Acoustic music is something every Pinoy has come to love through the years. After all, we’ are known to be romantics. But you cannot deny that acoustic music has also been a bit overplayed in the airwaves today. But something–or someone–is about to give a fresh take on it: Moira dela Torre, better known as Moira, is a young musikera that has most likely been catching your ears and touching your hearts even before you have heard of her name.
After joining the first season of ABS-CBN’s The Voice of the Philippines, Moira has kept her music career in traction by lending her fetching voice to TV commercials and radio ads for big brands that you yourself had been singing along to without knowing it’s her: Lewis & Pearl’s “Sweet Paris”, Perla’s “Hawak Kamay”, Johnson’s Baby’s “Signature Of Love”, Imodium’s “Lonely Is The Night”, Surf’s “Pinalaki” and “Ang Bango Ng Perfume”, Goldilocks’ “Merienda Na”, and even the soothing tune to McDonald’s ever-so-popular “Hooray For Today.”
Since then, the music production student has been tagging along local musicians like Yeng Constantino, Markki Stroem and Thor to serve as the opening act. It wasn’t long until big shots in the music industry started to notice. With genuine interest in making music armed with songwriting background, a big break is bound to happen. So it did when Moira caught the interest of Ivory Music which led to a recording contract for her self-titled debut album with the label. Now she’s being tagged as “The Voice Of Modern Pop”.
After all, there’s no question that Moira’s pastel vocals command attention, what with its unique vibe paired perfectly with the effortless strumming of her guitar. It’s modern pop, and the best part of it all is she writes her own material. In fact, Moira believes being a real musician is far beyond the glitz and the glamour. “It’s more than just wanting to be rich and famous. For me, song-writing is a therapy.”
It is indeed. The first single off the debut album is “Love Me Instead”, one of the very first songs she had penned. She was only 13 when for the first time she experienced crushing on someone who didn’t like her back, and music proved to be the best thing to help her cope. Hence, the conception of the aforementioned track, an acoustic mania showcasing Moira’s angelic voice whose music video already has thousands of views in YouTube proving that she is quickly garnering more following through her raw, unpretentious music. “It’s going really well, like I had 400 new followers on Twitter over the weekend,” the soft-spoken lass excitedly mentioned.
She’s cutting in a duet track entitled “Wala Nang Kulang Pa” with rockoustic heartthrob Sam Milby, also for her album. “He’s a friend of mine and we were under the same management, and he’s one of those who encouraged me to really pursue a career in music.” Apart from Sam, she also considers Ebe Dencel to be one of her mentors, as much as she takes inspiration from the works of legendary guitar-toting musicians John Mayer, Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift. “I don’t want to be stuck in one genre,” she says as she follows different sounds as well: from Sara Bareilles to Maroon 5 to American Authors. These are the artists she turns to to find new grounds in stretching her musical approach.
There’s certainly no stopping her now that she’s bringing her OPM career to full throttle and trying to become more influential in the industry. Putting all her inspirations together she creates a unique sound with a large Moira imprint on it. Her debut album, being original and inspired the way she likes it, is definitely a refreshing treat to listeners who have grown tired of hearing the same formulaic songs on the radio. If the fact that she wrote all songs in her album doesn’t convince you, her voice will.
We all need a bit more of Moira in the airwaves indeed.
TRACKLIST:
1. Love Me Instead
2. Be My Fairytale
3. Happily Ever After
4. If You Tell Me You Love Me
5. After Your Heart
6. Wala Nang Kulang Pa (featuring Sam Milby)
Get a load of Moira’s sound by getting the debut album “Moira”, out now in your favourite major record stores for only P200.00. You can also take her music on-the-go as the entire debut album is downloadable through iTunes, Spinnr.ph, Spotify and Deezer.