Caterwaul: the Coppercat blog

Musical Genius of the Day
July 15, 2010

Jeremy Richardson, the Coppercat, interviews Eva Irwin, a.k.a. Moody Eva

http://moodyeva.com

Artist, Producer, Musician, Singer, Graphic Designer, Marathon-Grade uber-athlete

Q:  When did you realize that you needed to produce music?

A:  Well I am a true Renaissance (wo)man (for lack of a better term).  I’m good at all things music and art.  I was born this way.  So I guess my answer would be, “From the second that I understood what that meant.”

Q:  Was there a moment of realization/specific show/ personal epiphany, or was it a gradual process?
A:  I was a DJ for almost 18 years.  The last 8 years of which I kept having a harder and harder time using all of my energy to find other people’s tracks, to DJ them …. when I REALLY wanted to use that energy and put it INTO my OWN music AND THEN ….to find my own sound.

I have hardly left my house at all in the last year and my sound has never been more intricate and sinister… something I have been gravitating towards.  I started out making happy funky driving house music; and now I like glitchy, filthy, grimy, hip-hop, dubstep breaks and drum & bass. My sound went from smiling at about 130 bpm to headbanging at about 90 BPM or even 120 programmed at half time.  I havent listened to the radio or watched TV in the past year either; which I think was VERY important in me evolving, musically.
I never went to school for music production…. a lot of guys I was hanging out with, when I started to make music, had degrees and still couldn’t make or complete songs (love you guys – you are WAY better now, LOL)…The uber-competetive genetic implant installed by my foremothers activated, and I started paying guys I know $20 an hour to transfer-all-musical-data-from-their-brains-into-my-brain.  These guys I refer to as my “Sensei’s” and I have the deepest respect for them;  I have learned my way through music, one .wav form, one machine, and one Sensei at a time.  I am currently looking for a new Sensei- since the last one is hard to track down (pun intended).

Q:  Prince or Madonna? Explain your choice.

A:  Prince.  He can play every instrument.  He too is a Renaissance man.  We are kindred spirits as I am super famous to myself… and I have had people refer to me as a symbol and not a name too (middle finger)….

Yes. We’re all well familiar with your middle-finger, Eva. Particularly your Facebook friends…

Q:   You’re quite a dance enthusiast, too, correct? The most spastic dance you’ve ever learned intentionally is the ________.

A:  WOW, I learn dances all the time watching YouTube…. Crip Walking ….is one of my favorites because of the attitude, poppin’ your colla’ and shrugging your shoulders and kicking your feet.  But in the grand scheme of things… I have been a breakdancer most of my life, I still practice a few hours a week to keep it in my mind.  Mostly uprock houser-style stuff BUT…. I have always since I was about 10, wanted to learn how to “1990“– which I still fantasize about learning.  Yes, still.

Q:  You finished a nearly-length-of-California bike ride for charity recently.
…Did you do it iPod or au naturale?

A:  (When I train for half marathons its always drum & bass.  Noisia actually took 30 seconds off my mile time.  Best band in the world, thanks.)  On the Aids Ride…. which was NOT the full length of California, but it was 560 miles of it…. We were not allowed to wear iPods at all.  We rode on the 101 Freeway a lot, and through cities, so you had to be aware of surroundings, and not distracted.  It was mostly a lot of brain-on-brain action, but to the mental BPM of drum & bass and dubstep… at least for me.

Q:  I stand corrected.  Only 560 miles. Dude, once i rode 30 miles. It was LONG.
What sort of music, real or imagined, saw you through that?

A:  THE FUNNY PART IS WHILE ON THE AIDS RIDE (with no iPod)… we did a bunch of what I considered “mountainous climbs” and if I started to DOUBT myself, I would start ‘singing-my-balls-off’ which was an amazing distraction… mostly Billie Holiday, Nina Simone and Aretha….. and one time I spent 2 miles going up one hill trying to figure out the last sentence in the first verse of “Bust a move,” and other people were joining in…. “FROM THE TOP —- this here’s a story for all the fellas….”

Q:  Helvetica: Love, Hate, or indifference?

A:  F#$% HELVETICA, AND F#$% COURIER, AND F#$% COOPER BLACK, AND F#$% IMPACT, AND SUPER MOTHERF#$% COMIC SANS; THOSE ARE NOT FONTS.

(editor’s note: can you sense the aforementioned middle-finger here, or what?!?)

Q:  Knobs, Buttons, or Faders serve you best?

A:  All three at the same time… and doing multiple passes of recording automation so it’s more like 10 of me doing all 3 all at the same time…..

Q:  In your mind’s eye, on your best days in the studio, you sing like _____ and write like _____.

A:  Sing like —– Billie Holiday (dead ringer)
Write like —– every introverted and misunderstood musical super genius who never left the house because their life actually depended on their ability to create.

Q:  If you were to give a name to the “body language” that DJ’s and musicians use, it would be:

A:  Mixer Humping.

Q:  Hehehehe. Elucidate.

A:  No matter what you use, vinyl, cd, laptop; you are still there, humping the mixer, and gently touching it’s crossfader. LLLLOOLLLL

Q:  The Ultimate-Record-of-Slaying that destroys any dancefloor anytime is:

A:  Acid Attack, by Avalanche…. it slays like a freshly sharpened ninja star every time…. NOW AND THEN!

-Jeremy Richardson, Caterwaul: The Coppercat blog