Yay, You!: An Interview with Andrew Moore
Talking Disney, nerd culture, new music and old injuries with the former Kane Hodder frontman
Andrew Moore is one of my very favorite people on Earth. (His wife Alissabeth Newton is also on that list, but that’s a post for a different time — hi, Alissa!) I met Andrew more than 15 years ago. He was fronting the band Kane Hodder, a genre-blending blast of noise that utilized the best aspects of punk, hardcore, pop, metal, and R&B, and I had just started writing about Seattle’s all-ages music scene for The Stranger. Andrew’s ability to shift from soulful croon to guttural scream, all while thrashing across the stage himself, was mesmerizing, and their live shows were some of the most intense I’d ever seen. Over the years, before Hodder broke up in 2009, I saw dozens of clubs and showrooms full of gleeful Hodder fans morph into pulsating mosh pits of flailing human parts — imagine the Season 3 Stranger Things monster, but with less blood (usually).
They were the subject of the first long-form music feature I wrote for The Stranger way back in 2004.
Now Andrew literally saves lives as a Respiratory Therapist at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. “My primary responsibility is managing life support systems, or mechanical ventilators, for people who have suffered such massive injuries that they cannot manage basic functions, such as respiration,” he says. “The worst part of the job is withdrawals of care; when someone says the term ‘pull the plug,’ it is Respiratory Therapists who doing the pulling. It can make for a bad day if you have to do more than one of those in a shift. My record is four.”
Oof.
In an effort to combat the pressure and stress of such an emotionally demanding job, Andrew’s started to make music again. And not just any music, but fun-as-fuck Disney covers. Infinity/Beyond is a collection of some of Andrew’s favorite Disney tunes — “The Bear Necessities,” “When You Wish Upon a Star,” and “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” to name a few — that are reworked to include some of that Kane Hodder swagger. There are nine tracks so far, with plans to add more in the coming months.
I thought asking Andrew about this exciting new project would make for a fun and light Q&A about goofy Disney songs and old Seattle punk rock, but because Andrew is also one of the most thoughtful artists out there, he opened up about the problematic aspects of both nerd and Disney culture and he also got real honest about some of the reasons he decided to take a break from making music years ago.
And though he’s still living in the Pacific Northwest, he also managed to school me on music being made right here in Tennessee, where I live, even though it is literally my job to know about all the cool local music?! HOW DOES HE DO THAT? HE ALWAYS DOES THAT.
While you read, listen to Infinity/Beyond on Bandcamp here. It’s also available for pay-what-you-want (even if want you want to pay is $0!) download.
So, why Disney songs?
Well, why not? It is no secret that I have an affinity for the music from Disney movies and shows. From a nostalgic point of view, a lot of these songs are cornerstones of my childhood. Because of the traumatic nature of my work, nostalgia and familiarity have helped me from going insane from emotional burnout and compassion fatigue. But I have to be careful because I think that nostalgia can be a dangerous thing if people rely on it too much. I think we see it a lot in both the geek and punk communities and it’s mostly on the part of the white dudes; but you see people react angrily and violently if something that they have loved and held dear no longer makes them feel the way it did when they were younger, or if they feel that what they thought of as “theirs” is being taken away. So yeah, one needs to be careful when riding nostalgia and familiarity and it is something I try to be cognizant of.
My kids have also played a huge role in this endeavor as well. As they have grown older and established interests of their own and come in touch with spheres of influence that are not [my wife] Alissa or me, I try to be as connected with them as possible with what media they are consuming. As much as I love Disney, I would be a fool to ignore some of the huge problems in the company’s history regarding race and gender representation in their films. As my girls watch these films and listen to these songs, we try and talk about what we are seeing, how it makes them feel, and how perspectives have changed on certain things. We recently watched a string of the older-era films and contrasted them with films from the ’90s renaissance and from the more recent run, and it was fun to talk with them about how things were different, especially among the female characters and characters of color. And while there is still miles and miles of room for improvement, it was nice for them to see that strides have been made. But it was also good to talk to them about the problematic stuff like the representations of indigenous people in Peter Pan or the Asian stereotypes in Lady and the Tramp or The Aristocats; talking about how certain points of view were seen as acceptable and how it served to keep certain groups marginalized.
