After spending the majority of his career in different bands and supporting the solo projects of others, Randy Moore has found his own place in the alt-rock scene as a solo act under the name of Bones Shredder. His debut album, Morbid Little Thing, is now out in the world on his very own Sunken Teeth Records and was made with the intent to showcase the most authentic, unapologetic parts of his identity as a musician. From blood-soaked horror imagery to deeply personal lyricism, each of the ten tracks on Morbid Little Thing provides a stellar introduction to Moore’s compelling presence as Bones Shredder.
Melodic Magazine sat down with Bones Shredder a few days prior to the release of Morbid Little Thing to talk about the importance of stepping out on his own, trusting in himself and his artistic abilities, biggest influences on the album and more.
Your debut album Morbid Little Thing releases on September 19th. Congratulations! What are those emotions surrounding the release and being able to finally put these songs out?
I’m overjoyed by the response that it’s been getting. I have a really supportive base of friends and people that I work with and it’s really cool to see friends support each other in different ways. It’s cool to see the people that have rallied behind me to push me to do it. Self-doubt is something that I really wrestle with so it’s always reaffirming when somebody tells you you’re doing good. I’m really excited to release the album and show what I’ve kind of been working on for the past year and a half.
This record has been described as “a darkly glittering blend of power pop, punk spirit and vintage horror flair.” Where did you pull inspiration from for all the different aspects of Morbid Little Thing?
It’s kind of a reflection of all the things that I really like about music, my favorite bands and big parts of the musical DNA within me. The Beatles are a huge influence, along with Green Day, Alkaline Trio, and weird ’60s surf bands. All of these different influences kind of poke their head out in some way or another on this record. It’s all things in a blender that I really like.
This album is also your first release under your own record label, Sunken Teeth Records. What led you to want to create your own label and what’s been the most exciting part of getting to release Morbid Little Thing under this new label?
I’ve worked with Asian Man Records for a really long time. I’ve volunteered at the garage during the pandemic and pretty much every day I’ve been home since then. I’ve been seeing how the DIY record label thing can work and how it could be successful, getting lessons from Mike, picking his brain about certain moves and asking if I should go with this or go with that, or anything like that. It’s been really exciting seeing all of these things that I’ve learned over the years and putting that into play now and seeing how it can grow. It all starts with the first step. This is the first step of who knows what’ll happen, but you can’t know until you try.
Congratulations on that! In terms of the album, what’s your favorite song on it and why?
I’ve been saying “Daylight” is my favorite song on the album, the first single that we put out. I feel like it’s a good combination of the strongest parts of my DNA I would say. I think it’s a cool melody line and there’s a dual guitar part. There’s big guitars, shredding drums, all these things that really shrunk down to a little two-minute pop-punk song.
Speaking of songs on the album, I want to take a second to talk about the final track on it, “Wasted Days.” Can you share a bit about the meaning behind the song and what it represents to you?
Thank you so much for bringing that song up. Before I get into it, it’s interesting to see what songs people latch onto before the record’s out. I don’t have a huge survey of what the “fan favorite” is yet, but a lot of people really like that song. It comes up a lot every time I’ve shown somebody the record.
So, the meaning behind “Wasted Days” is a lot about struggling with something that may not be good for you, but you can’t let go of it. For some people that could be a person. For some it could be like an addiction. Addiction as a blanket term for trying to recognize how something affects your life and trying to either make the best decision for yourself or veering away from it, but unfortunately you always keep leaning back into it because it’s familiar for one reason or another. So, yeah “Wasted Days” is about realizing that something is not good for you anymore and it wastes your days.
With that song as well, what made you decide to put that last on the tracklist and have that close out Morbid Little Thing?
