Biography:

 

Viking Moses, AKA Brendon Massei, achieves a special balance of warmth and command, with familiar melodies that draw listeners in and oblige them to stay. Strongly lyrical songs are played out through tunes that flirt with pop, soul and Americana, all strung together with a unique pulsing guitar, and by Massei's robust voice, which ebbs from delicate whispers to throaty howls.

 

20 years and counting, Massei has won over fans and critics with the delicate melodies of his songs, and through his versatility as a performer -- his live show is as compelling in a living room as it is in a major venue, and his songs as natural in a movie soundtrack as on a record player. The lore of Massei's outsider lifestyle has won him interest and praise.

 

2013 saw the release of Werewolves Across America, a documentary by UK Production Company Pulse Films about Massei's life and lifestyle as a touring musician. Massei's music also features on 2014's BAFTA-winning UK film Kelly + Victor, and documentary film The Legend Of Masty Huba (2011).

 

 

Album Description:

 

Viking Moses's album Jahiliyah (an Arabic word meaning, "the age of ignorance") is a deeply contemplative work. The narrative, mythical at times, employs cinematic desolation as motif and follows a character who, harnessing his instinct, challenges his upbringing. We watch his struggle to influence by ideal, his abandonment of community, and his submission to a great unknowable beyond. As he traverses this beyond, we share in his fearful obstacles, courageous discoveries, and inspirational boons.

 

Massei on Jahiliyah: "These are songs of abandonment: the parent of her child, the child of his home, the visionary of his cause, the worker of his labor, the lovers of their infatuation, the God of its faithful, the contemplator of her self... They leave everything and walk vulnerably into the storm, get face down in the dirt, sacrifice affection and sustenance, utterly lost and without hope of any kind to know their self within and their place without. They are propelled by internal void and without reason. Who among them shall hold fast in following their heart, and at what cost? And to what avail? I deliberately blur lines of time and place in Jahiliayh. These are eternal concepts without beginning or end -- How we delight to spin in these circles of unknowing!"

 

In Jahiliyah, Massei unleashes his most expressive work yet, with 10 dynamic full-band tracks that are epic while heartfelt. Dramatic melodies are stabilized by Massei’s rich tenor, which cascades at times to near-whisper.

 

Each Viking Moses release has etched a progressively weightier musical trench, ranging from the acoustic Crosses (2005), to the euphoric slo-pop of 2009’s The Parts that Showed, to the markedly rocking The Conquest Night (2012). These releases laid serious bedrock that has won Viking Moses years of acclaim. Jahiliyah digs beneath this bedrock. A set of songs crafted out of the subterranean, Jahiliyah is unassuming, as though it has been happening before meeting the listeners’ ears and will continue to crank away for evermore.

 

Jahiliyah was released on Epiphysis on CD, LP, and digital download. Limited edition LPs are available with deluxe die-cut gate-fold jackets and color vinyl.

 

The album's latest single is the title track 'Jahiliyah'. The album's first single was 'Morning Compromise'.

 

 

Milestones:

 

• 2015 tours in Europe and North America.

• Viking Moses song on Jason Molina tribute compilation Farewell Transmission

• Viking Moses song features as a major part of the storyline of 2014 BAFTA-winner Kelly + Victor

• Lucky Numbers, a Viking Moses tribute album, featuring Malcolm Middleton, Adrian Crowley, Slow Club, Devendra Banhart and others performing Viking Moses songs.

• 2014 tours in China, Europe, and North America.

• 2013 release of Werewolves Across America, a documentary by UK filmmakers Ed Lovelace and James Hall (Katy Perry: Part Of Me, The Possibilities Are Endless) about Massei's life and lifestyle as a touring musician.

 

 

Praise:

 

MTV wrote:

 

“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.”

 

Alan McGee wrote in The Guardian UK:

 

“Viking Moses is ‘The Most Uniquely talented musician since Kurt Cobain… an absolute genius, and one of the best musicians I have ever released.”

 

From Tony Wilson’s blog:

 

“Viking Moses is one of those people you can’t help but liking, because he’s so DIY and down to earth even though he’s got a tremendous talent.”