Latest Gigs,Events & Band Interviews & Reviews. Tim Moreta

Our roving reporter Sean Frazer caught up with Tim earlier his month for an interview and this is how it went down....

To start out, who influenced you to pick up the 6 string and build your style? What inspired you to start writing music?

I come from a pretty musical family. My first memories of live music I guess you could say came from family get together.  My grandfather, my cousins, uncles and my dad could all play any instrument that they could pick up.  My dad and one of my uncles also had written some of their own songs which i was exposed to when i was younger and still vividly remember the first time i heard their own creations. With such a tight family at that stage and being young and absorbing all the musical traits I would see at these functions, I guess it was just the natural progression of things that I would write and play some sort of music.

You have plenty of original material, when writing, what do you feel the best method to creating a song is? What works best for you?

There are so many ways you can attack it. With every song i have written, the music has come first. I know a lot of people who can write lyrics down like a poem and then put the music to it later, that’s something I have never been able to do. If a cool line comes into my head I’ll write it down but I’ll only ever use it if it fits the structure of a song I’m working on, other times, if u have a tune you can base a whole song around that one line if it’s strong enough. It just comes down to whatever works best for you. Admittedly I am too critical when i write a song so I don’t keep as many songs as I probably should. But at least I can say the ones that I keep are my best crops. I guess I’m the John West of songs.

When did you first start to sing? What got you into being a vocalist?

As lame as this may sound, mum use to sing around the house......  A lot!!  She would sing to my sister and I before we went to bed and any chance she could at a party with the Moreta family. Again I think when you’re young and absorbing your surroundings it definitely influences you whether you want it to or not. If mum was a bad singer it may just have easily turned me off music altogether but luckily she could hold a note and I do hear a lot of her voice in mine. As for the first time I gave singing a go, I was about 15, had written my first lot of lyrics and had music to go with it. I had this idea that if I write a whole bunch of songs, I can start a band and not have to worry about the whole writing process with a band because I would already have everything. I wanted to show my parents my first song and I had the melody for the lyrics in my head so I just sang and played it to them. It’s safe to say that they were shocked and so was i. They gave me just the right amount of encouragement after that and I got the guts to show more people. It started from there i guess.

  

You have been strumming away close to 10 years now, what has been the musical highlight for you?

Definitely when I was with The Agenda and holding the microphone out and having people sing something that you had written. It’s the ultimate compliment that someone would not only take the time to listen to your stuff, but to appreciate it enough to listen to it again and again to remember the words. It’s the greatest feeling in the world and it doesn’t matter if you’re a small time local band or the biggest band in the world, you cannot forget the first time you hear your words out of a fans mouth and you should always show them the respect they have shown you.

How did your first EVER gig go down? Anything embarrassing to share?

First ever gig taught me about voice control. I kinda bursted out guns blazing and started to lose my voice midway through the set. the same thing happened a few times and I would need our bass player to help me out with some singing, it’s another reason why fans knowing the words to your songs can be handy, just hold out the mic and someone will either sing ‘em or just make weird noises, either way your off the hook.  I’ve tried singing with a megaphone in one part of a song and realised halfway through that it ran out of batteries. I have gone for the big mic swing in front of a crowd of 6 people and watched the microphone dislodge itself from the cable and land straight where the imaginary mosh pit was. You can get away with anything at those gigs with hardly anyone. Especially if the whole crowd consists of your dad, the bands girlfriends and the sound guy.

The song you played for us today 'Lost and Found', can you shed some light on what it is about?

It’s your clichéd “run away with me” song but it epitomised how I felt at the time of when I had written it. It’s about 2 people knowing that no matter where they are or what they are doing things will be fine as long as they are together. I think its songs like this that a lot of people can relate to if they listen to the words. Nothing wrong with love songs in my book, they have stood the test of time and at the end of the day, if it helps someone or makes someone feel something, anything at all, then it’s served its purpose. I know i sure as hell like playing it.

You've played in bands and been on tour, recorded a professional EP as well. Will we see you in another band in the future?

Being in a band is by far the most fun thing that I have done. I often think about starting something up again but I’m much too lazy to get the ball moving. It’s a lot easier however to fly solo. A band is a lot like a relationship. You always have to account for the feelings of others, keep up appearances, and bring something new to the table otherwise it’s just going to get stale. It’s definitely a commitment and I’d love to join or start another one when i know i can make that commitment. In the meantime ill work on the Acoustic stuff and collaborate with some friends when the opportunity arises.

What's your opinion on the radio market at the moment?

Music is so subjective and versatile. We have so many people in this country and so many different styles of music at our disposal. So I can’t understand why commercial radio insists on playing the same songs, same style, and every day at the same time. I know its “popular” music and the radio stations are only playing it safe for those all-important ratings. But it’s just such a shame that meanwhile you have musicians slogging it out who’s music sadly often falls on deaf ears. Don’t get me wrong, commercial radio has its place, but at the end of the day it’s just a business that has to make a living like any other business. What I would like to see are more of these stations giving up part of their time slots to un-signed bands. I know we have triple j’s unearthed and that’s been doing great things for years (now that’s a radio station). But can you imagine how many new ears all these un signed talents would recruit if the popular stations dedicated a small percentage of time to something outside of top 40. It’s a bit of an insult that they feed the same song at the same time. They owe us something new.