DENAI MOORE IS A SINGER WHOSE LOVE OF BON IVER, FIEST AND JAMES BLAKE LED HER TO WRITE THE KIND OF SOUL SEARCHING, HEART-ON SLEEVE, POETIC CHAMBER POP THAT’S BEEN KNOWN TO MAKE GROWN MEN CRY. A 19-YEAR-OLD FROM STRATFORD, DENAI’S ALREADY FLUNG BLOGGERS INTO A FROTHY MOUTHED FRENZY WHEN HER SPARSE AND MOURNFUL TRACK FLAWS APPEARED ONLINE AT THE END OF 2012. SINCE THEN, HER SILENCING, STRIPPED BACK STAGE SHOW HAS HAD THE LIKES OF PLAN B AND TOM ODELL HAIL HER AS ONE OF THE MOST EXCITING NEW SONGWRITERS, WHILE CLARE MAGUIRE BECAME SO ENAMOURED BY DENAI’S MUSIC THAT SHE ADOPTED HER AS A PROTÉGÉ.
DENAI’S COMPULSION TO WRITE STARTED AT AN EARLY AGE. SURROUNDED BY HER FATHER’S INSTRUMENTS THROUGHOUT HER CHILDHOOD, THE JAMAICAN BORN, LONDON BRED SINGER STARTED TO SECRETLY EXPERIMENT WITH MUSIC AGED 7, DABBLING WITH THE KEYBOARD, PIANO, HARMONICA AND MELODICA. BUT IT WASN’T UNTIL SHE PICKED UP A GUITAR THAT SHE REALLY STARTED HER COMPOSITIONAL JOURNEY. HER EARLIEST SONGS WERE SO STRANGE AND TROUBLED THAT NOBODY COULD BELIEVE SOMEONE WAS SO YOUNG WAS CAPABLE OF MAKING SOUNDS SO PROFOUND, “COMING FROM A 12 YEAR OLD IT SEEMED A BIT WEIRD. THE SONGS WERE REALLY DEEP SO THEY THOUGHT MY DAD WAS WRITING FOR ME, BUT THE IDEAS HAD JUST COME FROM THINGS I’D SEE AROUND ME, FILMS AND PEOPLE,” SAYS DENAI. ALTHOUGH HER MUSICAL STYLE IS STILL IN ITS FORMATIVE STAGES, THE TRIUMPHANT CATHARSIS OF HER SONGS ARE TIMELESS AND IMMEDIATE; FROM THE DEFIANT STOMP OF WOLVES, TO THE WOUNDED ABANDON OF GONE, DENAI HAS MASTERED THE ART OF POURING HER SOUL INTO 4MINUTES OF BITTER-SWEET BEAUTY. WHEREVER THE LISTENER DIPS A TOE, SAUDADE HAS THE SOUND OF A POUNDING HEART CAPTURED IN WHATEVER STAGE OF LOVE ITS BEATING THROUGH; A DEEPLY MOVING COLLECTION THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN MADE BY SOMEONE FAR OLDER, FAR WISER, BUT ALL THE MORE IMPRESSIVE THAT IT’S COME FROM SOMEONE STILL SO YOUNG.
US TOUR DATES
11/05 @ DC9 – Washington, DC [tickets]
11/06 @ Joe’s Pub – New York, NY [tickets]
11/08 @ World Café Live – Philadelphia, PA [tickets]
11/09 @ Great Scott – Boston, MA [tickets]
