Hot from releasing their latest single, The Moses Gunn Collective are enjoying part of Australia’s retro-rock revival.
Moses Gunn Collective frontman, Aidan Moore, recalls the Australian rock music scene being a very different half a decade ago. “When we first started four years ago, there wasn't much psychedelic stuff happening; it was mostly all garage [rock].”
Although not claiming responsibility for starting the newfound interest in psychedelic rock, Aidan says he has seen a number of “awesome psychedelic bands” emerge since their arrival. Seeing the need for creating something different from everything else at the time, Moses Gunn Collective began jamming around 2009 and began experimenting with elements of dream-pop, rock and psychedelia. “We're not pure psychedelic music; we might get in trouble for saying that as there are diehard purists out there who want their psych ten minutes long, or more traditional stuff,” Aidan says.
Despite having the psychedelic moniker often attached to the group, Aiden says the group is more focused on writing and crafting pop songs as opposed to producing material with prog-rock elements. “When we're performing [live], we like to keep it sort of dreamy and deliver the goods as well.”
Although Aidan does think the modern form of psychedelic rock allows you to break the mould of traditional rock, it is very much in the spirit of the Moses Gunn Collective. “We've never aimed for a sound; we've sort of written songs and pushed them in a way that we've kind of wanted to play them. That's always been the experimental way, rather than just a straight rendition of songs. That’s one of the best things about putting ‘psych’ in front of your genre name.”
With their latest single recently released, the slightly T-Rex influenced ‘Mary’, Aidan was a little unsure how long-time fans would react to it. “We weren’t really sure how it would go after ‘Shalala’ because it is a bit more ‘poppier’ and easier for people. But ‘Mary’ is kind of… it’s got a piano in the middle; kind of asked a bit more of people. But yeah, everyone seems to be enjoying it, which is nice.”
After the release of their ‘Morning Shakes’ EP and a round of shows during the next two months, Aidan is enthusiastic to keep the Moses Gunn Collective wheel spinning “As much as we love playing our EPs, I am really looking forward to bashing out and recording some songs that we've had written for some time. We've also got a new addition to our band, Betty, who we are keen to play with!”
Written by Nicholas Ivanovic
Moses Gunn Collective Tour Dates
Fri 28 Nov - The Brightside (Brisbane)Wed 3 Dec - Oxford Art Factory (Sydney)
Wed 10 Dec - Shebeen (Melbourne)
