A Conversation With The Moss
Interview and Photos by Tommy Moore
Full Story Featured in DAYBREAK V.5: Home
The Moss photographed by Tommy Moore in Chicago, IL.
The Moss are an indie-alt-rock band loosely based out of Salt Lake City, UT, with deep ties to Hawaii. Within the past year, The Moss have made a name for themselves, climbing charts and becoming a staple of the indie-alt scene.
I first met with The Moss at Schubas in Chicago, IL. Over a Whole Foods dinner, basement hangs, and a stellar show, The Moss have captured a special place in my heart. We've crossed paths across the Midwest and in SLC several times since, and each time my already high belief in and love for the whole crew escalates. The Moss are bound to be a music namesake of the upcoming generation, and I highly encourage you to catch them whenever you find yourselves in the same area code.
The very first time we met, we all sat down in a curbside patch of grass outside Schubas to chat. With very expired mini-Coke bottles in hand, we dove into how they all met, the SLC music scene, and their connection to the outdoors.
The Moss are on tour throughout the Midwest at the beginning of March. We promise they're a crew you don't want to miss. Who knows, this bunch have the making of a band you may never get the opportunity to see at a mid-sized venue again. The Moss Midwest Tour Tickets
Catch the full story in DAYBREAK V.5: Home.
The Moss photographed by Tommy Moore at Summerfest in Milwaukee, WI.
Tommy Moore: know it was just the duo of you guys playing together first, but how did everything else happened and where did it happen?
Tyke James: We all sort of knew each other from Hawaii. Willie went to school in Hawaii on Oahu, and me and Addison went to high school and stuff there. But we all kind of started playing together in Salt Lake City around 2019.
TM: Then you were saying it wasn't really until this year that you guys hit it and started actually grinding away towards as a collective group.
Addison Sharp: We were pretty DIY for a year, and then COVID happened and we didn't really do anything for like two years. Then we started hitting it, writing music, and that's when we really started getting busy.
The Moss photographed by Tommy Moore at Summerfest in Milwaukee, WI.
TM: Does Salt Lake have much of a DIY scene, or a pumping smaller scene?
TJ: It's actually a really good scene over there. I feel like the standard for bands, for some reason, is really high. There are just so many good bands that have amazing songs that I think are so underrated.
TM: I feel like the name keeps popping up so much more in the creative world than I've seen it before.
TJ: Yeah, it is. Kilby Court is the really small venue, and it's known for being the only all ages venue in Salt Lake. It's been around for a couple of decades, and the people who run Kilby and a few other venues around Salt Lake, put on a festival every year—Kilby Block Party—and every year it doubles in size. It gets crazy.
The Moss photographed by Tommy Moore at Schubas in Chicago, IL.
Caiden Jackson: This year it was like 30,000 people there and last year it was like 10,000.
TM: I feel like I've known the name Kilby for a couple years now, and then I saw the recap from the festival a couple weeks back and it was massive. This isn't some little thing.
TJ: Yeah, it's so cool. And talking to touring bands, a lot of touring bands will be like, “Oh, Kilby Court!” It's just a standout spot, and it's literally so DIY. Like I think it was a garage before.
The Moss photographed by Tommy Moore in Chicago, IL.
TM: I feel like it's so impactful having something that feels so personal wherever you're starting, whether it's music or whatever it is. I feel like it means more somehow.
TJ: Yeah, totally. I seriously think Kilby is a reason that there's such a good small band scene. It's just because there's people they're like, “Oh yeah, come play a show,” and they respond to local band, and aren’t dicks, you know?
TM: I mean, having a place for it happens so much less than you’d think. There are so many cities that don't have a small venue that's open to letting people try something.
Between Salt Lake and where you all bopped around before, what was the impact the outdoors and everything has on your writing and you guys as a whole? What's the relationship between that and your tunes and writing/creative process?
The Moss photographed by Tommy Moore at Summerfest in Milwaukee, WI.
The Moss photographed by Tommy Moore in Chicago, IL.
AS: I think we all really enjoy outdoor things like surfing, mountain biking, hiking, and just being outside. Salt Lake’s a great place to do it. As far as how it influences our music, Tyke does most of the writing, so he’ll be able to answer that better, but I feel like being the way that we are, we listen to a certain type of music, and I think it comes through in our recordings.
CJ: The way that I really met them was when I moved up to Utah, and the only reason I went up to Utah, was for the mountains. It led into meeting all of them, and then ended up with me joining the band.
AS: Tyke, would you say nature plays a role in songwriting?
TJ: I never really realized how much time I spent outside, growing up in Hawaii, but I spent so much time outside so much.
"I never really realized how much time I spent outside, growing up in Hawaii, but I spent so much time outside so much."
The Moss photographed by Tommy Moore at Summerfest in Milwaukee, WI.
TM: Especially there, nobody thinks about it. That's how you live.
TJ: Yeah, it's just the way, and it's nice. It's nice to be outside. It's nice to be in the ocean. I think something that I was able to find growing up there, I guess on a subconscious level, is how small people are and how we are just as connected to everything outside of us as we are inside of us. The air, and nature, and the currents and the tides, and how long the sun is out, it affects us the same way an organ does. I think the best way to live is being in touch with nature. Because I think that detachment comes and people really forget that it's the outside as much as the inside in your life.
"The air, nature, the currents and the tides, how long the sun is out, it affects us the same way an organ does." - Tyke James
The Moss photographed by Tommy Moore at Summerfest in Milwaukee, WI.
TM: It all comes back to that connectiveness part of it, too. When you don't have that, you're missing that whole piece of the system that operates within itself.
Willie Fowler: I think that connected us as a band, too, because, what's important in a band is that we're all not just the music, but we get along with each other. I think we started doing things together outside, as well as playing music. As far as when we're connected. Me and Tyke would snowboard a lot all winter, and Addison and Tyke grew up surfing together. We all swim in rivers together and screw around outside.
AS: I knew Willie just as that long boarder out at Turtle Bay before I knew who he really was.
"I think something that I was able to find growing up there, I guess on a subconscious level, is how small people are and how we are just as connected to everything outside of us as we are inside of us."
The Moss photographed by Tommy Moore at Summerfest in Milwaukee, WI.
A Conversation With The Moss
Interview and Photos by Tommy Moore
Full Story Featured in DAYBREAK V.5: Home
The Moss are on tour throughout the Midwest at the beginning of March. We promise they're a crew you don't want to miss. Who knows, this bunch have the making of a band you may never get the opportunity to see at a mid-sized venue again. The Moss Midwest Tour Tickets