LIVE FROM THE UNDRGRND WITH TREY MOORE
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE UNDRGRND WITH FOUNDER, TREY MOORE, AS WE DISCUSS ITS ORIGINS, ITS CURRENT GROWTH, AND HIS VISION FOR THE NEAR FUTURE!
Photo courtesy of THE UNDRGRND
Trey Moore is a New Haven native and multihyphenate creative who aims to provide unique artistic experiences for residents and travelers coming into town. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Moore to discuss THE UNDRGRND: its origins, its current status, and the future goals for the event along with Seeing Sounds, the brand under which it operates, also founded by Moore.
Photo courtesy of THE UNDRGRND
ASHLEY RAYMOND: Let's first get into how you came up with the idea for Seeing Sounds and wanting to make it like a festival and maybe not like a one time or one-off event kind of thing?
TREY MOORE: I feel like Seeing Sounds is always a thing, you know? We were always doing stuff, find stuff, just because we wanted it to happen. Like no other reason. I don't think anybody was looking to make bread. Right? It was just like, yo, I think this would be cool if this exists here. It'd be dope if we have something for us. So you just start doing it. And that's kind of the type of energy I've always carried as a creative person. I'm an artist but I'm also a person who's like, I'm looking for things to do. I was like, ‘You know what? I'm in a very clearheaded space in life right now, let me do this thing.’ So that's how Seeing Sounds really got officially started last year. The whole idea was like, okay, I want these experiences. How do we create this consistent ecosystem? To where month to month, week to week, we have something for those who want to be a part of, as a creative person or just as a human being who wants to be in a space that feels like they can be there and that speaks to them? Seeing Sounds, the festival, was the initial introduction for everybody but Seeing Sounds is an umbrella, throughout the year, through popups and stuff like THE UNDRGRND. Then there's the festival every year, which you know, we're taking like a SXSW approach to where we really want to make it a big thing that everyone's a part of.
ASHLEY RAYMOND: I remember years ago when you first started THE UNDRGRND. That was probably one of the most interactive events that was happening at the time because you brought in different DJs and they brought different crowds with them. Everyone was looking to do these things, like you were saying, and then it kind of took this turn where then everyone wanted it to be like a brand and it kind of lost the humanity of it. I remember you saying like you didn't want it to become that. How does that differ now from then?
Photo courtesy of THE UNDRGRND
TREY MOORE: At the time, that was probably my first time curating anything on my own after being a part of Negus (a collective created by Jeremy Grier, photographer and creative director). I'm like, oh, I want to keep doing stuff, but I don't know how or I don't know exactly what. Immediately, I thought of THE UNDRGRND. I had just started DJing and I love music and stuff like that. I think we did about two or three of them. You know, it did start to feel like more of a responsibility to build it up as a brand, especially the more people came. It was like, oh, shoot, I have to keep up with this. I'm barely an adult and I don't know. I do this for fun. Years later, I think the reason why I was able to bring and shield it to where the whole idea, the reason why it exists, is to be you know, underground. It’s to feel like a place where people don't have to be shiny, I want to cater to the populations who love to be free and love to dance; the DJs who want to play what they want. It's meant to be that space and sometimes branding can work against that if it's too hyper focused on branding and trying to make it polished. So now, Seeing Sounds on its own, you know, that is kind of the polished thing. But, I don't want to just cater to this kind of super neat artistic community. It's all grimy to me. It's all these spaces exist for folks who want to just let loose and be free and find community. In 2023, we're able to capture the energy of what it was when it first started.
ASHLEY RAYMOND: How are you now able to keep that balance with having the necessary branding showing this is a very real thing also to keep that integrity of bringing in the folks that want to be free?
TREY MOORE: I mean, there's still a curation element, right? Like with all of the events I do, I've ever done, whether I had $5 to my name or $2,000 to my name, I treat it all the same. So when you walk into a Seeing Sounds event or an UNDRGRND event, you're going to walk into an experience. I don't care how many people show up even when we're doing it back in the day, you walk in, you see THE UNDRGRND graphics circulating. You see it set up cool. You’re walking into a space you’ve never been in before. I still approach it with the same amount of respect. Cause I respect art. I love music. At the end of the day, I think it's easy for that to be felt, right? People feel energy. You know what I'm saying? You can't fake it.
