Te Ra Moriarty
Interview 2012
Introduce yourself. Introduce myself. I guess my name, now days, I go by is Te Ra Moriarty, Ah, musician, both solo and in a band, when I need to be but, I guess I don’t know. Still trying to find my sound my sound, and get myself out there. Need to reconnect with my roots in Palmy. That’s all I can think to say about myself.
What’s your aim with your music at the moment? I guess I want to definitely do something with it. I figured before that I’d end up being in a band, and playing for another band, and playing shows, but this is a way I can get myself out there musically. Sound wise, my biggest influences are old music, old acoustic, and a lot of it’s American, but also the modern style. I want to kind of have this thing where I could put on a performance anywhere. Here, there, and just on the guitar, make people maybe even dance. But I want to make something with a rhythm, so as people can get into it. I don’t want to isolate people with my own, too far into my own obscure taste. My main aim is to have something that I can just set up and try, and rock the house.
What do you write about? Your lyrics sound way older than you are. Shit, I don’t know where that comes from. I guess a lot of the things I write about sometimes, I might just feel blue about a certain situation. Just that feeling, I’ll write some lyrics and they end up being a song, and I may listen to them, or sometimes I’ll sing them, and each time I sing them I’ll think differently about what they mean. So sometimes how I feel about a song lyrically is way different than where it actually came from. Too, a lot of what I like writing about is nature, and again, with that sort of, to put that blues sort of spin on it. Nature, and environmental issues, all the destruction of it. I like focusing on green, you know, nature, birds, waterways, mountains. Yea, that’s a lot of my influence mainly. I want to get into politics, definitely, get some serious issues in there.
Protest songs. Yea. I’m no good with the old pen and paper. Sometimes I can retain lyrics in my head, but other times I’m always thinking ‘what’s that bit that goes in there’. Thinking about those songs I play, that you saw, a couple of them were definitely environmental. And also, there’s an old theme that those old American blues people focus on, which I think comes from where they were situated, waiting to catch the train out of where they were. And even sort of the rhythm of their music is the train. I like that sort of idea of the train, going somewhere. Even the train doesn’t need to be a train; it’s just a word. You know, I’ll sing a song about chasing a train, but it’s not an actual train. I should get into it more, writing. Do you write lyrics much?
I do. I spend, maybe, at least ten or fifteen minutes a day writing down what’s in my head. And from there I go back, look at them, and perhaps if there’s one good thing that sticks out I can make something from it. That’s cool. That’s what I need to start doing.
It’s not like I think ‘I’m going to sit down and write’ though, it’s just me doodling with words when I can. That’s cool. That’s a good way to put.
Are you going to start up anything else musical? I remember when you were in Cathedra… Oh lucky you do because I don’t.
Is metal still of interest to you? It’s not a lot of what I listen to now. When I was full on into metal it was all I really listened to, with a couple of other things on the side, different styles. There’s always that, I guess we all listen to different styles of music, but when I was playing it too, in the band, it was like, that whole fact was driving being into metal, and being into that style, wanting to build on that style. And when you sort of stop playing it, I just started looking outside of that style of music. For a while I was singing in this other band from Upper Hutt.
I remember you having to catch the train there. Yea, it’s a bad train ride out to Upper Hutt. It’s forty minutes of suburban nightmare. It’s terrible. But the blues stuff is like, where that metal stuff came from. Some metal is really emotional, and the fact that it’s so loud adds to it. But I think band wise, I want to do something that is more creative with that beat. Laid back at the same time, but definitely has that energy. I haven’t had the opportunity to make that music with other people, just jams here and there, that’s all it is you know, stoned as.
How do you see the world? I didn’t think you were going to ask me that, that’s a cool one. Can I get a glass of water first?
