Interview: bleed moxie

Congratulations on the release of your new track "out on my own", which features fellow Denver based musicians Kate Fern and Sarah Hubbard. How did you connect with them initially and what made them the right fit for your song?

I've been working on my new album, "women's society", at CCM Studios in Denver with Engineer/Producer Hayden Hallatt. As we were crafting "out on my own", Hayden had the idea to bring a female vocalist to the track as a means of giving it some depth and adding some layers to the song. I absolutely agreed and Hayden contacted Kate, who's band May Be Fern is making big moves in the Denver scene recently, and she came in the studio and knocked it out of the park, so much so that we decided to feature her on several songs on the record. She's amazing. Then, as we were in the final mix/master of the song, Hayden had another brilliant idea to add some live violin (as you can see, Hayden is a genius in the studio) and we got connected with Sarah. She came in, laid down some terrific violin for us, and the song really came together.

I love that it's such a collaborative piece of music featuring all Denver musicians, especially as someone new to the scene out here. It feels really great to make those connections with fellow musicians.

Tell us about your creative process for the development of the track from a lyricist's perspective and how you decided on the beat.

This new album mostly came together out of nowhere, I really wasn't expecting to write another solo record and honestly hadn't thought about making any new music- possibly ever again. But I came across some beats from a friend of mine who used to DJ for me back in the Twin Cities, DJ Hayes, who is now DJ'ing for Nur-D who's making a lot of noise in the scene. I started listening to some of Ryan's beats and started writing to one of those beats in particular, suddenly had a new song written and it really took off from there. I started scouring for beats, came across a bunch I really thought were dope from a lot of producers, and before I knew it I was fully writing my first solo rap record since 2015.

This particular beat for "out on my own" comes from Black Lions Beats and as soon as I heard it, the idea for an anthemic, emotional roller coaster of a breakup song came to me b/c that's how the beat felt as I listened to it, it almost forces you to feel the highest of highs and lows as you're moving through the beat, so the song topic came pretty naturally.

"out on my own" will be featured on your upcoming album "women's society". What can you tell us about the project and is there an overall theme or concept for it?

I've really taken my time with crafting "women's' society". Like I mentioned, I didn't have any plans to make new music at this point in my career, I have been focused on a lot of other things outside of music the last few years, so as this process came together, I've really wanted to take my time and enjoy it, be patient with it, and create the absolute best album of my career.

I get excited about things and have a really hard time being patient and taking my time with the creative process, but I've forced myself to do that with this album. And I really wanted to make a hip hop album- back to my roots and back to where it all began. A straight up rap record.

Now, the album definitely blends a lot of elements of pop throughout, that's just how it developed as I wrote and Hayden and I created in the studio, but at it's core, its a rap record with pretty dope ass lyrics and some killer beats. And the album touches on lots of themes that I experience at this point of my life (in my early 40s): aging, relationships, death, regret, optimism, pain, and ultimately, hope.

What does the name “bleed moxie” represent for you at this stage of your musical career?

The name bleed moxie came pretty naturally to me as I started writing this album. I put out music under the moniker of Moxie for over a decade, then retired that character as I moved into working on other projects. As I wrote this album, it felt like going back to the start of my career in many ways-- wanting to make a straight up hip hop album. It felt very nostalgic to me, like I was experiencing writing some of those first records of mine way back in the 2010s. So I wanted to bring pieces of the Moxie character with me but the full character no longer fits at this point in my life, he's slowly bled out of me over the years as I've gotten older. But I still have that moxie to my personality, it still oozes and bleeds out of me at times, so the character bleed moxie was born. An homage to my past and an encapsulation of the enigmatic parts to my being at this point in my life.

You now call Denver home; would you say that the city inspires the concepts that you write about and how would you compare the hip-hop scene there to Minneapolis/St. Paul?

Denver has been great for me. I moved here about a year and a half ago and it's definitely been an inspiring journey. The mountains, the landscapes, the activities, the energy and the people, moving to Denver has provided a lot of new perspectives on life and motivation to do lots of things. It's also been a straight up refresh and reset in relation to my love of music and creating that was necessary.

The music scene in the Twin Cities is amazing, especially the hip hop scene, but I had grown out of it in my ways. Moving to Denver has allowed me to start over, feel energized with a new scene and new people and new venues. I didn't dive into the scene right away when I moved here, I'm only now slowly starting to get myself in the mix, so I don't know a ton about the scene here yet but I've already met a lot of wonderful musicians.

The Twin Cities hip hop scene is legendary and established, I'm not sure that Denver has the same established scene yet, but that might also be b/c I haven't fully immersed myself yet.

I'm excited to get this album out, make some moves, and see what the full scope of the scene is here in Colorado. It's a new chapter for me, a new journey and it seems as if Colorado is the perfect location at this point in my career.

Watch the “out on my own” Lyric Video on: YouTube

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