KSMU’s June 2022 Studio Live features mother-daughter duo Molly Healey and Annabelle Moore. While Molly is no stranger to the show, this will be Annabelle’s first time on the KSMU airwaves.
Between mom Molly and fellow musician dad Brandon Moore, it’s no wonder that the high school junior is lighting up the Springfield music scene.
KSMU's Jess Balisle sat down with Molly and Annabelle to talk about how their musical relationship is impacted by their parent/child relationship. Below is a lightly edited transcript.
Molly: She picked up a guitar and I wasted no time asking her.
Jess: Annabelle, were you stoked to play with your mom, or was that like, “Oh, I’m playing with my mom?”
Annabelle: It was mostly excitement. I was just excited to get to perform because I’d been doing theater for a while and l’d stopped, and so there was like a hole where the performing went. And I was really excited to get to be onstage. And it was fun playing with her because she’s such an experienced musician.
Jess: I was going to say, you’re pretty lucky having this built-in bandmate.
Annabelle: Yeah, definitely.
Molly: Well, when she started taking guitar lessons and picking it up, her teacher was Dave Painter, one of my other bandmates from Ozark Mountain Daredevils. And I think it was such a fabulous relations because he’s such a great teacher, but she was also such a fabulous student that it went really quickly. So, I was so impressed with the way she could just pick things up so easily. I mean, I didn’t have to, you know, people might imagine that I sit at home coaching her, telling her how to do things, telling her to sing this and do this, because they’re my songs, for the most part, right now. And it’s just not that way at all. She’s just a total natural. It really was effortless.
Jess: What are your rehearsals like?
Molly: Uh…mostly good. You know, there are definitely, when you have a parent and a child trying to work together, it’s always going to be different than two friends. Similarly, like, some people who are married and they try to make a band work, it doesn’t always work. You know, if something is rubbing us the wrong way, often we’re not afraid to say it and then sometimes that offends the other one. But, just as with any working relationship, and I feel like that even if you’re not married or a family member, I think that eventually, if you’re with somebody and you play with them long enough, you eventually have those time and you just, you either work them or you don’t. And so, we just work with them and sometimes practice ends and it wasn’t the best, but then we get back on the horse again the next time and it’s usually a lot better.
Annabelle: Yeah. I’d say we’re both really stubborn. It sometimes doesn’t work in our favor, but we also move on pretty quickly.
Be sure to tune in for Studio Live Friday, June 10, 2022 at noon for a live performance from Molly Healey and Annabelle Moore. The two will then play Studio Live Social Hour at Tie & Timber Beer Co. from 5-7 pm that night.
