Maverick Record’s New Music Talent:
Like the girl next door only spunkier, Detroit native MoZella recently got off her first major tour with Lifehouse. Mo, as her friends and family call her, has already added a national Mercedes Benz ad to her resume and managed to accomplish that ever-fervent goal all musicians share: landing a record deal, signing with her dream label Maverick. We caught up with MoZella post-performance at the Warner Bros. party thrown in her honor in NYC - an unusual performance for the 24-year old singer/songwriter, who had performed three weeks on tour without a hitch, because she had lost her voice that same day. Regardless, the charming chanteuse handled the crowd with grace and humor. She did the only thing she could do - she threw back a shot of whiskey and embraced the unpredictable experience of a live performance. Despite it all, she improvised, welcoming fans - Tyler Hilton among them - onto the stage to help her belt out her soulful tunes. Under the same circumstances, most other musicians would cancel, but MoZella chose to practice what she preaches: “You let go one day. When I let go was when people started responding. When you let go is when people relate to you.” She may be on to something...
Interview by Lauren Adams, Danny Tidwell and David Benaym
Where does the name MoZella come from? Maureen. When I was a kid, Mo was a nickname. My dad called me Mo, and my family called me MoMo, and then MoZella. Then Moesha, Mozers, Mozie, Mozambique, Mozarella. So when I got a record deal, they were like, “What do you want to go by?” I said MoZella. How was it touring with Lifehouse? They were amazing. They were very conscientious and kind and thoughtful. For as big as they are, they weren’t arrogant at all. They were really nice. We hung out, went drinking, laughed together. I was so impressed with how humble they were. How is it to walk the line with Elvis every night?
Oh, with Tyler Hilton! (Tyler Hilton played Elvis in the Oscar winning movie “Walk the Line”) You know,
Tyler and I had been playing acoustic shows together for probably three or four years, before he even was on TV. So Tyler is very no-nonsense with me. We talk like we’re siblings almost. He never acts like he’s too cool for anybody. We met when I signed with Maverick. He was already with them, and we played coffee shops together. Why did you choose Maverick? Well, a few major labels were interested, but I always loved Madonna’s label. From the time I started playing the guitar at 13 or 14, I was obsessed with Madonna. She’s from Michigan, so I remember being young and thinking, ‘Oh my god, I want a record deal, I wanna sign with
Maverick, they’re so cool!’ And then when I was auditioning for record labels, a few were interested, but I was kinda partial. They offered an amount and I was like: Done! I just love their idea of female power. Did you always want to be a musician? I was always performing and acting in plays and playing the piano all day long. I always sang and loved to be on stage. I thought I wanted to be a theater performer, thought I wanted to dance and sing, and then I got cut from the play when I was in ninth grade! I was like, that’s it, I’ll never be on stage again. Then I started playing the guitar and realized I love this, and then I was like, I’m gonna get my own show, fuck all these people! So I went to the coffee shop and I you go to college. I thought, I’m not going to college, I’m moving to Los Angeles! I’m gonna get a record deal! So what happened when you moved to L.A.? Oh, it was hard. Did you move together with your brother? No, I just called him crying every day. I was like, this is terrible. I’m alone, I don’t have a car, I don’t have a job, I don’t know anybody. But I finally got a job cake decorating. I got fat in a deli. I probably decorated for like six months and waitressed for two years.
Her older brother Andy interjects and tells a story about how MoZella borrowed his car while she was in high school and when she returned it, there was a bumper sticker that read: “Those who abandon their dreams will discourage yours.” He ripped it off, and says that to this day he feels bad about it. That was my philosophy in my senior year of high school - don’t let anybody discourage your dreams. So everybody’s applying to colleges, and I went to a preparatory so it was like…
WRITING AND SINGING FOR MERCEDES One of MoZella’s friends was editing a television ad for Mercedes and asked her to send him some songs. While they didn’t find the perfect fit in any of her pre-recorded songs, she was able to write something overnight watching the images of the commercial. Here is how MoZella recalls this experience: “So they sent me the ad, and I put the TV on and turned the volume down, and just watched these flashing pictures of people from the 40s and 50s with their old cars. I sat down with my guitar in front of these still pictures and I said, how would I feel looking at a photograph of people I love with cars? I thought of my dad, and I thought of my mom, and my grandparents, and I started writing this song. It wasn’t about the ad, and it wasn’t about even getting the deal. So I wrote it, and I went into the recording studio and I took a mic - one mic for my vocal and my guitar. I sang it, sent it to NY the same night. The next day, the executive from Mercedes called and said, ‘You got it.’ The demo was used on the ad! And that’s how the song ‘Amazed’ was born.”
played live and they asked me if I wanted to play Friday nights. I was 15, I had braces. I was all awkward. Everyone from school showed up, probably 100 in this tiny little room, and they were all cheering, “Go Mo!”
