Only last June did I discover the chill waves slowly rippling off moistbreezy. A late-night swim through the endless bounds of Spotify granted me the pleasure of coming across her discography. Upon my initial listening, beginning with moistbreezy’s 2017 project, ‘Miss Me,’ I found solace in her soothing voice, which rounds out her infectious, poppy sound. Afterward, there was an immediate yearn to learn more about the artist behind the music.
In her own words via her Spotify, “moistbreezy is an artist.” But that is too general, applicable to many others. Or perhaps I knew too little about her to already come to that conclusion. Either way, a phone-call with moistbreezy in April of this year plugged the holes of my unfinished story. While in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic, she was able to set some time aside and talk with me about the sound of her music: past, present and future.
Prior to the conversation, I was only aware of moistbreezy’s earliest releases from 2016. It’s no surprise that her musical inclinations extend further back. “I played piano when I was younger and had taken music theory, but when I actually learned how to produce, it was 2014. I wanted to do it seriously, not just messing around here and there,” moistbreezy revealed. Her introduction to production paired with her existing appreciation for electronic music were the perfect prerequisites for her transition to pop.
“I was like, ‘I’m going to use my own vocals on my beats.’ But at the time, I feel like that wasn’t much of a thing, where producer-DJ’s were doing their own vocals on tracks. There were a lot of producers who were just putting out beats, or working with pop-line vocalists,” moistbreezy claimed. “I quickly learned that I didn’t want to do the traditional DJ-type dance music, and was more interested in doing vocal driven stuff. I slowly moved toward pop music, or dance-pop music.”
“It’s been an evolution.”
It was around the release of ‘Miss Me’ that moistbreezy says she began her shift into pop music. “That project is where I started really committing to a pop direction.” The tape itself reflects that transition. The four-track project works as an homage to the foundation of her own recording history, as well as her consumption of electronic-dance music. ‘Miss Me’ has a seemingly equal balance of dance and pop, some tracks even combining the two. A personal favorite is “Boys Like U,” which I retrospectively listen to as moistbreezy’s official deviation into pop music.
Three years after the release of ‘Miss Me,’ I inquired about moistbreezy’s current musical inspirations, as she has completely evolved as an artist. Aqua and Kylie Minogue came right off the dome. She’s been bumping Charli XCX and Dua Lipa lately, but pulls inspiration from artists like Vengaboys too. After listening to her latest single, you can tell she was listening closely and truly picked up some of their most appreciated sounds.
“Breathless (Keeping Me Up All Night),” is moistbreezy’s latest single, complete with remixes and a dope cover art. “It’s one of those songs that came out of nowhere,” she admitted. “I was really inspired by the instrumental of Aqua’s ‘Barbie Girl,’ so I wanted to do something like that. And around the time I was having trouble sleeping, so there’s a little bit of the idea of insomnia which turned into a romantic pop song.” It’s ironic, because upon listening to the song, there’s no way you’ll want to head to bed. There’s no doubt that you’ll hear the song, then you’ll wake up (you will understand this soon).
The inspiration for the sound of “Breathless” is pulled from the well-oversaturated Aqua song, but moistbreezy’s reason for creating the song is much different. She uses the same reasoning to describe the sound of her upcoming project. “There’s a lot of music that’s dark or about being anxious. I feel like we need music that makes you feel good, makes you feel like things could be okay even if it’s just while you’re listening to the song,” moistbreezy stated.
Regardless of if “Breathless” helps you forget that an orange man isn’t further ruining the country or not, the song will still put you in your own bubble as long as it plays. That’s just the vibes moistbreezy applies to her upcoming mixtape. “I want it to sound aquatic and tropical, but very fun and poppy. There are some 80’s influence, there are definitely some songs that are more chill and some slower songs,” she explained. “It’s not all just fast dance like ‘Breathless’ but overall trying to have the whole vibe be uplifting and feel-good.”
moistbreezy is here to eradicate low-vibes brought on by the pandemic through her own overcoming of the quarantine. The stay-at-home orders which swept the nation in late March did little to stop her from working on her music. “I was always working on it by myself at my in-home studio,” she told me. That said, a lack of motivation or energy was a plague for many creatives, including moistbreezy. The inability to be social and see loved ones cast a nationwide cloud of gloom. “Sometimes inspiration is a little bit harder to come by, especially trying to do something that is meant to be uplifting.”
As summer dawns in the United States, many are reappearing outside to continue life as usual. moistbreezy brought up challenges she would face in the future, such as creating visuals, which should still be considered a health risk for many. Then again, a promotional video for her collection of remixes to “Breathless” may be evidence that she can, like everything else, do it all by herself. Not just the video, but moistbreezy is the creative behind every aspect of her art, including photography.
Being so self-sufficient, I am certain we will be seeing new content from her sooner rather than later. From the way “Breathless” sounds and all the information she shared with me, I know it’s not a matter of if it will be good, but instead when it will drop. You can join the ‘I’m waiting for moistbreezy to release her new mixtape’ group in one easy step: check out “Breathless” below. And did I really need to advise you to bump the rest of her music via Spotify? I really hope not.