Photo courtesy of Baegod
Sacramento, California’s Moon Magic is an artist, educator, emcee, and a self-professed Hip Hop Witch. Moon now adds “producer” to her extensive list of titles as she produced her latest effort in its entirety. “Moving Different” is an album that finds Moon elevating her artistry creatively, lyrically, and on the beats.
Moving Different is an 8-track album produced by Moon Magic and is mixed and mastered by Sbvce of Bedroomtrap. The project features appearances by EGDABEAST, SoliBowl, and Jenniva.
The Real Hip-Hop spoke to Moon Magic about why she got into production, how she connects with people through tarot card reading, and her new album, Moving Different.
TRHH: Why’d you title the new album Moving Different?
Moon Magic: There’s a couple different names that I was workshopping. The first name originally, I was going to name it was “Therapy” because a lot of the stuff I wrote while I was in therapy and really working on healing some stuff. And then I didn’t end up wanting to use that name because someone else within my camp was coming out with an album with a similar title, so I was like, “Man, I gotta think of something different.” It was a conversation I had with my friend SpaceWalker — she’s another really amazing artist I’ve done some collaborations with — and I was just telling her about the album and what it means to me so far and she was like, “Yeah, sounds like you’re moving different.” I was like, “That’s an amazing name for it,” like that’s exactly what it’s about. So, it just kind of stuck because I really think that is what the album really is about for me on a personal level is moving differently, navigating differently in my everyday life, but also within society. The political climate we’re in is a call to action on a bigger level for us all to move different in order to be able to move towards a better future.
TRHH: So, what prompted you to go to therapy?
Moon Magic: I’ve been in and out of therapy honestly throughout my life. I’ve gone when I was younger when my parents were originally kind of going back and forth, they had us in like these AA family meetings and stuff like that when I was much younger, like fourth grade. I went back sometime around college time because they had free therapy there. And then just recently went back and I think what prompted it this time was just being a little bit older and realizing that as much as I’ve worked on myself there are some things that I was still kind of in the same loop about. And then specifically I had some events that happened in some really close relationships of mine that really, really hurt me and I don’t want to say set me back, but put me in a place where I just was not expecting that and wasn’t sure exactly how to navigate it on my own [laughs].
It all just felt like way too much for way too long and it was just a lot of kind of compounding things. I was like, “You know what, I think I need to go back and continue working on this with some professional help.” The thing about therapy too is you can go and it doesn’t really seem to work for you, and then you have to go again and try to find a therapist who has the right kind of approach and the right kind of personality that works for you. So, part of it was also hoping that maybe I’d get a little bit something different this time around if I went through a different therapist than I did last time. And that kind of really brought me back to like, “OK, let’s try again and see what happens.” The therapist I had was really practical. They use a lot of practical approaches and things that you could do tangibly, and that really helped me in my everyday navigation of things.
TRHH: You produced all of Moving Different; how did you get into production?
Moon Magic: It started sometime in like 2017. I bought a controller and it came with Ableton Lite and it took me quite a couple years to figure that out. I just always wanted to be able to create my own music, because I felt when I first started rapping and putting my poems to music I felt a little bit limited because I felt that I had to rely on other people in order to create the music. And then sometimes you might find a beat you’re like, “Oh, this is so dope! I could do so much with this,” and then you’re like, “I don’t own this beat, it’s someone else’s,” and then I got to try to figure out how to get access to it. And then sometimes you’re like, “Oh, I only have these beats that this person gave me to work with, so I’m going to make them work.”
Back then I just wanted to rap on everything, so I think it became more about wanting to have a more intentional and intimate relationship with the music and being able to curate the sound as well as being able to curate what I’m saying together. I just think in general also being a woman having more female producers and being able to create a space for other women artists to be able to work with them as a producer, and create that kind of safe environment is also something that’s been a really big dream of mine to get into. That’s something that’s kind of leading me into now is working with more female artists as a producer. But yeah, I would say the main biggest intention behind it was for me to just feel like had a little bit more control and being able to shape the sound of the music, and I also just really love the music, so it’s just really fun and a good way to keep me learning and growing in something that I really love.
TRHH: What is your beat making process like?