I worked with my friend Henry Chadwick, who produced the whole record with me. He’s a great singer-songwriter and has really cool production stuff who produces all his own songs and records his stuff together. He and I share an affinity for a lot of the same music together. I was trying to shy away from the pop-punk stuff as much as possible and try to bring in this Beatles, vintage-y, kind of indie something he’s better at than I am. I feel like with “Wasted Days” especially, it was really easy to make that song sound like something off [Green Day’s] 21st Century Breakdown, which is something we were trying to avoid. While we were working on it, it kind of became this big behemoth, epic cinematic outro.
Henry and I are huge Beatles fans, so just going back and forth about different production styles and eventually we’re like, what’s cello on here? And then we’ll have a harpsichord. We kind of just went for it and I’m really excited with the final outcome of it. It just felt too big and too grandiose not to end the record with.
I think it kind of closes everything out really nicely and was probably one of my favorites when I listened to it. You’ve worked on a lot of musical projects before starting as Bones Shredder. What inspired you to kind of take the leap to do your own thing and become a solo artist?
I think it kind of goes back to all of these lessons I’ve learned over the years and putting it into practice and trying it for myself, you know? When you work with other people on projects, it’s more or less a democracy. I mean, one person always kind of lets their ideas shine through for better or worse, but you keep all your ideas in a little corner.
I decided that I really wanted to go for a project that had the aesthetics and musical stylings of what I wanted to do. I work with people who are pretty good about bringing their visions and stuff to life, but I just felt like it was my time to put some practice into it. And again, it gives me an excuse to get in the studio and practice that a little bit.
My friends and I made some music videos for it and I’ve never done that before. The whole mantra of the record was being myself and learning along the way. I think there’s a lot of stuff that you don’t think you know until you start doing it. Then once I started doing it, I was like, “oh no, I know nothing.” So, it’s humbling and rewarding to learn all of your faults and places you can tighten up a little bit as you go along in the process.
What’s been your favorite part of doing things by yourself compared to being a part of other bands?
My favorite thing has been the music videos! I’ve done music videos for other bands, but this is the first time that I’ve written a treatment with somebody and been like “I want blood in my face and I want this to happen.” Acting is something that I’ve always wanted to do, but I just played music more. I was never like a theater kid in high school or anything like that, but I love movies and I love TV. I love comedy, internet skits and stuff like that. So it was fun to try my hand at that a little bit. That was kind of the most fun part.
You’ve got an album release show coming up on October 3rd, and then you’re also performing at NoEarbuds Fest in LA later this year. What are you most looking forward to when it comes to these live shows coming up?
For the San Jose show, it’s gonna be really special. I’m from San Jose and the art boutiquey place we’re holding [the show] has been a venue that’s held from the beginning of my quote unquote musical career. My first band that really did anything played there and that became like our second home. That’s where we learned to be a band and to cut our teeth in that way. So it’s gonna be really special releasing the album and celebrating it there with Dog Party. I’m also playing with Lucy Giles, who’s my partner, who did all of the artwork and sang on the record. Lizzie from Teens in Trouble helped do the PR campaign and Cartoon Hearts is somebody that I’ve known since I was in the eighth grade. So it’s like a cool little family get-together of everybody who had something to do with the record. I’m excited to welcome it into the world in that way in my hometown.
The NoEarbuds Fest is gonna be really awesome. Prince Daddy [& The Hyena] and Jer are two people that I’ve liked and known for a really long time. It’d be cool to see them again ’cause they’re always touring and I’m always touring, so it’ll be cool to hang out and rock again together.
That’s super exciting! Lastly, are there any songs from the record that, in particular, you’re really excited to get to play live?
I’m really excited for the song called “Let Me In.” It wasn’t one of the singles that we chose, but it was the first song that I wrote for the record when I decided that I wanted to do this. I think it’s got a really cool gang vocal part for the chorus. I don’t like using the term gang vocals, just ’cause it makes it sound like Dropkick Murphys or a hardcore thing, but I feel like there’s some room for like an audience response kind of thing. It’d be a cool connecting moment once that song’s out and digested in the world.
