(energetic music)
- [R. Stevie Moore] Well, I'm R. Stevie Moore.
I'm generally known as one of the main pioneers
of low fidelity one-man band home recording.
I've been recording for 50-something years,
and I've made 400 albums in my home.
♪ I don't think about ♪
♪ About appearing anywhere ♪
♪ I got enough to do right here ♪
- [Radio Voice] And now more R. Stevie Moore.
- [Narrator] R. Stevie Moore, prolific.
- [Announcer] Mr. R. Stevie Moore.
- R. Stevie Moore.
- Yes, I am R. Stevie Moore.
Back when I was a younger child, I started
my own idea of home recording by myself.
My father was a bass player doing all the country sessions
with all the stars of Nashville.
I had access to tape recorders in my teenage basement,
and I was a huge rock and roll fan and absorbed
all of these influences and started messing around
with writing songs and making my own music.
(upbeat music)
- [Man] You record in the privacy
of your own home, is that correct?
- [R. Stevie Moore] Mmhm, that's right.
- [Man] Now how do you do that?
- Well, late 60s is when I started making my little albums.
I overdub all the instruments myself, I play bass
and guitars and keyboards and percussion and vocals.
I got really good at it.
I can do seven, eight, nine, 10 overdubs
and you'd still hear the very first thing that I use.
Did you invent home recording?
Of course not, but I took it to another
level long before it was customary.
I've probably written about 4 or 5,000 songs.
They came out effortlessly. I would compile
the most recent songs. I wouldn't pick and choose
the best ones and throw the worst ones on the floor.
And that's been my aesthetic all along.
It's like everything is released, warts and all.
'Cause bad music is brilliant— it's a diary of sound.
Everybody that has ever been a record collector
will have to turn their pallets on to the obscure.
Wait 'till you hear this one, I mean,
I do have that reputation.
Talking Heads, and B-52s, they were all fans of mine.
Naturally, a lot of these big artists have found my music
just word of mouth, but they never
saw me because I was the home hermit.
I know what I'm doin', I keep tryin'
I keep doin' more of it, I build up the quantity
without thinking about starting over
at the beginning to improve the quality.
I hardly ever preformed, and I was a bedroom guy
it was always get home, put the headphones on,
and then I would work for hours and hours.
In 2010, things started to explode.
Out of nowhere, suddenly I was
in a band and touring the world.
I was playing hard rock shows, big festivals
and tiny dives. It was incredible.
My career really started taking
off a little too late in life.
(crowd cheering)
(guitar tuning)
Often people say, "I can't see how you've done this same
"thing all this time, without falling through the trap."
(gentle guitar music)
And by avoiding the mainstream, nobody's gonna
dare tell me what I can and can't do.
Feels so good to have that integrity in tact.
I'm proud of all that, and I'm also still a little kid.
(gentle guitar music)