Features : Former Kane Hodder rocker returns to punk rock roots with ‘The Spark’

The former frontman for the hardcore band “Kane Hodder” is making his return to the music industry and returning to his Pop Punk/Punk Rock roots with a new album and a series of singles coming out through the summer.

Andrew Moore, performing under the stage name xnerdyspicex, said he’s been helping save lives as a respiratory therapist at a Seattle Hospital for several years, including the last two-plus years on the front line in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I had been toying with songs the last few years but with the quarantine and cabin fever in full swing, I finally started releasing music after a very long hiatus,” Moore said. “Going back to my roots and using everything I have learned over the years, I am putting out aggressive and anthemic Pop Punk/Power Pop. Using the moniker xnerdyspicex harkens back to a time of a bunch of punk kids from Bremerton obsessing over the movie Spice World and by default, the Spice Girls themselves. Since I was also deeply engrained in geek culture, I was teasingly called Nerdy Spice by my girlfriend at the time.”

Moore has a project coming out on all streaming platforms on May 18 is a 12-song album of what he calls “punk rock Disney Covers,” called “Infinity/Beyond.”

“The pandemic has been pretty terrible with a lot of people leaving the (medical) industry, which I do not blame them,” Moore said. “As far as making music, I’ve been wanting to get back into it and then the pandemic made me think, you know, I didn’t actually want to be in the medical field, I just fell into it. What I wanted to do was play music so maybe I should just give that another whirl.

“All my life I’ve been a big fan of Disney stuff in general. I have two little kids and we listen to a lot of Disney music so I’m like, how can I make these in the style that I’m used to playing. But I pretty quickly found that cover songs were not going to be fulfilling, so I pushed it to the side as I focused on original material. Now that I have a few songs under my belt and released, and even more on the way, I was able to finish the covers album and sneak in a release for that as well.

Moore is also coming out with a new single called “The Spark” that pays homage to his days with “Kane Hodder” and laments the loss of that creative spark that drove that band’s success.

“That song is specifically about the writers block that set in with Kane Hodder,” Moore said. “It’s just me now, writing music and things are coming pretty easy to me, but the chorus saying says ‘don’t go away,’ is me saying to the creative spark, please, please stay with me.

“I just figure I want to go back to my roots of the power pop, pop punk style which I played in my first bands. I have more experience now and I feel like I really know how to formulate a song more than ever that is energetic, personal to me, but also gets people to want to sing along and hum along. So that’s how it all came together.”

“The Spark” comes out on all platforms on June 15.

People can preview “Infinity/Beyond” and “The Spark” on Moore’s Bandcamp sites:

https://xnerdyspicex.bandcamp.com/album/infinity-beyond

https://xnerdyspicex.bandcamp.com/track/the-spark

Follow xnerdyspicex on all social and streaming platforms at:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xnerdyspicex

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/xnerdyspicex

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5vVBQTbeporhsd5kpPJUew

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4pUyOR6ys3CqRQck4X99sU