Music Travel Love visiting India | Interview with The Holistic Pine

There is news that the Canadian music band, Music Travel Love, will be visiting the North East of India for a musical concert. As fans await the programme eagerly, we share an interview with the Moffatt brothers which was done by our chief Editor, Ankush Bharti. 

Interview with Bob and Clint Moffat by Ankush Bharti, Chief Editor, The Holistic Pine

Hello everybody, I have the pleasure of interviewing Bob and Clint Moffatt, the dynamic musical duo behind Music Travel Love, today. Bob and Clint's band has won the hearts of millions of people all over the globe thanks to their shared passions for music, travel, and family. Their travel-themed music videos, which feature both their original and nostalgic cover songs, have brought them to some of the world's most stunning locations. Bob and Clint have had enormous success as musicians, songwriters, and entertainers in addition to their success with Music Travel Love. We'll find out more about their journey and the motivation for their amazing endeavour today.

1. Clint, you and your brothers were signed to Polydor Records at a very young age, how did that happen and what was the experience like for you?

We were actually the youngest band (combined years) to ever sign a major record label contract. At the time we were performing with the Osmond’s in Branson Missouri and basically discovered by record producer Robert Byrne. He originally recorded two songs for us, but it wasn’t easy. Our Dad would take us once a month to each label in Nashville until one day the president of Polydor Records, Luke Lewis said yes, and Robert was able to finish the record.

2. With over 5,000 live performances under your belt, what has been your favourite concert or tour to date and why?

Probably the two that come to mind first would be a concert in Lisbon, Portugal in 1999. The venue was in the centre of the town and all roads leading to the arena were completely full of screaming people as far as you could see. Sadly, less than half made it into the show – I guess they thought they could get tickets at the door, but that show was definitely over sold. Then our concert in Manila in 2017 was pretty special because we got to play the same arena that we played our first concert in SE Asia. Filipino’s love to sing and for half of that show I think we were drowned out by the fans. But to be completely honest every concert has magical moments for us, it’s been an amazing journey.

3. You have achieved phenomenal success in countries like Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore, what do you attribute this success to and how have you maintained your popularity in these regions?

Music fans in Asia love, love songs and they love harmony, so I would say it has a lot to do with the simple soothing melodies we write or the songs we cover today plus our brotherly harmonies. Since we were little kids out Dad always preached the words Michael Martin Murphy once told us: “Boys never forget, if you love your fans your fans will love you back.” And we live by those words.

4.You took a break from performing and moved to Nashville to establish yourselves as songwriters. How did that decision come about and what was the transition like for you?

After 10 long years living out of a suitcase we just wanted some normality in our lives, and so when our record deal ended in Thailand we took the opportunity to move back to Nashville and hone our skills as songwriters where we had some success by placing songs on the TV hit show ”Nashville”.

5. How did it feel to have your single "Goodbye Baby" chart in the top 20 and what inspired the song?

It was exciting no question about it. This is a fickle business and you are only as good as your last hit so just having a hit was pretty cool. As for the inspiration, we have always loved the Everly Brothers. In fact, we even cut an Everly Brothers song on our very first record “Bird Dog”.

6. Can you tell us about your EPs "Amen for Women" and "Happy 'N High" and the creative process behind them?

I think those two EP’s were an expression of us figuring out who we were as artists. After the Moffatts we formed a band and had a bit of success (Hydell) , then we went to Thailand and started the duo thing, then we came to Nashville and shifted back to our country roots.

7. You have also been successful in writing songs for other artists, how does the songwriting process differ when writing for yourselves versus for others?

To be honest it’s all the same to us – come up with a strong idea or hook and then write 3 verses, 2 channels, a chorus and a bridge.

8. Your "Music Travel Love" videos have gained a lot of attention on social media, can you tell us about the inspiration behind them and the places you have visited so far?

As with everything we do its trial and error. At first, we were sitting in our living room, then we moved to outside and recorded live, then we had to create the tracks because, planes, trains, automobiles, birds, dogs and people were taking us hours and hours to remove the sounds from the final edit. As for locations we have filmed in Grand Canyon, Hawaii, Rocky Mountains, Okanagan, Baja, Phuket, Chiang Mai, Cebu, Bali, Sapa, Da Nang, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Qatar – up coming locations Angkor Wat, Toraja, Mexico … Basically just places we think would be beautiful or a country tourism asks us to come film there.

9. What advice would you give to aspiring musicians who are just starting out in the industry?

Find your sound, build a huge social media to support you, always do your best and never just put out content that isn’t something you are completely proud of and aligns with your image and brand.

10. What can fans expect from you in the future, any new projects or tours in the works?

We have a coffee company in the Philippines Music Java Love and we will reboot Music Travel Kids soon. As for touring we basically play one off shows or weddings because we don’t like to be away from our family for to long.

11. You've travelled to some beautiful destinations for your music videos, which place has been your favourite so far and why?

We really like Bali because there is so much diversity in one location, but pretty much every place on earth has some beautiful scenery.

12. Your videos often feature beautiful scenery and landscapes, how do you go about finding these locations and setting up the shoot?

Instagram is a great resource. When we know we are going somewhere for a show or a wedding we like to scout out the area online. But it’s not always that easy because sometimes people photoshop their photos and sometimes we can’t get what makes a location beautiful into one frame and on top of that we have to make sure the complete area looks beautiful.

13. Your videos feature both cover songs and your own original music, how do you decide which songs to include in each video?

For covers we look for songs that appeal to the largest audience and that we personally like. Then we work them up and if we can add the MTL vibe and feel we record them, but that doesn’t always happen and in most cases that takes a few days to get there. As for originals we gauge the songs acceptance pretty much off of the audience’s response.

14. How has social media helped you to promote and share your music and travel adventures with a wider audience?

We started with Facebook and built a following of 50,000. We pushed our videos to those people and they shared them and our follow really started to grow. Then we started YouTube and once that was adding Subs on a regular basis, we fired up our Instagram and just recently added TikTok. You can’t spread yourself to thin, its important to focus hard on which ever media platform you are growing at the time.

15. Can you tell us about any challenges you've faced while filming your music videos and how you've overcome them?

Recently we had a video pulled by Bryan Adams. That really hurt. Not because the video was going viral, but because we loved Bryan Adams and what makes it worse was that it appeared, we were the first cover video he pulled. OK maybe he was a little upset because he had just released a new single and our cover of his song was garnering 5 times the views his song was.

16. How do you balance your love for music and travel with your personal lives and responsibilities?

We approach music like professional athlete’s approach sport. We work at our profession Monday to Friday 10:00am to 5:00pm and spend the evenings with our families. On the road we go back to our hotel rooms after a show and call the family. We’ve seen the party lifestyle destroy a lot of amazing artists and we’re not interested in going down that path.

17. How has your musical style evolved since starting Music Travel Love and what can fans expect from your future projects?

As we have stated in the past if your priority is to improve daily you have little chance of not improving and thus evolving musically. That being said, we have a bit of a niche market and we are quite happy that people find our music the live version of “CALM” peaceful, relaxing, and tranquil.

18. Do you have any upcoming destinations or musical collaborations that you're excited about?

We are excited about our next collaboration, because it’s with our triplet brother Dave and will be released mid-April – it might be out prior to this article release – OH well check it! Dave’s a great singer and we are happy to have the opportunity to do this with him.

19. What advice would you give to someone who wants to pursue their passion for music and travel?

Be consistent, stay focused, strive to improve daily, never give up and ALWAYS, ALWAYS do your very best!