Moore

By Brian Shamie 2 months ago

Andrew Moore’s career is awash in collaboration.

Nearly three years ago, the Elgin hip-hop artist spearheaded the “Shop Local” project, a collection of 11 songs performed with area musicians, each accompanied by a “cover” from an area visual artist.

He and his group of musical compatriots –– Moore & Friends, featuring Jalen “0bs3rve” Little (drums), Mike Szostek (guitar), Brandon Malm (saxophone) and Kasz (turntables) — have grown into their individual and combined sounds together.

And their work within Elgin-area institutions such as the Side Street Studio Arts and the Gail Borden Public Library has inspired a community of young musicians.

SEE MORE: Moore & Friends, Rotten Mouth, Space Mafia, Signal the Launch — House of Blues 1/9/20

On Thursday, Jan. 9, this team of independent artists gets to show the world what they’re up to as they headline the House of Blues.

Moore and the band — along with Angrous, Young Sleepless and Dave Stone, members of the Elgin-based Watch City collective — bring their hip-hop jams and hometown pride to the legendary Chicago stage in front of the community they helped build.

A culmination of years of hard work, Thursday’s show is a milestone for Moore and a step ahead for the indie artists on the Chicago and suburban music scenes.

Rounding out the 17+ showcase hosted by SwizzleSteve Presents are Rotten Mouth (whose 2019 release “The Moon Man” was delicious, groove-rock listening), heavy-leaning alternative from Space Mafia and Signal the Launch’s blues-influenced rock.

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Moore & Friends, Rotten Mouth, Space Mafia, Signal the Launch
When: 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 9
Where: House of Blues, 329 N. Dearborn St., Chicago
Tickets: $10-$15; (312) 923-2000 or houseofblues.com

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LISTEN UP: Moore & Friends on AUX Populi podcast - Chicago Sound Check

By Elena Ferrarin
eferrarin@dailyherald.com

Hip-hop artist Andrew Moore feels so connected to his native Elgin that he made his newest album an all-local music and art project.

The musicians, artists, videographers, recording and shooting locations, T-shirts, stickers and release party are 100 percent Elgin, with only the CD printing done elsewhere.

“One of the goals I put on paper with this project is, specifically, to be able to go out of town and say, ‘I am from Elgin,’ and people know where that is,” the 27-year-old said.

Moore’s album “Shop Local” features 11 songs with vocals and lyrics mostly by him, along with artists such as Angrous and Kasz, both members of the group Watch City, which Moore also belongs to. Visual artists created pieces to go with each track.


The art for the front cover of the album “Shop Local” by Andrew Moore was created by Ashley Composano. – Courtesy of Andrew Moore
The album will be released online May 25 and for the first two weeks, the CD will be sold only at Rediscover Records in Elgin. The CD’s 16-page booklet features artwork, whose originals will be in a silent auction at the May 26 release party at Side Street Studio Arts in Elgin.

Moore, a 2008 graduate of Elgin High School, lived in town all his life except for a year in Chicago after his debut album “White Men Can’t Rap” in 2013. He moved back when his girlfriend, Sonia, now his wife, became pregnant with their now 3-year-old daughter, Mia.

That’s when he started figuring out how to make a living as a local music artist.

“I read a book called ‘Making a living in your local music market’ (by Dick Weissman) and I took a lot of that stuff to heart,” he said. “Before my daughter, I wanted different things. I was fine traveling all the time, being on the road. That changed.”

He also credits Tanner Melvin and Erin Rehberg, co-founders of Side Street Studio Arts, who “kind of put it in my head there was a way to do this,” he said.

So now, he does what he loves in many ways.


Visual artists created pieces to go with each track in the album “Shop Local” by Andrew Moore. This is the back cover. – Courtesy of Andrew moore
He performs music — he’s booked gigs in Nashville and possibly Atlanta this summer — works as an assistant in the Studio 270 digital media lab at Gail Borden Public Library, and teaches after-school and summer music and media classes at Side Street Studio Arts in downtown Elgin. He has an associate degree from Elgin Community College, from which he’s about to earn a music production certificate.

