Words by James Hendicott
Plenty of musicians start life dabbling with their instrumentation through their teenage years, laying down the opening salvos on a sound that will – sometime later – develop into something unique and substantial. Few, though, see their home-produced attempts cause a mini-storm of hype across the blogosphere quite as early on as Newbridge native Jack Colleran, whose music already comes across as fully formed by any standard.
Colleran, better known as Moths (or Motts, when the pronunciation is correct, it turns out), has seen his early tracks fawned over on Soundcloud and highlighted by Ireland’s bloggy superhuman Nialler9, despite having done little more with his music to date than uploading it to the Internet. We caught up with the 17-year-old Leaving Cert student to ask about life, musical development and just where he plans on taking his mellow, swirling electronica when those exams are out of the way…
Why the name ‘Moths’?
Motts. Mott is slang for girl/girlfriend around here. Every girl hates being called mott. That’s vital.
How are you balancing your musical production and taking your Leaving Cert?
Not very well. I’m trying my best to keep up with everything but some days I can feel my focus drifting towards my music and that really worries me. I really just need to get through these next few months and then it will all be done.
What are your long-term ambitions for Moths?
I don’t really think I have any ambitions for Moths. I never really expected any of this to happen, especially this quickly. I suppose when things settle a bit I’ll start making plans and deciding where I would like things to go. At the minute I’m just taking it all in.
Moths – <3 from Moths on Vimeo.
Do you have an album or EP on the horizon?
I hope to have an EP sorted sometime over the next few months. Nothing’s organised yet.
Where do your musical ideas come from? Is there any particular inspiration behind your work?
I don’t know, I never really experience something and say okay I’ll write a song about that. It just comes out.
How and where do you produce your music?
On my computer, just my computer. In my bed during the night when everyone else is sleeping.
Your music isn’t typical for people of your age. What do your friends make of your songs?
Haha. They say they like it, I don’t know if they actually do.
You’ve made good use of the Internet in promoting your sound so far. How important do you think it is to a budding musician?
If it wasn’t for the Internet we wouldn’t be having this discussion. The Internet is everything now.
It’s fairly difficult to find a great deal of information on you, beyond the tracks themselves. Do you like the air of mystery surrounding your music?
Hahaha I never knew about this. I honestly don’t know.
You’ve just remixed Passion Pit, and we’ve heard there are bigger remixes along the way. How did the remixes come about?
The Passion Pit remix is an unofficial remix and yeah there’s another remix coming, I can’t really say anything about that.
What are your plans for the future? How do you plan to pursue your music when school has finished?
I’m going to try get a lot done this summer, shows/music/promotion etc. I don’t really like to plan, in the past when I’ve planned things they just seem to fall apart so I’m just going to take things as they come. I’m considering studying music production/technology/sound engineering. Something along those lines.
As published in AU Magazine, March 2011.