Moon Magic: It can really vary. The Hip Hop Witch album, a lot of it was melodies that I heard in my head and then I played the chord progressions and kind of worked them out that way. This album is a lot of samples and so it was a lot more sample digging and just kind of looking through different sounds and building it that way. Sometimes I listen to something specifically and I’m like, “Ooh, I want to build everything around that specific sound,” and then other times it’ll just be, “OK, let me sit down and dig through some samples ‘till I find something that speaks to me,” and then build things around that. A lot more of this project was the latter part of that. It was just, “OK, I’m going to sit down today and dig around until I find some samples that I like.” And once I find one that I really feel like could be the anchor of the song, then I’m gonna build the song around that. That’s kind of how I ended up doing this project.
TRHH: The single “As Above So Below” has some interesting horns on it. Are those played by you or sampled?
Moon Magic: All of them are sampled. The only thing that might be played on this album I think are some of the basslines. Some of the basslines and maybe some guitar synths in some places, but everything else was sampled. Baegod directed the music video and did the photos for that. She did the last three videos that I put out and did some vocal coaching with me for this album.
TRHH: This album has more features than your previous projects; talk a little about the collaborations on Moving Different?
Moon Magic: Yeah, I knew I wanted to get some of the people who have been big supporters of me and my music, and been part of my journey, and just people who have been kind of working within my camp throughout the year or so. So EGDABEAST and SoliBowl are both really, really dope artists from Sacramento who I’ve had the pleasure of rocking shows with and just getting to know and connect with beyond just the music. The first song with Sol, he was the one who was like, “That beat, I’m doing something to it! I don’t know what it is, send it to me!” And then once he sent it to me it was just a wrap, it was easy to make. And then the one with EG, I had made my part first with the hook and everything and I could just hear him on it. There’s certain songs where you can just really hear, especially when you know people within your local scene or just around you, their sound or what they give I know would go well with this. And that’s how that one came to be.
Then the one with Jenniva, that one actually is from a snippet I found randomly on TikTok. I was scrolling on TikTok and I heard this post that she had posted and it was just the words really spoke to the project and some of the essence of what that project is about. I don’t have a lot of talking samples on this project, not as much as I do on other projects, so I wanted to make sure to incorporate some of them to kind of tie the album together. This was one of those kinds of pieces that I felt like really fit the album and especially in that kind of midway part of the album where “Stay True” is at and it being a softer song. So, I had actually just reached out to them online and was like, “Hey, I found this.” I found their TikTok, because I originally found it on a totally different platform, and was like, “Hey, can I use this?” and they were super open to it and were kind enough to let me collaborate with them on it, and have them on it, and connect to their profile and everything. So, that worked out really dope and it was a really amazing kind of unexpected collaboration on the album.
TRHH: Much of the music on Moving Different is about relationships. What if anything did you learn about yourself after experiencing and writing about relationship issues?
Moon Magic: I think in general like the part on Ain’t Personal “I’m on target, can’t take personal what they do/ What’s a lame to a giant like I’m ten feet two/Can’t jump through your hoop or screw/Trying to stick to me like glue, energy I must remove.” I feel like that whole line there is what I learned [laughs]. You know, you could be on target and other people may not see the vision that you see, or may not see you for how you see you, but it’s important that you see you for you and you stay on target.
Take that as a reflection for correction and redirection where it applies, but let the rest fly and continue to stay on target and not take it personal, even if it is personal. And two, allow yourself and others the room to grow with healthy boundaries and being grounded and rooted in who you are regardless of where you are. It can be a difficult thing but a necessary thing, or you can get really lost in the sauce [laughs].
TRHH: Tell me about Tea & Tarot.
Moon Magic: Ayyyyy Tea & Tarot! I’m actually thinking of bringing it back. I started it up last winter probably around the same time when the season gets a little bit colder and we’re indoors more. It’s just a way for me to be able to connect live within community, especially when we’re not going out as much because it is colder. And being able to do something I love, which is tarot. Tarot for me is such a self-reflection type of tool and something similar to like Rothschilds test on therapy — you know you see the little cards and they have little ink dots. It really helps to bring whatever is in your subconscious to the conscious so that you can work with it. It’s very, very therapeutic.
