Bella Moore is a Los Angeles-based artist, who dreams of an anachronistic world. Growing up around racetracks, casinos, Floridian seas, old Hollywood films and carnivals, she is heavily influenced by memory. Last summer, she met a young boy, who read her palm and told her to pursue music. Shortly after, Moore’s fiancé, Limo’s Ben Howley had her debut on the band’s sophomore album — and from here she began to further experiment.
Because she had a very close relationship with her grandparents, Moore was drawn to the music of Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, Rudy Vallée and a variety of singers from the ’30s to the ’50s. Combining that with other eclectic influences like Suicide, Bloodshot Bill and Les Rallizes Dénudés, the Los Angeles-based artist began to write material on her keyboard. Inspired mostly by drums, she can create a song entirely around a selection of carefully chosen waltz-styled drum beats. She then sought the help of Kirk Hellie and Rob Campanella, who helped her produce and mix her work.
Moore’s eerie debut single “Benny Valentine” features her ethereal croon floating across a brooding and uneasy arrangement of distorted and funny guitars, reverb-soaked drums. The song’s narrator describes a mesmerizing meeting with the enigmatic and mysterious Benny Valentine. While there’s a sense of fascination, the song also evokes deeper complexities to the encounter — mainly a character grappling between the internal conflict of attraction and resistance. The push and pull at the heart of the song adds to its unease.
“‘Benny Valentine’ is a love song,” Moore explains. “It reminds me of a nightmare and a dream all at once. It’s a feeling of doom and being eternal, living in love and not fear.”
