Kevin Moore
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
-
This article is about the musician and founder of Chroma Key. For Kevin Moore the blues musician, see Keb' Mo'.
Kevin Moore (born 1967) is a keyboardist, composer and father of the Chroma Key musical project. He was also the first keyboardist of the American progressive metal band Dream Theater.
Contents |
[edit] Musical biography
Moore began his musical career with guitarist John Petrucci, bassist John Myung, drummer Mike Portnoy and singer Chris Collins (subsequently replaced by Charlie Dominici) in the band Majesty, which later became Dream Theater, on Long Island, NY. In 1994, after eight years and three studio albums with the band, he decided to leave Dream Theater to pursue other musical ambitions. According to Portnoy, Moore had grown distant personally with the other band members, and musically he was more interested in the independence of working on his own as opposed to the compromising involved in a band environment. He moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico and started writing material for his first solo album.
After writing and demoing various material, he released the album Dead Air For Radios under the name Chroma Key. Mark Zonder of Fates Warning and Steve Tushar served as his support musicians for that record. The album featured a dark, ambient electronic sound, closer to Depeche Mode than the complex and intricate Dream Theater style.
Dream Theater fans noticed in hindsight that Moore had subtlely explored this style of composition in one of Dream Theater's songs, the haunting "Space-Dye Vest," and the Chroma Key song "On The Page" was in fact a follow-up to "Space-Dye Vest." ("Space-Dye Vest" contains the lyrics "Found a new girl, I think we can make it / As long as she stays on the page.")
In 2000, Moore moved to Los Angeles where he recorded the digitally-themed You Go Now. The line-up for that record was Moore, David Iscove (guitars) and Steve Tushar (loops, programming). Upon finishing that album, he moved to Costa Rica, where he worked for Radio For Peace International, producing a bi-weekly activist radio program.
In 2003, Fates Warning guitarist Jim Matheos invited Moore to work with him on a new musical project involving Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy and Cynic bassist/stick player Sean Malone. This would be the first time Moore had worked with Portnoy since leaving Dream Theater nearly 10 years earlier. The band that was formed was named OSI, and they released the album Office of Strategic Influence. Musically, it can be described as a mixture of Chroma Key's dark, melodic focus with the guitars and heaviness of Fates Warning and Dream Theater. Kevin assumed vocal duties for OSI. A guest vocalist/lyricist, Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree, was employed on one track, "shutDOWN."
In 2004, Moore relocated to Istanbul, Turkey and composed the soundtrack to the horror film Okul, which was subsequently released as a solo record titled Ghost Book. This experience inspired a new approach for the next Chroma Key album: Moore scoured public domain films looking for one that exuded a certain mood, intending to write a pseudo-soundtrack to it . The film he chose was Age 13, an educational film from the 1950s, originally for use in schools. He took the existing film, slowed it to half speed, and let it dictate the moods, textures, and even running times of the songs he wrote to it. The resulting album is titled Graveyard Mountain Home.
In April 2006, Moore with Matheos released a second OSI album called Free, a collaboration made easier by Moore's relocation to Montreal, Canada.
Kevin has two brothers, one an artist and one a New York City Fireman who helped in the rescue mission during the September 11, 2001 attacks.
[edit] Discography
- With Dream Theater:
- When Dream and Day Unite (1989)
- Images and Words (1992)
- Live at the Marquee (1993)
- Images and Words: Live in Tokyo (1993)
- Awake (1994)
- As Chroma Key:
- Dead Air for Radios (1998)
- Colorblind - single (1999)
- You Go Now (2000)
- Graveyard Mountain Home (2004)
- As a solo artist (released as Kevin Moore):
- This is a Recording (1999)
- Memory Hole 1 (2004)
- Ghost Book - Soundtrack to the film Okul (2004)
- With OSI:
- Office of Strategic Influence (2003)
- Free (2006)
- As a guest performer:
- With Fates Warning:
- Perfect Symmetry (1989)
- A Pleasant Shade of Gray (1997)
- Disconnected (2000)
- With Fates Warning:
[edit] References
[edit] External links
Related bands:
