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Moha, the Senegalese musician blending cultures and mediums, drops visuals for ‘A Side’
Singer-songwriter Moha, who spent his childhood moving between Senegal, France, and the United States, blends sounds and cultures together in an endlessly exciting, interesting, and fun, way.
Moha brings elements from three different continents, the rhythms of West Africa, the precision of French dance music, all coated with the shiny gloss of American pop.
His single “A Side” shows that despite the musical and creative complexity of Moha’s vision, his music is above all enjoyable as hell. I mean, try not to groove out to his welcoming voice, the wailing horns, and funky guitars on “A Side”.
I spoke to Moha about his vision for the video, consolidating music and visuals into one cohesive artistic piece, and what’s in store for the future.
Moha told me that his video for “A Side” was about recreating a specific night of his life,
“I wanted to recreate as accurately as possible what happened that evening in real life. Kristin [the actress in the video] portrays a real girl in my life, and when i first danced with the girl i didn’t know it was her and vice versa… As I was writing the song, I couldn’t stop replaying that whole evening in my head. Since it was really a turning point in the storyline of this album, and in my life in general, I decided to give as many details as possible. The words would be used to say exactly what I was thinking and the visual would show what we were actually doing.”
Music is clearly an intimate thing for Moha and he wants his art to translate this idea to the listener. Instead of viewing his music and the accompanying visuals as separate entities, Moha sees them as one larger work,
“To me one can’t go without the other. The way I process information is through images. Meaning when I see or hear things, images are automatically formed in my head. The song would then be me describing that image and the visual is the showing of it.”
Moha’s idea to package his music and the associated images into one larger project is just part of what makes him such an intriguing young artist.
Luckily we won’t have to wait long for more. Moha told me we should expect more from him very soon,
“Most definitely, mid to late January. It’s actually the prequel to A-Side that I will be releasing. It will definitely help everyone understand A-Side better. That is a promise!”
In the meantime, vibe out to “A Side”, Moha is one to keep an eye on.