the moss: An Essence of Life
The Utah County based rockers - Tyke James, Will Fowler and Brierton & Addison Sharp - came together a few short years ago, all meeting on the Hawaiian Island of O’ahu. Together they bonded over performing faux-mariachi bands and opening for Jack Johnson from time to time. Today they have a strong catalogue of releases and sound all their own. Salt Lily sat down with the group over a virtual meeting to talk about life as a rock band during the pandemic and what they have planned for the duration of 2020.
Where have you guys been able to play before it all came crashing down in the spring?
Tyke: Last year we toured to Idaho, up to Rexburg.
At the Basement?
Brierton: Yeah, it’s a good spot.
Addison: We’ve played in Arizona down in Phoenix… down in Los Angeles we played a show at this place called the Fox Theater.
Will: Vegas, once.
Brierton: We had a tour we were trying to do this summer but…
Tyke: ... it crashed.
Well, other than that, how else has the pandemic affected the momentum of the band?
Tyke: I feel like statistically we are growing. We’ve kind of grown more during this whole thing, but we are bummed we can’t play shows. But other than that, our audience is kind of growing, I’d say.
Like the amount of listeners you have on Spotify has grown?
Addison: Yeah. It’s been a nice pause, too, because we haven’t been just practicing setlists for shows. We’ve just been jamming together since like March now. We just get together and we just write songs and feel ‘em out. And we’ve had some recording sessions.
Willie: I think we’re gonna see - not just with us but with all bands… we’re gonna see this big boom of new music because everyone has been together writing.
I’ve noticed you guys have had a good handful of releases this year. Would you guys have gotten all of that out without a pandemic?
Tyke: We had recorded [a lot of] these songs going into it. We had recorded some periodically at the beginning, and then during… our three newest were varied within [the pandemic].
What do you guys think of Utah’s music scene? Is there enough room and outlet here for a rock band?
Brierton: I love the amazing scenes [here].
Tyke: We’ve had a pretty good experience. I could be wrong… but I don’t think that we totally fit into the Utah scene… in, like, the more mainstream bands here… like Ritt Momney… I feel like they’re one of the veins here.
Brierton: I feel like as far as the music goes here in Utah, it’s pretty good because tons of bands are basically in our same position. They are all down to do shows with us. Ever since we started doing shows here we’ve been invited to play a ton of shows. We always have people willing to do shows with us… And Third Space Studios has really helped us out.
Tyke. There’s just a ton of people who are always wanting to play. They aren’t super stickler about it.
Not too pretentious?
The Moss: Yeah.
Who are some of your favorite bands that you’ve played with around Utah?
Brierton: Rain Boots!
Tyke: Blue Rain Boots, yeah.
Will: Sorry Mom.
Addison: We just barely played a show with Tastebuds and they were super sick!
Brierton: We’ve played with Backseat Lovers a lot.
Do you think you have a similar sound to Backseat Lovers?
Brierton: I feel like I’ve heard people say that but I don’t see it [laughs]. I think their music is sick and all respect to them but I don’t see the [similarities].
How do you guys sum up your sound, then?
Addison: We each have individual influences, I would say, and then we come together and make something in between … AC/DC and classic rock… Willie is really into reggae. We kinda just get together and try to blend them all.
So your sound isn’t meditated? It just came out the way it did?
Tyke: Yeah. We never were like, “let’s sound like an indie band … let’s sound like a classic rock band”.
Anything big coming down the road that people should be excited for?
Will: “The Twos”.
Tyke: Oh, yeah. We have a line of songs coming at called The Twos … It’s going to be a compilation album at the end of the year. We just put out the first one called, “Secretariat,” and so it’s basically just going to be two-song singles. We’re gonna do four ..? Five?... So it’s gonna be like eight to ten songs total.
Why trail them out versus releasing a full album?
Tyke: Uh, because… we don’t have enough money. [laughs] It’s kind of a perfect amount of time. We just do them every couple of months so we have enough money until we have two songs good and how we want them, you know? Those get streamed, we get a little more money.
Anything I missed here that our readers need to know?
Tyke: Did you know that it’s safer to drink water from moss in the forest than it is from a stream? It filters water.
Ok, good to know.
Tyke: There was a phase of the earth called “Moss-World” where moss covered the earth. That gave the earth enough oxygen for, like, life— like people.
So Moss is the origin of life?
Tyke: Essentially.
The Moss’s music is available on Spotify and all places where music is streamed. And keep an ear open for their compilation, The Twos they plan to trickle out through the duration of 2020.
