His Spotify bio introduces the EDM artist Moose with a Scarf this way: “The leading producer in overly energetic, vaguely sarcastic, nearly inaccessible electronic music.”
The Moose’s new release, “Stein Engine (Elizabeth’s Song),” is all of those things. It moves like a bullet train with keyboards and drums that send physical pulses through the blood stream.
Also, being a song he and his wife wrote for their daughter, it is sweet and cute because it features her saying the kind of cutesy things 3-year-olds say.
The name Stein Engine (pronounced steen) comes from a nickname they gave their daughter, Steinberg, which extended family misheard as Steamberg, so when they saw pictures of her on a toy scooter, it became a steam engine, corrected to Stein engine, now immortalized in song.
“My wife and I wanted to write a song for each of our kids,” said the Moose, given name Anthony Sabatino, “and originally, we thought of making lullabies or something, but that just felt too saccharine, and not our style, and then my wife came up with the idea of doing a Moose with a Scarf EDM-style remix where we use some of the cute phrases and sayings Elizabeth would say over the years.”
The YouTube video will drop the same day.
His style, as expressed in his genre list, says EDM, progressive house, dance, dance pop, but he brings to his music that “vaguely sarcastic, nearly inaccessible” attitude and more styles.
For instance, his output includes an EDM remake/remix/redo of a Blue Oyster Cult hit. In Moose world, it’s called “Burning 4 Moose,” but it’s got some great ’80s style rock mixed in, and absolutely dynamite vocals from Lauren Richards, who brings serious power and range.
“Highly overly energetic, vaguely sarcastic, nearly inaccessible” is a fun thing to say, and he definitely brings the fun to his music and videos, but he really is serious about his music and what he wants to do with it.
The key is in the “vaguely sarcastic” bit.
“I’ve always loved electronic music, but I also find some elements of electronic music kind of predictable and silly,” he said. “And so, sometimes I like to throw stuff in there to kind of sarcastically poke fun at the genre itself, while also embracing its oddities and quirks. That's where the vaguely sarcastic comes from.”
His musical background began with rock and then classical, and he works also in film and gaming music. He is he says, “a bit of an outsider in the EDM world.” He often hears that his music sounds like 2013 “or feels like very classic electronic music.”
“And whatnot,” he said.
But he has noticed this: “It's like a kind of a big, growing thing in electronic music for people to try to try to do what’s popular so as to blow up, and there tends to be a lack of identity in a lot of music, especially in electronic music.’
“So,” he said, “my big goal is to bring music with meaning, in a way. Like, yes, ‘Stein Engine,’ it's kind of like a goofy dance track romp, but there’s a deeper meaning. I sampled my daughter. We dance to it all the time. It’s more than just some club track. And same with ‘Back to You.’”
“Back to You,” released earlier this year, is an EDM-rock-pop song that features the wonderful voice of Lauren Richard, this time in a high register.
“I wanted to combine elements of pop, rock and dubstep and other things, and I think that there’s a clamoring in the electronic music world for people to try something different and brash while also maintaining a catchy element.”
One of the things he wants is more live performances, and one side of that is him performing in front of audiences, but his chosen music universe is EDM and that means DJing, and here is where we return to the “vaguely sarcastic” element.
“Like I said before, I’m kind of an outsider in the EDM world. I’m not a DJ. I don’t really have an interest in being a DJ. I have a number of friends who are DJs. Good for them. It’s not for me. But because DJing is such a big part of EDM, I was trying to figure out how to make that work.”
The answer is Moosebot, which is a moose-head robot DJ that he can program to do shows.
He is serious about that, but then there’s also that vague sarcasm.
“The Moosebot concept itself is almost kind of a performance-art commentary on DJing as well,” he said. “My whole ideas is, like, a robot can just dance up front and it would be the exact same thing. It’s kind of a little bit my joke, but at the same time, it’s embracing the quirks of the electronic music culture. I’ve talked to some people and they really love the idea of a robot DJ in a concert, so I’m about to start pitching the idea to clubs and places around the area.”
He lives and works in Kansas City, Kansas.
His “pie in the sky vision” is a cinematic production for Moose with a Scarf, because most of his music, he says, has a visual element. His YouTube channel has not only his music but a series of short videos. Gentle sarcasm is a feature to a lot of them.
A concert with visuals, lights and the Moosebot, “all those things are definitely goals.”
“One big goal for me, obviously, is getting the music out there,” including an upcoming Christmas album, “and getting as many people as possible to hear ‘Stein Engine’ and see the music video.”
Listen to the song, watch the video and stay connected to Moose with a Scarf on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.
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