Originally from the music metropolis of Nashville, Tennessee, the artist known as Mote relocated to Berlin, Germany just weeks before the pandemic of 2020 took the world’s focus. Mote, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, composes Indie Rock/Indietronica with timeless melodies and earnest lyrics laid over energetic beats, colourful guitar, and flowing synthetic textures. Mote was busy playing live shows and gaining popularity, opening up for acts such as The Main Squeeze, Cappa, and Magic City Hippies, before a year long illness forced him to take a break in 2018. Mote released an EP, Get The Door, the following year, but was unable to tour the project. Getting through the illness was a rebirth for Mote. He came to a realisation that he was determined to get completely healthy and to move to a new city to truly start fresh with his art. Berlin became that destination. Mote spent his first year in Berlin writing and also had a successful collaboration with Berlin based producer Lahos with the song “End This Ride.” Mote also spent the year studying film and adding videography to his repertoire. In the fall of 2021 Mote released a string of singles, and his first self-directed music video for the industrial-pop inspired song “Bondage.” Mote’s single “Industrial Love” was released in partnership with the UK indie label The Animal Farm. “Hello Divine” came out on November 4th. Check out the song and the exclusive interview below:
1: Can you tell us a bit about where you are from and how it all got started?
Mote: I was born in Nashville, Tennessee in US. I lived there for most of my life, but 3 years ago I moved to Berlin. I learned so much about music, grew up, and I started Mote in Nashville, but in another sense, I feel like things really started for me here in Germany. After years of making original music in bands I felt like I had to go out on my own in order to create the sound I had inside my head. So I jumped on a cruise ship, leading a rock n roll band for 3 months, which allowed me to save the money I needed to start over in a new city. In February 2020 I arrived in Berlin. It was right in time for a period of serious isolation, because it was Covid and I didn’t know a soul here. That’s when I feel like my rapid growth as an artist and as a person began, though I have been writing music since I was 7.
2: Did you have any formal training or are you self taught?
Mote: Both. I studied very seriously on the electric and upright bass for many years, and I even went to music school. After school I taught myself how to sing and play guitar, and to produce my own work.
3: Who were your first and strongest musical influence and why the name Mote?
Mote: The artists that made an early impact on me I still love. Nirvana and The Doors are probably the first two groups that gave me a direction that seemed to suit me early on, and they still do, although my influences are always expanding.
4: What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?
Mote: A rock n roll concept. I’m a natural punk. I am about standing up for one’s beliefs and individuality. However I love all music, so I experiment a lot, but all those things are contextualised through the rock n roll attitude that I was born with.
5: For most artist originality is first preceded by a phase of learning and often, emulating others. What was this like for you? How would you describe your own development as an artist and music maker, and the transition towards your own style, which is known as Indie?
Mote:
For some reason, I’m lucky in this regard. I have always had an inescapable ability to sound like myself. Whatever style I am working in I can put my personality in authentically. It’s just that early on I didn’t sound very good. I think for me as my ability improved and I learned more, I just became a better person and musician, and I’m still working hard on it. I’ve got a lot of room to improve still. Lol.
6: What is your view on the role and function of music as political, cultural, and/or social vehicles- and do you try and affront any of these themes in your work, or are you purely interested in music as an expression of technical artistry, personal narrative, and entertainment?
Mote:
I’ll put music in the same category as any art to answer this question. Art is all encompassing. It serves all of these purposes to me. My favourite artists are often political and speak about societal life, but then just making people want to dance their worries or bad moods away is also a very noble function of music. Art and music should reflect al aspects of life, and are just balanced differently as their respective creators are balanced. For me, because I resonate with so many of these attributes of music, I end up creating music that has some aspects of all of these things. That is what makes great popular art. It can be entertaining and sound really enticing, but then can expand your outlook, and give you new direction and a deeper understanding. My new single “Hello Divine” is a good example, because it is like a very deep and kind of moody exploration of desire, but it is also sort of just house music with guitars.
7: Do you feel your music is giving you back just as much fulfilment as the amount of work you are putting into it or are you expecting something more, or different in the future?
Mote:
I do. I do continue to have higher aspirations in my work, but music has saved my life so many times. Music has gotten me through so many hard moments, but it has also given me a purpose, that without, I honestly don’t think I would be alive to talk about today. When I was at my most reckless and self destructive, I always thought that like if something was going to compromise the music I wanted to make, I wouldn’t do it. It is my reason to be. No matter what happens with my “success” or whatever, I know that it is what I am here to do.
8: Could you describe your creative processes? How do you usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song? Do you usually start with a tunnel a beat, or a narrative in your head? And do you collaborate with others in this process?
Mote:
I love to collaborate on music, but for creating Mote material I do all the writing on my own. All music starts differently, and I like to try to do intentionally do things differently because that’s a way to evolve the sound. Often I start with the music first though. I’ll write bassline, or some chords on the guitar, or start with a tempo and a drum beat. I usually never write lyrics first, but many times I have come up with a title to write to and then the music follows that direction. With every idea that comes, it informs what you should do next. I also like for the music to sound like it’s telling a story, once that feels like it’s happening, then I feel I can write the story in words. Then you have to just do all you can in the recording to support the emotion properly.
9: What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?
Mote: That’s hard to say. Everyone goes through a ton of shit, that’s the teacher, that’s life. A hard moment is a hard moment in a sense. Some of my biggest teachers have been serious illness, addiction, loss, etc. I don’t know that there is one day or moment that is any harder than the rest. It’s all something you have to get past. That’s where music serves my life so much, and why I am so grateful for it. No matter what happens to me I try to just hang on, I know things will get better again, and the hard stuff will give me an understanding that will help me to be a better artist and person.
10: On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud, or significant point in your life or music career so far?
Mote: Coming to Berlin. I just had this feeling, I just knew that if I came here I would be able to really get my career off the ground. It was happening in Nashville too, but as soon as I left all these inner blocks I had begun to come down, and I was able to get so much more in touch with myself and what I wanted to do as an artist. Since I have been here I feel I’ve improved so much as a writer, singer, and producer, and have had the most successful time of my career so far. So I’m really grateful that I trusted what my gut was telling me and decided to take a big risk like that.
KEEP IN TOUCH:
FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | SPOTIFY | TIKTOK | WEBSITE | YOUTUBE
