The new album from Bob Moses ‘BLINK’ comes out October 17th amidst much anticipation. The album tackles themes of reconciling the past with the present, capturing the life moments that inspire and vanish before they’re truly understood. Tom Howie of the duo stated, “the album’s like a question: How do you reconcile the desire to have a meaningful life with the realization that it’s gone in an instant, that you can’t hold onto things for too long?” He continued, “It wasn’t a conscious choice, but the way we made this record fits that idea, and maybe that’s why we’ve touched on it: it’s a phase in our lives where we’re doing everything in moments.”
Howie and his Bob Moses partner, Jimmy Vallance were living on opposite coasts during the writing process, with Howie in Los Angeles and Vallance in New York. It was the first time the pair were physically far apart during the song creation process after nearly ten years working together, trading demos through Dropbox and Discord, building ideas from keyboard riffs and drum loops, before ultimately meeting up in various cities including their own, Toronto, and Vancouver to flesh out songs as a unit together in the studio. They credit the shift to allow for the ideas to come to them at their own pace and even surprise each other.
Since forming in New York City in 2012, Bob Moses have earned widespread critical acclaim, many awards including a Grammy and a huge fanbase worldwide after their breakout track “Tearing Me Up” propelled them into the mainstream.
Bob Moses spoke with B-Sides host Pete Mar at Portola Music Festival about performing at the festival and their perspective on San Francisco’s influence on electronic music. They talk about making their latest album, ‘Blink’ and more.
