Interview takes place on August 4, 2023 at White Oak Music Hall Upstairs in Houston, TX
Imagine you’re a few drinks deep at a bar, revealing all of your secrets to a stranger in the bathroom…except the next day, you wake up and realize everything you said is on Spotify. According to Houston singer/songwriter Marley Moon, that’s how it feels to release music.
Now that her debut album Everything is Real! has had some time to settle, Marley Moon stands on the balcony of White Oak Music Hall to walk us through what got her here today. As it turns out, being able to release such an intimate album has required quite the journey of self-discovery and self-acceptance.
“I didn’t find my place within the title ‘musician’ until I was 19 or 20,” she says, reflecting on her college years.
“It’s funny looking back because I was like, ‘Yeah, I wanna go to Berklee College of Music to do music,’ but I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I didn’t write songs. I didn’t really have the desire to write songs. And at that point I wasn’t even really playing instruments.”
“I don’t know what I wanted to do at Berklee,” she continues. “I just knew I wanted to go there, I guess. And it was in my time there that I realized I did want to write songs, and I did want to play guitar, and I did want to play bass.”
In fact, a breakup may have been what propelled her to write her first song. “I told you, Taylor Swift raised me,” she jokes.
Apparently, the name Marley Moon “came down from the ether” while under the influence at Houston music festival Day for Night, and the rest was history. “I was like perfect! Next question. And just moved on.” If only everything were that simple!
Since then, Marley Moon has returned to Houston and released a handful of singles, an EP called “Do You Feel Free?” and of course, her debut album Everything is Real!
Everything is Real! is essentially a eleven-track deep-dive into her psyche can be best summed up by its opening song, “I Wanna Feel Alive.” To Marley Moon, “The climax of that song is the line ‘I get pretty angry / I get pretty sad / I get in the way of every good thing that I have / But I wanna change!’ and everybody screams ‘I wanna change!’ at the same time. For me, that’s the theme of the album.”
“You know how people read the last page of a book first?” she continues. “Putting that song first even though it was chronologically [written] last… It’s like the whole album is the journey I went through and ‘I Wanna Feel Alive’ is the synopsis.”
Despite much of the album gracing heavier topics, she switches it up with the final track, “Void Song.” “It just has this wistful, really hopeful feeling,” she describes. “You’re never really done growing. So I felt like it was a good place to leave the album because when I come out with more music, it’s coming out of this really ‘I don’t know who I am, but let’s find out!’ type of place.”
Well, I think I speak for everyone when I say we’re excited to find out along with her.
To keep up to date with Marley Moon’s future releases, follow her on Instagram @marley.moon, and stop by her open mic every Tuesday at Axelrad. For booking information, contact marleymoonxo@gmail.com.
Photos and Story by Shelby Mathews
*Originally published 8/17/2023 on Houston Music Classified's first website.
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