We interview up and coming singer-songwriter about his new single ‘Where I’ve Been.’
How are you doing? How are you holding up in this weird quarantine world?
Nice to meet you. ‘Holding up’ is a good way to put it, I’m doing ok, I think we’re going on five weeks now at this point, five or six weeks.
So, you grew up in Boston?
Yeah, I was born in the suburb of Boston, about forty-five minutes out. I pretty much lived on the State of Massachusetts and then went to school in Western Mass and then Boston for about eight or nine years.
So what’s the music scene like there?
Yeah it’s interesting because the town and history is like Aerosmith, there’s a bunch of other ones, but the scene is also interesting because there’s Berklee School of Music, which is a famous school for musicians. The truth about Boston seems to be that it’s a place where people end up leaving to go to find success. It’s an eclectic scene there, it’s a little bit of everything, so it has a kind of ‘indie’ feeling.
I was going to say, it’s interesting that you’ve ended up doing country because I know that indie scene is so alive and thriving. You also have this 90s rock element of your music, is that something you grew up with?
I sort of felt like I’m too mainstream to be seen as cool in the indie scene, they’re just completely different. It’s funny, even when you just add country, I still don’t even fully associate with ‘country’ even though I’m here. I grew up listening to a lot of rock, 90s rock and even metal and harder rock. Really, when I started writing my own songs that’s when I just felt like the Matchbox Twenty and The GooGoo Dolls started coming out in my writing. When I grew up I liked them – I didn’t know they were my favourites – but it just kind of came out and I saw the comparisons.
It’s almost like your songwriting ends up telling you something about yourself that you didn’t know…
Right. I literally was like ‘oh do I like the GooGoo Dolls?’ I was more in my later twenties when I started really tapping into songwriting, I think that maturity thing happened too. I thought ‘ok I’m going to tap into the singer-songwriter style more.’ It’s super interesting to go back once in a while and listen to what I listened to in my teens. For sure, that influence is there, but genre-wise country seems to be the best fit for me now, but I think it’s worth noting that I like people to label it for me. Some people wear it as a badge of honour, like ‘I’m a country music artist.’ It’s not that I’m against people who do that, we all have a job to make music but the less we can label it the better.
I guess when did you decide then to move to Nashville and pursue that?
Yeah it’s a good question. When I first started to take the music thing seriously in Boston, I was just focussing on playing out in Boston and building up a fanbase. I wasn’t really thinking about Nashville until after a couple of years and you start questioning how to get to the next level. You know when you first start you just want to play one show and then it’s the next thing, really what I did was I just studied the artists that I liked the sound of – a lot of the new country guys, I associated with their sound and Iiked it a lot and then I just looked at their paths and every single one across the board moved to Nashville. It’s good to be in a music hub.
Well your sound is so on the money of where Nashville sound is right now. There’s more different influences in the music now.
100% and I’ve made a pact with myself that I’m never going to sing about a truck, because I don’t own one and it’s nothing against people that do, but singing about trucks and beer just doesn’t inspire me and not to say that I won’t get a little more light-hearted on certain songs and there’s nothing wrong with that but for me I like to write about songs that are super-specific. I just can’t fake things.
Building on that, your latest single ‘Where I’ve Been’ feels so authentic and there seems like a big transition in your music. What was the specific inspiration behind this track then?
You know in the earlier songs I did write a lot about relationships and I think I was just trying to write one day, from a place of genuine feeling of all these emotions. I just stumbled across this title and thought ‘that would be so cool to put all of these experiences into a song, in such a broad thing that everyone can relate to.’ We’ve all had our experiences that we’ve grown up with. I just thought that it was such a cool title. I was excited about having a song that was kind of universally appealing like that but also sounds like ‘I’m going to put my specific events in this song.’ That one felt like a little bit of a gift.
I think that’s where I saw that 90s rock elements. You had these gorgeous guitar solos filtering through it, as well as the Nashville songwriter element. You could really see all your different influences in that.
Yeah, I really appreciate you listening that closely, it means a lot and that’s a huge compliment because that’s what I want. I want those influences. I play shows where I do a lot of covers, man people love the country, but when I rip into Hootie & The Blowfish or The GooGoo Dolls, people love that bit. It’s almost cool again now. I want to be a face for bringing that back. That guitar riff in the intro, we stumbled across it and me and my producer were like ‘this kind of sounds like ‘Everything You Want’ by Bring Me the Horizon.’ It was a big 90s hit, and I was like ‘well, let’s leave it in.’
In the current climate, what is your plan for the next few months? Are you going to be doing more livestreams?
Yeah absolutely, livestreaming for sure, I’m doing one today – I’m trying to do one at least once a week. It’s an interesting question because I have a single ready to go right now, and I’m just not sure if it’s the time. I’m an analyser – maybe to my detriment, so I don’t know when’s the right time to put out a song – because it’s a little bit of a feel good song but I’m having a hard time listening to the music that I usually listen to that’s super carefree when I don’t feel carefree. I’m just questioning that. I’d like to put it out at a time when I can go on tour and that’s what I had planned, but unfortunately that’s not a reality.
And are you planning on coming to the UK – is that part of the plan moving forward?
Absolutely! If you’d asked me a year and a half ago, I’d have said I have no idea how to make that happen but I’ve seen a few independent artists that I follow that are going over. It just seems like people over there really appreciate music and I would love to, once there’s a sense of normalcy. I’ve never actually been to the UK or Europe.
Final Few
If there was a biopic written about your life – what would be the opening track?
I’d have to say Tom Petty’s ‘Won’t Back Down.’
Wine or whiskey?
Whiskey all the way.
Record you couldn’t live without if you were stuck on a desert island?
The first one that popped into my head was Goo Goo Dolls ‘Dizzy Up the Girl‘ record.
Would you rather give up songwriting or performing?
I’m going to say give up the songwriting, because performing is what I’ve learned to love the most.
Complete the sentence…
Music is… life.
Country music is… brave.
Chris Moreno is…. a singer that has to put it out there every time he plays.
