With the release of Chapter I: A New Beginning(Capitol), this Canadian quartet is rockin' American just as hard as they've been rockin' the rest of the planet.
Hanson 2: The Sequel? *Wrong!* The Moffatts are not a Hanson rip-off, but a totally unique pop/rock group that's been refining its sound for years. Once you listen to the future Moffatts hits "I'll Be There For You" and "Miss You Like Crazy," you're going to be hooked.
Weirdly, The Moffatts are not debuting in America with this album. Instead, they're *returning.* See, they used to do country music when they were (even) younger, and had two successful albums for Mercury called It's A Wonderful World and The Moffatts. As they performed together and grew musically, they found their sound morphing into pop. So they relaunched themselves overseas, where they've won gold and platinum albums in more countries than the average teacher could name.
The Moffatts are made up of oldest bro Scott, a 16-year-old guitarist born March 30, and his 15-year-old *triplet* brothers: Clint (bass), Bob(drums) and Dave(keyboards). Just to make things interesting, Clint and Bob are identical twins along with being two-thirds of a set of triplets!
On top of being masters of their individual instruments, the Moffatt brothers have an ear-pleasing harmony that makes their songs stand out from anything else on the radio.
We spoke with this bro band and they posed for these great pictures-now do you understand why Asia is suffering from a bad case of "Moffatt Mania"?
Scott Moffatt - The Interview
Popstar!: How do you get inspired when you're coming up with love songs for The Moffatts?
Scott: Ummm... Usually when I write songs, I write it off of experiences or other examples and, you know, I haven't necessarily experienced real love. I don't think I will experience it until I get married or something like that. But I just write about different ways that I feel about a woman. If I go on a date or something and I really like this girl a lot, I'll write about the way I feel.
Popstar!: Tell me about a Moffatts song you love that no one in America has heard yet.
Scott: Right now, it's "Misery." It's a song that I wrote. It's really powerful, really emotional. A real pop/rock song. It's really great, I think. I wrote it about a girl that I actually was seeing at the time. Actually, I went on one date and I really was crazy about her and I wrote the song about her, because that's how I felt.
Popstar!: So you guys find time to date?
Scott: We're really busy, but we usually make time to go on dates. If we're going to dinner with Capitol or something, we'll say, "Can we bring along this girl?" and ask her out.
Popstar!: Did you teach yourself how to play the guitar?
Scott: Well, I got three chords from my dad and I took it from there. I had inspiration to really play guitar, so I said, "I will do whatever I can to become the best that I can be."
Popstar!: Why the guitar and not, say, the drums?
Scott: (Playfully) I think chicks dig the guitar.
Popstar!: How did you decide *who* would play *what* instrument?
Scott: I was playing guitar along with my brothers Bob and Clint at the very beginning. We were all playing guitar and were learning scales and stuff like that. Over time, Bob and Clint just said, "This is a really boring instrument for me." But I fell in love with the guitar, so I kept playing. Clint was playing the bass and Bob was alwyas hitting things. He was always drumming on the table and stuff. (Kidding) Which is very annoying, but he did. And he picked up the drums. And Dave was always playing the keyboards. All my brothers pretty much started playing instruments a year after I did.
Popstar!: I know you're a poet. Does a lot of your poetry turn into songs?
Scott: Actualy... A lot of the poetry I have written was made into songs, but they are not songs that we really could do now. They are a little too... let's say... too uncommercial.
Popstar!: You guys do lots for your fans. How do you feel about fans?
Scott: I think there are three things that you need to be successful in the industry. One of them being the support from the industry. You also need radio, press, media. And most importantly, definitely, the fans. Fans stick with you.
Popstar!: Do you get mobbed by fans?
Scott: Oh, yeah. We did a radio interview in Spain. We're driving on the road, just minding our business, getting ready to do the interview. And we pull up and the whole street is jam-packed with people. They had police and tons on these trucks everywhere, sirens going off. We leave the radio station about half and hour later and we get to the hotel and there's like 2,000 people already there! And we get out of the van to go up the stairs to the hotel, and we're walking up the stairs and these girls are grabbing for our necks and our hair. It was really freaky. I was totally tripped out!
Popstar!: Would you ever date one of those hair-grabbing fangirls?
