Interview: Molly Moore Explains How She Embraced Her Weaknesses with “Voice On The Internet”

Molly Moore is back at it with her honest yet fun sounding album ‘Voice on the Internet.’ Get ready for a journey through love, breakups, social media, and empowerment.

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The truth can only do two things; make people suffer or make them grow. Sometimes it is so uncomfortable that it destroys you, other times it makes you have a new perspective on the reality in which you live. In spite of everything, it is always better to discover it and be aware of it, rather than living a lie. The cyber society in which we find ourselves, however, tempts us to be connected all the time and to only show the best side of ourselves – while obsessing over the apparent perfect life of others. Molly Moore’s first album, out on November 13th, Voice on the Internet, shows all of this perfectly.

I’ve given myself permission to embrace and share my scariest thoughts and experiences, even if initially it makes people uncomfortable or they can’t understand, because I think it’s incredibly important and our duty as human beings to have meaningful and progressive conversation.

“How do you stop thinking about someone you loved when the internet exists?” that’s what Moore asks herself while writing Voice on the Internet. Unfortunately, after a breakup, you can’t magically erase someone from your life because they will always be there. Hidden in your phone, between Instagram stories and undeleted photos; we can’t really get rid of the memories. It’s an incredibly difficult and long healing process, and Moore has decided to show every aspect of it. From the constant crying to the desire to overcome everything, Voice on the Internet takes us on a long journey in search of our own identity and happiness.

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Listen: ‘Voice on the Internet’ – Molly Moore

A CONVERSATION WITH MOLLY MOORE

Molly Moore: I wrote this song with Tilsen and the producer Connor Seidel on Zoom, actually, in the first few months of quarantine. I had written most of my album at that point and a lot of it was really aggressive. There were sort of angry sounding but also fun-sounding songs. I was just starting to need to write the more vulnerable side of what was going on. A lot of the sadness at the end of a relationship, that specially has been for a long time a long term relationship, is thinking that you were going to be with that person forever and that promise being broken or that reality not being seen through.

There was a lot of peace in me realizing I’m always gonna love this person, no matter if they are or not, and that’s okay. It was really healing for me to write that song and just accept that, ’cause I was at a place where I was really not accepting it. I guess it was like the second or third more vulnerable song, I had written a couple before then but quarantine struck and it was like “I still have this one last piece left about my softer side” and it’s just that like eternal love, you can’t control it.

Molly Moore: Now? I’m figuring that out. I think I’m a pretty cool, honest and hard person – just like all of us. I’m also very positive, despite my pain. That’s my favorite quality about me, this ability to stay optimistic. I always feel very grateful and blessed for just being alive and being able to do what I love, help other people do it. I think I’m a communicator now, but I used to be a suppressor, I feel people embracing themselves and I’m able to embrace myself with them, and that’s been really cool. But I’m still confused on some days, and scared, there’s a lot of unknowns in life. I’ve been having a shift my in my perspective, though, about my ability to control where my life goes, and I feel more empowered about that every day.

Which is good, I think, because ultimately there will always be circumstances you can’t control. But our world got this way because people manifested it, they thought about what they wanted to do and a lot of it was really evil shit! So, a lot of the world is screwed right now, but I believe in the positive side of that. It’s what I’m starting to learn, the secret and the manifestation, and a lot of attraction for my whole life. My parents were super enlightening people  –  actually, my mother is still going around, she’s amazing and helps me every day. My dad was a very spiritual person, but I’ve just started learning the meaning of all of that for me, and embodying what you want is huge. Letting life make you into something that it wants for you, you know.

