Art Moore
Art Moore, latest project from Taylor Vick a.k.a. Boy Scouts, along with Ezra Furman collaborators Sam Durkes and Trevor Brooks, announce self-titled debut album due for release 5th August Via ANTI-and share new single Muscle Memory.
Photo credit: Ulysses Ortega
Commenting on the new single and the albums opening track Vick’s explains: "Muscle Memory was inspired by the many phases of life we go through and the friendships that exist within them that inevitably transform as we continue through life, I wanted to write about this experience from a neutral perspective, one with the belief that it’s neither a good or bad thing but simply a given in life. It’s a more fictionalized version of my personal experience which was the kind of writing I gravitated towards most in this band."
Initially intended as a collaboration to pitch music for film and television projects, the trio took to a studio in Oakland and quickly realised they worked well together falling into an easy rhythm. ”We all met up at the studio, and it was never even like, ‘Let’s be a band’, that was never a thing,” recalls Durkes. “It was more like, ‘Let’s write for movies and art projects’ — let’s think of a movie scene or a photograph or still image and see if we can write some shit around it to see if we can pitch it”. Brooks and Durkes would work on a track from the instrumental demos they had made together, while Vick sat outside, writing hooks and lyrics. When she was done, she would come inside, lay down what she had giving them the confidence they could develop the project further than just striving for sync opportunities. “Four songs in, I think, after the first recording session, we realized it was going well, and it was pretty efficient,” says Brooks. “Making music with both Sam and Taylor has always been so easy. I record other artists, and it’s pretty rare to be so quickly on the same page with people. We don't have to say much — we kind of get where each other is coming from. It happens way too easily.”
A mutual admiration for each others’ work guided the initial days of Art Moore, says Durkes. “Taylor can just nail harmonies right off the bat, like, no bullshit — it's an incredible skill,” he says admiringly. “It's amazing to see, because a lot of singers, they gotta work at it a lot harder. Taylor works at it too, but it seems so fucking effortless.”
Photo credit: Ulysses Ortega
Beginning in January 2020 the pandemic turned out to be a key factor for Art Moore with the trio finding they had to work seperatley and share recordings to each other over email, a more digital aspect to the music came to the fore, taking Art Moore from a down-the-line indie-rock band into wilder, more mutable territory. “I think [the pandemic] also probably contributed to the whole idea of like, 'Well, we might as well just make an album, 'cause it's July and things aren't any different',” Vick says. “We were still at home, so we thought we might as well keep using this time.”
Writing synth- and drum machine-led songs for the project proved to be a kind of full-circle moment for Brooks, who, prior to Art Moore, had spent time making ambient music as part of the Bay Area experimental electronic group Awefekt. “I spent a few years where I sort of left the whole indie-rock [world] and I was making a lot of ambient synth and improv modular stuff,” Brooks recalls. “I realized through that process that I really missed writing more traditional songs. Part of wanting to do a new project, a band type of project, was to get back to making structured pieces of music. My initial idea was like, guitars, drums, bass and a little bit of synth here and there, but it turned a little more into synth world as the pandemic happened.”
Pre-order Art Moore's self-titled debut here