Scott: We are totally open-minded to whoever we date. Whether she is a fan or just someone who has no clue of who we are. If they are a fan, that's great. All the fans, all the better. (Laughs)
Clint Moffatt -The Interview
Popstar!: Are you guys all the same or totally different from each other?
Clint: I think we're all completely different. Bob is the completely total opposite of me. I've very driven, Dave is very talkative. The complete opposite of the three of us. I mean, we talk to people, but not like he does. We couldn't get a conversation going as quick as he could. I don't think there's anything the same about us. Bob and me are identical twins, but that could be the only thing that's the same!
Popstar!: How has changing your musical style changed your career?
Clint: Maybe the awareness-I mean, overseas, when we were singing country music overseas, those places weren't really big on it. Now we're multi-platinum over there. Also, the radio when we were singing country music would not play us, because it wasn't the thing. Kids weren't allowed to sing about that kind of stuff unless it was about beer or about going to a bar. We didn't want to sing about that.
Popstar!: Where were you born and where do you live now?
Clint: We were born in Vancouver, Canada, the triplets. And Scott was born in Whitehorse. But we all grew up in Victoria. We've been living in Nashville, Tennessee, for the last three or four years. If anything, we will settle down and stay in L.A.-that's where the record company is.
Popstar!: So what place really feels like home to you right now?
Clint: I would think...nowhere. There is no place right now where we're there for awhile.
Popstar!: What do you do about school?
Clint: We home-school. Our parents teach us. It's not easier than any public school, it's actually maybe harder. We just got back our test and we're doing really well. So we're excited about that.
Popstar!: What are your favorite subjects?
Clint: My favorite subject would have to be either science or social studies. I love reading about way back when you know. When Christopher Columbus was discovering the US and those kinds of places. And the cowboys were fighting. And if I could do anything, have one wish, I would go back in time and see what it was like. Popstar!: What's the coolest crowd you've ever played to?
Clint: Ummm... I think that there were so many of them! We just did a couple of shows in Lisbon and it was a very intimate place. Only about 3,000. The crowd sang every word to every song! It was great. There was nothing better than hearing the eruption. We live for that, you know.
Popstar!: How do you feel when you see a magazine with your face on the cover?
Clint: For us, it's really exciting. When we saw our first cover, it was in Germany. It was a great feeling that our music was making people happy and that they were sending letters requesting us to be on the cover. Even after you get hundreds of covers, when you see yourself on the hundredth cover, it's still just as exciting.
Popstar!: Do you feel famous? Clint: I don't like to say that we're "famous." I don't like to have that arrogance. I don't think that's right. A lot of entertainers think of themselves as "stars." But for us, there are no other stars than the stars in the sky.
Popstar!: What makes you happiest? Clint: Just to make people happy through our music. If we can make people smile because of our music, that would be an incredible thing. Over in the Philippines, we just got an honor for "the nicest band." Our of anything that we have ever received, that has been a great part of our career. Because that's an honorable award.
Bob Moffatt -The Interview
Popstar!: If you're home-schooled, who teaches what?
Bob: Our step-mother and dad split the subjects. She mostly does the language, the English and that part of our curriculum. And our dad does the math, social studies and all the hard stuff. (Laughs) They make sure we get it all done.
Popstar!: Why did you abandon the guitar for the drums?
Bob: I thought it was quite crazy. Clint and I didn't like the instrument, but Scott kept playing, every day and every day. Clint picked up the bass and his first bass that he ever actually played was a red V-neck. He thought the shape of it was cool and he thought the whole look of it was cool and that was why he picked that. I liked playing drums, because I liked always banging everything. I would take out drums and just bang on them. Our dad got me a little white drum kit. I thought that was cool. And a couple week later, he got me a big black one!
Popstar!: (Laughs) So you made a lot of noise!
Bob: Yeah. We were in the basement at our Nana and Papa's house. We were living in Canada at the time. We used to annoy them a lot. We used to practice all the time.
Popstar!: Do you remember your first show?
Bob:Our first show as a group was probably Timmy's Telethon, a charity event for kids in wheelchairs and that sort of thing. We were so young that we didn't even get nervous. It didn't even click with us.
Popstar!: Was it just you guys all along on stage?
Bob: At the time, we would have a backup band that would play for us because we were only five and six. So we couldn't quite take on that job yet.
