Since the Big Day Out in Feb 2002 there is a new electronica act on the Perth scene making waves and surfing them in with all the style of old school indie-pop meets new school dance, this is Moriarty. And as an absolutely huge year for this new band draws to a close, I caught up with two members of Moriarty as they returned from gigging down south and prepare to play the now famous and highly anticipated gig at Breakfest on Boxing Day. 
Moriarty are predominantly a three-piece electronica act fronted by female vocalist Mooch, bassist/keyboardist Stevie Rae (ex-Hedonists) and DJ Stephe P. With a couple of local residencies under their belt and heaps of publicity after the release of their album “The Professor” in October, Moriarty has now become one of Perth’s biggest profile electronica acts in a very short period. With Stevie and Mooch doing the initial song writing and DJ Stephe then re-arranging and manipulating the sounds, adding samples and programming beats to each track, Moriarty have quickly developed a fairly fast paced and well structured creative process that has seen them be able to hit the scene with a lot of quality tracks in a relatively short time frame. As the Moriarty live performance has developed over the last year, the band are starting to introduce some new elements to the live format such as a percussionist that plays some of the bigger gigs and some other possible additional members to fill out their live sound. I asked if that would change the overall style of the songs.
” The creative process in the studio wouldn’t change, basically we would be adding live instruments where we have some samples normally, just replacing them getting a fuller sound.” Stevie tells me.
The recording of their album “The Professor” was done fairly cheaply but Moriarty still managed to get a professional sound.
“To me it is still a little raw but it was recorded in a bedroom and it was recorded for basically nothing. Under a thousand dollars to record a full length CD and it sounds good. It was only limited by time.” Stevie mentions. Moriarty put in a lot of man hours mixing and mastering and managed to save a lot of money and still get a really professional sound by learning all the technical aspects of making an album themselves. While the process took longer than most the payoff has been that the band got the sound they wanted as they where the sole producers and kept full control of the creative process.
With distribution through MGM and great artist management it wont be long before the record labels come knocking on Moriarty’s door.
“We are quite happy being independent it gives us a lot more say in what we do.” Says DJ Stephe P. “And we don’t have a huge debt hanging over us”.
“We have a plan that will unfold over the new year to try and get a bit of commercial exposure and wanting to try and do that as an independent. The classic example is from a different genre but John Buttler hitting the commercial as an independent and cracking it and financially better off than bands like Jebadiah.” 
Moriarty certainly have a sound that will lend itself well to the commercial market as their style suits a wide audience.
“I think we kind of meld the electronic sound with pop song writing. That’s where we have kinda taken people by surprise, because not many people have done that well yet.” Stevie added. And it is that key component that makes the Moriarty sound more accessible to a wider audience than the traditional electronic music fans. And stations like Triple J have already shown a great deal of interest.
Moriarty have been gigging very heavily since Feb with a Friday night residency at the Spirit Sound Bar and another at the OBH front bar in Cottesloe. One of the major contributing factors to the bands high profile is the fact that unlike most local bands Moriarty has enough material to play multiple sets and hence don’t need a support act.
With Breakfest around the corner for Moriarty and a New Years eve gig at the Velvet Lounge the next few months are already shaping up to be huge with another couple of gigs down south on the 10th and 12th of January, then Moriarty also play Vibes on a Summers Day followed by a tour of Melbourne.
If you want to know more about Moriarty you can check out their website
moriartyland.iinet.net.au
Where you can join the mailing list or download a couple of tracks in mp3 format.
And with rumors of another album already underway I am sure you will soon be hearing more from this dynamic three-piece electronic act. If you are going to Breakfest you are in for a serve of some of the best local talent around.
