An ability to create catchy, memorable melodies.
Hailing from a small South Carolina town, multi-instrumentalist Madison Lucas took up songwriting as a way to understand and communicate the awkward and unrealized anxieties that often plague creative people growing up in uninspiring environments.
Lucas’ style has always been narrative, a first-person account of her experiences which give her lyrics an easy and immediate relatability. Premiere in Lucas’ songwriting is her natural ability to create catchy, memorable melodies.
By 2013, Lucas had found a partner in crime bassist, Harry Kollm (Time Sawyer, Asleep in the Weeds, Jon Linker Band), who’s varied veteran experience propelled Lucas to get serious about forming a full band, thus bringing Modern Moxie into existence. Lucas and Kollm spent the next four years going through a series of line-up changes, working together to capture Lucas’ essential drive to get the melodies she heard inside herself out into the open.
The duo spent this time kinetically writing, correcting, and transforming dozens of original songs, performing now and again, but mostly keeping Modern Moxie as a side project. After marrying in November 2017, Lucas and Kollm spent their first year as husband and wife recording with producer Kenny McWilliams to create an album together, a labor of love called Claw Your Way Out.
Late-night at a 4th of July party, Lucas eagerly shared a newly mastered song, “Light + Sound” off what had been recorded so far for CYWO. Guitarist Phil Pucci (Pullover, Serfs, Landless, Ernie) was instantly smitten by Modern Moxie’s knack for song structure which had their signature effervescent pop melodies floating over the distorted fuzz of angst-ridden guitar. Lucas’ vocals bloom colourfully, bursting in tandem with cascading cymbals that part for a laidback howled guitar solo. Pucci (who coincidentally officiated the couple’s marriage) joined Modern Moxie shortly after hearing the track and brought along original Serfs drummer, Charlie Weeks, to complete the current and solidified lineup. Although Lucas comes up with the melodies, she trusts each member of the band in bringing their own flair to the songs. Both Pucci and Weeks dove headfirst into adding their distinctive textures into Modern Moxie’s still unrecorded songs and headed into Archer Avenue Studio in December 2018 to record the final five tracks for CYWO.
Claw Your Way Out was released in June 2019 and received Queen City Nerve’s Best Album of 2019 in their yearly Best in the Nest awards along with Best Band of 2019. The album has been streamed over 1.3 million times on Spotify.
After Claw Your Way Out, Modern Moxie continued writing together and have completed recording on a 5 track EP, Gutter Honey, which will be released in March 2021. The first single, “Big Wave”, will be released on all platforms on 10/28/2021. They plan to release three more singles leading up to the EP release in March 2021.
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