Popstar!: Is there a leader of The Moffatts?
Bob: No, but our personalities are very different. Scott's really creative and he's kind of controlling at times because he is the older brother.
Popstar!: Do you ever have any time to yourself?
Bob: Not right now. We're doing concerts every day, and promotions, and our parents are always there. So, it's like...right now, we don't get a break. That's the key to success. You have the breaks after you've made it. (Laughs) Once you get up there.
Popstar!: Do you guys ever fight?
Bob: We usually don't get into physical fights. Sometimes we will have arguments when we're working on a song or anything involving music that we want to do now. There's four opinions coming into the song, and not all of them can make the same idea.
Bob: For me, any situation where there is a bunch of fans ends up being strange, in a way. Clint and I were walking through a venue that we were performing at in Vienna, Austria. On one side of the venue was the hotel and on the other side was a stage where we performed at. As we walked through the hotel to the venue, we heard some sounds of giggling and stuff. We looked back and there were five fans under the table of the restaurant! We thought that was hilarious because you couldn't get in there because the doors were locked and the venue was closed! We just thought, "How could they get in here without a key? They must have snuck in when we were getting in, too" I thought that was pretty crazy.
Popstar!: When did you first experience a *crazed* fan reaction?
Bob: When we went over to Germany and we released our first single there, "I'll Be There For You." I think it's pretty neat when the fans are screaming.
Dave Moffatt -The Interview
Popstar!: You're the youngest of the family. How does it feel?
Dave:It doesn't really make a difference, since I'm only two minutes younger than the other two triplets. Clint was the first, then Bob, then me.
Popstar!: Have you given up country forever?
Dave: I think that we're always going to support country music, because that is our roots. I mean, it's not the first thing that we pop into the CD player. But we're still going to have-what's the word?-respect for country music.
Popstar!: Which do you like better-pop or country?
Dave: I like the pop/rock more. I mean, it's the type of music that we like to listen to. Teenagers go through a time in their life when they like the rockier stuff.
Popstar!: How different was Nashville when you moved there from Canada?
Dave: Well, the weather is different. (Laughs) And in Nashville, there was a lot more music around us. There are a lot more record labels. It was a pretty big change for us. We don't live there anymore.
Popstar!: Where are you based now?
Dave: For now, if we're going to spend time anywhere, it's in Canada. But we are going to be spending a majority of our time either in England or America.
Popstar!: Do you have a house anywhere?
Dave: We don't have a house because we travel so often. Our dad is thinking of eventually settling down in Canada, but we don't know.
Popstar!: Speaking of traveling, what's your favorite country outside the US and Canada?
Dave: My favorite is Spain. It's really relaxing over there. The food is really great. But fans all over the place are just great.
Popstar!: What did you do for sight-seeing in Spain?
Dave: We went to a bull-fight, which was interesting. It was very...different. We got to go to some really cool buildings. We went to the oldest restaurant in all of Europe. That was in Spain and it was really cool-oh, I don't know. (Shouts to someone in the room) How old is that restaurant?! (A woman shouts back, "1200, I think it was built in!") It's got the same oven since when they first built it.
Popstar!: What would you say is your favorite kind of food?
Dave: I would have to say Chinese is my favorite kind of food. And I like Mexican, and Spanish is right up there!
Popstar!: I read that you like to draw. What kind of art do you do?
Dave: I like to draw, mainly, faces that I make up.
Popstar!: Is that something that you would like to pursue?
Dave: I would like to stick with the singing, but you never know. I could have both. I might be able to do both later on in the future.
Popstar!: Who are some of your favorite current acts?
Dave: Let's see here...current acts...I don't really listen to as many current acts. Alanis Morissette, I would have to say. I like her new album. Her new album is very good. I usually like more of the older rock bands, like Aerosmith-they're my favorite band. And The Eagles.
Popstar!: Why should fans rush out to buy your new CD?
Dave: Well, I would have to say because the album is something that everyone can listen to. There is a song that everyone can listen to on the album. There are some songs that have country influences, there are some songs that have pop influences. There is also some ska.
Popstar!: Do you enjoy performing?
Dave: Yes! I love performing live. Before going on stage, I guess I get a little nervous. But once you're on stage, it feels like you're right at home. The fans are there to watch you play. It's great!