I love being able to do that for myself, I love being able to do that for the community, and I love being able to do that for others. It’s this really awesome thing when you do it live. So, Tea & Tarot was every Tuesday night for like three months. And when you start doing it live repetitively like that and in a communal space you see a lot of energy that reflects. Similar to when I would be on the road doing tarot, I would see certain themes that would pop up where I’d be like, “Oh, wow.” Every single tarot reading I did the people were talking about relationships, or they were talking about Shadow Work, or things that had to do with parts of themselves that they reject, or insecurities. Then maybe the theme of the night has been battling with certain things that are happening in the world politically and globally.
I think it’s a really great way to connect with one another as well as ourselves in community. It helps remind me that I’m not alone, and that’s always my goal of creating that space is that I hope it reminds others that they’re not alone, and that they feel that connection. When they leave that space at the end of the night they feel if anything a little bit more aware of how they’re feeling and what’s happening in the world around them, so that they can make better sense of it and be able to really integrate and process what’s going on and move forward the best way that they can, and navigate the best that we can in our current circumstances.
TRHH: How does one become a tarot card reader?
Moon Magic: I don’t know if there’s specific rules. I’m sure there is somewhere by someone who says there is, but a lot of tarot readers are self-taught and a lot of different beliefs surround tarot. Jessica Alexandria is a tarot reader who teaches tarot online and that’s who was my tarot teacher. There are many other different tarot teachers online, so you can learn through someone else who already teaches tarot. My first experiences with tarot were more just being called to it, and just kind of having the little book that comes with the tarot deck and reading it and trying to make sense of it and understand it myself. And then I also think just watching videos of other tarot readers, and the cards, and the images, and how they interpret it also really helps you to better read the cards. And then a big part of it is just listening to your intuition and what the images bring up for you, and the story that it begins to tell. There is like a history to the cards, and there is specific interpretations and I would say understandings of what each card means.
If you know the basic understandings of what each card means, which there’s tons of videos on YouTube you could watch, as well as teachers like Jessica Alexandria whose classes you could take and learn those different meanings, then you can kind of understand regardless of what situation you’re in or what kind of story the cards start to tell you know the basic energy of each of those cards to lean on as well as you’re telling that story. It’s kind of like painting an image based on how the cards are coming out, in what order, the energy that it’s showing, but also based on the understanding of the cards historically. So, really anyone could become a tarot card reader, it’s just a matter of doing the studyship part, and working with yourself, your intuition, and the cards enough to understand what it’s saying and to trust what it’s saying. And working with that kind of storytelling ability as well.
TRHH: What do you want people to take away from Moving Different?
Moon Magic: One, I think with all music people are going to take away what they’re going to take away. But for me specifically what I would want people to take away, my hope is for people to take away, and especially for people who look like me in our society, I hope for them to feel a little more encouraged to try and move differently in whatever that means for them. They’ve been hip to their hop and know what’s happening, and have been doing the work inner and outer — continue to feel empowered and encouraged to continue to do that, despite the difficulties. Because there is a lot, whether it comes to always having to self-reflect through the critiques that come with that, and the anxieties, and the self-hatred that could come from that as well, and outer hatred.
But also, for those who maybe are newer to it and are not as open to it, to sit with it and see what that might mean for them. Because they think we live in a society that is demanding us to move different. And especially for people who do look like me, I know that in our society and in our world, we’re made to feel very powerless and there are many intersections, whether we’re talking about gender, or class, or sexuality. I want to challenge those who do look like me to do more and where they can. And to go beyond the their uncomfortability, and to recognize the places that they do have power and to step up in those places beyond the uncomfortability, and the doing it wrong, or not saying the right thing, or the fear of being cancelled, or whatever it may be, and at least try to do something different and move different. I think beyond just that aspect I think it’s a call for us all to move a little bit different in how we navigate relationships with one another, and really work towards reaching understanding.
As Above So Below being the single I think also really speaks to that kind of idea of a lot of people are on their high horse and want to be up on their high horse telling everybody else how to be, and not as focused on themselves. And a lot of the spiritual bypassing, or just bypassing in general of what is going on, or wanting to look at everybody else and point the finger, but you always gotta remember, there’s three fingers pointing back at you. So, I think it’s also a call for us all to be mindful of those things in relationship with one another, because life is hard. Life is very, very difficult and I think that when we move a little bit different, and move with that kind of mindfulness and community we can make it a little bit better of a place for everybody. That’s my highest intention and vision when it comes to this album.
Purchase: Moon Magic – Moving Different