More about: Denai Moore

British-Jamaican artist Denai Moore processes the world through the lens of her music: she wrote her first song at the young age of 12 and never looked back. From her debut EP aged 19, her enrapturing guest vocals on SBTRKT’s 2014 album Wonder Where We Land when she was 21, to stories of self-acceptance on 2017’s We Used to Bloom, Moore has been a prolific success from the very beginning. With Modern Dread, her most complex and intellectual record to date, she cements her place as one of the UK’s brightest indie talents.

Speaking on her third record - made alongside Everything Everything member Alex Robertshaw - she says, “with this record, Alex and I were naturally drawn to an abrasive, hard hitting electronic music. I was able to let go off anything that would have terrified me earlier and allowed myself to go with the flow.” 

“When I wrote 'To The Brink' there was an urgency about it and the way the song ended up sounding felt like the beginning of a new chapter. A lot of the songs I wrote including 'Cascades' and 'Turn Off The Radio' had this common visceral feeling to them. Personal and global anxieties, my relationship with social media and the way I consumed breaking news really informed the kind of feeling I wanted to put into my music – at the end of  'To The Brink' there’s this robotic sound that says “modern dread” and it felt like a very fitting title for the album.”

Delving into her current favourite track of the album, Moore peels back the latent cynicism that lives within us all in the current world. “I really feel strongly about the lyrics of 'Offer Me': there’s so much uncertainty in the world, it’s hard to remain optimistic.”

By finding this optimism in the creativity around her, Moore has managed to craft an album that’s political, philosophical and personal all at once. Talking about the various creative mediums she found sparks of inspiration in, she notes that "it’s hard not to pick up something from what I’m exposed to - because when you write songs you’re quite often in your own head. So I find it very informing to watch a film, read a book or go to an exhibition – to see someone else’s world because otherwise I’d go a bit insane.” 

Poet Maggie Nelson and her book Bluets were particularly important muses in the writing of Modern Dread. "Personally I’ve always gravitated towards reading and consuming things that allows me to enter someone’s mind, like I’m having a conversation with them. I picked up Bluet a couple of days after a session for 'To The Brink' at a bookstore while waiting for a friend. I’d never read anything like it. There are no chapters; it throws you into her world and feels like a never-ending confessional conversation with someone.

Her confessions made me feel uneasy and overwhelmed and that kind of anxious, fragmented feeling is what I wanted to convey through the record. So it starts off very intense and then breaks off in the middle before ending on this note that feels very vulnerable. I wanted the record to feel like a journey rather than holding the same tone throughout.” 

As a fan of the visual world, Moore also found herself drawn to the vivid concept of exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in 2018. “I went on my own and saw that the entire gallery was completely blue: for some reason it invoked such strong emotions in me and stayed with me long afterwards. I ended up drawing that into the record. In the video for single 'Cascades' the room I’m stuck in is blue and I wear blue in the video for 'Fake Sorry' – throughout the album I wear many shades of blue, intentionally.” 

Intrigue in the visual elements of music is a relatively new interest for Moore. "With this writing cycle I’ve gotten into the fashion world. I’m inspired by fashion photography, art and set direction. Fashion really informs imagery in film, music and culture. It’s more than clothes, it’s about body language; the aesthetic; the edits. In my first record, I was so camera shy and self-conscious about being the focus visually. With this latest record, I’ve come out of that and embraced the fashion world a bit more. The world around the music really elevates it.” 

When tracing Denai Moore’s journey it would be remiss not to explore the second passion in her life – cooking. With her own flourishing brand Dee’s Table, which offers vegan Jamaican recipes and products, Moore celebrates her cultural roots and walks a second avenue of creative exploration. 

"Cooking has always been another medium for me to explore creatively: you’re feeding your soul with it. Making music can be intense but cooking allows to me to slow down. I particularly enjoy cooking things with long processes because I go into a meditative state with it after which I’m able to go back to music in a calmer state.” 

“There were quite big breaks between the work on this record because Alex was on tour. So, during that time I’ve focused on cooking, returning later to music with a fresh mind" she adds.

She's been trying out new recipes while in quarantine of course. “I’ve been making sour dough during lockdown which is long and laborious, but it’s perfectly therapeutic. I also wrote this recipe for a banana bread chocolate chip cookie which totally happened by accident. I wanted to make banana bread but didn’t have the loaf tins to bake it in so I decided to make cookies instead. It’s definitely the best recipe I’ve made recently.”

For Moore, cooking and music are two opposite yet beloved halves of her life. It’s no wonder that her future goals align so perfectly with these passions. “I’d love to write a cookbook. I’d love to tell the stories of my Jamaican upbringing, how I eat daily is unique as it draws from my various experiences. I started Dee’s Table to share the cuisine I’ve grown up with. I’d love to explore such things through food.” 

Her ambitions, naturally, are strongly music-focused too. “I want to produce more on my own. I’ve been making more stuff at home and I’ve been doing other projects outside my music, so in the future I want to be more self-produced.” 

With so many talents and skills up her sleeve – both in and outside of music – it's no surprise that Moore finds the label “vocalist” exasperating. "It can be quite frustrating because there’s so much work going into the record - I write the songs and do the art work etc. I’d like to be seen as someone who has done all these different things. It’s important that I say something and let people know that you are frustrated by the way you are viewed.” 

Modern Dread might be about the heavy pits of unease in our stomachs, about the state of our lives and the world, but there are always reasons to smile. What has been the most memorable moment of her career so far? “When I did Jools Holland really early on in my career. It feels like it didn’t happen, I built it up for months and it was over in the blink of an eye - but in front of millions of people on live TV. It was dream come true!”

Simple pleasures too, bring Moore great happiness. “Being in nature and being unplugged from the digital world for a couple of hours in my week is very important to me. I live near the sea so the sounds of the ocean, the feeling of sand in my feet keeps me grounded and offers me peace of mind.” 

It's also in music that this artist finds catharsis, and she pays that feeling forward in introspective, thought-provoking songwriting we can all enjoy. Acknowledging the uncomfortable parts of the world while still finding reasons to smile, Denai Moore's music is the salve that our frayed souls need. 

Modern Dread is out now. Read our album review here. 

More about: Denai Moore