa and her bandmates, and it features contributions from electric guitarist Conny Nimmersjo, considered by many to be the Thurston Moore of Sweden.
The disc realizes Moa's dream of steering her own ship, of writing her own songs, without compromise. "If someone was to discover my music 50 years from now, I would want them to say that I was a good songwriter, because that's the reason I started this band-the craft. The singing comes kind of naturally-the voice is just another way of expressing the song-but I think of myself as a songwriter first, and a singer second. It sounds so pretentious, like I feel like I deserve the Nobel Prize for literature or something. I know they're just songs, but they mean the world to me."
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