Venue and studio owner reflects on local music scene
Tim Moes has watched the independent music scene in Cache Valley change a lot in the last five years. He said with the rise and fall of genres and subgenres, local music takes on a life of its own, growing and shrinking with the changes.
“The music scene here never stops evolving,” said Moes, owner and chief sound engineer of WhySound Studios in Logan.
On Sept. 4, Moes and WhySound will hold the first concert of the 2013-14 USU school year to feature local musicians. Performers booked for that night include Phavian, Tr3ason and Deicidal Carnage – all metal bands from Cache Valley.
Musical shifts have been observed through the eyes of a transplant to the valley – a transplant who once had severe doubts about the decisions that brought him here in 2008.
“I had been living in Queens for eight years, in Brooklyn for four prior to that,” Moes said. “I thought my life was over when I got to Utah the first time. This place was nothing like New York.”
Before relocating to Utah, Moes said he met, heard and worked with some of the best independent musicians in the Northeast while working at New York’s Astoria Soundworks. He didn’t know what to expect from the Utah music scene, but he was certain it wouldn’t be very diverse.
Still, Moes wanted to fit himself into the music community. Soon after arriving in the valley he met Robert Linton, current talent scout and doorman at WhySound. The two decided a small-scale venue and quality recording studio could do well in Cache Valley.
“When I met Tim, learning about his background in the music industry and his desire to get music recognized locally really made me get behind his idea for a venue,” Linton said. “Logan hadn’t really had a reliable place where local acts could play for a few years.”
The venue portion of WhySound opened in April of 2008. Linton said it received a positive response from local bands and artists right away.
“We were getting calls and emails from all sorts of bands in all sorts of genres,” Linton said. “But anyone who spent any time with Tim could see that he was figuring out a next step.”
Moes knew it was time to put all of his musical production and engineering skills to work.
“Based upon the surprising variety of talented musicians who had played at WhySound, we hoped to build clientele for the recording studio from there,” he said.
Five years later, Moes can be found behind the computer console in WhySound’s facilities most days of the week, working on one of his many projects and doing anything he can to make the recordings he engineers sound as high quality as possible.
“I put as much extra time into a project as needed to make sure it goes out properly,” Moes said. “When I work hard to put my stamp of approval on something, not only does that reflect on the artist who wrote the songs, but also back onto me and the studio. That kind of work ethic makes customers happy and gets them telling others about what we have to offer.”
Those who have recorded with Moes often praise his ability to cater to the needs of different genres of musicians.
“Recording at WhySound, it’s a great experience for any musician who writes his own music,” said Jaime Ordaz, vocalist and guitarist for local metal band Gravetown. “Tim’s open to try anything because he has recorded so many different varieties of music. He knows what he’s doing and what kinds of sounds and tones fit with the different types.”
Ordaz also commended Moes for his ability to add input without being overpowering.
“He is a smart guy,” Ordaz said. “Tim might make suggestions on what he thinks would be a good idea for how part of a song should sound, but ultimately he knows it’s your music that’s coming to life, not his. That’s a pretty rare thing, but it makes a musician feel more comfortable when working in a studio.”
By meeting and working with hundreds of musicians during his five years in the valley, Moes has been able to observe the scene’s evolution.
“The thing that’s weird is how bands, musicians and genres will rotate,” he said. “A certain group of people or type of music will be prominent for a year or so but by two years the scene has completely changed again.”
Moes attributes the turnaround in the scene to musicians and their supporters growing older and taking on more responsibilities.
“When these kids get older, they get real jobs and begin having kids of their own,” Moes said. “They start focusing on their own lives and forget about their buddy’s music. They just have to take a step back. Life is like that in a college town like Logan.”
When current talent steps away into obscurity, Moes said, new musicians begin to show up in the scene. He sees these adjustments to the musical hierarchy as progress.
“New blood is good,” he said. “Maybe what someone was doing a few years ago was a little strange at the time. Maybe the large part of the audiences weren’t really getting into it then. These new performers might have really liked what they were hearing then, taken it, shaped it and developed it into something that is more widely accepted now.”
Linton believes working with local artists developing their own forms of musical expression could benefit WhySound.
“We’re always trying to find new ways to attract audiences to shows,” Linton said. “With new artists making new music, we often see new supporters who come to a show at WhySound for the first time. That’s our chance to introduce them to the music culture that is available to those in Cache Valley who want to take part in it.”
Moes looks forward to meeting future contributors to Cache Valley music.
“Eventually, just about everybody involved in the local music community passes through our doors,” Moes said. “It might be to perform, it might be to record. It could be to support a friend. We welcome anyone and we look forward to helping people realize just what this valley has to offer. It’ll probably surprise them.”