As cliche as it may sound, the unspoken goal of any high-profile musical collaboration is becoming greater than the sum of its parts. When two staples of the Philadelphia music community, Donn T and Chill Moody, joined forces to create &More, the result was a debut album that united a collective of Philly musicians and embodies the spirit and soul of a city built on music.
But their debut album, Ethel Bobcat, goes further than resting on its contributors reputations. With songs like the infectious "Whoa" and the deep "Future Coming Round," it accomplishes a goal Chill Moody outlines as "starting a conversation." The Recording Academy caught up with Donn T and Chill Moody in Philadelphia backstage at this year's Roots Picnic to talk about &More, their recent NPR Tiny Desk performance, the Philly music community, and more.
This is my first Roots Picnic, but I'm curious, you guys are such staples of Philadelphia, what does Roots Picnic mean to the city?
Donn T: Absolutely. It's my third time doing it, twice as a solo artist, Donn T. First time with Chill Moody as we are &More, but yeah, it's historic. It's an institution.
Chill Moody: To me it's like a big family reunion, like it's people you may not see, [but you see] at the Roots Picnic every year [and] when you see them, it's like you've been hanging with them every day. It's just love and everybody's having a good time.
It's my fourth time performing. Well, it's the third one in Philly and then I did the New York joint. Every time, it's just like the same love. Everybody is really excited to see each other. It's bigger than the stage, it's just the camaraderie and like I say, it's just family.
Philadelphia's always felt that way to me.
Donn T: Yeah, for sure. A lot of artist support, right? It's like artists supporting artists as well as the public supporting us, so cool.
Ethel Bobcat is such a collaborative process. What do you feel you accomplished with this record together that maybe you couldn't do alone?
Chill Moody: The goal with the record was just to start a conversation, continue a conversation that we have with each other and in our circles, but expand on that and just get people talking. That was the only rally call, if you will.
Donn T: Yeah.
Chill Moody: Let's talk about what's going on and from that hopefully find solutions, but it's not like, "Here's the solution." It's like, no, "Here's the problem." Let's talk about this. Let's talk about what's going on in the world right now and let's figure out what we're going to do.
Donn T: In a really musical way, too.
Chill Moody: Right, right.
Donn T: So it's not like we're on a soapbox or anything like that, [we] just do it in a fun way, in a profound way. Just have fun with it and be really musical. So, that's the feedback that we're getting about the album, which is cool.
We were talking about the NPR performance before the interview, what a trip to be on that. Could you tell us a little bit about the process, how you got involved with NPR Tiny Desk?
Donn T: Absolutely! Well, we submitted to NPR's Tiny Desk Contest, and we didn't win, but it was really great because afterwards we were contacted by Bob Boilen and he wanted us to do a concert because they were so impressed by our submission. So, it's cool. It was the song, "Whoa", and that also appears on our debut album.
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I love "Whoa." I love "Future Come Around." I think it's a great kind of nightcap to the album.
Chill Moody: Word, word.
From what I read about it, it came sort of late in the process. What can you tell me about that song and what it meant to you to wrap the record like that?
Chill Moody: Donn actually found that first. Her and Ben were in the studio and they hit me up and was like, "Yo, we got one. We got the piece that we didn't know we were missing to this album," and the hook was already on there, and I think Terry—actually, it was Helen or Terry. They called me and was like, "Yo, what is that playing in the studio right now that they're working on? Whatever that is, that's y'all one right there," so—
Donn T: And that's funny. When they said that, we didn't really know what it was.
Chill Moody: Right, right, right.
Donn T: Because I hadn't gone by ... I remember that day, it was really clear. I had stopped by the studio to pick up something. I didn't even go in to write and I poked my head in, said, "Hey, what's up, Ben?" And he happened to be playing something and I was leaving. I was like, "Oh, that's dope." And then I walked to the other side of the door and I couldn't leave ... I started writing ... I could just hear the hook, and I'm thinking, "Wow, I didn't plan for this. I got to go back in and record this" and so, it wasn't even my session. I just bombarded, and yeah, we put it down. Helen and Terry came by and yeah, Chill got on and it became a special one for &More.
That gave me chills. I love that story.
Chill Moody: Word.
When the music stops you in your tracks.
Donn T: Yeah, yeah.
Chill, did I read that you are the Music Ambassador of Philadelphia? Can you talk a little bit about that?
Chill Moody: I've held that position for I think like six years now? Councilman David Oh appointed me to the position. Just me serving is like a liaison [between] the artists of the city and the people who could help provide opportunities and whatever ... So I'm kind of like the middle man, glorified but it's like also, I get a chance to figure out the qualms that we may have in the city with how we treat our independent artists and also provide some opportunity that people aren't really in tune to. Like knowing [what] we need in the city.
From that, we started the Philadelphia Music Industry Task Force. I'm a founding member of that as well, and [it's] just more of just getting simple stuff done, but stuff that might just be going under the rug, that you might not know we need for the independent artists.
Sort of like loading zones?
Chill Moody: Loading zones, right, like simple stuff like that.
Donn T: Really important.
Chill Moody: Right, but in travels, I see how a city like a Nashville or Austin and even in Toronto, how they treat their independent artists. How they understand that that music that they make is like an export from that location, and trying to bring that back into Philadelphia and explain to people here, the powers that be, if you will, what we can do to compete. Because talent-wise, nobody is messing with Philly, and I stand on that. Industry-wise, we need some help, so it's like A-level talent, maybe like C-level industry that we got to kind of work on.
Donn, I want to ask you, you're so deeply rooted in the history of this town and the music culture here, but this is a forward looking project and a forward looking industry, frankly. What do you see when you look ahead, the future of Philadelphia music, knowing everything that you know and that is ingrained about, what are you excited about?
Donn T: Innovation. It's innovation and what I've always been excited about. Like Chill said, hands down, nobody can touch Philly musically and that's what I love about Philly. Philly is always surprising you musically and there's always the freedom to reinvent in Philly as well, which is kind of what I've done as an artist, Donn T, you know as a solo artist, and then various collaborations, and then my collaboration with Chill Moody, with &More. It's always about that fresh look, and Philly, we'll applaud you for that. We can be tentative, but when something is dope, you know we have to get the nod, all right?
I like that. What's next for &More? What are you guys looking to do?
Donn T: We're on tour right now. We're headed down to North Carolina.
Chill Moody: Literally tomorrow.
Donn T: Literally.
Chill Moody: Flying into North Carolina to perform with St. Paul & The Broken Bones. Got a couple dates with them. Yeah, just more tours, festivals-
Donn T: Yeah, more tours. Absolutely.
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