Exposed Vocals just sat down with St. Louis musician, Moe Raw!

Born in St. Louis to an overworked research biologist and a part-time bounty hunter, Moe Raw’s first love was machines –he worked in a corkboard basement workshop building BMX bikes, skateboards, electric trains, radio controlled airplanes, and go-karts. As his skills developed, he repaired appliances around the house and for the neighbor with a Sears soldering kit. He read Tom Swift novels and began work on a robot to help his mother with her two full-time jobs…There, under a yellow tungsten-bulb, he transformed his imagination, neighborhood, city, universe into a vast mechanical empire, moving in intervals, sweeping and ticking in steps toward precision, outcome, and mechanization.

A year later he lost all interest in machines…

Then music arrived. On a Woolworth’ s denim-colored -suitcase phonograph, he heard Kiss on LP, Kansas, and the twangy Hawaiian luau album his grandmother gave him for Christmas. The conclusions he would draw from music reached beyond his mechanical experiments.

He now worked to create music—fashioning a guitar out of cardboard, broken toys, and fishing line. Banished from practicing in his home, Moe Raw learned to play music on a rooftop, imitating passing traffic. A fascination with organic melody found sounds, and with language drove him into exploration, deep into the city, and deeper into understanding and expression.

A high school science wiz and athlete in Olympics of the Mind, he left college at 19. He lived in a 1972 Cutlass and survived playing music and sharing his unique vision with audiences. Moe Raw connects asynchronous values into rolling, hypnotic, and digable tracks that flow from the speakers with a special brew of angular lyricism. Interwoven with insight and street smarts, these tunes are shellacked by toughness and command attention.

Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?

Raw: I grew up bouncing between St. Louis, MO and Ypsilanti, MI. I never became an artist as much as I just naturally expressed myself with whatever was handy – haberdashery, prose, model cars. I have always had ideas and see no reason not to implement them.

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?

Raw: Be yourself as hard and as fast as you can.

Exposed Vocals: Do you ever make mistakes during performances? How do you handle that?

Raw: Every fumble is an opportunity for a magic moment.

Exposed Vocals: Do you tour? Anything interesting happens on a tour that you think our readers would enjoy hearing about?

Raw: Wait for the book.

Exposed Vocals: Any planned studio upgrades? What are you working with now?

Raw: I plan some downgrades. A little sand in the Vaseline provides unexpected variables. The basic setup is an accordion and a Windows 8 laptop that is way too little for my jumbo hands.

Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?

Raw: I hire professionals. I’m just the cook.

Exposed Vocals: If you could perform anywhere and with any artists (Dead or Alive) where and whom would it be with? Why?

Raw: My friends in a living room in North Nashville with the furniture pushed to the walls. I like playing in clubs with Luisa Lopez, Just One Thomas, Rawgroup (Brandon Brooks, Joel Mahathy, and Frank Reynolds). I like being in the studio with Blaze314, Reavis Mitchell, Matic Lee, Tejumold Newton, and The Wealth. It’s more about the personal/creative connection with those people. I look forward to working in some capacity with Joi Gilliam, Count Bass D, and Matt Mahaffey of SeLf. I don’t have to leave my circle to find monsters to collaborate with.

Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?

Raw: Yes. My single Airbags is the first launch from the CADILLAC Crush ep. The title track is next. The ep is basically a love letter to machines… a statue of the bond between human and automobile. This ep is a solo project, but the band, The Wealth, is knee deep in a batch of things you’ll get to taste next year. At least two hits and we’re just warming up. Cronyk Illness and I are kicking around the bones of a musical. I have some Moe Raw aka Mercury Moses material I really want to present, but I don’t know where it fits in the scheme of our planned trajectory. I’ve been taking guitars on visits with DJ Pocket, you can hear that on “Dr. Umar” by Wise Intelligent. You’ll hear it on more stuff soon.

Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?

Raw: All the other things I do now. Tinkering with old cars, painting, mutating whatever I can manipulate. Build and destroy… or, losing my mind in a sea of cubicles, stank microwaves, and parasitic “corporate family” propaganda. It would be worth it for the well-appointed “Tall & Skinny” in Germantown that I’d be too tired to enjoy.

Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in the next year or so?

Raw: The CADILLAC Crush ep. It’s nuts. Real funky. Some shows, of course. We will support CADILLAC Crush as Moe Raw and The Wealth, so you can get some on you early. After that, The Wealth’s album. There’s fire where that smoke is and it’s effortless.

Exposed Vocals: Any Shout-outs?

Raw: I’ve already dropped enough names to break my toes. Thanks for having us.