Carrboro-based singer-songwriter Josh Moore walked out of his door last year during the worst of the pandemic and found a strange sense of calm.
He had been holed up at home recording songs for an album called "Sunrise." He channeled some of those feelings of hope and healing into his first full-length release in more than five years. Moore plays Saturdays in Saxapahaw on Saturday, Aug. 6, and he's finally got some vinyl he'd like to share with you.
Josh Moore joined WUNC's Eric Hodge to talk about the process behind the album.
This is an excerpt of an edited transcript of that conversation. You can hear the full interview by clicking the LISTEN button at the top of this post.
Did the pandemic push you to make this record, Josh?
Absolutely. Yeah, the time off during the pandemic.
And how did that come about? Because I remember when we first went into lockdown, and we thought, maybe it would be a month, maybe not even that long. And then it just kept stretching out. And did you just find yourself writing songs?
Yeah, I allowed myself to have time just to write every day, and to just be in a space where I didn't have to work. And I could just work on songs every day.
Did it become a discipline for you? Did you have a time when you sat down and said, alright, this is my time to create?
Yeah, first thing in the morning, I'd get a glass of black tea and set all my stuff out. And just every day, write a song to completion. No matter how I felt about it, I would just write a song to completion. So I ended up with 90 songs in three or four months and then just kept about 10 of them.
How did you find yourself reconnecting with your community of friends and musicians? Was there a feeling in that community that we can't just sit and wait this out? We need to start doing what we do.
Yeah, yeah. So this record is the first time that I recorded myself. So I had somebody gift me an iMac, and I bought a little whatever microphone set up, and then my friend came over and said, 'This is how you record. This is how you send it to me in email, Go.' That was my friend James Wallace. He played drums and piano and produced the record. So I was sending him stuff. We definitely had email threads within weeks of the lockdown just wanting to create music in this new dynamic.
Josh Moore's latest recording is called "Sunrise." You can get it wherever you buy or stream music. He'll have vinyl with him when he plays Saturdays in Saxapahaw on Saturday, Aug. 6.
