The Moses Gunn Collective — Feature Article

WORDS – PETA PETIDIS PORTRAITS – C/O MGC

“We’re getting old,” replies Aidan after reflecting on the last half of a decade. That’s how long it’s been since Moses Gunn Collective were last on the scene.

“We never really thought this second album would happen. We recorded it initially five years ago in Brisbane… Every year we’d say, ‘Oh we should finish that album.’ So we’d dig it up and it’d be like we’d lost half the files and have to record half the stuff, and this literally happened every year for the last five years.”

Aidan Moore is the frontman of Moses Gunn Collective (MGC) but you’ve likely seen his black lined eyes as Sugar Bones, a pseudonymous character in the indie electropop band Confidence Man. He’s the one pulsating onstage, accompanied by two veiled men and his magnificent sister, Miss Janet Planet.

Confidence Man have been bustling across the touring circuit and producing countless dance anthems over the last five years. Aidan and the band have established a brand known across the world and are en route to releasing their second full-length album. But can you believe it’s been almost ten years since one of his first projects, Moses Gunn Collective, came to fruition?

Moses Gunn Collective shot into the Brisbane psych-rock scene with glitter costumes, peacock feathers and twisted harmonies. Behind the shimmery curtain of semi-drag get-ups, streamers and synths, were Aidan Moore, Lewis Stephenson, Sam ‘Stag’ Sargent and Alex ‘Acky’ Mitchell. All members were part of other musical projects, including Morning Harvey, The Belligerents and even appearances in The Babe Rainbow.

Aidan and Lewis make up the core of the group’s songwriting. The boys live together in Melbourne now. Despite all this time together and countless file corruptions, it took the Covid apocalypse to revive their momentum. “Over last year’s lockdown we had no touring with Con Man and we could literally just focus and actually get it [the album] done,” says Aidan.

Dr Moses Love Hospital is the upcoming record for the band, set to be released in coming months with a national tour whenever it’s possible.

“A weird theme somehow emerged while we were writing the songs. It’s basically the bittersweet story of a man tampered with and spellbound by the potentially sinister love doctor – Dr Moses, of the Love Hospital,” Aidan explains of the record title.

After a bunch of online teasers and Instagram posts, the album is finally upon us.

“Yeah we’d get fired up and motivated, make one of those annual Instagram photos, then we’d get distracted again,” Aidan laughs at himself with a certain discernment. He obviously feels a bit bad about the delays. The album’s been a long time coming but in the space of a few months, 2021 has already delivered two singles from the record with another on the way.

Lewis and Aidan have been at the peak of their careers in a powerhouse dance group touring internationally, headlining countless European and Australian festivals. But now they’re in the front seat, navigating a record release and a tour without a PR team and in the peak of a third wave of lockdowns across the country. On this note, we joke about the distance between the first and second albums, the state of the world and Aidan’s musical influences.

“My first memories of this album are in Brisbane, when we all started writing it, then it’s a little five-year chapter of my life that seems to have gone by really quickly and taken a whole bunch of turns. My life in the beginning and the end is really different, in a really good way, a reminder of what’s happened in that half a decade.”

Without a doubt, this record already showcases the maturity of the band while tying in their prominent quirks. ‘I Can Cry’ is a telltale MGC track with the misshapen guitar chords and moody monologues to match. Aidan explains that it was written during one of their first studio sessions five years ago, which is why the sound is extremely synonymous with their Mercy Mountain LP.

The latest release off the album, ‘I Hope My Dreams Come True,’ instills the same disheveled lover attitude as the first single, with a heavier synth-backed melody akin to MGMT’s ‘Me and Michael.’ Aidan doesn’t feel like their latest projects have changed their ability to write for MGC. On the contrary, it’s helped them define their sound from act to act.

“Throughout the whole time of focusing on electronic stuff, I’ve still been recording country music in my bedroom and a whole bunch of side things… It’s been good to compartmentalise all the different things, I’m sure they all influence each other a bit but it helps you more in the way of being able to write a good song.”

These country songs – something akin to a futuristic Gram Parsons sound – are an entirely different project, testament to Aidan’s ability to play with different genres. “I’ve been working on this thing for ten years just in the background. I’ve got like 20 country songs basically,” he explains. “That’s an even bigger Moses background project that’s sort of coming together.”

On the topic of genre bending, I thought I’d bring up the Spotify mix-up that happened when ‘I Can Cry’ was released. I remember being navigated to their new track on my Spotify account and upon listening to a classical baroque period sonata, I realised there’d been a mishap.

“It’s some kind of scam that happens where someone out there can create a fake song on your account… and then they can just mine a 0.1% of a cent from every play onto their account and it happened on the other single too! The second one was even worse, it was like classical trap!”

Spotify scams aside, it’s playing shows to a real live audience that the guys are really looking forward to. Their September tour has been cancelled due to pandemic restrictions but there’s still hope that some live shows will happen eventually. “We’re just stoked people are still listening!” Aidan laughs. He’s looking forward to donning an outlandish costume and getting wild on stage. “I love that extra piece of spectacle that just goes on top,” he says. “If you do it right you can take it to a whole other world!”

On his hopes for live performances, Aidan jokes that he wants to headline Glastonbury, but almost immediately he catches himself, humbly expressing his craving for normalcy after the extended lockdowns that have rocked the music industry.

“Any big show where the crowd is free and able to mingle and dance,” he says. “Get sweaty and jump like the good old days. Anywhere where that is okay, that’s what I’m looking for.”