Stanley Moon is PRS for Music's latest Myspace Featured Artist. The singer-songwriter talks to M about songwriting and his inspirations.
'I used to think I was Slim Shady,' sniggers Stanley Moon, 'but every rap I tried to write always ended up being a pop song.' Realising where his true talent lay, Stanley kicked MC-ing to the London curbs, dusted off the old rock n roll and soul albums that he had been weaned on and started writing songs. Now one of the UK’s most exciting new prospects, it’s laughable to think that Mr Moon ever tried to squash his 1950s quiff into a baseball cap or hide his creamy, Springsteen-croons behind spoken words.
Its pretty much the “usual story” Stanley Moon modestly relates. Started a band in school; Brit Pop wannabes with Stanley thinking he was a thirteen year old Liam Gallagher. Of course he wasn't, but the harmonic pop sensibilities that lend so well to his sound have never been lost from that adolescent ideal. They played a few gigs around a not-so-enchanting, though utterly British circuit; in tennis clubs, scout huts and basically anywhere else where underage drinking could be achieved. After stints in a few bands, most notably London favourite Barefoot Confessor, Stanley made the hard decision to go solo, parting from long time accomplices and band mates and turning his attention to his solo project.
Musically, it seems he is a hard man to please and maybe turning so wholeheartedly off the indie-schmindy road that British music can too easily drive along at 80mph is what marks him out from their current surroundings of zeitgeist attraction. His affections for more classic pop song writing; the quintessentially British tales of Morrissey, Strummer, McCartney and Lennon, reassembled into something altogether more present, that sense of magic and discovery however left innocently untouched.
One listen to He Doesn’t Love You and it’s not hard to see why: brimming with youthful energy, sun-smackled hooks, sixties “oos” and heart-melting vocals, it’s a Twentieth Century Beatles’ hit. Stanley sites the Fab Four as being a major inspiration to his songwriting, remembering: 'as a kid I would listen in secret to my Dad's blue and red Beatles albums on his record player.'
Whilst it was The Beatles, he claims, who made Stanley want to write music, it was Oasis who inspired the eleven-year-old to form his first band in his year 7 English classroom. 'I wanted to have all the frivolities that they seemed to be having,' he explains. 'My writing is observational,' Michael explains. 'I’ll draw my inspiration from anything from a TV programme to a drop of dew on a lily pad in the spring. I just open up my peepers, have a look-see and write down what comes into my head.'
It’s this colourful layering of humour, unforgettable melodies and heart-halting poetry which makes Stanley Moon so unique. As he says, 'I don’t want to be Slim Shady, I don’t want to be anyone else now. “I am Stanley Moon”. '
Listen to Stanley Moon on PRS for Music's MySpace page.
'I used to think I was Slim Shady,' sniggers Stanley Moon, 'but every rap I tried to write always ended up being a pop song.' Realising where his true talent lay, Stanley kicked MC-ing to the London curbs, dusted off the old rock n roll and soul albums that he had been weaned on and started writing songs. Now one of the UK’s most exciting new prospects, it’s laughable to think that Mr Moon ever tried to squash his 1950s quiff into a baseball cap or hide his creamy, Springsteen-croons behind spoken words.
Its pretty much the “usual story” Stanley Moon modestly relates. Started a band in school; Brit Pop wannabes with Stanley thinking he was a thirteen year old Liam Gallagher. Of course he wasn't, but the harmonic pop sensibilities that lend so well to his sound have never been lost from that adolescent ideal. They played a few gigs around a not-so-enchanting, though utterly British circuit; in tennis clubs, scout huts and basically anywhere else where underage drinking could be achieved. After stints in a few bands, most notably London favourite Barefoot Confessor, Stanley made the hard decision to go solo, parting from long time accomplices and band mates and turning his attention to his solo project.
Musically, it seems he is a hard man to please and maybe turning so wholeheartedly off the indie-schmindy road that British music can too easily drive along at 80mph is what marks him out from their current surroundings of zeitgeist attraction. His affections for more classic pop song writing; the quintessentially British tales of Morrissey, Strummer, McCartney and Lennon, reassembled into something altogether more present, that sense of magic and discovery however left innocently untouched.
One listen to He Doesn’t Love You and it’s not hard to see why: brimming with youthful energy, sun-smackled hooks, sixties “oos” and heart-melting vocals, it’s a Twentieth Century Beatles’ hit. Stanley sites the Fab Four as being a major inspiration to his songwriting, remembering: 'as a kid I would listen in secret to my Dad's blue and red Beatles albums on his record player.'
Whilst it was The Beatles, he claims, who made Stanley want to write music, it was Oasis who inspired the eleven-year-old to form his first band in his year 7 English classroom. 'I wanted to have all the frivolities that they seemed to be having,' he explains. 'My writing is observational,' Michael explains. 'I’ll draw my inspiration from anything from a TV programme to a drop of dew on a lily pad in the spring. I just open up my peepers, have a look-see and write down what comes into my head.'
It’s this colourful layering of humour, unforgettable melodies and heart-halting poetry which makes Stanley Moon so unique. As he says, 'I don’t want to be Slim Shady, I don’t want to be anyone else now. “I am Stanley Moon”. '
Listen to Stanley Moon on PRS for Music's MySpace page.
