Steezy Spotlight – Moses Melkonian

Moses Melkonian drops a fresh one called We Are Mighty, We Are Young

Interview:

When did you start making music?

I’ve been making music since I was a kid. My dad (Vartan Melkonian) is a composer and conductor of classical music… I remember being taken out of class to go and watch him record with the Royal Philharmonic in Abbey Road Studios… I had no idea how cool that was… I was just like “that’s loud!” I remember he put me in one of the booths to record whatever I wanted… I decided to play congas over his whole symphony without a bars rest! ha.

So I was learning piano at that time, but I stopped my lessons to pick up drums. I then began playing in many bands rock, jazz and avant-garde then guitar then bass… During this time my musical influences were ever growing and I never stopped composing at the piano… This is the first time I’ve been able to take all my influences, J-Dilla to Bach, and put them into one record.

What inspired “We Are Mighty, We Are Young”?

I had a few friends involved in the “Occupy” movements… and the more I looked the more it seemed like everyone was trying to change the world… so I wrote this tune… I guess it’s trying to say, changing yourself is a much nobler thing, at least in my eyes. If you can make yourself better, your art your ideas, then people become inspired and will follow in a path of pure creative actions. Actively trying to change the world just seems to cause sadness every time… You can read the full back story here http://mosesjunkyard.wordpress.com/

You noted that the lyrics ended up being freestyle in the recording booth, did you imagine they’d turn out so well?

I’ve always had an interest in literature… at one time I wanted to write, to forget music all together…some of the stories I wrote during that time got published, you can read them here ( http://mosesjunkyard.wordpress.com/words/ )

So I realised you can still use stories, and lyrical themes in music… that’s why hip hop is so powerful, words and beats fuse to create these moments… An artist can be so direct and express things that you just can’t talk about normally. That’s one of the most powerful things about art-forms, the audience is in a space where they are open to the most powerful abstract and emotional ideas of the mind… that’s why music is the ultimate language…

I don’t know it really just happened, it felt right, I wanted to be honest, and when I went back into the control room to listen, it hit me and there was a sound…

Do you have an album coming out and if so, when will it drop?

Yes I do, January. It’s a concept album… and about 60 minutes long… can’t give anything else away… but like my facebook page to receive all the updates https://www.facebook.com/mosesmelkonian

Anything people should be keeping an eye out for in the future?

I will be releasing another single for the album very soon with a video from director Aaron Leaman http://www.aaronleaman.com/ follow the facebook to be the first to know.

Also, check out the moses remix project here http://mosesjunkyard.wordpress.com/music/stems-for-remixes/