We were lucky to catch up with Teri Woods recently and have shared our conversation below.

Teri, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear the story of how you went from this being just an idea to making it into something real.

I’d been keeping a concert journal for about 8 years at this point, and a few people knew about it. I met my friend Maxie Cheer (drummer of indie duo Just Kids) at a jazz club one night in November 2019 and they said words to the effect of ‘You should just have a website, you’re already doing all the writing.’ People had said this to me before, but something about the way they said it was different.

It sparked the idea, which I researched and planned in December and January. I had no idea how to run a website, I’d never done anything like that before. My friend Richard Parson helped me figure some of that out, who a few months after our launch designed our logo. Yep – we launched without a logo! It seems funny to think that now. We also launched without any social media. I used all my personal social accounts, which was definitely a mistake looking back now. But I didn’t want the massive commitment, going from nothing to EVERYTHING. This was supposed to be fun, after all. I didn’t set the social media up until we were past our first year. I kick myself, because I could’ve spent a whole ‘nother year building the brand.

I was brainstorming names whilst at work with a notepad, writing down combinations. It started off as something like ‘Teri’s Music Revue’ which I knew was lame. I wanted something better, and sought a title that actually had nothing to do with music, so it could potentially be anything. It could evolve later on if I wanted it to. I don’t remember where the idea of using animals came, but it would be like a ‘collective’. I wanted a name that would be easy to Google. For a little bit I had ‘Moths and-‘, then I just tried different animals as the second part. I don’t remember what other animals there were, but when I settled on ‘Giraffes’, I knew it was perfect. I didn’t look back from that point onwards. Moths and Giraffes is like ‘Chalk and Cheese’, two completely different things that help describe the fact that I want to write about any musical genre.

We launched in January 2020 strong with a piece about the career of American indie artist Kate Davis. Although I’d probably write it differently now, I’m still really proud of that. I’d been loving her album ‘Trophy’ and saw her live just before lockdown, the article is about both of those things, with an exclusive interview – we started as we meant to go on.

Teri, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Moths and Giraffes is a music review website. I’m often caught referring to the website as ‘we’ but in truth every aspect of it is just run by me! But it feels bigger. And it isn’t about me, so it feels more diplomatic to refer to it like ‘We’ve been writing about this artist.’ Part of the mission statement was to produce high-quality writing about independent musicians, the ones who deserved to be written about, who struggled to get a foot in the door. I’d seen so much poor writing, factually incorrect writing, or just reproduced press releases with the publication’s own name at the top.

I wanted to have my own mind about these artists. I wanted to tell people to listen to something because I believed it was worth listening to – and I still feel that way about every single article we publish. Another part of the mission statement was to have exclusive interviews as much as possible. I wanted to give the artists a platform to speak about the their art, not just reproduce the quotes in their press release.

Since then we’ve done music video premieres, reviewed concerts, and interviewed artists from their teens right up to their 70’s. We’ve interviewed artists from multiple continents, backgrounds and genres, and we have readers all over the world. I couldn’t be more proud of that.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Patience has been a factor in a number of the bigger pieces we’ve written. One of these especially comes to mind.

For about ten years, I’ve been a big fan of actor Jena Malone’s music career. After hearing ‘Dead Rabbit Hopes’ from the duo she’s part of with Lem Jay Ignacio called The Shoe, I sought to find out everything I could about Malone and the duo. Their music was obscure and hard to find, as were physical copies of the work, of which I obtained. I saw them live the only time they ever played London in 2014, and felt I was geared up enough to write the history on the band for Moths and Giraffes in 2020. It took almost two years, but I obtained interviews with both Ignacio and Malone, as well as rare photographs and an unseen early version of their song ‘His Shirt Grew’, published exclusively for Moths and Giraffes. Our piece tells the story from 2006 up to 2021.

There was a lot of chasing involved. Many times I’d think the work was almost complete, and then I’d stumble on a piece of research I’d missed. I’m so pleased I persevered, and kept the integrity of the work by not jumping the gun. I would love to write a book on this band eventually. How Jena Malone’s solo early exploration in music evolved into their work as The Shoe, with interviews from other musicians and creatives that were a part of the journey, but I think they have much more to say yet.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

The impression I get from non-creatives is that I’m wasting my time. They can’t understand why I would spend so much of my time running this website, writing these articles, interviewing artists, doing the research…all for zero financial gain. Our lives are driven by capitalism, to the point where we don’t see a reason to give up our time without being compensated. My own reason is this: it makes me happy. Music has always been the thing that has brought me the most joy. Whether that’s been listening to it, playing it, watching it, writing it, or writing about it. I’ve always found a way to be immersed in it, and I can’t foresee a time when I won’t be intrinsically linked with the art-form. I’ve had the pleasure to write about so many talented people, I can’t help but want to shout from the rooftops about their work.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mothsandgiraffes.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mothsandgiraffes/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mothsandgiraffes
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/mothsgiraffes
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2InQIknboEMDAgT683Iy4A/featured
• Other: Our Spotify Playlist containing a sample of almost all the artists we’ve written about: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6Z8suDK0hWF315zkvPnbgV?si=089c512df4604e49 Our Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mothsandgiraffes

Image Credits
Image Credits: Teri Woods Logo: Richard Parson