Moon E. Love

Rochester, New York is my homeland. They sometimes call it the Flower City, but through my experience most cities and towns that sound happy and bright are the complete opposite. Rochester is a place full of hard knocks. Survival of the fittest I would say. Growing up there I have encountered many stories from a lot of broken hearted and scarred souls. Some of them champions that rose against their oppression, but most where views of distressed lives and detoured dreams. The best way to find light in my town is through the love of your family and peers. Family pride is a must because legacy is the one thing we all share.
Unlike most kids growing up in the city, I was not a victim of “Hoop Dreams”. Now don’t get me wrong, I do love the game. I’m always ready for a good game of twenty-one, it’s just I never felt that basketball was my passion. Many of my peers would use the sport of basketball as their way to vent. After all, basketball is the most affordable sport; all you need to do is go to your local park. I am sure there is a pick-up game happening near you somewhere. It is very normal growing up, we would all go down to the local playground basketball courts and would play for hours. Some would even spend whole days on the courts imagining themselves playing in the NBA. They all had the same goal in mind, which was to find a way of making their lives better for their family and future. Myself, always being different, I was good at playing ball but it was not my passion. I felt there was another way I would rather use my brain and still let my fingers work. This form of expression came to me in the form of songs and music production.

I remember as a kid I would always be fascinated by sounds. I remember waking up every Saturday morning to the radio blasting tunes. I would wake up to these amazing songs either in my house or next door. The sounds were so diverse. I could not help but wake up in a musical trance. I could not help but move to the beat as I rose to start my day. I was strongly influenced by smooth artist like Al Green & Marvin Gaye as well as the funky tunes from Parliament Funkadelic to Frankie Beverly & Maze. My most favorite would be the jamming sounds from Teddy Riley's "New Jack Swing" and The Gap Band. Without question it was 104 WDKX's "Memory Lane" playing in my airwaves that tuned my ear for music. For me it was like a subliminal love message. The music gave me a feeling that nothing else in this world could give. Lyrical words that could express every mood that anyone could be in.
Being a creator, or in real musical terms a composer, you always feel as if nothing is impossible. In the studio you are in your own world and when making a beat you a feeling like, “I am Steven Spielberg, this is my movie and I am in charge of how many explosions and thrill scenes there are.” When I’m in the lab I go into my own zone. If I had to compare I would say in my mind it’s something like an 80’s laser show. The sounds bounce off the walls in my head and then they somehow just manage mesh and blend like a harmonic smoothie. Playing the piano keys for me is like musical therapy when you finally hear all the sounds blending and mixing together. Really though, words cannot express the process of what it is like creating music. All musical producers can give you a different definition. We all can agree that the feeling is just natural. Symbolically, I am just a painter with a canvas of my own to create my masterpiece for the world to see.

This music of mine separates me from the heard. This world we live in is like a marathon from the day you take your first breath until the last. To keep ahead it is best to have a skill or some kind talent that makes you unique. I think that’s what everyone wants to feel at the end of the day, unique and special. For me it is always comforting to know that I have a trade. The knowledge that we musicians poses is something that cannot be taken away by anybody. However, good musicians are hard to find these days in my opinion. We are living in technology strived times where music and computers have made things simple. The things that are required to be a composer are getting to simple for average Joe’s with no talent to one day decide that they want to be a rock star. I am thankful and grateful for the talents that I possess. The key thing to being a musical composer trying to make moves in the industry is patience and hard work. Nothing in this business is given to you, and the sooner you are aware the better. That’s unless you play just for fun, then I say more power to you because I feel that is real love.