Howard Moody

I was born when I was 0 years old. My parents gave birth to me in a hospital. I used to tell them that I could remember the experience. They would laugh. I didn't understand why at the time, but now I do. I used to be obsessed with water-sprinklers and Volkswagens. I was a cute little boy with blonde hair, a high pitched voice, and a big head... always playing with my best friend, my imagination. I would build block cities and Leggo amusement parks, sometimes constructing space-ships for my h...

I was born when I was 0 years old. My parents gave birth to me in a hospital. I used to tell them that I could remember the experience. They would laugh. I didn't understand why at the time, but now I do. I used to be obsessed with water-sprinklers and Volkswagens. I was a cute little boy with blonde hair, a high pitched voice, and a big head... always playing with my best friend, my imagination. I would build block cities and Leggo amusement parks, sometimes constructing space-ships for my hamster, or pretending our driveway was a pin-ball machine. Drawing roller-coasters and video games; creative fun was always my favorite. Sometimes I would just walk around in circles and stare at the carpet or make noises. Some things never change. My 3 older sisters were always playing music around me (Bee Gees, Styx, Barry Manilow, Van Halen, Loverboy, Pat Benatar, etc...). I remember falling in love with my sister’s Donna Summer cassette tape. It gave me chills. I would listen to it and sing along, “I Feel Love.” That’s how it all began. I was raised in a very Christian home and when I was younger used to attend church at least once a week. That’s when I started listening to Stryper (Christian rock). They sounded so melodic and powerful. They were my “gateway drug” into the 1980’s heavy-metal scene. I grew my hair out, ripped my jeans, and dove "mullet first" into the culture. My friends and I were concert hoppers (Def Leppard, Judas Priest, Cinderella, etc.). It was awesome! During my junior year of high-school I came-out to my friends. I got a job, lost 60 pounds, cut my hair, pierced my ear, and started listening to different music (Madonna, Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, Disco, Techno, etc...). Basically, I totally fagged out! My self esteem shot through the roof and the guilt of my good Christian upbringing began to fade. After high-school, I got into rave culture and became a DJ. My first paying gig started as a gay-bar called Ultra Violet, but as the gay clientele faded away it became a late-night rave club. I spun records there for 4 years. I worked there all night and partied until the sun came up. It was a great time during which I became know as an "Orlando Breaks" DJ. After Ultra Violet I landed a regular DJ gig at a local gay bar, Southern Nights. The crowd there allowed me more experimentation than ever before with the music I was playing. My break-beat style became more eclectic (trance, house, rap, reggae, funk, acid, jungle, etc...). I perfected my ability to scratch records (something I had been working on for years), and started developing a core group of people that would show up every week to hear me spin. I worked at Southern for 3 years. During this time I started putting together my music studio, starting with just a computer (Apple Macintosh G3) and a sampling keyboard (Ensoniq ASRX Pro). I had dabbled in music creation in the past, but only on inferior equipment. Not having much computer experience at the time, getting the equipment to work was a difficult process, but I was determined. One night at Southern Nights I met the love of my life, John. A month later, we were living together and so began the rest of the fairy tale. This was the first time in my life that I understood what love was and he felt the same way. Within two years we would "tie the knot" and begin building our life together. With John's help, we finally got the studio up and running and I was finally making music. Hooray! The first song out of the now functional studio was an instrumental track, "NRG". I played it for John, and he got excited. Over the next 7 years this little number would morph into "Shake What 'Cha" and appear on my first album "HoMo". During this time, I started churning out songs that were reflective of the music that I was spinning at the clubs. Finally, grouping 12 tracks together that later became known as, "Micro-Trip Trailer Park". It was named after one of my paintings and enjoyed a very limited release on MP3.com. Most of the songs on it were instrumental and chock full of trippy samples. My audio clips came from people and things around me (answering machine messages, clips from movies, porn, etc...). On a few of the tracks I experimented with adding my own vocals, trying them out at my DJ gigs. They were recieved very well in the clubs, even producing a mini-hit with "Baby Drove a Lex". As time moved on, our studio grew. I started using more vocals, rapping, and scratching in my music. My first attempt at rapping was the first verse of "Shake What 'Cha". John loved it and encouraged me to keep going. I quickly completed the song, and it become the most commercial track I had written. In-your-face vocals and raps about being gay and partying started to become the cohesive spunk that defined my "sound". In the summer of 2006, I pressed my first CD, "HoMo". It had been a long time in the wait, because I kept revising, remixing, and rearranging it. In the end it was all worth it, because the final project is all the things that I want it to be: funny, funky, deep, psychedelic, outrageous, and fun. "Shake What 'Cha" is just one of the 18 tunes on it.