Of course. That’s a good one. Um, where do I start on the world… the world is like, thinking of the world… the whole thing, could be the universe as well, but it also could just be up in your head. Like Palmy, earth, shit, I don’t know where I was going to go with that. But I think politically, it’s like the frustration from it, inspires me to try and make music, or sometimes I’ll just be watching the news and think ‘fuck this shit’ and just you know, go do something else, pick up a guitar maybe. Some days it’s like, the world, I see it as like a positive as place, every one’s cool and, yea it’s positive because you’re seeing that, and you’re switched onto that. But some days, just one little thing could send you on a downward like, just hearing something on the news or hearing some racial reporting or something bad and all of a sudden your mood changes, and the world is different, and you just keep making it worse. But I think its good, the way to see it is to see it positive, too much negativity makes the world go down. But I like singing about it. Down. I like singing about dark things because I think once you put it in a song you can leave it there, and move on, but still have it in that medium.
"I like singing about dark things because I think once you put it in a song you can leave it there."
That’s true. The main thing I find here, in the world, is you just, fuck… taking advantage of the little person, and power, is just so like concentrated in a small number of people. I mean, all people have power I guess, and in those relationships with people, people can abuse it, but like, actual wealth, power, is like, power with an evil twist. I read this one saying, which I like, it’s from a politics paper I did: “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. It’s like once it’s been introduced it sort of grows and grows and grows and takes over every body. Its almost as if its like, it exists, but there’s no balance. People who have power have taken it from other people, but it can come back, it’s fluid. It can move back to those other people who are under privileged. Even with personal relationships. Sometimes people try and abuse you, in like a friendship or just you know, the fact they think they might be able to, they just want to take the power for a second. I don’t even think people see it like that when they do it.
That’s true. It’s easy to observe with a fair eye, but if you’re in it, it’s hard to know what’s going on. No wonder sometimes, with the person trying to get power, they feel deep down that they don’t have it. It’s as if, in a global sense, power comes from not having it. There’s insecurity about it.
It’s not rational. The people who are trying to take the power aren’t at peace with the fact that they can never completely control someone else. Have you read the Celestine Prophecy? I’ve heard of it.
It’s so gay, but it has some good points in it. More people should talk more about, they call it philosophy aye, but there’s a lot of philosophy that’s natural in humans. Philosophy is juts a word for what it is you know. It actually exists; you don’t have to be some renowned philosopher to have good views on the world.
It’s not an academic thing; it’s an experience thing. Yea, it’s just thinking about things. Its almost as if there is too much lack of thought. With the political thing, I’m sure they think a lot about some of the bad things they end up doing, but their thoughts would be influenced by the situation they’re in, decisions they think they have to make. No names included, but powerful people, and politicians especially. Shit what was I talking about? Power though, it’s just a word for something. I think at the moment, the blues is something I’m into because I’ve started thinking about the world, in the way we can see it, but blue. With anything, the negative emotions that come from being you know, their power being sucked from them, and the blues you know is just something to… there’s something about singing the blues, it’s like a peoples music. So, everybody sings about the blues, but it’s not the blues. Blues is just a word. I guess musically it’s a style, but it goes beyond the music. Even people that do things, big powerful people, they’ve still got the blues because they’ve had to go and do things that make them that much more powerful. Yea, power doesn’t get created just like that, people are disenfranchised for people to gain that from them. The blues is everywhere.
There’s a lot of beauty to be found in that. There’s a lot of inspiration in that aye, mentally, physically and spiritually, and then somehow it flows when you pick up an instrument. I find sometimes, I can almost sedate myself with that. There’s an old saying, blues is a healer, and I think it is a healer musically. Just thinking you’ve got the blues, even if you’re just feeling down, from there you do something to make yourself feel good again. The blues is all about the glory of the rise up. About highlighting the down, and then there’s always a new day, the sun will always shine. That’s another one I like singing about aye. The sun. I’m named after him, Te Ra. There’s something about it, I always try to relate myself to it. I guess that’s just, only I would understand it through my lyrics. It’s probably completely nonsensical.
It’s valid if it’s what you feel. That’s all there is. Thank you very much for allowing me this opportunity.
Whatever man, it’s just a shitty magazine. But that’s cool. There’s no such thing as just a shitty magazine. I’m looking forward to it.
Well thanks for letting me talk to you. No worries, I haven’t had this opportunity before, to just go on and on. Normally someone would’ve started talking over me, you know, louder, and taken out what I was saying.
I’ve enjoyed it. I’m glad I came up here.
