Interview with James Moore, one half of the musical duo Nightbird Casino
New Album/Ep In The Works?
yes, our third album, Commerce & Horse Polo is currently in the writing/recording phase. We don’t have a release date set, but sometime in
late 2025 I would imagine it will be ready.
Do you prefer to work alone or collaboratively?
there are benefits to both. Nightbird Casino is a collaborative project between myself and Kelly Hutchinson. We both create solo music but find
that we enchance each others creativity to the degree that our separate projects will never be quite on the level of the music we create together.
Frequently one of us will send the other a song and be like ‘hey I kind of like this but it’s missing something’ … then the other one immediately
hears the “missing part” so to speak, records it, sends it back, and it’s like oh this is how it was supposed to sound.
What is your creative process when making music?
Kelly and I don’t even live in the same state at the moment, so for this particular album it’s looked a lot like Zoom calls and sending each
other ideas … we never force music. I don’t sit down and say ok, I’m going to go write a guitar riff now. I might come up with an idea – maybe
a chord progression pops into my head, or I wake up and remember something from a dream, whatever it might be … I’ll record that on piano or
guitar or something, send it to Kelly … he’ll call me in a bit and be like dude this is good but what if we did THIS? what if we added THAT instrument
or the chord progression went here instead of here? We go back and forth like this until we’re both happy with how something sounds. We both play
guitar, bass, and keys so it could be both/either of us on any given song. Once that’s done he’ll usually lay down a drum track and I’ll lock myself
in my studio and word on vocal melodies until hopefully, something sort of poetic comes out.
What are your favourite musical genres, and are there any you dislike?
I really enjoy shoegaze, post-punk, basic bitch indie rock, and classical … but I can find positives in almost any genre. I listen to a
lot of hip-hop, r&b, grunge, art rock, jazz, etc … the only genre I absolutely cannot stand is country.
What instruments can you play?
I play guitar, bass, keyboard instruments (piano, organ, synthesizers), ondes martenot, and mallet instruments (glockenspiel, marimba, etc).
I occasionally do some percussion tracks on the record but I’m not allowed near the drum kit. That’s Kelly’s domain.
Who is your favourite musician?
Thom Yorke.
Who/How Came Up With The Band Name?
we both did – there’s no secret or deep meaning behind it… we wrote down a bunch of words and phrases that sounded good on napkins during
an early band meeting at a bar — “nightbird” and “casino” were two words that we liked, and it stuck.
If you could change anything about the industry, what would it be?
I’m going to risk sounding like an old man yelling at kids to get off my lawn here, but industry success is almost entirely based on social
media now — if you have a big following on TikTok or whatever, labels are far more likely to look at you. You’re expected to be a prolific
content creator as well as make music … if you’re a musician who isn’t comfortable shooting dance videos or aimlessly pointing at words on
the screen, you’re unlikely to go anywhere. So I guess what I’m saying here is I wish the industry was based on talent and potential, rather
than social media following.
How did you first get into music?
My dad is a bassist and both my parents listened to a lot of classical, so I grew up around music. When I was about 13 I started actually
listening to music myself. I had the urge to learn how to play the music I was into, so I borrowed my dad’s bass and taught myself
deftones and Korn and such … eventually bass turned into guitar and by the time I was 16 or 17 I was starting various short-lived bands
and I just never stopped I guess.
What interests or hobbies do you have outside of music?
film, art, literature. I occasionally produce independent filns. That’s a huge undertaking so it’s just once every few years.