That whole time you were working on your music? Totally. I would go to coffee shops by myself. I’d walk with no car, alone. My roommates were two lesbians. My mom’s like, are you gay? I was like, Mom, no, I’m not gay, I just live with lesbians. But for a Catholic mother from the Midwest...
So I’d walk to coffee shops and play the guitar and just try to get my emotions out, because I was in such a weird state. What did you learn from your experiences there? Well, you know what I learned? I learned humanity. I learned that no matter who you are, you’re human. I was working in a deli with Mexican guys who have wives, children, families back in Mexico. They’re people. They taught me and they embraced me when all those bitchy waitresses wouldn’t be nice to me because I was blonde and young and chipper. I had no friends and they took me in and spent time with me. So, what I learned is, above all, you treat everyone with respect. That, no matter where I go in life, I’m human. I bleed, I cry, and these people bleed and cry, too. They were born into this situation that they couldn’t help. I’m so thankful for all I had to go through because I cried a lot. And through crying, I learned my voice. So do you think that’s where your broken voice comes from? I have a soulful voice, and that
Dancin’ MoZella Before she went to London, MoZella took ballet classes: “I was like, I need to expand my horizons. I took Shakespeare classes, and I took ballet. It made me realize that there’s more to life than getting a record deal. I learned how to stand up straight with ballet. “I learned that Shakespeare knows his shit! He knows that what happens right now is going to happen in a thousand years. So it made me realize that no matter what I’m feeling, people are going to feel it forever. I started writing from that perspective.”
comes from letting go. It’s hard to let go. You let go one day. So going through all these hardships in Los Angeles taught me that I’m just human, let it go. When I let go was when people started responding. When you let go is when people relate to you. What happened next? How did you become MoZella? There were probably ten false starts. Probably ten people liked me, producers thinking I’m it, and I thought I was, so I followed them and it wasn’t it. After all these obligatory false starts, it happened for me. I moved. I gave up on L.A. I went to London, and I lived there for four months. I actually put time into my art, not into being famous. Why? Before you were trying to be famous? I just wanted to get a record deal, not be famous. So I said forget record deals, I’m gonna go make good music, period. I ate great food, I lived a great life. I went to Sweden, I went to Italy, I went all over. I was 21, and I said, ‘I’m an artist now, I’m done worrying about getting a record deal, I’m just gonna be an artist.’ At the end of my trip I got an email that said, “I work at a record label. You need to come back and meet me.” And I was like, ‘Oh my god! I let go and somehow it came back to me.’ So I left. I had no job, no house. I couchsurfed. Then I got meetings with record labels out of nowhere. They discovered me through shitty demos, with just me and the guitar. So do you write all of your music and lyrics? Oh, I write everything. I co-write some songs, but most of my songs I sit and write. How does it happen? Do you hear it? Yeah. I’ll wake up in the middle of the night, and I’ll be playing a song, and be like, what is that? And I’ll grab a tape recorder. Like “Killing Time” came from 9/11, basically. I woke up in the middle of the night and wrote that. That’s how I write. I wake up with an emotion and I write it. How did you start “Messiah”? “Oh, ‘Messiah.’ It’s kinda sacrilegious. I sat down one night in my apartment alone, and I thought about all these
Amazing grace comes in the form of a slap in the face Now I don’t believe what I see anymore, ‘cause it’s all the same We wander in and out of love like it’s meant to scar us, and we never change
I thought, I’m not gonna let that happen to me, and if I can prevent it, I’m gonna help other girls not let it happen to them. No, we never think to change, but don’t tell me that I’m wrong I know I’m not that strong, but I never thought that loving you would hurt for so long So I worshiped you, and I praised your name, and I lived through you like a Messiah I bled for you, and I screamed your name, and worshiped you like a Messiah
What’s the best advice you’ve received so far in your career? Well, it’s Henry David Thoreau, and it’s “Know Thyself,” because as an artist everybody’s trying to tell you who you are and everybody’s trying to tell you how to do it. I read that quote one day and I didn’t get it. Not until a couple of years later did I realize what he was talking about. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter what they say. Am I who I am? Do I know that I’m an artist? Do I know that I can write? Can I get on stage and not be able to sing but still be able to hold an audience because I know that I can sing when I’m on it? Why are you so driven? Why am I so driven? I’m driven because I feel like I’ve tapped into something, I don’t know what it is, but I feel like I’ve been blessed. And if I didn’t follow my calling, I feel like I’d be doing a disservice to the universe, and not in an arrogant way, just that I can sing. I can express emotions that most people are trying to explain but they can’t. So it’s not about money, it’s not about fame. It’s about creating and showing people that maybe I’m not perfect. As long as I can show people that I’m an artist and that I feel what you feel. We live, and we die, and we breathe, and we are.
girls that sacrifice themselves for men, and I thought:
