Monica Moser

Even in the midst of the commercial hustle and bustle, the holidays can be a time of reflection and remembrance. With an entire year behind us, there’s a certain melancholy that arrives, a mixture of sadness and anticipation—because with another year just ahead, the possibilities are endless.

Nashville-based singer/songwriter Monica Moser beautifully captures this sentiment in her new original Christmas song, ”Crave Your Light,” out officially on December 8th. “Back in the spring I was in my hometown without my family for the first time where I first got the inspiration for the song,” she recalls. “I wanted to talk about the guilty feeling we can sometimes experience during this season. It’s a bit of a contradictory feeling – the pressure to be cheerful and the susceptibility of feeling alone.” Moser worked with producer Dylan Byrnes to convey the emotions of this dichotomy—a cold comfort, or a lonely closeness. “In church a couple months back we talked about how the human heart oscillates between wanting to be its own king, and wanting a king that serves it on its own terms,” Moser continues. “A lot of what we demand from the Lord, we already have: a forever kind of love inside. A love that fights our darkness for us. We can so often fall into the feeling that we don’t have what we want the most, during a season that should remind us we have everything we’re searching for.”

With its simple, unfussy production, “Crave Your Light” partners Moser’s smokey vocals with the candlelit warmth of a lone piano to create our one of our favorite heartstring-tuggers this season. Without further ado, East of 8th proudly presents, “Crave Your Light” by Monica Moser: - Susan Hubbard

“If your absence is a closeness your presence is just a lie,” declares Nashville singer/songwriter Monica Moser in “This Ache,” the first song on her new album your absence, a closeness, which is set for release tomorrow, October 5th, Moser’s first official release since her 2013 debut EP Human Heart. The record includes three previously released singles, three new songs, a prelude, and a remix, and conveys a sound that is more mature and darker than before.

The album’s sequence takes us on a six-part journey of letting someone go shaded by the consequences of allowing the false narrative that our past writes for us to be our guide. “This project includes words I wrote this year and words I wrote when I was 14 years old,” she explains. “The songs take you through a lot of experiences and revelations; even though the last track ‘Immortalize’ still questions why I/we do things–because we always will–it provides freedom in the fact that we don’t have control over other people. We don’t choose whether they stay or go, and even though that can be painful, it’s ultimately such a blessing that no one is meant to be our savior. I believe there’s only one savior whose love and grace I will never be able to comprehend. The times I spent in darkness was when I forgot that,” she continues. “your absence, a closeness is ultimately about hope and healing.”

As we move through the songs, we move towards hope and a clearer perspective. Moser defies genre and presents a diverse collection of work; each track showcases her angelic vocals which beautifully convey the pain and also the tenderness that comes from coping with loss. The songs are sonically dynamic–Moser uses varying instrumentation on each track, from the synth-y to the more acoustic guitar-driven, a delectable anticipation-building selection of sounds that keep us guessing in the best kind of way. - Susan Hubbard

While Nashville’s near decade long boom in popularity has reinvigorated the nickname “Music City, USA,” bestowed upon it circa 1950 courtesy of 650 AM WSM host David Cobb, there’s a glaring omission in many of the West side, East side, indie rock, outlaw country, and pop conversations of Nashville’s music scene - contemporary christian music, otherwise known as “CCM.” CCM served as one of Nashville’s music industry lifeboats when country music took a brief dip in popularity around the late 1990s and early 2000s. Granted that was a brief dip, but CCM help carry some of the burden. Sure, CCM has more than it’s fair share of industry-related criticisms, but that’s not what we’re here to discuss today. The general connotation and associative pitfalls of being in and around CCM in Nashville specifically was however a point of conversation with Monica Moser, who had her own share of dalliances with the genre, but never laid roots within it. She realized that those aforementioned pitfalls were of concern enough to not dive directly into that arena. But despite such a fact, it did and has wizened Moser in her journey as a songwriter in Nashville, more realized in what drives and motivates her as a songwriter, and how she interprets experiences into song, ultimately leading to her latest LP, Your Absence. A Closeness (which is a killer album title, for the record). - Sean McHugh

I met up with Monica Moser to talk about her new album Your Absense, A Closeness in a favorite Nashville coffee shop. We strategically planned out meeting at that spot so that we could sample their new butter beer as any dedicate Harry Potter fans would. Moser, a Texas native, studied songwriting at Belmont University in Nashville. She’s released several singles in the last couple years however it’s been three years since she last put out a full project. With the new release out today, it is clear Moser spent the last three years honing in on a cohesive sonic aesthetic sure to crack even the coldest of souls into feeling something when they press play. Once Monica and I got the butter beer taste testing out of the way we dove into chatting about Monica’s road to Nashville and embracing her love for songwriting. - Ashley White