Hawke's Bay Compilation Record Showcase - MC Mouse
Few artists exhibit as much joy performing their music as Seamus Molloy, also known as MC Mouse. He tells tales with wisdom far and beyond his years in his captivating and hauntingly relatable music.
Originally hailing from Dannevirke, and with heritage halfway across the world in Ireland, it was family that pulled him to call Hawke’s Bay home.
His foray into a musically devoted lifestyle was encouraged at primary school, where he picked up the guitar. However, Seamus' self-proclaimed lack of passion and authenticity led to him leaving that journey behind mid-way through high school.
“It was more something I felt was kinda good to have and was cool and what-not. I would learn the odd riff and wouldn't really commit too much time to it”
A shift in focus came with the introduction of rap music from friends. Initially dismissive of this genre, as he himself was firmly entrenched in the rock music life, it began to slowly but surely seep in and he found himself excited by the freestyling element.
“Just me and the boys just hanging out in the shed and them throwing on beats and coming up with words out of nowhere, and having it within the space, a cognitive story that had you know synchronology to some sort of degree. It was exciting and I was engaged, but I never thought I'd be able to do it”. He recalls.
However, these same friends relentlessly encouraged him to give it a go. Seamus became engrossed in experimenting and practising his own freestyles and when the time came to showcase these talents to an audience, albeit of close friends, the response was overwhelmingly positive.
“There was so much engagement and excitement and I had never really felt anything like that before. It was a huge part of my feeling of fitting in for a while, and then over the next sort of two years, the last two years of high school, I just became obsessed with doing it within my own time and writing raps”
This obsession really started to gain traction during an overseas trip to the U.K, and the realisation that he wanted to create his own music, as well as continuing to pursue the freestyle element sunk it.
“I don't think anyone is born with it. Genuinely. I think you can have an excitement for it. I heard some really cool quote, it was on a TikTok somewhere along the line, and the audio said “The only talent or gift that a creative has is their desire to create and everything beyond that is a skill that they learnt for themselves”. So I kinda look at that for me with music and rapping, I definitely believe that anybody can do it, it’s just a matter of having the commitment to fumbling around for a bit more time and saying a lot of silly things and eventually the pathways in your brain start to get thicker and stronger and you find rhymes easily and it becomes more natural”, Seamus says of whether he believed he had natural talent or not.
Seamus says that he already knew of the Hawke’s Bay Music Hub’s Compilation Vinyl as one of his closest friends, Zonny, was featured last year.
“That prospect immediately excited me because I think it's really cool to be acknowledged as somebody that's within the area of which there are a lot of incredible artists and I know of multiple people that have submitted songs that I personally would have thought deserved to be on the record but didn't so it's humbling to be a part of it”.
The song that Seamus submitted is “Identity”.
While his sound isn’t radically different, the tone of the writing is. He sounds like the wise character at the beginning of a novel who’s about to wax on about the bygone events that made them who they are.
Identity takes you a philosophical journey of self-love. With mirrored verses and a stunningly unexpected rasp introduced to MC Mouse’s singing voice, listeners are engulfed in a love story of independence.
“People just listen to the song like they would any other song but they feel it in a different way and it's all because - its like when someone cooks you a meal, you don't know why it makes you feel so good, its because there was time effort and love put into it - that you barely even saw, you just see the plate and then you are eating it and are like “this is delicious” and so I think that recently I have really started to move with my legs and not my mouth and really take those steps and I think it’s reflected within this song”.
Seamus foresees consistency and autonomy ahead for him in his career. His future aspirations of creating beats, recording, mixing, and releasing all of his own music will ensure he has complete independence within the musical process.
“Every single time I put effort into learning some skills, mixing etc, and every hour and every day I put effort into that, that is me taking back my own right to do whatever I want, whenever I want. I want to give myself that independence”.
The prospect of having his name and his music introduced into a collective of music enthusiasts who are active within the music community is entrancing. The possibility of conversations, opportunities and awareness growing exponentially as a direct result of being chosen to appear on the vinyl is something Seamus is not taking for granted.
“And historically too you know, that's just going to be there forever. In 10 years time people are going to be like “remember that time we made a compilation record?” that's awesome.”
The Hawke’s Bay Compliation Record - Under the Sun, Vol. 2 was produced by Backline Charitable Trust.
This record would not have been produced without the help of additional funding through Lion foundation, EIT Te Pukenga (Ideaschool) and Aramex.
There is an event being held at Paisley Stage, Napier to celebrate the completion of the vinyl. It will be on 23rd March 2023.
For more information about this event, and about our local musicians check out the Hawke’s Bay Music Hub website and Facebook page.