I kept a lot of that in mind when picking the songs as well. It was important for me to keep the lyrics as written and had to be very aware of problematic lyrics and themes. For example, I thought that I really wanted to do the theme from Davy Crockett. It has a fantastic melody and chorus and I thought there were some cool things that could be done about it, but as you delve into the lyrics, there is a whole section essentially about him wiping out indigenous peoples and “taming” the land. No matter how good the melody or how rocking the chorus would be, that is something I cannot be party to. If kids do listen to these songs, I don't want them to be drawn to unacceptable themes just because the music is good. From a songwriting perspective, some of the songs are quite complex. Take the song “Belle,” for example: it balances key changes, lacks a defined chorus, has three distinct vocal parts between Belle, Gaston, and the various villagers, weaves in and out of moments of spoken dialogue, and ultimately executes its purpose to serve the story and establish character motivations and personalities.
Or take “Let it Go,” which besides being an incredibly empowering song, requires an incredible vocal range to pull off. Now, I take a lot of pride in my vocal range but some of the songs are on a different level in that regard and it took me great amounts of trial and error to get the songs in the right key to allow me to pull them off.
One challenge that I have always loved in creating cover songs is finding ways to bend them to a different genre; finding which parts need to be abandoned and which parts need to be elevated. These songs have definitely quenched that thirst. One issue that I used to always have regarding cover songs in Kane Hodder, especially whenever we played a Disney Cover Night, was that I had a hard time conveying to the others a clear vision of how the songs would play out. As I said before, some of the songs are incredibly complicated and without careful consideration and planning, they sound impossible to translate. Doing this project on the solo has allowed me to fully execute arrangements for these songs that have been in my head for a long time, some of them for years.
I remember those Disney Cover Nights. You met Alissa at one of those shows, in fact! Right, wasn’t it a Disney night? They were so fun.
The Disney cover nights were some of the funnest times. As such a big fan of the music, I always loved hearing how people would interpret the songs, even if they were done in a seemingly mocking way at times. One year, Kane Hodder did the Disney Afternoon line-up: Ducktales, Talespin, Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers, and Darkwing Duck. The last Disney Cover Night that I was aware of and was involved with was in 2008, I think, at the Chop Suey. I actually still have the recording of that show from the soundboard. And while Alissa and I did perform as For Better or For Awesome at several Disney Cover Nights, it was actually at a New Wave Cover Night that we first met. The Catch played “99 Red Balloons” by Nena and it was at Chop Suey in December of 2003. And I do recall that you were supposed to come with me to that show and you bailed at the last minute. [Ha! That is true. But I like to think that if I didn’t bail, Andrew wouldn’t have had a chance to talk to Alissa and they never would’ve fallen in love, gotten married and lived happily ever after, so…]
You took a break from making music — what brought you back in? And is the Disney project the only thing you’re working on right now? Or is there any dabbling in original stuff?
When Kane Hodder dissolved in 2009, it was right about the time that we adopted our first child, Jubilee. Salome followed in 2011. I took a lot of time off to focus on raising them, my new career at the hospital, and on Alissa schooling for her Master's Degree. But as the kids got older and started to go to school and my free time began to grow, I found myself fiddling with songs once again and I realized just how much I missed all of it.
Being a musician is what I wanted to do as a vocation and for whatever reason — between bad business decisions, line-up changes, and a 2-3 year case of writer's block on my part — it didn't work out with Kane Hodder. But now I find that I am refocused on it with a vengeance. And without the pressure I felt near the end of Hodder, songwriting has become easy and fun once again. It culminated in me getting a digital 8-Track, which I have been using for the Disney Project.
The first projects I worked on were actually little Christmas EPs that featured Alissa and the girls in some places. That kindled the fire and got the ball rolling towards more ambitious things. After the Disney Project, of which there will be 15 songs total, I am planning on a five song EP of original tunes that would have been Kane Hodder songs if they had been written 10 years ago.
