Exposed Vocals Interviews Nico
Nico, can be described as a Father, a Hip Hop artist, a poet, photographer, an actor, dancer and a mentor of youth. Nico has been connecting with art sense an early age, and has been working as a actor, musician, dancer and a poet for 10 years, taking his work to different areas of the country to feature at events, or just to share at a open mic. Nico started his journey with music as a part of a group who were on a quest to find freedom, Nico believes everyone is an artist and chooses to share his work as inspiration to the artist inside others and as therapy for self to mentally rise above the negativity that is so prevalent in or modern society.
Exposed Vocals: How did you hear about Exposed Vocals? What made you decide to sign up?
Nico: On twitter, I was getting on twitter to try promoting my music and one of the first pages I saw was exposed vocal, so felt like it was meant to be so I signed up.
Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?
Nico: I grew up in Wisconsin, in between Chicago and Milwaukee. I have wanted to be a hip hop dancer, and actor sense I was younger, I was also into sports so I went between sports and choir and all that, then theater in high school. Eventually I started writing poetry out of anger and frustration with the way the world was and then I turned that into putting words to music with guys I grew up with. Music has been a form of therapy for me a way to grow as a person, so its less of a job or a hobby and more of a way of life almost like a religion.
Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your inspiration behind it?
Nico: My name means “victory for the people” in Greek, I have always embraced my name but It really made a lot of sense when I started making music, it inspires what I write, and how I live.
Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?
Nico: It’s a beautiful thing, I see art in the same way I see water and food, it should not have to be purchased because it is necessary for a healthy life. And honestly I feel its kind of arrogant and capitalist to create art and say you cant see or listen to this unless you pay me X amount of dollars, kind of like how they bottle water and make you especially if your not giving anything of substance in return.
Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?
Nico: I can speak on gigging more than anything, but I feel like in order to get the most opportunity you have to have something that you can give to different environments, you don’t have to sell out of who you are as an artist, but to be able to reach different audiences with your music has been surprising at first but helpful as I progress in my career.
Exposed Vocals: Do you ever make mistakes during performances? How do you handle that?
Nico: I am proactive about mistakes, I write songs with little to know set structure so that one it will allow me to mess up and improve my way back to the flow, and it also allows me to feel out the audience and adjust to the energy in the room.
Exposed Vocals: Do you tour? Anything interesting happen on tour that you think our readers would enjoy hearing about?
Nico: I often go into venues not knowing what kind of system they might have or might not have, so going into a place expecting them to have a AUX cord and a way to plug in a mp3 player and find out they don’t so everything you planned needs to be changed, so I try to stay prepared to give my hole set as spoken word if need be or if it feels like it would fit better with the people or the space.
Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process?
Nico: It most of the time comes from everyday life, some time current events, I often will get inspired by quotes I read, or ideas from a book I’m reading, or just things i need to get out of my head.
Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?
Nico: Yea https://soundcloud.com/nicolas-moore-1 always down to collaborate.
Exposed Vocals: What are some really embarrassing songs that we might find on your mp3 player?
Nico: Elmo slide, I have a 1 year old, but I might actually still have it in there if I didn’t.
Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?
Nico: I would build arts centers around the country in under privileged areas, hire the best people to work in them pay them well, revitalize as many inner city’s as I could, Throw concerts once a month in those areas and put all the money back into those areas.
Exposed Vocals: Any planned studio upgrades? What are you working with now?
Nico: Ha Ha I’m working with bread crumbs right now, free recording software, old laptop and a usb mic, it gets the job done for now.
Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?
Nico: I don’t do much promoting, I do go to a lot of open mics I like the idea of sharing music live and networking that way, social media is nice to stay connected to people in other areas of the country though.
Exposed Vocals: If you could perform anywhere and with any artists (Dead or Alive) where and who would it be with? Why?
Nico: I would do a show on the south side of Chicago, with Common, Lupe, and mos def, maybe Kanya, Lauryn Hill, Eryka Badu, Michael Jackson and the beetles. With the times we are in we need positive vibes and words of understanding , peace,and love to be spread as often as possible.
Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?
Nico: I am a patient artist, I have been building on a project for about 8 years, each step of the way I understand why it has not happened yet but I can feel the time is right and all the necessary pieces are in place.
Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?
Nico: I would be working with kids trying to inspire the inner artist in them.
Exposed Vocals: Do you remember buying your first album? Who was it? What was going through your head?
Nico: I think it was Michael Jackson when I was 7 or 8 and I remember needing it and playing it none stop.
Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?
Nico: The way my process is it works out kind of organically ill be driving or at home or work and lyrics will hit me or ill hear something and I jot it down, keep building on it until the time is write to record it, or share it at a event or open mic.
Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2016?
Nico: I plan on completing a project, music,photography, and poetry and doing some traveling try and book some shows around the country, but defiantly hit some open mics.