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Writer's pictureKay Tee Vlk

In Conversation with Maddy Moreah

Updated: Nov 13

Maddy Moreah is an Amsterdam-based singer-songwriter who started making music at the age of 12. She studied at the music school of the ROC PACT. After graduating as a singer, Maddy decided to write her own songs.She soon succeeded in playing on various stages. Together with her backing vocals and guitarist she performed a new acoustic set with a lot of love, spirit and jazzy harmonies.



Hi, my name is Maddy, Maddy Moreah, and I'm very excited to be here. I'm going to perform today. And at this point in my life, I feel very energetic. I'm actually doing a detox right now, so yeah, that's giving me more energy, and also a difference in my performance I think. I feel that it's going to be a nice performance today with a lot of vocals, bass, different guitar sounds, and also some new people. I'm very excited and looking forward to that. Eva, Julia and Davey are joining me today. Julia Werner, Davy Lourenburg, and Eva van Oorsouw.


How did this specific constellation of musicians come together?

Eva is singing with me for six years already, and Davy and me are always together in the studio. We also made a track last year, it's called 'Deactivate'. We are also working on a new project together that's called Voodoo that's really more hip-hop, also really free but also from our Indonesian roots, so we are really digging into that, and yeah so I'm really excited to also drop that very soon with him. Julia I know from Ecstatic Dance. We dance on a boat together and she came up to me, and she was like "hey can I sing with you?" and I was like "sure". So yeah, that's how we met.


How do you feel in this current chapter of your life, in your music, in your art? 

I think I've let go of expectations, and a lot of judgments about how it's supposed to be and how it needs to be and just let go of whatever comes to me, because when I write songs I can mostly get to "oh I don't want this" or "nah this is not good enough", but if you stop the judgments, it gets so much more fun. And also, life is more fun when you stop judging yourself and things outside of you, so I think I'm at that point right now that I'm having more fun in my music and letting go and that's also what you hear back in the music.


Tijmen De Nooy Photography


If you were to describe the sound of Maddy Moreah, how would you describe it?

I think it's such a big mix of everything that I love. It's not specific like "oh I'm gonna make soul" or "I'm gonna make jazz". It just has so many influences of different vibes in music that I love. So I love hip-hop, you know, and that comes back, or also Joni Mitchell vibes, you know? My biggest inspiration is Hiatus Kaiyote so yeah I think you can hear that back. Yeah when you think music theory it's like "ah no you cannot" but in ear, and in feeling you think "well fuck it". So that's mostly my music yeah.


Is there a message you’d like to convey in your music? 

Having fun is the most important thing in music, yes. And then it comes out. And also, really being yourself. When the people are watching you, for me it's really important just to be myself, so I'll also make jokes or... You know, make people laugh and get comfortable with themselves to watch you as an artist is also really important for me.


What’s in store for Maddy Moreah in the near future?

Well, I'm in the studio a lot with different producers working on some singles. There's one new single coming out in November and that's called 'Soul Shaking'. And we're also doing it tonight for the first time live. So yes, it's quite "rustig", easy, calm.


Is there anything else you’d like to share?

I'm just really grateful to be here and I really love this studio. Rufus is a great friend of mine. I've known him for a long time already, so happy to be here. I remember Rufus telling me that he was building this studio and I was like, "What? Are you really doing this?" and talking about all the hard parts about it, you know, and I'm really proud of him that he came this far and such a beautiful space and yeah, the first live video was actually a song of mine that was really funny. And I think that the name of the studio came up on that day as well. I don't remember exactly how, but I kind of remember the story that he was asking, "How would you call this studio?" and then we were talking and then Hidden Gem came out. I'm very, very proud of Rufus. And being back again.


 

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