Art Moore is a new project from Taylor Vick (Boy Scouts) and Sam Durkes and Trevor Books (Ezra Furman’s collaborators).
The band members see songwriting as offering us a glimpse into a new universe, often bittersweet. So, we get character studies in vignettes, swirled in heartbreak and regret. Their new single is an example.
Muscle Memory was inspired by the many phases of life we go through and the friendships that exist within them that inevitably transform as we continue through life. I wanted to write about this experience from a neutral perspective, one with the belief that it’s neither a good or bad thing but simply a given in life. It’s a more fictionalised version of my personal experience which was the kind of writing I gravitated towards most in this band.”
Taylor Vick
The trio’s musical partnership formed in an unusual way. Durkes had just finished working on Ezra Furman’s soundtrack for Netflix‘ Sex Education. He already knew Brooks through work on Furman’s record Twelve Nude. They both also knew Vick through her work as a cult solo artist with Boy Scouts. They didn’t set out to be a traditional band, though.
“We all met up at the studio, and it was never even like, ‘Let’s be a band’, that was never a thing. It was more like, ‘Let’s write for movies and art projects’ — let’s think of a movie scene or a photograph or still image and see if we can write some shit around it to see if we can pitch it.”
Sam Durkes
It soon turned into a mutual admiration society. While Brooks shared that “Making music with both Sam and Taylor has always been so easy. I record other artists, and it’s pretty rare to be so quickly on the same page with people,” Durkes had praise to share too.
“Taylor can just nail harmonies right off the bat, like, no bullshit — it’s an incredible skill. It’s amazing to see, because a lot of singers, they gotta work at it a lot harder. Taylor works at it too, but it seems so fucking effortless.”
Sam Durkes
The album evolved out of the realities of the pandemic because there was time to make one! The album Art Moore by Art Moore is out on August 5, 2022, on ANTI-Records.