Pete Moore
Pete Moore is a Hong Kong-based Australian vocalist. This year, he and his band will launch a monthly concert series at Grappa’s Cellar, presenting classic hits and funky tunes. Before the series kicks off this Saturday, the Sydney native joins Penny Zhou for coffee and talks about his childhood, career and Hong Kong.
HK Magazine: Are your family members musical? Did you start pursuing a musical career early in life?
Peter Moore: It’s funny that neither my father nor my mother was musical. My father was a bricklayer then a salesman, a very typical hard-working Australian; and my mother was a swimmer. I’ve only in the last few years learned of my musical heritage through coincidence. I found out that my grandfather traveled to Australia from America in the late 1920s, and was one the first traveling song-and-dance acts from America that brought all the new music to Australia. So he’s quite pioneering in that right. And his daughter, my auntie, was a pioneer in vaudeville performances in the preceding years.
When I was kid I would listen to whatever was on the radio.—a lot of Aussie rock. And also what was in my parents’ record collection—Sinatra, Johnny Mathis… old-school classics. So without realizing it at the time I had quite a diverse music-listening upbringing. But I didn’t actually pursue it until I left school at 18 and started to play drums and sing back-up vocals in a band. The singer and the bass player had a big punch-up, then we lost the singer and couldn’t find a new one. The band asked me to sing and just got a new drummer—it’s easier to get a drummer than a singer.
HK: So did that become your full-time job?
PM: Oh no. I got into plumbing and had a plumbing business for 10 years in Australia, and was also a professional firefighter for six years. I’ve always pursued music alongside those careers. I guess for me, I just never find the idea of being a struggling musician attractive. I like being active in the music circle to build my craft, but I also want to be able to buy a house [laughs].
HK: You sing a lot of soul and funk—is that your niche?
PM: It’s a blessing and a curse to me that I’m not very specific in terms of the genres of music I can sing. For example, at Grappa’s we do funk and soul, but I’d be just as comfortable doing big-band swing. As a working singer, it’s fantastic because I can take a lot of different jobs; but as a recording artist, it makes your life difficult because you need to be more focused in a direction. So I battle with that a little—but at the end of the day I still see it as a blessing.
HK: But I guess there’re genres you don’t do, like electronic?
PM: Haha, no, I’m not an electronic fan, but I DJ. Actually we’ve developed an act in which I DJ with a string orchestra. We would do Lady Gaga, Rolling Stones, Beatles, Led Zeppelin… quite unexpected stuff. That’s a bit quirky, borderline electronic, but we certainly don’t produce electronic music. We did that for [pop singer] Coco Lee’s wedding ceremony—I was DJing and conducting the string orchestra while Bruno Mars was singing. Hong Kong offers diverse opportunities, and that’s partly why I feel so comfortable here.
HK: What is it like to develop a career in music in Hong Kong compared with other big cities?
PM: I think things are more available to you in Hong Kong; you can make things happen here if you persevere. In places like London, there are world-class musicians that are sitting at home, waiting for the phone to ring. But Hong Kong is not blessed with a deep pool of high-level players, so for people who can afford to live here, there’s a lot of work available, which is very nice.