Our Sound

Bristol Community Festival, Bristol Sound Stage (c. 2002) – Photo by Gallit Shaltiel

“We never had any idea or genre, we just wanted to see what we came up with, just give ourselves time to see what happened. We hadn’t defined it at all – we didn’t want to define it.”  – ‘Decode’ magazine, interview by Tara Molloy – ‘Rebel Moozic’ (c. 2001)

To begin with we all played around with different instruments and singing until we found our favoured instruments. We all wrote songs independently and would share them at our rehearsals, working on these until we found jamming and improvisation our favourite process of writing songs. With time we naturally gravitated towards our strongest instruments, Rasha and Paula swapping between guitar and bass.

Rasha (photo by Ian Nichols).

Rasha became the strongest on bass – she evolved into a dynamic bass player, pushing the boundaries with her unusual choice of riff, changing and evolving throughout each song. Rasha’s driving basslines were often the platform we all worked from – experimental, rhythmically unique, and always groove-based. 

Amy (photo by Ian Nichols).

Amy played drums in a very musical and emotive way, listening and moving with the musical styles, both gentle and frenetic and always with cool ease. She worked her magic with drums to fit in with the groove using intricate, experimental drum rhythms, mixing different styles of hip hop, and drum ‘n’ bass into her playing. Along with Rasha’s bass, this made for a strong rhythm section over which to layer other instruments.

Paula (photo by Ian Nichols).

Paula intertwined cello or guitar, from edgy to melodic, into Rasha’s bass grooves. Cello was her natural instrument choice, bending the sound in places to push the limits of this classical instrument, finding different textures and sounds – from beautiful ethereal harmonic to gritty, screeching, rough – that felt rebellious and ultimately captivating. Self-taught on guitar, Paula also enjoyed exploring tuneful, melodic riffs along with experimental, punky jabs on the guitar. 

Jess (photo by Ian Nichols).

Jess‘s vocals expertly rose above the music, creating heartfelt story telling in her own unique way. Writing lyrics to match her own emotions to the mood and style of the music, which always took the song to a completely different and unobvious direction. The lyrics were sometimes built on and developed from improvisation. 

Review of Mooz’s sound (click to enlarge and read)

We all played and wrote from our hearts and souls, expressing how we felt through our music. As we all worked together, nothing was ever stand-alone – music evolved on all levels. We really enjoyed singing all together, adding backing vocals and harmonies. We were able to keep our individual styles, blending our own unique sound simultaneously. 

“What Mooz gives you is a slice of life, an experience, a super-context to submerge yourself in totally for the subjective eternity of a single side of a CD. Which is Mooz’s real tradition – they provoke inarticulacy in the listener, confusion. And in a time when, with the world accelerating towards the horizon and more disorientating than ever, where all too many music is kept static, safe, and anchor of security, Mooz offer you a slice of uncertainty. And uncertainty is the one thing you can always be sure of.”

‘Careless Talk Costs Lives’ magazine, interview by Kieron Gillen (2002)