Wednesday, March 11, 1998
By KAREN BLISS -- Jam! Music
Canadian country siblings The Moffatts
apparently inspired MmmBop heartthrobs Hanson to become a band
and now the four singing brothers have changed their own tune to
pop-rock. The debut single, "I'll Be There For You"
will be released next month, followed by the full album.
"If anybody has been paying any attention to the media,
Hanson was the first to say one of their inspirations to become a
band was The Moffatts," claims The Moffatts father, Frank.
Although the group did little in Canada, The Moffatts made some
200 national TV appearances in the U.S., played over a1000 live
dates in the past four years and sold a quarter-million copies of
its last album. But there was only so far the pre-teen kids could
go in the country market.
"Country radio didn't want to play it because country music
is the soap-opera of radio and to have kids singing it wasn't
going to be in their demographic best interest," explains
Frank, who home schools the boys.
Scott, 14, and his 13-year-old triplet brothers, Bob, Clint and
Dave, no longer do the "Caterpillar Crawl" line dance,
a video for which they made to support their self-titled country
album.
"If we sang country music, we'd be stuck in one place, so if
we sing pop-rock then we could do a lot more with our career,"
says Scott. "It's what we like; it's what we listen to."
Born and bred in Victoria, BC, then based out of Nashville, TN,
The Moffatts had the duds, the drawl and the dance down pat. But
once they hit their teens, they started listening to pop and rock
music. Even country superstar Garth Brooks is supportive of the
boys about-face.
"We were in New York last year," recalls Frank, "just
before Garth did his show in the park and he was talking to the
boys at the airport, and said to me, `Frank, it's way better the
boys are singing this pop rock; if I was their age, I'd be pissed
at you if I had to play country music.'"
The Moffatts have been working doubly hard at mastering their
instruments -- Scott plays guitar, Bob plays drums, Dave plays
keyboards and Clint plays bass -- and take to the stage with no
auxiliary performers.
"We've been playing our instruments for quite a while now
but over the last five years we've been really working together
and trying to become a great band," says Scott.
The Moffatts pop/rock debut, on EMI Germany, is mainly about
love, says Scott. "You can't sing about the rodeo," he
jokes of the biggest change in switching to pop. Although he
admits he and his brothers don't have "very many"
experiences in the love department, he says, "we watch
movies and we hear other songs."
The boys were recently in Toronto, meeting the folks at EMI Music
Canada, and showcasing for them at Playdium in Mississauga, Ont.
They also recut three of the album's 13 tracks ("I'll Be
There For You", "Jump" and "Miss You Like
Crazy") at Metalworks Studios, in order to up the CanCon
quotient (to eight) and ensure a better shot at Canadian radio.
"Some of the stuff is reminiscent of early Bryan Adams and
some of the other stuff would be more of a pop feel," says
Frank. "I'd say the album is a lot like a Beatles album --
it's kind of A to Z. You can't really stereotype The Moffatts on
this album. They write what they feel."
(Original text: http://www.canoe.ca/AllPop-Moffatts/980311_ownhanson.html)