Musings and Moore Musings:
An Interview With Nathan Moore of ThaMuseMeant

By Jed Smith

At the forefront of the New Mexico scene sits ThaMuseMeant, a quartet consisting of singer/guitarist Nathan Moore, drummer and percussionist Jeff Sussmann, bassist/vocalist Aimee Curl, and mandolin and fiddle player David Tiller. Your average rock and roll band they are not.

Their music isn't old-timey. It isn't bluegrass, or Latin, or country, or folk, and it really isn't jam rock with spacey 45 minute musical digressions either. However, the Santa Fe, N.M. band manages to attracts a loyal following of listeners who simply enjoy hearing a band with a firm grasp of songwriting techniques, mastery of their instruments and a vibrant, colorful stage presence.

The songs themselves take on lives of their own, each charismatic and different with its own personality, story, and journey. Moore's self-conscious, revelatory lyrics, and ThaMuseMeant's tight ensemble cast are perfect candidates to lead the way for the scene that is developing in the Southwest.

In havens like Taos, Dixon, and small northern New Mexico communities, Moore says the band recharges its batteries and draws on the landscape for much of its creative inspiration. Jim Morrison always said, "The west is the best," and the desert seems to offer the right kind of spiritual sanctuary that makes their music unique.

I saw ThaMuseMeant first, the night I graduated from college. A sort of Christmas party, I barely had room to move in the packed bar. My second show was on Valentine's Day when they opened for Leftover Salmon. The third fell on April Fool's Day, and the most recent, a free all ages show at the Santa Fe Children's Museum, graced MotherÆs Day. I asked Nathan what the significance of playing on specific days has to the band.

"It plays into the whole idea of leaving the songs open to interpretation," Moore said. "When you do get a day that offers you a new context, you are able to find new meaning in the songs. With Los Alamos burning, (the week before the northern New Mexico community of Los Alamos was partially destroyed by a forest fire) and it being Mother's Day, the songs, "ÆMamas Cryin' AgainÆ and æSing Mama SingÆ take on heavier, Mother Earth proportions. Different days offer you a different context."

None of the shows incorporated an obvious, over the top, kitschy gimmick for the occasion. There were no parades, no costumes, and not a ton of dialogue on the stage. TheMuseMeant celebrated each of those performances with their music, letting the vibe take care of the special effects. And vibe is what there is plenty of at ThaMuseMeant's shows.

As Tiller twinkles out melodies on his mandolin, which seems to have an unusually monstrous pick-up, a few small children crawl out onto the dance floor. TillerÆs high pitched picking snakes through the songs, leading them through short, tight jams, and the children begin wiggling around.

Curl's croon, angelic and innocent, bears a strikingly close resemblance to Billie Holiday, feeding bluegrass and jazz tunes alike. But it isn't simply her voice that glows. Curl's soft smile shines equally as beautifully. Curl also shares some of the songwriting, penning three tunes on the band's latest release, "Grow Your Own."

Sussmann holds the groove together, not simply with his worldly rhythmic beats but with his maturity as well, and he sometimes takes responsibility for the bus driving and accounting duties while on the road. As his percussive rhythms enter the jam, mothers step out dancing with their children, and once Curl begins belting out her powerful yodeling, the floor is suddenly alive with movement of all shapes, sizes and ages.

Hanging around in Austin in 1993, Moore was about to give up on a music career when he heard Tiller and Curl in a band called Buzzard's Breath.

"None of the music touched me, until I heard them," Moore, a sandy hair and shaggy 29 year-old said packing up his guitars after the Mother's Day show. "I think I just picked up on their vibe, and thought, 'That's the kind of music I want to play.'"

The three decided to move to Santa Fe, where Tiller had recorded with Sussmann before. They lived in a single-wide trailer with 12 dogs when they first moved from Austin, and they honed their cohesiveness amidst the yelps.