Watch: “Always Gonna Love You” – Molly Moore

Molly Moore: I’ve really enjoyed that aspect of the pandemic, people starting to speak up in a different way. It’s something I thought about before all of this, a couple years back. I was in a relationship that was not good anymore but I was projecting that it was. We both were, and we had lots of pressure, we had to end together, but it didn’t make me feel good. That’s what this album is about, a breakup and being bitter, alone, embracing that and getting through the bitterness. But it’s also about how you project yourself in life and on the internet, I think people have adopted the mentality that they can filter forwards their best self. The Internet is a very powerful weapon that could carry you away anytime. It can also be a medium though, for people to have deeper conversations, start movements, connect with other people, and inspire them.

I shared my story in an honest and funny way, just talk on Instagram that didn’t feel like I was giving people a highlight reel. It just felt like a conversation, that’s all I have to offer. It’s not my perfect caption – and I might be good at coming up with a silly one, but that’s not what’s going to help people. I tried to find ways to be myself online, and it comes down to just being goofy and admitting I don’t know everything. I think that what I dislike about the Internet is that people are always like “I know how to do this, let me show you”, everybody thinks they can give a tutorial. I’m like “chill bro, you’re not that good”. No, I’m not a hater (laughs), but it’s interesting how it makes you think about projecting something before you even maybe learned enough about it.

Molly Moore: To be honest, there was a lot of pressure that I put on myself in that period, I had no idea how I was going to do it because that’s a version of me when I’m in my true self. I come forward as that character and sometimes it’s an older man, sometimes it’s an older woman and sometimes they come from different parts of the tri-state area. But, basically, it’s just my East Coast coming out, and people I grew up around. I feel the best when I talk that way, I just snap into another human, so I wanted people to know me like that. If this album is my only release I don’t want it to just be songs, I want to know what I was like, and because it’s so bitter I wanted some comedic relief.

A lot of people understand that I’m not taking myself so seriously, because I really was when I was making these songs and so that’s I think why it comes out the way it does. Looking back in retrospect I think I wanted to just lighten it up because it’s so much of me being like “You suck, I’m mad!” (laughs). That was a way for me to be a goofball and hope that people would laugh! People thought it’s mean sampling my mom’s voice – which is so funny, I literally want people to react like “what the fuck”. If they spark a smile, my job is done. I wanted to catch people offguard because I thought they probably don’t think that’s what I’m like, and that’s why on Instagram live they’re like “what the fuck, this bitch is crazy!”. So I figured, why not really commit to that?

Molly Moore: Honestly, the first one that comes to mind is “Famous”, ’cause I was drunk in Costa Rica and definitely going off! That was on another level, I usually don’t let my ego get carried that far away, but I was like “I’m gonna be so famous, on every billboard and every magazine! I’ll be inescapable and make his girlfriend wanna date me”! It was just so funny because it ended up in a song that I’m actually putting out, which is hysterical because I don’t even know if I mean all of these things, but at that moment I definitely did. It was so much fun, making music in Costa Rica, going to the beach every morning. That was right before the pandemic too, so it was like my last hurrah.

Watch: “IRL” – Molly Moore

Molly Moore: Britney made a huge impact on me as a child, I was so amazed by her career and her songs and that’s how I discovered Max Martin. I just love Britney Spears, as a young kid she made a big mark on my heart back then and I wanted to have some tribute to her. So, I started playing that song with my guitar player Destiny, an awesome friend and guitarist. She produced that with me and we had our friend Ariella play chords on it, it was a lot of fun! we were just playing it a live quarter version and then I was like “God this will be on my album, a tribute to Britney!”. I’m hoping to get her to hear it somehow.

Molly Moore: I start becoming obsessed with colors a couple years back, I think it was when I was going through the hardest time of my life. I just wanted rainbows around me, everywhere, and then the obsession has just grown, it has not waned at all. Honestly, it’s something that helps me – essential oils, scents, and colors. I just love colors, they make me happy like a kid. I’ve always loved them, but my earlier works were more muted palettes and even just sonically they were different. I think it’s just come without knowing who I am, growth, and the fact that my dad also loved bright colors. He always wore purple, pink, blue, and bright shades, I just always loved that. My mom too but not as much, actually, so I think maybe I partially got this thing from him.

