I’m Working to Expand my Brand

Moore DH is a rising afrobeats artiste whose dedication to his music is evolving into a viable career. With a string of successful releases, including collaboration with Blaqbonez,, and his hit single “Too Soft”, Moore DH has been making waves in the Afrobeats scene and building a loyal fan base around the world. He talks to Tosin Clegg about starting his career in Lagos, his genre of music, his dreams and a lot more 

 Growing up was nice

Igrew up in Surulere, Lagos. In the streets of Surulere just trying to hustle and become the man that I am and want to be really. I grew up in a family of four. It was me, my mum, brother and sister. Sadly, I lost my dad when I was three months old so I grew up with just my mum. Sad, I know but It was nice, the vibes around Lagos and how active Surulere was. Overall, my childhood was great. I was always in between the streets and elites so I could always be mixed in both but I wasn’t really a ‘street dude’.

As a child, I was super curious

Always eager to learn new stuff and become better. My burning ambition was really to speak to computers and to make music. That’s how I started making music being on computers all day and dabbling in music-making software. Then it hit me, damn I can do this. So those were the things I always wanted to do; music and tech. I didn’t know how I would professionally do music (or tech) but I knew I wanted to sing and make people dance to my music. That’s always been my vibe.

Life is meant to be enjoyed

It’s meant to be productive and it’s all about producing and enjoying what you’ve produced. I think those are the basic principles of life. Everything goes back to that, producing and consuming.

My journey into music

I was around 9/10 years old and in primary school at the time. My brother was in secondary school and he started a music boy band called Domack. He inspired me to start writing my lyrics, I’d be writing in the corner and I’d go show him and he’d be like ‘you need more punchlines or this doesn’t make sense’. Crazy influence, but that’s why I started doing music. The Major spotlight I would say was on my song, Too Soft. It built my confidence and made me realize not just my friends can listen to my music of course. It’s all my sound, I don’t do a lot of trying to follow the principles and status quo. I was really scared that Too Soft would be rejected as I dropped a song just before that didn’t do too well but Too Soft did great. So, it made me feel confident as an artiste. I think one of my favourite moments was when I walked into a restaurant in Lagos and BOJ, I wonder if you guys know BOJ on the microphone he was like ‘Yo! no be you be that blown guy for Snapchat!’

Challenges

My earlier challenges were trying to put together a solid team that understands the vision and are ready to execute it. Also building confidence as an artiste. Knowing that my music is hard and that people are ready to accept it. Even if they aren’t ready, I can make them ready. Those are some challenges along with gelling in the industry. Trying to meet others that are influential in the music game in Nigeria. It’s hard as I’m sometimes not on the same vibe especially musically but yeah those are some challenges.

I’ve learnt a lot

From where I started and now, I’d say I’ve learnt a lot when it comes to marketing music, producing music, songwriting, brand presence and so on. I’ve learnt that in music you just always have to understand your vision and follow through with it. People will try to drag that vision, change that vision or interpret it in different ways. You just have to be sure and make it clear as the artiste.

My genre of music is called AstroFusion

It’s a fusion of a bunch of sounds, the sounds that inspire me mostly being Afrobeats, Afroswing, AfroFusion, Rap, HipHop and Astro. I know you guys haven’t heard of Astro before, it’s my sound. It’s that kind of Travis Scott/Don Toliver feel; music that makes you feel like you’re in space. Yeah, I love that. The first time I heard something like that was from Tory Lanez and yeah I ran with that.

Best and worst moments so far 

I’d say my best moment was around the time when Too Soft had dropped and it was doing numbers. My mum was calling me, everyone was calling and saying ‘your son is everywhere!’ I went to a store to buy something and there was a long line at the counter and to pay I would’ve had to queue. But this very very nice cashier called me to the front and she was like ‘come, come I see you on TV, come and pay!’ and I thought this is what these artistes are enjoying, crazy! 

For the worst moment, I’d say it would be my listening party for WAP which was a big disaster. There was an overall lack of organization because I had issues with management, just so many issues overall on that day I had to rebrand and get a whole new team after that. Just the whole run for WAP didn’t slap as much as Too Soft.

Inspirations

My life – The things that I do, things I see, and hear, people I’m around, women of course, alcohol, etc. It is just my life. I just talk about things that I’m going through and it helps. As for my creative process, I kinda have to just get an idea sometimes when I wake up in the morning, I wake up early. I just get an idea for a song or something might happen and I’m like oh this would be great for a song and I write it down. Even being out in the club and hearing songs I could sample. I’m inspired as long as I live my life.

 I’m working on an EP

I’m busy working on new songs. This year is going to be amazing with back-to-back bangers from me and then there’s a massive tech project behind the EP. We’re building a universe, but I can’t talk too much about it. It’s going to come out later this year. For 2023, I’m just trying to expand my brand. Get my music to more ears, make great music, better than I ever have, and just keep improving! Cause I’m that guy, like I said I’m curious I just want to keep learning and improving. Just keep doing what I’m doing and have bigger skills because I know what I’m doing is great. I just need to have more eyes to look at it, and more people to see it. Those are my plans for 2023.

Qualities of good music 

You need to have a good hook that can get people singing and feeling what you’re saying, making them want to hear it again. Because the hook is usually played again. Then you need to also have a captivating verse. You need to be able to keep people interested in the verses. Good melodies, and good lyrics. I think that’s what a good song I’d want to listen to over and over again would have. You also need a great beat, because a great beat can make a mid-song a hit. I’m a melody guy though, I’m a sucker for crazy melodies so I like artistes like Victony and Rema.