Music can often be a vehicle for change. For MOAN, British rapper and wordsmith, music has been a much-needed support in dire times, lost between addictions and social challenges. ‘Truth & Decay’, the project’s latest effort, wants to be exactly that, a long and nuanced reckoning with a reality that wasn’t working anymore.
Championing his signature gritty and heavy tone, MOAN compiles a long record, a heartfelt journey into the artist’s personal universe. Collecting various guests along the way, ‘Truth & Decay’ is perhaps MOAN’s ultimate manifesto, a passionate hymn to a better future and a critical look at the past.
Intrigued by the project, we caught up with the British rapper to find out more about what MOAN stands for… Interview below!
Hey Moan, how is it going? some of our readers might not be familiar with your project, how would you describe yourself, in a few words?
Anxious alternative hip-hop artist, my way of expressing music with a message, through a lens of everyday reality, culture, grit, emotive obsessions & battles within the human psyche over classic boom-bap Jazzy ’Noir’ backdrops. MOAN is basically a spiritual ninja gangster sort of hippie city-slicker with a newly-found spirituality, but still, a wild woke AF! individual.
You are quite open about your past struggle with addiction; has that enhanced your motivation towards artistic creation?
1 Billion percent, I’m just over 14 months clean and recently decided to come off my antidepressants and I feel like I’m alive again for the first time in years this whole process has made me more honest with myself and others. I have so much motivation to get into a place I can smash out ideas every single day, the amount of mental energy and ideas I am having is never-ending. Let’s say I’m a lot more light-hearted than I was a few years ago. I’m still erratic, angry, impatient but I have people around me also becoming the best version of themselves, something I personally think is rare in the music industry.
Music can be a powerful tool for our mental health; does MOAN the artist helps Joseph White the human in staying healthy?
I describe being creative or making music as not a choice, I have no choice, it’s like a compelling obsession that if I don’t make music I feel like I’m going to explode and die, I carry internal stress that won’t be happy until I have my own studio and can make music every single day. I’ve enjoyed my year out ish, so balancing my mental health to make sure I stay working towards my goals is super important. I want a wholesome life away from depression & anxiety and I never want to experience drug-induced psychosis again. So yes, music gives me a reason to live, a reason to get mentally stable. Also, if I don’t work my programme, meditate, write in my diary and call my homies, I’d probs end up setting one of my mortal enemies on fire, haha!
You recently released a charming album, ‘Truth & Decay’. Does it make you proud to see the record out in the world?
I have mixed feelings about it as it was finished in 2019 with the master / final files sat finished since February 2020, I had an overdose in 2021, blew 2k in savings for the album on drugs & lost my job after moving out of a different city because I was bored, the huge bender left me with a near heart attack so it’s hard to fully embrace the album without remembering all that time. I actually decided the album was finished being mastered in a K hole sat tripping from the perspective of a compressor like I was a human limiter. haha. Maybe that’s why it’s so dope!
I’m happy with how it’s done, I’m happy it’s out and I think that album kept me alive, it gave me purpose, even one of the chicks I was sleeping with while making the album wasn’t enough to pull me away from music, I always left her to get back to my basement and perfect the vocals. The best thing about the album being out, is I can make another one, fully sober, a better me, having a hip-hop classic that I believe is just as good as any of the top UK rappers. I’ve decided I will definitely make another 9 albums but who the hell knows what they will sound like or when they will come. Hopefully, I won’t have to endure the level of pain I made during that album and after. Might even hear some happy fun less serious music haha. Tomorrow first eh?
We love your old-school flair, and your vocals are quite unique, gritty yet playful. What are some of your references (artists you love)?
Ol’ Dirty Bastard was my first impression, always saying he was a singing rapper sounding like Rick James & James Brown. My tone is inspired by pain & loss, it sometimes hurts to do a whole set to be honest, I damaged it a lot in addiction. After some close shaves with death I just never sounded the same. Some people/idiot rappers put me down for my sound changing, but what a lot of people don’t get is that you should always be progressing, getting better, tuning in to who you really are, and what you’re capable of. You wouldn’t judge any famous or successful artist on how they started out. How I rap now is 110 me, more authentic than half the rappers about.
Do you feel more confident writing music alone, or within a team?
I love nothing more than being alone, in a studio, my diary, rhyme pad, laptop and a mic. My recordings come out better alone. But also DanimaL is one of the only other rappers I can successfully work with. I don’t get the whole needing 20 emcees always around you for validation thing. I only need me.
Artistically speaking, what challenges have the last two years presented you with?
I lost everything by keeping the wrong company around me, the main challenge has been not drinking doing drugs or having any meaningless sex for over 14 months and letting go of every toxic human in my life. I have also tried to do as little music as possible as I’m still trying to find my own place and in today’s fucking climate it’s hard when you don’t come from a silver spoon or have funding.
What are the next steps for your project? Anything exciting on the horizon?
First I’m creating more solid foundations in my life, a new place to live with enough space for a studio, and when that comes true I’m sure an album will be due. But I do have an idea for an E.P. that I’ve been collecting field recordings for. Let’s just say it’s inspired by phone calls. For now, gigs & personal life.
