Aug. 7, 2002
	Holy Moses! Moses Valdez
All publications Front Page Nightspots Blacklines En La Vida Out! Resource Guide Current WCT Issue	By Gregg Shapiro I met Moses Valdez when, as an undergraduate at Columbia College, the openly gay young man became my intern for the spring semester of 2000. Not especially forthcoming when it came to talking about his music, I was completely taken aback when I had the opportunity to hear him perform, shortly after the internship ended, at Scott Free's queer music series Grinder. The power and emotion in his voice gave me chills. I can just imagine Moses, who will be performing on the Windy City Radio Stage (Belmont and Halsted) Aug. 10, having the same influence on the Northalsted Market Days crowd as his namesake, commanding their attention and leading the crowd to spiritual ecstasy. Gregg Shapiro: Let's begin with your background and personal history. Moses Valdez: I was born in Chicago, and technically, I grew up in the suburbs. I was born and raised, for the first four years of my life, in Little Village, 21st and Western. There were eight kids in the family, and I'm the youngest. After the first few kids ... well there were issues with gang violence (laughs), so my parents said, "Let's go. We're going to the suburbs." We ended up in Oak Park, and I grew up most of my life in Oak Park, since I was four. I live there still, though I've had detours throughout the States, I came back to Oak Park. ... I lived in Seattle and I lived in Los Angeles. GS: How did you get involved in music? MV: I think my first experience in music was I was born into the Mennonite Church. Being Mennonite is kind of interesting. GS: Is that a fundamentalist religion? MV: Yeah. In the late '60s, early '70s a lot of the Mennonite Churches starting going into the inner city, converting a lot of Hispanics. My mother found refuge in that church and that's how she became Mennonite. I was born in a Mennonite Church. When we moved to Oak Park we were still going to the Mennonite Church in the Lawndale area. When I was six, she put me in front of the whole church and I sang. ... In seventh grade, I was forced to join the choir. I didn't want to do choir and I was in seventh grade and my mom signed me up for choir and I didn't want to do choir, didn't like the choir. GS: Obviously your mother recognized pretty early on that you had this voice. MV: Her brother used to play guitar and she used to sing with him. They're from Texas. GS: What kind of music was she singing with him? MV: In Texas, it's called Tex Mex music. She didn't like folk music, but she liked country music, but there's a difference between folk and country. GS: Does she have a good voice? MV: Oh, I think so. She sings now, and she has a little twang to it, but I think she has a really good voice. ... But you're right, she loved music and I think that's what it was. She was a good mom. She didn't force me to do it, she wasn't one of the mothers that are like, "You gotta do it, you gotta do it." Well, I think she did force me because she made me do choir, but it was a good intention. GS: When did you start writing songs? MV: When I was 16. ... Writing songs for me wasn't really music theory. I took music theory in college, but in high school I wasn't sure about music theory or chord progressions or modulations. I just sat at the piano and that's how I wrote my songs. When I was living in Chicago before 1997, I was in a band. It changed from Moses McCool to Could Be Karma. I wrote for that band and we would do a few gigs. We did the World Music Theater for D.A.R.E.-fest and we traveled. I actually sent in a song to Nashville, Tenn., and I got a King Eagle Music Award with that band. Then my sister passed away in 1997. That's when I didn't do music anymore. My whole family is very supportive, but she would come to my shows, she would help me. After that, I just didn't do music anymore. I ended up in Seattle, didn't do music. When I came back, I would do gigs that people asked me to do, like "You need to sing here. Can you do this event?" Like weddings, maybe a benefit, one or two songs. I didn't do my songs, I did other people's songs. I was still writing. I wasn't performing (them). GS: In 2001 you released the CD EP, Reflections. Have you gone back in to the studio to do a full-length disc? MV: It's hard doing music and working a full-time job, so right now a lot of my energy goes into my job. The kind of work ethic that my parents taught me was to do 100% or don't do it all. Though I can't cheat myself, I should go give 100% to my music. ... When I do the actual 10-cut CD, I want to give all the time that I can give. I'm working with Gary Guzman, who's my guitarist. He produced that last CD. GS: Can you talk a little bit about job? MV: I work for the Field Museum store in Chicago, in the museum stores. I'm a lead store supervisor, which basically means we have a store at O'Hare that I more or less manage with my boss. It's a fun gig. It's not like typical retail. GS: I know that we both share an appreciation for Beth Nielsen Chapman. MV: Going back to my first influence, being that my parents were very Texan, I heard a lot of Patsy Cline and Hank Williams. My parents were '50s kids, so I listened to a lot of Platters and stuff like that. ... As I got older, I started finding my style. I listened to Tori Amos and Nine Inch Nails. ... I think what I do best are the ballads. As far as Beth Nielsen Chapman goes, I came across her after my sister passed away in a car accident. Her (Chapman's) husband had passed away and she wrote the album ... GS: Sand and Water. MV: Oh yeah. It's a great album. She brought it to a whole new level. I really could feel what she was singing. We have this idea in our society that we should never be, "woe is me." But, when it comes to having someone in your life dying, everybody is going to experience that and it's OK for people to feel bad about it.	Moses Valdez.
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