Around 1996, they moved back to Austin where they recorded an album and continued to play bars in the Austin area. I'd heard a rumor that their 1996 album "Breakfast Epiphanies", recorded while the band was in Austin, was literally written over cereal, eggs, and toast. The band would rise and begin the day with a new song.

"Those are half truths," Moore said. "It was just fun to play with words." So much of ThaMuseMeant is a play on words. Moore admits his edgy songwriting and double entendre sometimes get him into trouble.

"Part of the rush of the show is revealing and concealing in the lyric," Moore said. "I always found it funny how shocking the truth was. When you grow up, you learn how to be more tactful and you realize truth isn't always appropriate."

However, the honesty in Moore's lyrics shines through as clearly as ThaMuseMeant's music. Well thought out, Moore's words are emotionally upbeat, but can also be hauntingly real.

One tune on the new album, entitled "Wagon," hints at substance abuse recovery, but could also be interpreted as a commentary on social upheaval. Moore has written about his father, his dogs, his love life, and just about anything else a songwriter writes about.

"When I write, I am highly conscious of trying to let each line mean as many things as possible," Moore said. "In a sense I try and make them empty and let the audience try to fill it."

Moore has been playing his banjo more on this tour, and played it at the Mother's Day show, the last of 25 shows in 30 days. It is old and beat up looks like he picked it up at a garage sale. On the back, Bela Fleck, Mark Vann, and Tony Furtado, all musicians Moore has shared the stage with at festivals like this summer's High Sierra, have signed the head.

Moore said he has been learning the instrument, and a new soundman on the tour has helped him gain the confidence to sound the way he wants. Actually, several of the songs on the new album were written on the banjo.

"ItÆs a lot tougher than guitar," Moore said. But I feel like I have more of an affinity for it than with the guitar. I play guitar by default. When you're 15 and listening to Bob Dylan records and want to be a songwriter, what do you do? Just grab a guitar. But the banjo is completely different. When I pick it up, I feel like I'm making music like I've never made before."

Moore says the band doesn't shun the label "jam band" and actually feels comfortable within the genre.

"We don't mind being a part of the jam band scene because I think we help to provide what it's missing," Moore said. What the scene is missing, the songwriter claims, are songs. "I think we can jam, which helps us feel like we're not getting away with anything."

It is definitely the strength of Moore's songwriting that sets ThaMuseMeant apart from other live acts. Moore said he has always tried to write a song as good as the songs he loves. His five heroes, perhaps the greatest list of songwriters ever, include Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, John Prine, and Greg Brown. "When I listen to them I think, 'Jeez, I'll never come close to that."

Moore seems to recognize that in songwriting a fountain of inspiration exists. It is from this fountain, that Moore attributes many of the great songwriters from deriving their inspiration.

"That well isn't privy to everybody," Moore said. "It takes great writers to drink from it. I feel lucky, myself, to have gotten my cup in a few times. I can almost say that. I don't know if I'll ever get my cup in there again. The only thing that makes me feel like I'm any good is popular music. I turn on the TV or radio, and think, 'Damn, I can't let my talent go to waste."

But Moore claims he is a big Brittney Spears fan, and praises an alleged contractual obligation she has to show off her belly.

Comedian Bill Hicks is one of his favorite entertainers. A sharp-tongue, Hicks won audiences over with his bitterness. In one ThaMuseMeant song, "Movin' By Lovin'," Moore incites the audience with rantings on the decriminalization of marijuana use. Incidentally, the "Movin' By Lovin'" rap was absent from the Mother's Day show.

"Comedians have this thing when they're on the stage from one moment to the next," Moore said. "They're either failing miserably, or a wonderful success. They can easily lose the room or win it back, its just so obvious every second what's going on. And to see it in a comedian's eyes, for some reason, I've always had that kind of feeling with the stage. Either I'm doing a good job, or I'm dying." His words drift off for a moment as he stares off at nothing in particular. He seems lost in his thoughts.