It always bummed me out that right before Hodder broke up, we recorded four songs in Japan that were simply amazing and a return to form for us; we had about three or four others we could have recorded as well, but unfortunately those never really saw the light of day and only a handful of people have ever heard them. The EP I am working on doesn't contain any of said songs, but it does have the feel of a Kane Hodder record. The problem being, I am not Charley [Potter, drummer], or Nick [Cates, bassist], or Eric [Christianson, guitarist], or Jeremy [White, guitarist] and it would require each of their touch to be Hodder.
I am also nervous about my ability to scream these days. It has been more than a hot minute since I have really belted out in the style of Hodder and I may have to make a few adjustments to my technique; I don't have the pipes of a 23-year old anymore, that’s for sure. But I am excited about it and I hope that people are interested enough to check it out. After that, I think I could leave Hodder-style song writing behind; it feels like with that project, I will be taking care of some unfinished business. I have two songs written that are more in the vein of aggressive pop-punk and we’ll see where that takes me. I feel if there is one thing I don’t love about the stuff I am producing, it’s that I do not know how to be a good engineer, mixer, etc. The songs don’t sound the way I would love to them to sound as far as quality goes, but I have gotten a bit better as I’ve taught myself some tricks and just developed my ear to that of an engineer.
You’ve always been a magnetic, energetic performer — Sorority House Rejects shows sometimes involved fire, with Kane Hodder you thrashed around like a dying fish (that’s a compliment). What’s the worst on-stage injury you ever sustained?
The worst injury I ever had, bar none, was early on in Hodder. We were playing at Club Impact in Tacoma and we were pissed off about playing last on a six-band bill that was a CD-release show for the band that played before us. Not many people had stayed for us, just a small scattering of Hodder faithful and curious laggers, and we had given up playing in our hometown of Bremerton with our Seattle buddies Problem with Heroes to play this particular show. We were engaging in our usual end-of-set chaos, but it was amplified quite a bit due to the circumstances. I remember being in a kneeling position beside Nick, which turned out to be a bad place to be as he had removed his bass and was swinging it in a circle in front of him. I looked up just in time to catch his head stock full speed into my forehead. It put me right onto the ground and I saw a bright white flash before my vision went dark for several seconds. I don't think I was knocked out because I remember lying there with Charley’s kick drum pulsing in my ear, thinking that I couldn't see and trying to decipher through the fog whether or not I should start to worry.
You’ve always had excellent taste in music. One thing I always loved about Kane Hodder was how your appreciation for so many different genres and artists would work its way into the music in unexpected ways. Who are a few of your favorites right now?
There is so much music I am excited for right now! Remember what I said before about balancing the familiar and the new? I have made it a priority to always be seeking out new music. Not only do I think it makes me a better songwriter but it helps to avoid the line of thinking that I see in a lot of people of “music from X period was so much better than it is today.” If you think there is no good music these days, then you just aren't trying to find it. Some of my favorite acts in 2019 so far are: Amyl and the Sniffers, Control Top, Emily King, Charly Bliss, Rhiannon Giddens, Alex Lahey, Billie Eilish, Lizzo, Mavis Staples, PUP, Our Native Daughters, and Tank and the Bangas.
But the all-around best band right now, hands down, is a band from Tennessee called The New Respects. They put out an album last year called Before the Sun Goes Down and it is dynamite. I get a MAJOR Sly and the Family Stone vibe from them but with a modern twist. Without exaggeration, they might be the most important band that is active today. As far as I know, they haven't made it out to Seattle yet but whenever they do, I will be there.
Yay, You! is published every Sunday in the It Rhymes With Feeling newsletter, and it features Q&As with some of my favorite artists, musicians, writers, creators and sometimes even my friends. If you like what you read, join the mailing list by smashing (YES, SMASHING) the button below so you never miss an installment.
If you really like it, hit that little heart icon, share this post on social media and/or tell a friend! You can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram.