Slave in a Stone – the second album from Calgary’s Hello Moth, is stunning both in its musicality and creative process. Entirely self-produced, the album is available now. Hello Moth launches the album December 9^th at Festival Hall.

"This album I wanted to be a little more unified then the last one. The last one felt like a collection of songs I was playing at the time. This one I had a much larger library to draw from. Initially I took the same approach of selecting songs that I had been playing live and were getting good reactions from audiences," the artist told GayCalgary.com. "I was able to unify the album by recognizing themes. There are scattered references to hymns and religion and violence and things that are in all of these songs even though it wasn’t written as a concept album. That was part of the creation that was important in creating the whole."

Tackling all aspects of the creating the album is a big task especially for a second record. Having learned from his debut Infinity Repeated Hello Moth took that experience and applied it.

"You don’t argue with anybody. The biggest challenge is second guessing myself. If I come up with something I think is a creative or interesting idea, when working with others you get validation or someone saying it’s a terrible idea. Having to be your own feedback is tough sometimes but also rewarding. It is a nice feeling when the album is out to see your creative choices validated or criticized, it just takes longer. Infinity Repeated was kind of released in a bit of a hurry. I was working on the album for a good year. I gained a lot of experience and saw what people seemed to be connecting to on the album – the weirdness of tone in it and the idea of the organic mixing with the inorganic. Something that really ended up influencing Slave in a Stone was to take parts of infinitely repeated that worked for people on more of a pop level and running with that influence. This is by no means a pop album it tries to be a little more informed by pop. The darker parts are a little bit darker and the pop parts a little poppier and seeing how those two things would mix."

The gorgeous album features multiple highlights including The Waters of Babylon.

"It has always been one of my favourite examples of a round. It was originally taught to me by a music educator named Malcolm Edwards. He had shown me that song as something being very simple spinning itself into something more complex. That is my MO for most songs I write. Realizing I could perform that song with a loop pedal, I have been performing that song for years and I felt like it has been a standout in concerts for some people. To hear 200 year old music work in a bar is pretty cool. When I uncovered the religion and violence theme that runs through the album, The Waters of Babylon is religious text is comes from Psalm 137. It is beautiful and has a sadness about it but also a disturbing element of violence at the end of the biblical text that talks about smashing children on rocks. It occurred to me to come at it from the perspective of a healing going on instead of perpetration of violence. At the end of the recording you hear me saying he leads me beside still waters which is from Psalm 23. That is a calmer, nicer reflection of religion. I am trying not to take too much of a stance with what I am doing and want people to find what they can find and start a conversation without it being political."

There are other songs that he looks forward to performing live as well.

"Holy Chapter I really do love playing live. It is a very free kind of feel for me to sing it. There is a fast and slow thing that is fun for me to spit out that many words at once. Some of the other highlights when I am singing live are A Song About Transience and Some Shadows. I feel like the energy from those songs usually is reciprocated and reflected from the audience which is a beautiful feeling when I am performing."

Performing with a loop pedal and a Casio keyboard helps create his unique sound.

"The keyboard found me in a way. When I decided that I wanted to try looping songs with a pedal I traditionally have trained myself on a grand piano. I can’t play guitar and never wanted to start to learn it but it doesn’t make sense to plug a piano into a loop pedal either. I had this synthesizer I had gotten at a garage sale and tried it out with the loop pedal. Initially it was just an experiment but one of the things I love about it is that the instrument is so limited in terms of what it can do by itself. If you had one of these little keyboards it is a harsh and low fi sound. When you start layering it and mixing it with vocal sounds it changes in character and opens up possibilities that don’t exist with the instrument itself. That was an interesting transformation."

2016 was The Year of Music in Calgary, which hosted the Juno Awards and saw the opening of Studio Bell/The National Music Centre. It has also been a year where many Calgary singers seem to be breaking out.

"To me it seems inevitable. I have been a musician in Calgary long enough to have met a lot of people who are doing great things in our city. Eventually when enough people are doing great things it increases the profile of the city and confidence of the musicians here. If I see another Calgary musician making a name for themselves it tells me ‘keep working on your music, this is not impossible to do.’ That is something that might be turning over in Calgary. I used to hear a lot of people say they couldn’t wait to leave. People are realizing Calgary is a valid base for musicians to be exercising their craft and gaining recognition. You don’t have to move to Toronto you can remain in Calgary and have a wonderful career where people will hear your music here and abroad. As both a musician and a Calgarian music lover, seeing that success in others encourages me not just as a musician but as a fan. To say that Calgarians do feel a sense of pride in musicians coming from their city is not off base. Jocelyn Alice is a great example of someone who has made a great name for herself. People are proud to have seen her before all this happened."

Hello Moth wrote with Jocelyn Alice, including her hit song Jackpot.

"Writing with Jocelyn is very easy to work with. She brings an immediacy to the table, she doesn’t need a lot of time to get her ideas out. She brings something very different to the table from me. None of the songs I have written by myself sound like Jackpot. You can hear my signature in the sounds of that song. To see that combined with her gritty urban soul vibe that I don’t go to myself it has a different character. It enables me to fly in a different direction."

Hello Moth is also excited by the new National Music Centre.

"If Calgarian musicians and music lovers are seeing this focus on music and place to go, you are immersed into all this beauty in service of music it gives a validation to the musicians that have been working here already. People are building things around what we are doing and music is a priority in this city. It gives people an opportunity or focus to make an afternoon out of something musical. You visit the National Music Centre and learn tons of stuff about music in Canada you learn that arts are important."

Fans will get to hear the new album live at Festival Hall December 9th.

"Kenna Burima is joining me which is going to be a real treat. She is a wonderful artist and I am honored and excited to have her join me. I haven’t figured out quite what it will be but I am going to incorporate a unique visual aspect to the show.  I am really proud of how the CD turned out so if you like the album enough to have a physical reminder of that it will be there too."

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