ASHLEY RAYMOND: How do you go about selecting DJs and picking a theme or a genre for THE UNDRGRND to be centered around?
TREY MOORE: So I'll answer backwards. In most cases, THE UNDRGRND is open format. We've done one where we centered Afrobeat, Amapiano, and Dancehall. That was just cause I just want to hear it! I just wanna see what that's like for one night. But typically, they're open format and where I look first, is home. That's where I always start first. Who's around, who's dope and who should be up here? I'm always looking around locally and then I'd be browsing. I feel like an AR sometimes. I'd be listening to people's sets. I be finding new folks and I be asking people all the time, like, yo, where are the people who are doing this? Where are people doing that? I love finding dope women. That's been my main thing lately. Between DJs for THE UNDRGRND and musicians, I try to prioritize it to like, okay, what's needed and then what would be cool? It's that cool balance, you know what I'm saying? I'm pulling from all over. The first one of the new ones, one of the DJs was from Philly and she was sick and then the rest were from here, had Noah and then [Tim] Harewood. Then, we had AR from Hartford. We had Ch’Varda at the most recent one, Kasey Cortez. You know what I'm saying? I be looking around and I'll also be looking out for whoever's dope and whoever's willing to put their stuff out there.
ASHLEY RAYMOND: Finding physical spaces has been becoming a bit more difficult lately, especially here in New Haven. Spaces are closing or they curate for specific audiences and they're not really trying to deviate from that so when you're looking for spaces to do your next event, what's that process like for you?
Photo courtesy of THE UNDRGRND
TREY MOORE: Boy, I'll tell you. Shout out to Lyric Hall Theatre who let me do the initial one there. But it took some convincing to start and we talked about it. Stella Blues was pretty straightforward because they're used to dealing with artists more regularly than other venues. So, that was a matter of scheduling. The State House has always been super supportive and they're shutting down. It sucks because they've been super instrumental in letting artists develop. We want to move around, throughout New Haven, especially within Connecticut, and then the states and then the world, right? A lot of the difficulties I've had in finding spaces that aren’t willing to let us in. When I’m met with resistance, I'm like, okay, like what's going on? I have reached out to a lot of venues, locally, to at least have the conversation about bringing THE UNDRGRND. I know it has a lot to do with unfamiliarity. Racial biases are deeply rooted. I was aware of prejudices. It has to be; this is literally the only reason because the response is simply okay, tell me more about THE UNDRGRND. I have a year's worth of material. I do all the write ups. I do all this stuff. THE UNDRGRND has been a successful event, so everything points to Yes. But sometimes it's like, yeah, we already kind of have a thing we knew here or no response at all. So, I'm looking to work with people who want to work with us, and we take care of everything.
ASHLEY RAYMOND: What do you see for Seeing Sounds and all that falls under its umbrella in the next five years?
TREY MOORE: I think even sooner, I think I really want to I think I want Seeing Sounds to radically disrupt the way other people, organizations, businesses, individuals operating our community really shake the whole table. Not only are we going to grow to the point where we're providing opportunities, to where we're giving the best experiences but also creating core memories for people and really impacting the creative economy. We're going to make it uncomfortable for other people to not operate on that level. The way they're operating now that's so anti-Black anti, anti-equity, we're going to change the way y'all even are able to exist, because we're gonna grow to that point within the next five years, so that's the direction we're heading. The core of it, in the heart of it, is creativity. The heart of it is experiences for people, the heart of it is also shifting the way artists and creative people are able to exist within this ecosystem.
THE UNDRGRND is an inclusive, grassroots event created to exist as you are, in full. Seeing Sounds is providing multiple spaces and opportunities for equity and success to the creators and innovators in the Elm City and soon, beyond.
