Trad fusion creates album with a Moxie-load of gems

The Groove Tube with Cian O’Connell

Recent years have seen a spate of artists experiment with traditional Irish music and evolve within the genre. As it is fused and complimented with other styles, more people have been exposed to contemporary trad and the scene has grown richer with talent and eclecticism.

Largely hailing from Sligo, alt-folk six-piece Moxie have lived through much of that period since their formation in 2011.

With roots steeped in traditional Irish music, their new album is testament to the growth and development that can occur when bands are fully embracing of different genres.

The Dawn of Motion was released last Friday, September 3; a soaring, energetic eleven-track LP, the record explores lead vocalist Julia Spanu’s relationship with Ireland.

The French singer-songwriter also has ties to Vietnam and Italy and the multi-cultural influence is felt throughout with the album even weaving Irish and Arabic language together.

Instrumentally too, this is a new direction for Moxie. Though they retain elements of their signature trad/folk style, there is a new emphasis on pop that gives the project a bounce.

“It happened very naturally,” Julia says of the change in style. “I had spent a lot of time with the boys already before I joined the band which made it easier for me to understand the style they were in.

“With my influences, they let me express myself in a very free way and that led to those poppy sounds. It was important for us to keep a bit of the traditional stuff but also use that shape of the modern world and incorporate it into the music.”

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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