Maurice can’t wait to spend his evening in his basement studio, but right now he can’t. Right now, he’s Julien Moore, a teenager whose quadriceps burn and fingers ache, still jammed from stiff-arming defenders in attempts to score touchdowns during football practice. Ignoring the Jason Derulo song blaring from the radio as his mother drives him home, Julien is submerged in a trance-like state where he goes over the list of tasks he has to complete before he can craft melodies. First, he would lay sprawled out in his bed with ice packs soothing his muscles. Then, he would finish the set of algebra homework that was assigned today in class. Then, if time permits, he’ll work on his music.
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The transition from rapper to singer is credited to Maurice’s sister Kelsey Vaz, who is a dynamic singer herself. After being bullied into attempting to sing a hook on a track, Maurice immediately fell in love with the emotion he could portray through singing. After the change came about, he and his sister established a successful R&B duo called Retrofuture. The two siblings started to slowly establish a name for themselves in Ottawa. Together they obtained radio-play on the popular Hot 89.9. Unfortunately, the two were forced to go their separate ways when his sister Kelsey moved to Toronto in order to study at Ryerson University. The separation was bittersweet for Maurice: Retrofuture was no more, but now he was given the opportunity to thrive as a solo artist. “My sister moving away was shitty, but at the same time it forced me to rebrand into the artists I am now.”
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When asked to describe his sound, Maurice explained, “There's always one simple principle that remains true with my sound-and that's one word: feel. My music literally could be described as my thoughts converted into an mp3 format. I try to create theme songs for these images in my head with my Retrofuture production team. As the R&B landscape broadens its horizons and the lines between hip-hop and R&B are becoming even more blurred, many artists today have succumbed to the new sound where “rap-singing” has sprouted as trend or formula for success. Despite his young age, Maurice brings the old essence of traditional R&B that we saw dominate the late 90’s and early 2000’s. While bringing back the familiar crooning sound which primarily focused on love and the opposite sex, Maurice still maintains to add a new vibrant touch to the music.Ini Udoeyop's best R&B songs are recorded in the shower - @KingUddy