Tour warrior Viking Moses, AKA Brendon Massei, returns to London October 14 for a special show at King’s Place. Massei’s live performances radiate a seasoned professionalism — and for good reason: He’s been touring for 18 years. Viking Moses’s tendency to mix fresh radicality with solid musicality has led Alan McGee (Creation Records founder, musician, Guardian Music Blogger) to call Viking Moses ‘ The Most Uniquely talented musician since Kurt Cobain’.
In April 2011 MTV wrote of Viking Moses:
If the DIY house show circuit has a pied piper, his name is Brendon Massei. Massei, who plays music under the name Viking Moses, has been recording and touring independently as a full-time job since he was 14, and he’s spent more than half of his life paving trails for other musicians to follow. Artists that Massei took on their first tours include: Deer Tick, Scout Niblett and Nat Baldwyn of the Dirty Projectors.
Viking Moses gigs are tight and assembled while remaining open to abstraction and spontaneity. Energy and enthusiasm may bring Massei to kick off his shoes and fall to his knees while shredding guitar solos, but his composure is maintained and crowd members find themselves enraptured.
Viking Moses is touring in support of a new EP entitled ‘Howling Dogs’, and in support of ‘Werewolves Across America,’ a feature-length documentary about his life and lifestyle as a touring musician.
Werewolves Across America is an experimental portrait of a modern youth culture. The film follows the path of the folk icon Viking Moses who introduces us to a diverse and unnoticed music scene. This DIY music culture grows apart from the processes of industrialisation and modernisation, trying to rediscover the hand-made artisanal styles of the past.
Almost as gently as the music of the DIY movement, this film touches on the lives of people that have chosen to withdraw themselves from modern society. The daily struggle between the pursuit of stability and the passion for a rare kind of music links all characters. This is most clearly seen in the life of Viking Moses, who, despite having achieved a certain reputation, still struggles to earn a living from his music.
Featuring performances from Deer Tick, The Shivers and Phosphorescent, and using unusual cinematic tools, Werewolves Across America tries to illustrate what it is like to live on the edge of the modern American society.
Marvin Shepherd
Trailer
Howling Dogs EP
Stream Full EP:
Tickets
Buy Tickets for the Kings Place Event