Led by guitarist Sam Chetan-Welsh, previously of Ithaca, and his wife Holly Chetan-Welsh alongside an all-star lineup including drummer Jay Swinstead of Forlorn alongside a brass and woodwind section (who performed on Ithaca’s second album They Fear Us), the seven-piece live band combine aspects of math rock, indie and R&B into a sound that they describe as “spiritual emo”. Speaking to us after their debut set at ArcTanGent festival, Sam and Holly reveal their process, the meaning behind Moksha and what the future holds for the collective.
Despite playing a small warm up show in London earlier in the month, Moksha’s set on ArcTanGent’s main stage is their real debut, reflecting on what makes this set so special to him. Sam explains, “There’s a kind of synchronicity in the fact that Ithaca finished here last year, so I thought James would be up for it, and luckily he was. ” Having performed at the festival multiple times with his previous band, Sam has a unique connection with the ArcTanGent community. “There’s just no other group of fans like it,” as I’ve said a lot to other people. If you’re sincere and you mean it, they’ll give you a shot, almost whatever it is. Even if you’re struggling or whatever, they will always give you a good go because they’re so accepting of the transgressive or the avant-garde or the out there”.
With Moksha’s brass, woodwind and multiple backing singers, the band stands out among the more straightforward rock bands at ArcTanGent, explaining how their setup came to be. Sam says, “Me and the rest of the guys in the band, my lovely wife included, have been doodling around for years. We’ve known each other since uni. Holly and I got together when we were eighteen, and I’ve wanted to do something properly with these guys for years.” On the role of the other band members, he continues, “I feel a deep privilege that they all want to actually do this with me. I’m like, “What am I doing?” I can’t even read music, and they’re like, “Oh, is that a G minor flat seven with a B in the bass?” I loved having them on the Ithaca stuff; I’ve always wanted to do stuff a bit differently. In Ithaca we tried to bring in those other elements, and it’s a bit of an extension of that.”
During their set, Moksha played plenty of new material as well as a pair of covers, ‘Ever New’ by Beverley Glenn-Copeland and ‘Promises’ by Cleo Sol. Sam enthusiastically sings the praises of both artists, saying, “If I’m evangelical about one thing in my life, that’s Cleo Sol, she’s a wonderful UK R&B musician. Hopefully we’ve done a bit of a heavier interpretation of it and made it our own kind of thing,” and “Beverly Glenn-Copeland is a real sort of philosopher; he’s almost like a prophet. He’s so wise and meaningful, and every word that comes from his mouth is artful or life-changing. He’s an elder; Holly introduced me to his music, and his music has meant so much to us and to her and to me.”
While Sam is best known for his work in the brutally heavy Ithaca, his musical influences lie far outside of their metalcore bubble. While Jimmy Eat World and Pinegrove had previously been cited as influences for Moksha, Sam explains that “I like using Holly’s gorgeous R&B voice in a more emo context. A big context for both of us is that we were religious as teenagers. I was in a gospel choir at uni for many years, and both of us still listen to a lot of gospel music even if we’re not a part of that religious tradition anymore, so more contemporary gospel music is in the background of everything I play.” Sam’s lead guitar work has always had a certain triumphant throughline, or has he puts it, “I’m always hitting that euphoria button because I’m too earnest a person to be dealing with all this art rock; nah, let’s all just have a big cry”.
Further diving into his genre pivot after the crushingly heavy chaos of Ithaca, Sam confesses that “this is the music I want to make now. This music is a full and honest reflection of where I’m at in my life. That is in no way to disparage anything we did together in Ithaca, but even at those last shows I thought I was ready to put it to bed; it was the perfect time,” Holly interjects, describing it as “a completely different stage persona”, with Sam clarifying that “that’s who I wanted to channel then, and it felt authentic.”
With such a large lineup, Moksha was never going to operate like a normal rock band on future live dates. Sam explains, “Really the logistics of doing a whole tour and getting us all in there and making it cool and widescreen aren’t easy, so I think we’ll lean more towards festivals for that reason; they tend to have the infrastructure for something like this.” This doesn’t mean the band will be inactive; he reveals, “We’ll sort of get together when we get together, and we’ll keep making art as we go.” We don’t have to do an album cycle; we can do whatever we like essentially. We’ll do live sessions, we’ll do gigs in very specific places, and we can be a bit more intentional about everything. We will be active for the next year, but it’ll be more of a drip.”
