IN CONVERSATION WITH KARLY MORENO
This Friday, Intercept Music went Instagram Live with the wonderful pop singer- songwriter Karly Moreno, who is currently signed to Diamond Empire Productions. Moreno already has a successful EP under her belt, and plenty of performance exposure through her experience as a contestant on NBC’s The Voice, and playing shows in the Orange County / Los Angeles area since 2013. Her newest single “NAIVE” is fresh off the press, combining Moreno’s killer vocal chops with soaring melodies and a grooving hip hop beat, bringing you the ultimate heartache pop banger.
During our time with Karly she played an acoustic version of “Naive” (check it out on the Intercept Instagram) and answered a few of our questions surrounding the release, her career, and advice to other artists. Here are some words from Karly:
Intercept: Where are you reporting from?
Karly: “I’m in Orange County, California – Mission Viejo to be exact – it’s a beautiful day today!”
Intercept: Tell us about the song you just performed!
Karly: “Yeah! So it was actually presented to me by my label Diamond Empire. I normally write all my songs, I’m heavily involved in that process, but the label actually approached me and said ‘Hey, we want you to listen to this song, we think it’s great, we can hear you on it, and we think you can make it your own’ and I was like ‘Yeah let me hear it!’ So they sent it over and as soon as I listened to it I was so stoked on the song, I automatically was like ‘YES! I want to record this!’ So pretty quickly from there I hopped in the studio with the amazing brother duo Will Gittens and J.R. Gittens, and it’s always a great process working and recording with them. I met up with them, we laid down my vocals, it was a pretty quick process, and yeah I just fell in love with the song and I was really stoked on it, and everyone decided ‘yeah, this is going to be your first single.’”
Intercept: What a cool process as a singer-songwriter – when someone wants YOU on their song that you didn’t write, that’s super special.
Karly: “Yeah I was stoked for sure that I was even offered to look at the song and see if I like it. I definitely feel passionate about this song, you know, I fortunately haven’t been through many toxic things in my past relationships, but a lot of my friends in the past have been in relationships that are super toxic, kind of in this cycle of you can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em, and I just felt this song for some people. I thought that it’s relatable, and I just loved it.”
Intercept: Could you give a couple words on your label Diamond Empire, and your experience with them and connecting you to Intercept?
Karly: “Diamond Empire, they’re amazing. Rob Diamond the CEO, Billy Moss, the director of operations, and honestly I think the best thing about working with them is I just feel like they believe in me so much and they support me 100%. And those are the kind of people you want to work with: that believe in you, that are going to push you, that sometimes believe in you more than you believe in yourself, you know, because we all deal with these insecurities and doubts, right? So even times when I’m like ‘ahhh I don’t know’ they’re always like ‘Karly. You got this. Believe in yourself.’ So it’s been an amazing experience working with them. And obviously they introduced me to you guys at Intercept, and I was super stoked to work with you all. Just the distribution of my music, and the song has been great so far, it’s been awesome seeing “NAIVE” grow! And obviously you guys are helping me out with my merch and all these fun things, so it’s just been a pleasure, it’s been amazing.”
Karly: The link to my merch shop is in my Instagram bio so you can find it there, or it’s on my website under the merchandise link which will take you straight there. (We’ve also linked it above).
Intercept: Tell us about your life outside of music and that balance! You’re all over the place in Cali.
Karly: “I definitely love where I live, that’s for sure. It’s beautiful in California, I grew up here, you know, I have my mom and dad supporting me so much. We’re like the Three Musketeers, they’re everything to me. And I have two older brothers so a supportive family to start. In Cali I grew up skateboarding and surfing my whole life which is a huge part of me. Skateboarding is a huge passion of mine and something that I basically do on the daily. I love to surf with my friends, you know it’s been a minute since I’ve surfed so I’m bummed on that, but I’ve got to get back in the water. So yeah! I just love hanging out with my family, hanging out with my friends, skating, going to coffee shops, grabbing a drink with friends, I just love being outside and being with people I love! It’s great.”
Intercept: Any gigs or upcoming projects you want to shout out?
Karly: “Lately I’ve been in the studio a lot with Billy Moss, he’s an amazing producer, so he’s created a really amazing space – a studio where we can just get together. I’ll go over and bring my songs that I wrote, and he’ll just help me bring them to life. It’s just me, him, and an engineer in the studio and we’re just having fun, going back and forth with ideas, so I have quite a few new songs up my sleeve that we’ve been working on, just waiting for them to be mixed and mastered, which I’m super excited about. One of them’s called “Take Me Away”, and another is called “Time Won’t Wait”. So those are two songs that I have coming out soonish, hopefully sooner than later! I don’t have an exact date for those yet. But yeah I’ve just been recording, and then I have shows coming up – they put on this concert series around Orange County and I’m playing at a couple of the venues, one in Irvine and then one in Dana Point. So those are coming up, I’m excited about that, and then I’m partnering with Nissan and going to be singing at an event of theirs, doing a little show for them.”
From the Audience: What’s your favorite OC [Orange County] spot?
Karly: “I love San Clemente. I feel like I’m in San Clemente all the time, whether I’m getting coffee, walking the pier, I love skating around the downtown, I don’t know I just always feel good there. San Clemente is the spot for me I think.”
Intercept: Having a supportive family in music is so special. Has music always been your “thing”, and has your family always been so supportive?
Karly: “Yeah! Actually my mom was in a band when I was little, so she heavily influenced my love for music. In kindergarten I remember them being like ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’ And I drew what was literally a picture of my mom onstage and the band she was in, their name was Siren, so I drew that on the picture and said ‘I want to be just like my mom when I grow up.’ And my whole family is pretty musical – my brothers, my uncle, my grandpa, my mom, but apart from the music side they’ve always been the most supportive parents in the world and they’re just the best, they’re amazing. I feel blessed for sure!”
Intercept: Amidst these crazy past few years, you’ve still found success in your career. Do you have any advice for other musicians right now?
Karly: “It has been the weirdest times, oh my gosh. I think what I’d say is trust the process and trust the timing. It’s not always going to look how you expect it to or how you think sometimes. For me, I just trust that God has a plan for whatever you’re doing in your life, right? For each step I take I kind of just put it in his hands and trust the timing, trust the process, and believe in yourself. I mean if you’re going to put out music obviously you want to be confident and all that right? And I struggle with that sometimes – promoting myself. I’m trying to get better at it, but you know this is what I want to do, this is what I’m passionate about and I need to start putting myself out there more. And I think it’s really important that we as artists need to do that. We can’t fear judgment of what people think. It’s funny because I’ve been wearing this the past couple days *Karly’s “NAIVE” Hoodie* but it’s my face on it – so it’s so uncomfortable but also like I’m trying to promote the merch! So it’s just so funny, but anyways just believe in yourself, trust timing, and trust the process.”
It was such a pleasure to host Karly Moreno on the Intercept Instagram Live. Stream her latest single “NAIVE” here, and stay tuned for more from Intercept!