Our DC Introduces artist – Chris Moreno – recently spoke to us about his new single, how his career in lockdown has developed and what’s up next.
Hi Chris, how are you doing? I feel like so much has changed and happened even since the last time we spoke back in April, it feels like you’re really making the most out of this time?
I’m trying my best!
I know you’re starting to get out and do some more gigs, so what’s that been like?
Yeah, it’s been cool. I think I’m in the position where I still play bars and restaurants, if I was at that top arena level I’d probably be out of luck. I’d say I’m back to maybe 30-40%.
That must be a weird transition still though from all the live streaming you were doing and just playing to the camera and finally having a live audience back again?
I know exactly, I’ve got so used to the live-streaming. I’ve even done a couple with the full band, but some are just solo acoustic.
Do you feel that quarantine has almost been a blessing in disguise, because you’ve reached so many more people and got the chance to maybe do things that you wouldn’t have done?
Yeah it’s really cool that you say that because it’s something I’ve been thinking a lot more about lately, I can’t help but look at it as a blessing, even though it’s been such a challenging time, I’m someone who always thinks that we can find the positives in challenges and it definitely has, even just in seeing just how deep the support is with the base that we do have. I don’t think that I realised that before quarantine.
That’s really cool and obviously you’ve even got a new single. Can you tell us a bit about the track?
I actually wrote that one before quarantine, I thought that I wrote it earlier this year, but then I realised that I had played it live in December – a not quite finished version – so that shows me how much I liked the song. It was one of those songs I wrote it, I had the title real quick, I had the idea of ‘Used To This’ which is what the song is about, I had the melody and I just loved singing the melody so much. Sometimes you just know and it was right in my wheelhouse and I knew it was a song I was going to sing.
It’s special when you have that connection to a song, because you’re writing so many songs all the time, but it must be quite relieving when you have that feeling and connection that that’s a song you want to record and take into the studio…
Yeah it’s almost just like there’s a gut feeling when you’re singing to it and you know. I’m not going to say it’s uncommon but it doesn’t happen every day, I’m excited about this one for sure.
This one and ‘Same Old Places’ definitely felt like a step up sonically and it felt like a bigger sound. Do you feel like there has been a big evolution in your  music?
I do, I did switch producers this year but I can’t say that that’s the sole factor because my producer before was great as well, I think there’s been a honing in on exactly what I want to say and a trimming of the fat in my music. I think getting back to putting a little more edge in my music. I feel like I’m finding that balance, because I started out fully in the rock scene and then I took a step back and I think I’m finding my voice just in terms of how I’m singing things, I feel better and stronger with every release.
You must feel more confident as well with every release, with your growing fanbase you know people will be listening to each release….
Yeah, that’s what keeps it going, no matter what happens with how much it reaches people, I still have that base of people that are really going to want it and that alone is amazing.
It’s cool that you’re bringing back all these elements in your music and almost evolving to imbibe them all.
Yeah, I’ve been giving it a lot of thought, I don’t want to write for genre and I was actually just writing a song before we hopped on, which was more of a rock ‘Goo Goo Dolls’ thing. I’m not going to continue to censor whatever comes out.
I don’t think there should be this conscious effort to delineate genre boundaries, it should be whatever comes out naturally and organically.
I think so too, because as you know in 2020, everyone is listening to all genres, we all have playlists with everything on it. At the same time, I think people who are listening to me and are fans of me, they don’t care, they want me to write what’s the best thing I can possibly do, they don’t want me to be in a box and writing a specific way lyrically, so I’m open to experimentation.
Obviously having moved from Boston to Nashville, your songwriting will have evolved to have different elements. People always think of Nashville as just being a country town but can you speak to its diversity.
If I’m being totally honest, I think in Nashville there is a little bit of pressure to all write the same song, so if anything I have to resist that part when I’m in Nashville. You get together with writers – I can’t say I blame them because they want to get their songs cut – but when it comes to writing for me, if it’s not a specific thing that feels right, I’m probably not going to end up cutting it or singing it. I still feel at home in the country genre, because honestly I would reference artists like Mitchell Tenpenny, someone like him who’s got this bigger, rock sound. I respect what he’s doing, I think the newer class of country guys are being true to their influences and I think that’s really cool.
You are one of those artists who is born for live performances, do you find that your songwriting has changed at all because you’re now not thinking as much about the live performance? Have you found yourself getting more introspective?
That’s a really good question, I don’t know that it has, I’m someone who always likes softer songs and ballads, but every time I sit down and think I’m going to write something slow, it always has a punch to it. I never sit down and write a straight-up piano ballad. I think I really just like that mid-tempo thing. All my songs are introspective and they’re all personal, but I don’t ever sit down and write a six-verse folksong… (laughs). I’m always trying to pin down the most effective way to say something, so I do have very mainstream sensibilities and I do enjoy listening to mainstream types of music.
Do you have more releases under your belt or are you just waiting to see what happens?
I’m not wasting a single day, so I’ve released ‘Used To This’ and then I’m going to have a follow-up acoustic version of that along with the music video. I’m actually releasing a version of Tracy Chapman’s ‘Fast Car’ which is the most requested and popular cover that I’ve been doing. I’ve just recorded that recently. I’ve got one other single that I’m just about ready to record and I’ve got two or three more. I think in 2021 I’m going to be hitting it even harder in terms of singles.