It’s not easy to juggle all that, and living with his wife’s family is a tremendous help, he said.

The idea for “Shop Local” came when Moore was at a crossroads in late 2015, deciding whether he wanted to keep going solo or collaborate with people he knew. The project took shape when he found out about a $1,000 individual artist grant from Elgin’s cultural arts commission.

“The grant is to stimulate commerce downtown, collaboration between other artists and create opportunity here,” he said. “I pretty much looked at their criteria for the grant and used it as a checklist.”


Moore is an example for kids who want to make it as musicians, commission chairman Joe Vassallo said.

“Most of the times (grant recipients) are looking to put up some kind of show in town,” Vassallo said. “What’s different about this is that it’s still accessible to everybody, which is important.”

Moore said he simply realized there are ways to live out his dream other than all-out, star-studded success.

“I have to be open to adapt,” he said. “I have to be very multifaceted.” - Daily Herald

By Brian Shamie 9 months ago

Elgin-based hip-hop artist Andrew Moore set himself a goal: To play with musical conventions in a way that challenged himself to work within certain constraints.

“It was a sonic experiment to see what I could make from these old samples I found in the public domain,” Moore said. “I wanted to make some sample-based work, and I also wanted to make something that was commercially viable, and I knew I couldn’t just dig into every copyrighted audio file.”

Limiting himself to one-minute songs — “I wanted everything to be a quick, complete body of work you could consume in one sitting” — Moore set out to create what became “The American Sound: An Audio Collage,” a five-song collection created entirely of samples he recorded or found in the public domain. “The American Sound” is available for purchase and on most streaming services.

“Most of the stuff I have is 50 to 100 years old,” he explained. “It was either government-created material that never had a copyright or material so old that the copyright expired. And some that never had a copyright to begin with.”

Within those restrictions, Moore began the five-month process of producing the tracks, which were then whittled down to the five “that tied together the best.”

One inspiration for the project was a week in 2018 Moore spent in Key West, Florida, for an artist-residency, he said.

“While I was out there I spent each day recording audio and video with my phone and spent each night creating a song and video with the samples I yielded throughout the day,” he said. “Ever since that week I have been artistically looser, allowing myself to explore different techniques, styles and mediums.”

“My experiences that week really opened my eyes to the extent of my artistry and showed me that I could create good content out of almost any source material.”

Using videos from the public domain — various animations, old Bosko cartoons, government-issued public service announcements and some borderline propaganda videos — Moore also created videos to accompany each track.

“A loose goal I had, without throwing it in your face, is there’s been propaganda going on all throughout history,” he said. “Things that seem silly now when you look back on them but the majority of people believed when they were happening. So I wanted to put that out there and make you think, “What propaganda is happening right now that we don’t realize is propaganda?”

Moore, who is playing at Milwaukee’s Summerfest Sunday, July 7, will also be displaying the entire five-video “The American Sound: An Audio/Visual Collage” at “Cartoon Cavalcade,” an exhibit of cartoon-themed displays hosted by Oddball Art Labs and held at ArtSpace Gallery, 51 S. Spring St., in Elgin. Proceeds from the art exhibit will benefit the Well Child Center in Elgin. An opening reception will be Friday, July 12, from 6 to 10 p.m. at the gallery. A closing reception for the exhibit will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, July 27.






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Summerfest
When: 6 p.m. Sunday, July 7, at the Ground Floor Stage near the south gate of Henry Maier Festival Park, 200 N. Harbor Drive, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Tickets: Free admission for Fan Appreciation Day from noon to 3 p.m.; regular admission charges apply after that

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Opening Reception
When: 6-10 p.m. Friday, July 12

Where: ArtSpace Gallery, 51 S. Spring St., Elgin, with an after-party at Martini Room, 161 E Chicago St, Elgin

Closing Reception
When: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday July 27

Where: ArtSpace Gallery, 51 S. Spring St., Elgin - Chicago Sound Check