Molly Moore: Yeah, that’s definitely one of the themes I want for people to stick with, because it’s so important to honor your emotions and where you’re at, to know you’re going to get past it too, you know. That’s something that happens in each person’s personality, so we can’t really like equate it to other people or always necessarily plan all how things are gonna go.

Molly Moore: I really love playing “Get Out of my Head,” “Don’t Call Me.” I’m also excited to get into “Famous,” “Probably Shouldn’t,” and “Always Gonna Love You.” I’ve been playing “I Love You but I Don’t Like You” and “Be Here Now” for a while, those two are so much fun live! That’s usually how I close my set, ’cause I feel like I can just scream. I made it through a whole set without screaming, so by that song I’m like “yes, I scream, yes! Nobody can send me home, it’s my last song!”

Molly Moore: It’s something that I have so much fun doing, accepting that I like to sing in different voices and that I can use them all in one song. I think as growing up as an actress too, that sort of comes with the territory, you just want to be different characters. I always felt like I had a couple of different voices when I was a teenager, but I didn’t really access them. I was sort of super underdeveloped, as I just worked and grew and did a ton of writing sessions and worked on songs that never came out.

I just eventually found something that I felt was consistent, but also interesting enough to create my own sound, and it’s still evolving. I feel like I’m still always finding new voices, I think I have a rock voice too that I never knew about, so maybe a third album that’s a rock album, stay tuned! [laughs] But yeah, I really love finding the right voice for a track, that’s my favorite part of tracking vocals; finding the exact right sound that I wanted to have ’cause it’s not always the same.

Molly Moore: I love making music for myself, honestly, I’m gonna be straight up. There’s nothing like it, it’s your fullest form of expression as an artist, I think. That being said, I really love helping another artist write and give like all of me in that process. It’s liberating, it’s awesome! It takes a lot of work to figure out how you do it the right way and how you get the best result, but I’ve been really enjoying it and I just feel really blessed to have friends and artists that want to work with me, I think it’s so cool. Collaboration in general, getting to create something especially with someone else you would never admit that, unless you guys got together and did that, is so cool to me.

Watch: “Blood. Sweat. Tears.” – Molly Moore

Molly Moore: Voice on the Internet started because I realized I had to have an honest conversation with myself. The only way that I was gonna be inspired to be on the internet, in general, and partake in the Internet and social media was to start this conversation online. It’s a daily process, I’m still figuring out the best ways to go about it. But it just comes out to being honest, unfiltered, and unafraid of what people are gonna think. You can be respectful and aware of the reactions that you might get. Also, you always want to make sure you don’t trigger people, especially if you talk about mental health. I think the very big piece of it, that I’m still learning about, how I talk about certain aspects of life in an open and candid way but still being mindful of the people you’re talking to.

That’s like half of Voice on the Internet, and then the other half of it is, how do you get over somebody when the internet exists? You can go checking their page constantly, everybody tells you not to do it but you still go for it. For me that was so hard, sometimes it still is. I’m just honest about it ’cause I don’t think a lot of people are, and I don’t know why not. I think people need a body of work where it’s like, “it’s okay to stalk your ex – but don’t call them”. I didn’t say that ever, but I feel like that’s what the whole body of work is basically saying. Just honor where you’re at, but try to move forwards too.

Lots of people jump into a new relationship and I couldn’t do it, I thought “I’m not gonna bring my problems to somebody else, I’m just gonna figure out what’s wrong with me and see how I can solve it”. it turns out no, I’m just a normal person that went through a lot, and I was just coping. It’s so amazing to be able to say that and look at myself that way, ’cause for a while, I was just in complete denial of everything. So, I think that’s what this album is for me; it’s just a way of showing my raw real truth and accepting it. I want to dive into that further, you know, I’m just kind of getting started. I sound crazy [laughs]. Watch out! Molly’s coming for you!

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