Stream Moses' Self-Titled Debut Album (UTR Preview)

Wellington ambient-psych six-piece Moses are releasing their self-titled debut album today and have given us the honour of previewing the beautiful nine-track offering. Soak it up while you read our wee interview with guitarist and singer Teyler Heyes below...

Congrats on the new album! It Sounds awesome. How was it recorded and what were you trying to achieve with it?

We’ve been a band for almost two years now, and I guess we wanted this album to be a representation of the different sounds we’ve tried to create within that time - as opposed to creating something completely new. We’ve been called everything from dark pop and shoegaze, to alt-country, so we wanted to put something together that combined all those different influences while maintaining a cohesive arc from start to finish. The album is made up of new tracks, sprinkled with reinvented tracks from our two EPs and was recorded and co-produced mostly at Building M in Wellington by Warwick Donald, who is absolutely fantastic to work with. It’s basically a combination of four different live sessions over the past 18 months, with stupid amounts of guitar overdubbing afterwards!

This is the first album for Moses, what was the most challenging part about the whole process?

I think most bands would agree that it’s always the music that comes easiest, and it’s all the other stuff that is the challenge. Half the band living in rural Wairarapa without internet and phone reception comes with some cool benefits, and as you can imagine some frustrating communication breakdowns! Actually making decisions and committing to them is always a struggle too. If I’m honest we were still making some sneaky changes to the mastering just a few hours ago….

I love the album art. Can you tell us a bit about it?

I think I’m probably about as baffled by the album art as anyone! Ryan Achten (the artist) is an absolute mad scientist, crazy, genius, freak of an artist who always provides an insightful and unique interpretation of whatever we throw at him. I recommend turning the lights off, putting the album on nice and loud and having a good think about what is going on in that image. I can’t make up my mind.

You’ve got a tour coming up, and what’s after that? Any more videos in the works??

We’re in Dunedin and Christchurch this weekend before heading to Wellington and Auckland next weekend. We’ll be filtering out some more videos and singles before the end of the year, before album two in February... We’re about 2/3s of the way through the recording of that, so plenty to keep us busy!

Moses Album Release Tour

Friday 9th September, Re Fuel, Dunedin
Saturday 10th September, Wunderbar, Lyttelton
Friday 16th September, Meow, Wellington
Saturday 17th September, Whammy Bar, Auckland

Tickets available now HERE at UTR