Michael Allen Moore advocates being an active listener.
The frontman for Belling The Tiger applied that skill after reading The Lost Art of Listening many years ago.
“I was shocked and embarrassed about how many mistakes I made in listening to others,” said Moore, the band’s vocalist, keyboardist, and guitarist.
“However, I was truly flabbergasted at how badly everybody else I was around at the time was. It helped immensely and allowed me to be a more empathetic human being.”
He also embraced that mindset while writing the title track for the Detroit prog-rock quintet’s latest five-track EP, Listen.
“I think writing music and lyrics is cathartic,” Moore said. “I’m happy to sneak in my self-expression as therapy with the music, and if people don’t pick up on the details, then I’m at peace with that. I have a Buddhist sensibility when it comes to the goals of making music.”
On the title track, Belling The Tiger attempts to help someone who’s on a destructive path before it’s too late.
Alongside Moore, bandmates Duane Harvey (drums, percussion), Andrew Harvey (bass), Ani Balalau (vocals, various instruments), and Nick Geiersbach (keys, trumpet, flugelhorn, various instruments) provide a melodic mix of serene and fearless instrumentation.
Moore sings, “Follow me if you can linear / Thoughts unforgiving and twisting / Speak to me if you can honestly / Unafraid of what we are.”
“The song is about a particular person—however—that person turns out to be a stereotype,” he said. “Therefore, it can have a universal application to others.”
I recently spoke to Belling The Tiger about its EP ahead of two Metro Detroit shows this week.
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