Like cousins on a family tree, every genre of music is related to each other, so it really isn’t all that unexpected to see various genres intertwining with one another. Boston native Chris Moreno has entered the country scene with his take of merging country and the alt-rock sound of the 1990s-2000s. The alt-country rocker has brought his unique-yet familiar sounding mix to Music City and has recently released his new single “It Was You” off his sophomore EP Into the Night.
We caught up with Chris to talk about his influences, how he found the right formula for his sound and his new EP.
CN: For our readers who may not be familiar with you, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
CM: Hello Country Note readers, I’m Chris. I’m a singer-songwriter whose sound has been described as “Matchbox Twenty meets modern country.” I moved to Nashville about five months ago from Massachusetts where I had lived my whole life. My music mostly speaks for me, but if you look up the character traits of a Leo, I am that to a T haha.
CN: Which musicians, country or not, have influenced you both personally and as an artist?
CM: I could go on all day about my influences, but the Goo Goo Dolls are probably my biggest influence which I think comes across in my music. From there, it’s a mix of all different types of artists including Aerosmith, Deftones, Parachute, and Drake. On the country side there are a lot of artists that I love and that have impacted my sound but I’d have to say Sam Hunt, Dan + Shay and Brett Young were the ones that really drew me into country and made me realize that I could have a home in this genre.
CN: You grew up in Boston, how did its eclectic music scene inspire you as a musician?
CM: I’m extremely proud to have grown up in Boston. In my opinion, the music scene and amount of talent there is very underrated! Eclectic is certainly a great way to describe it because Boston has great acts across all genres. At first it took me a while to find a place where I felt like I belonged, but ultimately I ended up being most at home in the country scene. Recently I had the honor of being nominated for a Boston Music Award for “Best Country Act” and if you go down the list and listen to the other acts you’d be blown away by the talent.
CN: When did you begin writing songs? Do you remember the first song you wrote?
CM: I first began writing songs when I was a freshman in high school and I’m pretty sure the first song I ever wrote was called “Your Eyes.”
CN: Being a songwriter, can you take us through your song writing process? Do you draw mostly from personal experiences, or from those around you?
CM: At this point every song I’ve written and released has been based on personal experience and I think that is what makes my music so relatable. I pride myself on being a very open and honest person so it makes sense that my preferred style of songwriting mimics that. Performing these songs can make me feel pretty naked sometimes, but I think that’s a good thing. I will say that being in Nashville and collaborating with so many different songwriters has made me want to start experimenting with writing about things outside of my personal life — so we’ll see how that goes.
CN: You have said that you ‘rediscovered’ your love of music and songwriting several years ago. What caused you to walk away originally and how was that passion rekindled?
CM: Throughout my teens and into college I mostly played guitar and sang backup in the bands I played with. At some point I just lost the drive to continue doing that. This led to a six year break from playing and performing music. As time went on I started realizing more and more that I was just, “living for the weekends” and while life was good, it wasn’t great. I knew I missed music. One day it just dawned on me, what if you went after your goal of being a great singer and songwriter? Deep down I knew I had a gift that I wasn’t using and from then on I began working at my craft every day trying to become as good as I possibly could. Now I’m here, five years later with two records released and hundreds of shows played.
CN: What led you to decide to take the leap to move to Music City?
CM: There are a lot of factors that attracted me to Nashville, but first and foremost I believe this is where many of the best artists in the world are and since I have aspirations to reach that level, this is where I need to be. There are so many resources, places to play and songwriters to collaborate that it just felt like a no-brainer to move here. It’s kind of like Disney World for a musician and I’m convinced that this is the best home base for me to have while I continue to grow my music career.
CN: Your style of music is a mix of country and a specific era of pop/rock – the 90s and 2000s. Obviously great music was produced during that time, but what was it about those decades that drew you in? How did you figure out the right combination of the genres?
CM: Well, I grew up during this era, but I’ve always had an affinity for 90s alternative rock music including bands like Matchbox Twenty, Goo Goo Dolls, Third Eye Blind and the first album I ever bought was Sixteen Stone by Bush. These bands were all getting heavy radio airplay at the time and I realized that I really like simple, catchy songs that have heart and a “rock” edge to them. This music, like most of the music I like, doesn’t try hard to be overly special or complex it’s just honest and has raw emotion.
Fast forward to now, the type of music that gives me that feeling these days is country. As country started embracing artists with more of a pop and rock sound I found myself listening to more of that than anything else. “Cop Car” by Keith Urban is a great example of this. I also grew to love the songwriting style of country music and have learned to embrace the art of storytelling in my own music. In my opinion that 90s era influence mixed in with the contemporary country sound is what makes me unique and I think the more my sound is heard the more it will be embraced.
CN: “It Was You,” your current single, has been streamed 129,369 times on Spotify with a steady growing following. How does that level of interest in your music make you feel?
CM: It feels amazing. Honestly, I would have never guessed I’d be able to get anywhere near this amount of streams. It has been gaining traction and the people who are listening seem to really love it. Knowing that means more than I can even say. I certainly have an amazing community of supporters.
CN: The lyrics of “It Was You” are very poignant. Can you tell us the story behind the song?
CM: “It Was You” is interesting in that it was actually written as a love song called “By My Side” originally. After going through a breakup I sat down and decided to rewrite it to reflect what I was going through more accurately. Within 15 minutes I had rewritten the entire song and it all just kind of poured out of me in a very emotional way. I knew I had written something special because I was able to capture the pure truth of how I felt that day, 100%. It still evokes the same emotion every time I play it out or hear it. I really enjoy writing about darker subjects by twisting them to be seen through a somewhat positive lens.
CN: Fans can find the single off your sophomore EP Into the Night which was released in May of this year. The EP follows your 2016 debut album Into the Sun. The titles are consecutive and opposite. What was the reasoning behind the choice in titles?
CM: Into the Sun my first album was actually symbolic of finding myself through playing music again. The album has its fair share of love songs on it and has a positive tone overall. “Into the Night” has a slightly darker tone and deals more with loss and things like that, so given the fact that I had already written a song called “Into the Night” I knew it was the right title. The contrast there was definitely on purpose.
CN: You do a lot of touring around the world. What is the first thing you do when you get home after being on the road?
CM: When I get home I almost immediately grab some ice cream and sit down to watch Netflix! I’m not someone who likes to sit still for very long, but it’s always a great feeling when I can get home and relax after a crazy tour schedule.
CN: Do you have a dream collaboration in mind?
CM: I would love to write with Ryan Tedder (One Republic) someday. I respect him a ton as a songwriter and would love to see what kind of song we would come up with.
CN: If you could describe yourself in one word, what would it be and why?
CM: Introspective… Haha. I’m someone who likes to question everything. Not in a negative way, but I’m just a curious person and in particular I’m fascinated by how we as humans operate and the way we interact in our relationships of any type. Sometimes I wish I could just turn off that part of my brain that likes to analyze so deeply, but in the end I know it’s a big part of what makes me want to be a songwriter and share my perspective on things.
CN: What was the first concert you ever attended?
CM: Everclear at the Worcester Palladium in MA! I was in 7th grade.
CN: With only a few months left of 2018 – what do you have planned to close out the year? Any plans in the works for 2019?
CM: My goal over the next two months is to write as many songs as possible. I’m currently taking a little time off from touring to work on songs for my next record. I’ve been collaborating with some great songwriters in town and I hope to write about 50 songs or so and then choose the best ones out of that bunch.
I also have a string of Boston shows coming up at the end of the year that I’m looking forward to playing. You can see all of my upcoming dates on my website, ChrisMorenoMusic.com!
You can also follow Chris Moreno on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.